Beginning of Spring An undocumented feature of my long-term weeknote habit is that every now and then WordPress related posts reminds me of another week in the dim distant past when I was rambling about the same stuff. 5 years ago this week I was in the midst of a corporate reorganisation, the consequences of … Continue reading Weeknote: 2 to 5 April 2024 →

A four day week, but we packed a lot in, and much of it not appropriate to rehearse in my public weeknotes. Some highlights The picture at the top of the post shows the chocolate bunnies I bought for my leadership team at our monthly in-person meet-up in the Leeds Hub. We spent the start … Continue reading Weeknote: 25 to 28 March 2024 →

View from the Leeds hub What did I enjoy? A long but rewarding day on Wednesday. I got the early train to London to discuss shared objectives with my colleagues in the new NHS England Product and Platforms senior leadership team. Each of us has our own portfolio-specific objectives for 2024-25, but in this session … Continue reading Weeknote: 11 to 15 March 2024 →

More pics from my week in Taiwan on my Mastodon feed Back from a week-and-a-bit of leave and barely a moment since to pause and reflect. Times like this make #weeknotes extra valuable. What was hard? Cognitive dissonance: the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it On one hand, digitally-informed transformation of … Continue reading Weeknote: 4 to 8 March 2024 →

The brutalist former Bank of England headquarters on my walk to the Leeds office What did you enjoy? A workshop in London to look together at the shared roadmaps for work on the NHS App and other national digital channels in the NHS. We're getting better at this quarterly planning rhythm and it really helps … Continue reading Weeknote: 5 to 9 February 2024 →

Joseph Moxon, 'Practical perspective; or Perspective made easie', on display at Leeds University What did you enjoy? Seeing my team members collaborating with colleagues from across the new NHS England on the launch of the Pharmacy First initiative, which means that patients can now go straight to a pharmacists for help with some common health … Continue reading Weeknote: 29 January to 2 February 2024 →

111 online link shown in the new design for the NHS App Five days working in the Leeds hub, including an in-person meeting of the Digital Urgent & Emergency Care (UEC) leadership team. Looking at my diary, I can see the shape of the week, with Monday and Tuesday salami-sliced into 30 minute calls, many … Continue reading Weeknote: 22 to 26 January 2024 →

First bike ride of 2024 took me to a garden centre What did you enjoy? An in-person meeting in Leeds with colleagues looking at how NHS 111 will evolve in the future. We ran through the vision and purpose for the service, how we work alongside primary care, commissioning and contracting, workforce, and digital enablers. … Continue reading Weeknote: 15 to 20 January 2024 →

A New Year's Day trip to the Museum of Power near Maldon, Essex I enjoyed the quiet days at the start of the year, and while the sparkle of Christmas is lovely, I also appreciated the space and calm after the decorations came down. Along with colleagues I made a start on our plans for … Continue reading Fortnightnote: 2 to 12 January 2024 →

View from Quarry House, where I worked for the day on Monday What did you enjoy? The London leg of our "welcome to Product & Platforms" events. I was pleased that colleagues came into the office for this informal event, with special thanks to the people who baked cakes and cookies to share. We welcomed … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 24 November 2023 →

View from the train along the Medway on my way to visit South East Coast Ambulance Service Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? A visit to South East Coast Ambulance Service's new Gillingham site. The 999 and 111 call centres are located above a make-ready centre where ambulances are cleaned and restocked … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 17 November 2023 →

Autumnal scene on my walk to the bus stop Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? I spent Tuesday morning at Google's King's Cross office in London with members of the government digital leadership community. I enjoyed catching up with some former colleagues and current allies in government digital transformation, and learned about … Continue reading Weeknote: 6 to 10 November 2023 →

What did you enjoy? Friday was the one clear, dry, calm day of the week in Leeds, so I took the opportunity to get back on my bike. In previous years I've struggled to keep up the cycling to work habit after the clocks went back. Promising myself that this year will be different, I … Continue reading Weeknote: 30 October to 3 November 2023 →

I'm on the sofa (terrible posture) with a cup of coffee and my laptop typing out the first set of weeknotes I've published since the end of August. I didn't mean to take a break, but it's OK that I did. As a recap, I write weeknotes for my own benefit, as a way of … Continue reading Back to weeknotes after a hiatus: 23 to 27 October 2023 →