Weeknotes E47

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…

Spent the long weekend in the beautiful Scottish countryside

Medicines supply handover

Our work with the medicines supply team came to a (sort of) close this week. We delivered our final bit of research (by pro-colleague Sophie ) and gave recommendations. We won’t leave them alone completely, likely back with them once they get a business case approved.

Reflections:

• lovely team who are passionate about making things better
• everyone was exposed to research (it is a team sport) which may have helped build trust
• they all seemed really open minded to change and there is always power in replaying back what real users tell you about your service
• we have improved some things already, we have identified more to work on
• be good to fund a team dedicated to the service
• ideally have more time to embed continuous research/feedback with the team, priorities taking us elsewhere
• they know us now so I hope they get back in contact so we can finish off what we started.

Mental Health updates

I’ve been getting immersed in the world of NHS England, mental health policy and the realities of mental health services.

I’m struggling to remember everything I attended but I definitely sat and listened at some of these (and usually asked questions or gave opinions because I’m like that):

• digital mental health + dementia group meeting
• discussion about the Think Ahead service
• mental health and NHS.UK chat

I spent lots of time asking many questions to colleagues who are very kind to answer me. Shout out to Rebecca and James who I am very lucky to be working with.

We’ve got a little Trello board, we’ve got tasks. More next week.

Vitamins alpha brief

I ran the what next for vitamins session last week. I had nominated myself to also craft a form of product brief so the team has the ammo needed for a future discussion with the team. It wrangles together research and decisions made to try scope work and express intention. I am happy we managed to get to a decision.

If measured against “discovery isn’t about exploring a problem… it’s about making a decision about what to do next”, then we’ve done our job.

Departures

I have been extremely fortunate about having an A+ boss. Smart, incredible team builder and someone who always gave me timely advice that I needed to hear. A real role model. Nayeema has temporarily left the building for joyous reasons. Congrats and I look ahead to more 1 to 1’s when ya back.

Note 1: I’ve been lucky and encountered a handful of top people who were also my manager (shout out to you too).

Note 2: to all the bad bosses i’ve had, I have learned lots from you too :)

First product NHSX meeting

I’ve championed creating a product catch-up for NHSX-ers. Presumably we will grow from 2 to more than 2 at some point. It’s also needed now as we need to make sure work with cancer teams, screening and mental health crews is not done in a big ugly silo. Hayley and myself have officially conducted the first. Having a little hopes and fears session. Some shared challenges and some good opportunities to grasp. Some actions recorded, felt good to share.

Convenience Store co-creation session

I’ve been drawing up plans for a future co-creation session with a gaggle of convenience store colleagues! Fun to run a session i’ve done before and get input from people on how we can design future service for retailers.

What I’ve been reading

1. As mentioned before I’m not a huge fan of ‘nudging’ but some interesting points in this about ‘how behavioural science can help fix government’s workforce crisis’. Even a mention about the power of weeknotes: “I’m currently running a series of trials with frontline workers in different professions, encouraging them to write about their experiences and read about those of their coworkers. The early results are promising and suggest that there is much more to do to support employee well-being without breaking the bank.”
2. The class ceiling, how privilege affects your working life. “If you have a parent who is a doctor, you are 24 times more likely to become a doctor.”
3. Safeguarding and user research.
4. Parliament refurb/move! As a former employee of Parliament and having worked in Richmond House twice this really floats my boat.
5. Food waste data trust pilot from the ODI report. Topic I care about but more work to be done.
6. Tips on procurement from the ICT procurement playbook.
7. Finance for non-accountants. Know the difference between Capex and Opex.
8. Not sure i’m 100% sold but interesting retort to voting and the Australian democratic system. Quote from article: “Australia’s federal parliament is today… not a deliberative assembly [but] rather a theatre of expression where politicians from different sides talk past each other in mostly ritual performance. Party politicians do not listen, do not reflect and do not change their minds.”