Weeknotes E45
Each week I’m going to keep a running update of the work I’ve done & things I’ve learned along the way.
My current priority:
Supporting the Healthy Start private beta, assisting the formation of NHSX & working with mental health teams
Some interesting and shareable things that happened this week. Other more mundane things also happened…
Quarter objectives
It was that time of year again. Team set some objectives. New additions:
- help mental health gang ( NHSX work )
- continue to help medicines supply team (which we’ve already been doing)
Less focus on:
- the creation of a register of services within DHSC and beyond.
NHSX x Mental Health
On Friday we had our first chat. Mostly introductions but ball has officially started rolling. Like most things I get involved in I need to be immersed in the world and meet the people. Sounds like a great group, passionate, willing to learn and with subject matter expertise.
I expect to learn a lot more but colleague shared these mental health facts during a meeting I didn’t know before this week:
- Nearly 40% of all ill-health is caused by mental illness (for under-65s)
- Mental ill-health has the same effect on life expectancy as smoking
- People with mental illness are three times more likely to develop diabetes and twice as likely to die from heart disease. Source.
First meetings with DHSC and NHSE mental health team members on Monday and Tuesday. Being immersed in that world. I asked a lot of questions and mostly went into listening mode. Asked about hopes and fears, how we currently measure success, what’s the one thing to get right, what 3 things should I go off and read right now, etc.
I now have about 50 pages of reading materials sat next to me.
NHSX priorities
Held a meeting over a collection of things NHSX could be involved in. All to be discussed by others more senior than me. Some tremendously ambitious.
Published Alpha Assessment report
The report has been finished for a few weeks but looks like it was left to one side as holidays and other work distracted the team. The assessment has now been published.
As you will see it’s a new format. Why? I saw that some smart colleagues in other departments had decided to have a re-think of the format and try out a revised version. See an example of the new format in use here. I thought I’d give it a whirl in future assessments and have since been sharing the template with the wider team.
Reflections:
- i like the new format. It’s more efficient and feels like we need to spend less time writing stock answers which mostly say things like yes, the team did an acceptable level of work.
- should we make an image we can always use for assessment reports? update: I wrote this then worked with legend colleague Nick and just made an image we can re-use with on-brand DHSC colours.
- imagine a future where the public could see a link to evidence for some of these points (e.g. a link to all prototypes tested, user research findings that decisions were based on, etc) so could scrutinise it and have the opportunity to give constructive feedback. Would be time consuming but responsible.
- is our digital health blog the right platform for these reports? Should we all not be publishing them on the service assessment report page on GOV.UK?
- might also be interesting to have a section for the team to have their own space to reflect on how the service assessment went or their views on what the report contains.
Stats for retailers
The Healthy Start service is entwined with retailers of fruit, veg, milk and infant formula. Thus, it’s an important relationship and one we have been actively researching. We should be able to improve how the service works for both beneficiaries and retailers but there is loads and loads and loads of opportunity to do even more. Some have even pledged to do more with the scheme. For future correspondence and to try pitch doing some co-creation of the scheme with our retailer partners I helped drump up some stats from a recent management info report that retailers might be interested in. Mainly to express the scope and size of the service.
Current Healthy Start service:
- produces 1,262,177 paper vouchers issued in a 4 week cycle.
- value of which would be: £3,912,748.70 (so the scheme gives out nearly £4million a month to buy on eligible items)
- that means about £50,000,000 worth of voucher value issued each year as part of the scheme.
- retailers typically send us back vouchers 5-12 weeks after accepting them. Meaning they will not receive repayment for over a month after the transaction has taken place.
Top 3 retailers who claimed reimbursement in England in recent data:
- Tesco Stores Plc
- Asda Stores Ltd
- Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc
Top 3 in Wales:
- Milk Delivery people*
- Lidl Uk Gmbh
- Waynes Food Limited
Top 3 in Northern Ireland:
- Dale Farm Ltd
- Milk Delivery people*
- John Woods Ltd
Technically the data says ‘Milk Roundsmen’ but I have opted to use a less gendered term.
End of year review
I had my end of year review. It was in a cinema lobby surrounded by stale popcorn. Feedback was good.
Shamelessly here are my favourite bits of feedback:
“Colin often suggests different/radical approaches to problems which has helped me widen my own perspective. Equally I appreciate that he doesn’t push any of his suggestions too hard, and is open to challenge/feedback.”
“I also think Colin has a strength of empowering people to do a good job. He doesn’t tell people what they should do but provides guidance and support whilst being clear about what he expects from the team. This makes people want to impress Colin.”
“Colin is an excellent person to work with and his enthusiasm is infectious.”
I value continuous learning and improvement. So naturally a few things to work on. Colin is not perfect and Colin will always strive to do better (I’ve typed Colin six times too many now).
Creating a way to support teams doing digital stuff
With Dharmesh leaving, NHSX and having a packed work load I haven’t managed to organise another Health Product People (HPP) meetup. I also have some strong opinions about how it should proceed going forward, especially in the wake of NHSX.
In the meantime however I am still conscious that teams in DHSC may still need some informal advice or support, which HPP was an avenue for. To make sure we catch all the teams that need help the most, I’ve patched together a super simple form for colleagues to request time with myself or other colleagues. It’s been published in a few places so lets see who gets in contact.
Healthy Start City Hall event
Found out that the Healthy Start meeting I spoke at last Tuesday had a turnout with 18 different London Boroughs represented plus 16 other organisations there. Efficient comms but conscious to not become too London-centric.
Weeknote praise
It was extremely kind and uplifting to get some praise for writing weeknotes this week. I am very lucky that people actually read these and encourage me share the work I am involved in. Having support to write these and colleagues seeing the value in transparency makes me very optimistic NHSX can be at the forefront of public sector good practice in regards to being open.
What I’ve been reading
- Great advice on asking the right questions and using the right method when researching with users.
- Efforts for us to increase interpretability for responsible AI. Basically making sure humans can understand how machines come to their decisions. Relevant to health.
- Enjoyed this on building digital health systems or create meaningful stuff for people. “To deliver the gains people need, we need digital that does what it does best: Becoming a seamless part of people’s intimate everyday lives”
- Reading the effectiveness of food stamps in the U.S, interesting in the context of Healthy Start.
- Interesting model of community-run supermarket up in Aberdeen, members can pick 10 items for a £3 annual fee and a charge of £2.50 a shop.
- Progression levels at Monzo for those working in product management. I wonder what the conversation is like when you first join the organisation - you get employed thinking you are a 5 then they hit you with a 2.
- Easy to follow tips on getting and maintaining buy in with stakeholders.
- Big fan of Cassie Robinson’s posts. New-ish series on how might we gracefully let systems and organisations die. Part 1