Challenges at work

It’s been an odd start to the year, with a lot of headspace going towards organisational strategy and big questions.

No specific reason for this, but I think it’s been brewing for a while. I never know quite how to feel thinking about this sort of thing, on the one hand it’s not really part of my role but on the other hand I want things to improve so maybe it is?

Part of this is the strange world of middle management. I do think at this role/career level you’ve been around long enough to see problems, but you’re not really in a leadership position in order to address them. I think at my low points at work recently, I feel like I’m complaining and seeing problems everywhere. It’s sometimes hard to not make it personal.

The positive development more recently though have been some really open, thoughtful meetings where people have acknowledged the situation which I genuinely do think is a ‘moment’. The key, is turning this recognition into an effective next step for thinking through how to define specifically what’s not working and think of some things which need to happen. I need to council myself that this is good, and to not expect immediate solutions to what are very long-running and sticky problems. I am quite optimistic though?

I always (and still do) come back to the same point when I struggle… that we have the ingredients (people and mission) to do great work. Many don’t.

Practitioner vs. Manager

Slightly linked to the above point I make, is an idea I came across in this blog from Frankie Roberto about his work at the NHS.

He makes an interesting distinction between being a practitioner (in his case an interaction designer) and a manager:

Possibly I’ll at some point I’ll hit a career fork of having to choose between being a practitioner or a manager, but for the time being I’m enjoying being mostly in the first camp whilst learning more about the second.

Side note - he writes some great weeknotes from his work at NHS digital prevention services.

At my charity (and the sector as a whole maybe) I don’t think we’ve ever reckoned with this distinction. It’s complex I’m sure, but I don’t think we value specialists enough, and I think it means people find themselves in senior leadership positions due to experience and skill at being great practitioners rather than great leaders?

What I don’t know is whether the really good leaders were also great practitioners?

Cyber incident

We have (and still are currently) been dealing with a cyber incident at work. It’s been stressful, but thankfully at present it seems it could’ve been much worse.

We’ve just coming out of the diagnose/react phase of our response and will eventually be in the review bit where we can really analyse what happened, what we did well/not so well.

I’m looking forward to this bit in a way, but I think it’s sad that this is part of our jobs. But it is what it is. Lots to learn from.

My AI reckoning

I have been a pretty big AI sceptic for some time. Not a sceptic in the sense of not believing in it, but just someone who actively has refused to engage. I really have resisted it. For a few reasons - but one thing I didn’t like especially was this established narrative of its inevitability. I still don’t. It’s not if you use it, it’s how.

Well, I’ve officially had my sheeeeiiiit moment.

It came when my partner (who works in tech) told me to try something called Claude Code. I genuinely had a “that’s nuts” moment where it did something that would’ve taken me days, weeks and maybe not even been able to achieve.

For a few years I’ve dabbled in some basic GOV.UK design system and NHS service manual prototyping. With varying success. When I last tried to use AI to help, it actually broke the prototype I was working on - and I didn’t have the skills to figure out how to fix it. Neither did AI at that time.

And it’s that’s the point… at that time. What is now very clear to me is that you shouldn’t take a static view on AI, what it can do or what it might mean for you. AI models are now changing so fast that my view one year ago is now so out of date as to be arguably risky.

I do think it seems to have fundamentally changed the accessibility of software development. What that means for me, the charity sector particularly is huge.

Anyway, I’ll have a lot more thoughts about AI this year no doubt.

Suffice to say, I saw almost overnight how AI could fundamentally change my role and put our entire organisation at risk. So it’s probably time to start thinking about this very seriously.

What else

I have officially taken ownership of an allotment plot locally. After nearly 8 years waiting!

I’ve decided to setup a separate blog for now to track the journey - let’s see how that goes.

I’m in equal parts excited and daunted. Am hoping it turns into a long, rich hobby to take me into old age.

Oh, and I’m getting married very soon. I’ll be one of those married people with a ring… who’d a thunk it!

Things I read

• The Cat Detective. Great notes from Steve - senior design/product person. Also seems to be doing/thinking stuff on AI way ahead of most people I follow.

• Monthnote: January 2026. James doing great, reflective work as always at the NHS.

• How to work better. Another one from Steve - just stumbled across this but I like!

• Move over Dr Google: the inevitable rise of Dr ChatGPT. A reminder I need to be following Pritesh’s writing much closer! Conversation on AI and health will only get bigger and louder.

• Good conductors required. A great post about generalists. This is a growing thing I’m mulling - the (maybe increasing) value of digital generalists.

Of all the writing which I try and mostly fail to publish, I think end of year notes are the most satisfying. They make the most sense in terms of having something to re-read, and at the same time making it a nice thing to do at the end of each year.

It’s nice to read them back, here are mine from 2022, 2023 and 2024 in case you’re interested.

So, what of this year?

Some highlights for sure… a sabbatical, getting engaged and a new niece!

Work

Work I think was unfortunately another struggle this year. For a few reasons which I find it hard to explain in any coherent way.

I don’t it lightly, but there have been some real issues with strategy, leadership and I think sadly a general decline in working culture.

I find it a bit sad, because I’ve always said (and I still believe this to be true) that we have all the ingredients to be doing great work. But for whatever reason, we’ve got into a position where something’s just not quite right.

It’s in part a strategy problem (in that I don’t think we have one), it’s a structural problem - we’re a shared organisation which in my view just doesn’t work and there are some people clashes which is affecting everyones’ work.

Anyway, there have been pockets of good things happening. We hired two new nurses this year, which is a really nice bolster to the helpline/clinical team and I think a real signifier of how we’ve grown and changed from our very small early days as a charity.

We ended the year in a nice way actually, doing a couple of workshops with Katherine Wastell.

I reached out after reading this great piece on operating model design. It turns out she’s looking to start a new business helping people apply service design to their organisations and is looking to refine her business model. She was (and I think still is) looking for some organisations to test out her methods… talk about timing!

I’m hoping this work is the real kick-start to our problems around strategy and services in 2026.

I decided to move to working a 4-day week towards the end of the year. It’s still early, but I think it’s a very good thing. More time for personal stuff - whether that’s ‘proper’ personal, or just more thinking and headspace for work type thinking which isn’t actually work?

More on this another time.

Taking a sabbatical!

I mentioned in my end of year post last year I’d been granted a sabbatical to take. And take it I did!

Me and my partner were very lucky to be able to take 3.5 months off.

We went to:

• New Zealand (2 weeks)
• Japan (2 months)
• South Korea (6 days)
• Thailand (13 days)

It’s hard to summarise such a big trip so I’ll go for toplines…

1. Returning to a country you loved the first time doesn’t always work out. We’d both been to New Zealand before and loved it. Yet returning didn’t quite have the same impact. We’d also built the trip primarily around Japan and were so excited for that rather than a burst of nature that we just weren’t in the right frame of mind. I did manage to see family in Auckland which made it worthwhile.

2. Interestingly, the counter point to above. Japan is still amazing. I’ve been once before, and spent 2 months here this time but still have the same fascination and desire to return. The thing about Japan which I don’t think many realise is that it has the depth as a destination which I think is unrivalled. Everything from mega-cities, to ancient culture, nature, food… the list goes on. As predicted my partner loved it so we will no doubt be back.

3. South Korea was a miss for us. It just didn’t click. We were (unfairly) comparing to Japan, but also sometimes places just don’t hit the right tone. Just shows how much travel opinions can differ - as most people I speak to about South Korea seem to love it.

4. Unplanned time in Thailand was great. We both love it, and were able to change some flights to get there. We spent the whole time in Bangkok, and could’ve spent more!

I think in terms of overall reflections…

Beyond a certain time travelling (maybe 3 weeks +) I think your enjoyment of a place changes slightly. You lose the awe and excitement but I think gain perspective and depth of a place?

Spending extended time away from work can be helpful for perspective and give space for thinking about life and plans. For example I’d done some thinking around:

• Preparing for the next phase of life with parents - how best to support them and what that means
• How to pursue sauna and maybe cold water therapy at home (we did a lot of this in Japan)
• How to deliberately build time and space for intellectual stimulation in my life outside of work. My reading of The Atlantic magazine does this for me in a big way, what else?
• A recognition of the need to get on top of my health - not to be dominated by health worries, but at the same time being on top of it?

Other news

In the life event category we have some big ones…

I proposed to my partner in September so am officially engaged. We’d talked a lot about marriage so not a huge surprise. It was one of those decisions where neither of us quite knew who should do it - but I was far surer on the proposal being a thing. So, I did it!

I’ve enjoyed the feeling of being engaged, there is a security to it and what it means that is very fulfilling.

We’ll be getting married soonish (early next year) - a small thing which will be lovely I’m sure.

We also welcomed two new nieces into the family. Little Hazel, a third for my brother and his wife. And Isobel, a second for my partners sister. As always, would love to see them all more!

Last bits

Just because I did it last year, I’ll do it again…

I similarly kept up with squash, and some more coaching. I’m getting marginally better I think so let’s see what this score is next year…

In terms of movies, I didn’t track as closely what I watched… but it looks like 28 and counting at the cinema… a lot less than the 41 from last year. Hmmmm.

Picks of the year:

• One Battle After Another
• I, Swear
• Steve
• The Ballad of Wallis Island (winner)
• Warfare
• A Real Pain
• The Brutalist

And that, I think, is it?

See you/me next year.

Our previous update cycles were too long, and we’ve suffered from a bit of inertia when it comes to making changes to our form.

Caroline Jarret (a forms expert) has given us some ideas and tips for a better approach…

We’ve designed a new process, which:

• is realistic about what we can do given our team size and other priorities
• doesn’t let big problems delay making small changes
• thinks about the form as one thing (not online and paper)
• can be embedded as a new core piece of work we do

The new process…

We will collect feedback and information relevant to advance decisions regularly and will log a problem or proposed change card in Trello.

To help us develop the advance decision we will draw from many sources (not an exhaustive list):

Internal

• Enquires to the information line service
• Feedback from the information line team
• Stage two monitoring feedback
• Online service feedback

External

• Desktop research
• SME research and publications
• Court of Protection cases
• Stakeholder policy/service updates (OPG etc)

Often when I run workshops, there is a lot of energy upfront and on the day. The follow-up is often where there is a bit of a drop in terms of energy. Both from myself and others.

So, that being said I’m very conscious to make sure there is a clear next step for this piece of work.

The ideas we came up with in the session weren’t detail heavy but there were some clear themes which mean we can make some decisions about what to do next.

Using the results to inform a future education strategy

One of the ideas which three of us came up with independently and had many dot votes was to use the results in our education work.

This is still a nascent idea, but Sarah (our Deputy Director of Services) wants to develop an education and training strategy so that we can upskill healthcare staff about advance decisions and similar topics.

We have done training in the past, but not in any significant capacity - so it’ll be interesting to see where we land with this especially as we’re now a larger organisation with 3 clinical staff members.

It’s early stage at the moment, so we’re scoping out potential CPD accreditation and need to do a market assessment of what’s currently out there. There was a clear suggestion though, that the results from this FOI can form a core part of how we approach education and training.

Sarah is mulling taking a regional approach and what these NHS policies give us are an ability to get a head start in understanding what is already in place in any given area and to focus our training offer on what is going to work in that hospital or NHS Trust.

Developing a relationship with some NHS Trusts

The most voted idea was to pick 5 NHS Trusts to develop a relationship with. The thinking is that we pick a small number, and try to influence and convene the group for some follow-up work. That could take the form of panel discussions, closed-shop meetings and encouraging knowledge sharing between Trusts.

I really liked this idea (disclaimer it was mine) because it’s realistic (picking a small number) and it allows for some serendipity. It’s one of those professional situations in which there’s a bit of gut instinct at play, you never quite know what’ll happen but deep down expect and hope that by bringing certain people together things might happen.

The other reason is actually pretty basic… by its nature a freedom of information request is quite transactional and almost adversarial in its nature. You (the requester) are availing yourself of the FOI law to request (almost by force) information that a public body must provide (meaning extra work and stress I’m sure). You hope you’ll get some good stuff out of it of course - but it’s not exactly a ‘relationship’ with any prospects. So, by reaching out to the NHS Trust and trying to develop that relationship it adds context behind the policy, it changes the dynamic to one which is more friendly and collegiate. We’re not demanding information… we’d just like to know a little bit more about why things are a certain way… and maybe we could even help?

The last reason I like it is that it fits nicely into Sarah’s idea above. By taking a regional approach to education and training - almost by definition we’ll have to work closely with an NHS Trust. So we’ll be forced into reaching out - and the FOI policy we likely have from whichever Trust we choose to work with gives us the perfect hook to anchor our training on.

A clear signal for blogging!

One of the things I was pleased to see from several people was an appreciation and recognition that we need to talk openly about the work.

I was pleased because recognising why we need to work in the open is part of the battle of good agile comms.

It’s also great timing because I’ve managed to get budget for a training workshop from Giles to help us figure out the how of open working.

Hopefully, by the time we’re ready to move on some of the work above - my colleagues and I will be raring to write with a new energy and some tips of how to channel that energy.

Next step - getting alignment and making the decision

A key next step is to see if everyone thinks using the results for our education strategy makes sense - in terms of impact, but also in terms of effort.

There will be a few differing views about how to best spend our time and efforts next year, and assessing this piece of work against other priorities will be interesting.

The court deals with a wide range of matters, and most cases are not relevant to the work we do. But generally a case is relevant to our work if it’s about whether:

1. the NHS should withdraw medical treatment, or
2. a serious medical treatment decision is in a person’s best interests

Sometimes there are very specific cases about an advance decision to refuse treatment (ADRT) or lasting power of attorney (LPA) which may also be relevant.

I’ve recently been thinking about how we spend our time observing, analysing and using learnings from these cases… but that’s a separate blog post.

Why this hearing prompted an FOI request

The particular case I observed was about someone who’d made an ADRT, and specifically whether it was ‘valid’ and ‘applicable’ to their situation. The full judgment or a blog post about the case are worth reading if you have time as they set out the wider picture and context of the situation.

To summarise what was a complex case, there were some doubts about whether the person’s ADRT was valid and applicable to the situation they were in. The doubt came from multiple parties - but most relevant for us was that the NHS Trust who were caring for the person at the time questioned the ADRT. It transpired that there shouldn’t have been any doubt at all really but that even so, the matter should’ve been referred to the court much earlier than it was.

We know (from our helpline service) that people often have problems in hospitals when it comes to having ADRTs or LPAs accepted or followed by healthcare professionals. We have some idea of why this might happen but there is a knowledge gap in terms of knowing specifically what’s going wrong.

As the case was concluding, the NHS Trust implied their guidance on ‘Mental Capacity Act Advance Decisions and Advance Statements’ was at fault. They even submitted the particular policy and highlighted sections which they were going to update and improve as a result of the issues highlighted in the case:

This was the first Court of Protection case I’ve observed where an NHS Trust has admitted some key failings around their policies and procedures.

It made me wonder if these NHS TRUST policies could explain some of the poor practice we hear about.

Having had a chat with a colleague about the feasibility of submitting a freedom of information (FOI) request we decided as a team it was worth doing.

I think a key part of this decision was not committing up front to lots of follow-on work. We thought about it more as a ‘let’s try and see what we get’ idea.

How we submitted our FOI

I’m not a policy person, so had to lean on my policy expert colleagues on how to submit the FOI.

Given there are over 200 NHS Trusts (of varying descriptions) we decided to use WhatDoTheyKnow Pro to submit a batch FOI request.

This handy tool takes some load of the initial request work by submitting them all in a big batch to 135 NHS Foundation Trusts for example. It also manages the email back and forth with the NHS Trust information governance team which saves your email inbox from a bit of mess. So far, I think it’s a good tool and worth the £20/month cost.

Once we’d decided on the tool, we decided on submitting our FOI to the following NHS Trusts (or Health Boards):

• 14 NHS Scotland Healthboards
• 8 NHS Wales local Healthboards (includes 1 Trust)
• 135 NHS Foundation Trusts
• 57 NHS Hospital Trusts

We then decided on the FOI questions we’d ask. The below were what we thought would reveal the most useful information:

1. Does the Trust have a policy which outlines responsibilities of healthcare professionals towards patients who have an advance decision to refuse treatment or lasting power of attorney?
2. If there’s a dispute does the Trust have a process or course of action the person should follow?
3. Does the Trust have someone responsible for overseeing compliance with the Mental Capacity Act?

What we’ve been sent (so far)

As it stands we’ve currently heard from:

• 85% NHS Foundation Trusts 🧐
• 85% NHS Hospital Trusts 🧐
• 100% NHS Scotland Healthboards ✅
• 100% NHS Wales local Healthboards ✅

Some responses are ‘long overdue’ which means the NHS Trust has breached the requirement to respond within 20 working days. We’ll try to chase but I think it’s possible we’ll just not hear back from some?

Having been sent a large number of policies from NHS Trusts - there are some early themes which are interesting and are already proving useful to the team.

I ran a half-day workshop with the team to go through these last week which I think was helpful to get everyone up to speed on what we’ve found so far.

Importantly I wanted to get a sense of the teams appetite and interest in what (if any) follow-up work we may want to do with what we’ve been sent.

Some early findings from 170ish NHS Trust policies

These findings are by no means final or complete as we’ve been sent at least 170ish PDF policy documents so far. Most of them are 15 - 20 pages long. As a result we’ve not done any sort of substantive analysis or documenting of what we’ve been sent.

Inconsistent policy naming

One of the quickest things I noticed was the inconsistencies with the names of policies we were being sent.

The most common type of policy was some form of policy for ‘complying with the Mental Capacity Act’. But even here there were differences - some for example included Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) and others had separate policies.

Some NHS Trusts had specific ADRT policies in addition to a broader Mental Capacity Act compliance policy. Where this was the case, we don’t have an answer as to why they have this… just that they do. For our purposes it’s probably the case that a Trust which has a dedicated policy on ADRTs is more likely to have good practice than one which doesn’t… but that could be a totally wrong hypothesis!

Different NHS staff policy authors

One very interesting finding is the differences between responsible NHS staff / authors of these policies.

It is not an unreasonable assumption to make sure an NHS Trust is following a specific law would suggest a specific named role would be needed to monitor compliance. And yet, look at this small selection of role titles of policy authors:

• Associate Director of Nursing for Safeguarding
• Head of Mental Health Law
• Associate Medical Director
• Safeguarding and Vulnerable Adult Lead Nurse
• Mental Health Act Manager
• Mental Capacity Act Lead
• Head of Legal Services
• Head of Safeguarding
• Clinical Lead End of Life Care

There is a quite a lot to unpick here, but it’s already useful in the sense that it gives our team a much more targeted way of escalating issues on behalf of our service users.

Interesting naming and policy history context

I found the below little snippet buried in the document version control section of a specific policy at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

It suggests one reason why there may be a variation in policies and why many still sit under ‘safeguarding’ directorates within NHS Trusts.

Some NHS Trusts have detailed policies (with extras)

Just to drive home the above point about inconsistencies, whilst some NHS Trusts have pretty short and basic policies… there are some that appear to go above and beyond.

The above from Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is just one of several ‘extra’ documents within their policies which seem to suggest a thorough and rigorous approach to compliance with the Mental Capacity Act.

They (and some others) had things like:

• ADRT treatment pathways
• Capacity assessment forms and flowcharts
• Best interest meeting templates
• Template ADRT form
• ADRT flowcharts
• Advance Care Planning comparison tables

The dispute process was usually covered in some form

In response to our second FOI question, it did appear that policies addressed what to do where there was a disagreement between professionals themselves or with families.

What we plan to do now

In the workshop I mentioned we spent the biggest portion of the day discussing ideas of how we might use the results of our FOI.

Going back to the original idea, I stressed the importance of not committing up front to lots of follow-on work.

That being said, I wanted to give the team freedom to think up ideas about:

1. What could be done
2. How it might help the people we support
3. How it might support our organisational policy goals
4. How much work it might take for their ideas

It was a slightly rushed part of the day due to me being late for my own workshop… but here are the ideas we came up with as a team:

• Use the policies in our professional education and training work.
• Use the positive examples (of NHS Trust policies) to influence the ‘less good’ ones.
• Submit a similar FOI to primary care providers.
• Use this work as a showcase of our policy expertise - on social media, blog posts.
• Do some follow-up work with clinicians on behaviour change - and balance this with FOI results to see what most influences behaviours. Good policy ≠ Good practice.
• Contact (and help) the NHS Trusts with the worst policies to try and pre-empt problems for the people we support.
• Write a blog post about the work 😎.
• Conduct a full analysis of the policies and create some sort of ranking or coding of them to help staff use them.
• Create a searchable database of the policies for staff to use.
• Submit follow-up FOI to find out NHS Trust approaches to specific training on their policy.
• Pick 5 NHS Trusts to develop a relationship with and do follow-up work with because: Having policy AND relationship is probably better than JUST having the policy.

I like this list. There is a bit of crossover between a few of the ideas and we didn’t do as much exploration or fleshing out of details as I wanted. There also wasn’t much exploration of the work involved in each idea - maybe that was a bit ambitious, but I do think it’s a critical part of the next bit as we are a small team constantly struggling to deliver.

I prompted a bit of retrospective ‘dot voting’ a few days after the workshop and it looked like this idea was most popular:

I asked people to vote using different colour dots:

• Red dot - Impact for service users
• Blue dot - Impact on how people view us as an organisation
• Green dot - What excites you personally most

So, that’s where we are. From May - October this year. An idea formed, an FOI submitted and some early exploration of what’s next.

I like to think this isn’t where it stops, but even if so I’d consider it a good use of time. So long as we decide not to proceed actively and together (rather than start work and not finish).

The other good thing is that the results are already being used by the team to support people. Two cases so far:

1. Sarah and Amber used the policy from Mid + South Essex Foundation Trust in some training they did with some of their staff.
2. Sarah used the policy from a particular NHS Trust in an email to support someone’s request to have a medical device removed. The policy backed up that request.

Either way, hopefully this list grows!

• An amazing trip ✅
• Family ✅
• Living ❓

I was lucky enough to go on a 3 month sabbatical with my partner in February, March and April. It’s hard to summarise and already feels like an age ago. The bulk of the trip was in Japan, which I find a fascinating and bonkers country. I’m slightly obsessed and for anyone who is keen to go, just do it - it will not disappoint. It was my second time - and I think I can say it’s a country of real depth. We spent two months there and still barely scratched the surface. There are many, many things to do - of all descriptions.

We also spent some time in New Zealand (also a second visit) but interestingly this didn’t feel as exciting as the first time. I did manage to see some family in Auckland though which was lovely. A little stint in South Korea too - of which we weren’t big fans (hard not to compare to Japan) and also a week in Bangkok, a place I love.

Some new energy at work

I returned to work and found some new energy - I think helped mostly by two new nurses who’d joined whilst I’d been away. Also - and I think this is probably one of the best arguments for a sabbatical - some distance and time away gave some real time to think and just appreciate the role of work in my life.

I think there is something nice when new staff join. You see your organisation, your mission and your role through fresh eyes. A less cynical, jaded perspective which is sometimes hard to get back to when you’ve been somewhere for a long time. It helps when the new people are great. Which they both are.

There is also a bit of an appetite to write which is nice. I also got quite motivated re-reading my very first weeknote. It’s quite meta reading that because it’s very existence is the reason to keep doing it. It is the perfect example of Giles’ definition of a blog…

A blog is your brain, over time… on the internet

It’s been a while since we were writing and thinking out loud as an organisation. We tried, but I think just ran into too many roadblocks. But new blood calls for a new attempt and I’m hoping we can think of some new ways to do proper open working. I really believe in it’s value, and I’m hoping Giles can help us!

So, here’s to new energy and some more weeknotes (and maybe teamnotes) to come!

Work

Has been a struggle this year. A close colleague and friend has been on maternity leave, and a team stretched too thin has meant I’ve not had much energy to feed on.

That being said, the end of the year wrapped up nicely as I got energy from working with two external people. Caroline Jarrett (forms expert) was as great as I’d imagined. She’s helping us think through how we approach updating our advance decision form. She’s helped us realise we have developed inertia when it comes to updating our form. We now have a plan for 2025 to move to a new model of regular releases. At least that’s the ambition. Let’s see.

Secondly, I worked with Nia Campbell at CDL. She has helped with our internal knowledge base idea. She is super talented and has really helped push the idea along when needed.

The other pretty big news, was the assisted dying bill passing it’s second reading on 29 November. It’s very hard to describe how much work, energy and more contributed to this moment but it was truly lovely to see hundreds of people so happy and relieved on the day. Common sense and compassion prevailed, but a long way to go.

My back, hobbies and holidays

I’ve stalled when it comes to my back issues. It’s annoying how easy it is to lose the habit of regular gym going. My view still stands that this time of life is important to try and work on core strength.

I kept up with squash, and dabbled in some actual coaching which on balance I’ve enjoyed. If I want to improve I think it’s a must.

Another movie rich year, I decided to track my cinema visits this year which has been interesting… not sure if it’s more or less than I thought? 41 movies as of 20 Dec.

My picks of the year:

• Perfect Days
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire
• Radical
• Emila Pérez

This year, I made it to:

• Mallorca (twice)
• Menorca (first time)
• Amsterdam
• Lake District
• Thailand
• Paris

I noted last year:

I’m grateful for lots of trips, but was talking recently how I’m hankering for a big trip somewhere soon. There is something different about a big trip isn’t there…

Well, I have been exceedingly lucky and fortunate to engineer some unpaid time off early next year so between Feb and May I’ll be travelling to New Zealand and Japan. Much needed.

Family

I wrote about filial duty last year. This year it’s been brought into sharp focus with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a weird thing to process - something which takes a long time to diagnose so there is some sort of preparation. But it’s nonetheless very hard. It’s made the end of the year an anxious time for me which I’m struggling to deal with, but am trying.

Life news

This has been a year of more upheaval but in a good sense. Me and my partner have each sold our respective flats (stressful) and moved in together in a new place.

For the third time I’m back in Muswell Hill which I love. It feels grounding and hopefully somewhere I’ll be for the long term. Roots.

Plans for 2025

An amazing trip. Family. Living.

Over and out.

Workshop - good energy (and pizza)

We ran a team workshop to discuss our internal knowledge base idea. I think it went well, it felt as if people spoke quite freely which isn’t always the case at these things. It was only half-day so we kept it short. We talked about the why, the what and got stuck into an example topic. I think we also got good alignment from everyone - a key outcome of the day.

A good energiser for the team, a reminder that getting everyone out the office away from the day-to-day is extremely valuable. Finished off with some very tasty pizza at Rudy’s on Tottenham Court Road.

Some of our key take-aways:

1. There was a clear sense that the service topic pages need to help support live calls and enquiries.
2. There was a helpful distinction between a ’policy’ and ‘operationalising a policy’. In practice this might mean providing the actual phrase someone needs for a safeguarding call for example.
3. People felt that it was important to define our service… what we do / don’t do.
4. Content governance is going to be important. Creating a whole new category of content will require its own governance model (content owners, editors, sign-off, review cycles and a system for ensuring that if similar content is changed elsewhere, for example on the website, that those changes are mirrored in our internal system).
5. On service topic pages - email templates and conversational prompts seem popular.

Fix the forms!

We’re doing a bit of work with Caroline Jarrett on our advance decision form. I’ve wanted to work with her for years and guess what… we’re finally doing it!

Kind of exactly how I expected. A wealth of experience and the ability to see through our complex subject matter. It’s been super helpful so far, aside from talking specifics - we’re getting some great challenges and ideas about how we approach our form.

• How do we get into the habit of continuous improvement?
• How to think about research and iteration - breaking changes vs. minor changes
• Creating roadmaps and release schedules
• Thinking about user research confidence
• Deleting ‘should’ and using ‘must’

More to come from this piece of work.

Other things…

A busy time!

Glastonbury

So, I went to Glastonbury…

If you know me, this will be a surprise. Let’s just say I’m not your usual sort of festival goer… In fact I’d never been to a music festival before (never really wanted to). When I mentioned I was going to people the surprise and shock was telling, but go I did.

I have a three word review… not for me.

I always said if I was going to try any festival, Glastonbury would be the one. I have for a few years enjoyed watching it on TV. My partner wanted to go, and luckily enough got tickets so it happened. Glad I went, but I’m just not sure I like music or any particular band enough to put up with the rest of it. It’s a lot of faff. I think the ‘other’ side of Glasto which people say is the great bit (think massages, talks, non-music stuff) is slightly overblown. It’s for me still VERY much a music festival. Also a lot more rave’y than I expected.

A good (if very expensive) experiment.

My highlight was probably watching Keane.

Could it be… hope?

So, a new Government. This is a bit of a late reflection, but I had a genuine moment of what can be best described as hope the day after the General Election. I felt everyone breathed a sigh of relief and even the most cynical person might be forgiven for thinking better times are ahead.

We’ll see. But I’m allowing myself some enjoyment of a new Government, with serious people and a return to politics of substance and integrity.

I find myself now turning to the US election. Where the stakes seem incredibly high. Sad about Biden, but early signs are positive for Kamala Harris I think? A similar hope?

I ate and watched…

• Watched the Dark Knight Rises at BFI IMAX
• Dinner at Toklas 👌
• Sunday lunch at the Drapers Arms 👌👌
• Snooped at some nice tiny Islington Gardens (part of the National Garden Scheme)
• Dinner at Saltine 👌
• Watched Nils Frahm at the Barbican - much more my vibe - seated!
• Watched Oasis Supersonic at BFI IMAX - pretty amazing to watch their metoric rise.
• Dinner at Anchor & Hope - I always forget, but this does some of the best posh pub food in London I think.

Had a slightly strange working week where we were grappling with some big questions about work priorities. It became clear people didn’t quite have the same idea about some upcoming work. It resulted in some difficult moments and it was I think for me one of the first times I’ve ever really been in that position where different priorities and miscommunication had resulted in some awkward moments.

I think we may have got to a better place, with some frank conversations and quite skillful management from others. One part of this I think is about me communicating my work better - I’ve reflected about how well people know the work I’m doing, and how I can better share it.

I’d thought me using this blog as an outlet was part of that but I think over time as I’ve switched from our original work Medium publication to this personal blog that’s changed. It’s turned into a much more personal reflective space rather than a constructive working out loud mechanism. Something to think about.

Prioritising the plumbing

Linked to the above, had some productive conversations about our internal knowledge base. We’ve scheduled a workshop for a couple weeks to flesh out some of the key aims of this piece of work. It feels like it’s a piece of work that has the potential to really change the way we work for the better. Building and professionalising our service for the short, medium and long-term. It feels really important.

On the other hand, I am quite conscious of if it turning into one of those frankenstein projects - where the ‘thing’ turns into a thing to fix everything for everybody. That feels too ambitious and almost setting us up for failure and unmet expectations. Hence the workshop.

It’s a priority to kick this off in the right way so I’ll be trawling through my million bookmarks of good workshop practice (tips welcome).

Other things…

I ate and I watched, here’s how they went:

• I had dinner at Brat Climpsons Arch and was underwhelmed. Expensive and I just didn’t quite get the hype. Felt like I was years too late, I equated it to how I think about posh coffee places. There was a time when it would’ve impressed me, but I feel there are many great restaurants doing similar things these days in London that it just didn’t quite land for me.

• In other news I managed to snag a table at Bouchon Racine and believe it or not I actually thought this WAS worth the hype. It’s thought it was pitch perfect french bistro. It’s maybe one of the most hyped restaurants in London, which rarely translates into a good meal for me. This beautifully bucked the trend. So tasty. A lovely dining room. If it wasn’t so bloody hard to get a table I’d be raving about it.

• I went to a 25th Anniversary (mad right…) screening of The Matrix. Absolute perfection. I don’t think it’s aged. In terms of timing, with current discourse on AI and the doomsayers - it felt like a great moment to watch it. Absolutely iconic.

• I’m trying to sell a flat. A reminder of the mad state of London property. It just doesn’t work for anyone does it…

• Had dinner at Lilienblum. I’m putting it firmly in that category of ‘perfectly nice’ and ‘quite tasty’ but totally forgettable and a place I’ll probably never go back. I probably put 90% of restaurants in London in this category. Which I find sad.

• Saw James Vincent McMorrow at the Barbican. Amazing venue, great voice. Funnily enough preferred the support act, and until he walked off thought he was the main act…

So we finally launched our content on best interests decisions. Months of research, writing and iterating. Probably our biggest exploration on any content topic because it spans such a wide range of sub-topics and laws. I’m particularly please with our use of the step-by-step pattern from the GOV.UK Design System to frame help people figure out what to do if someone’s wishes are not being respected.

Always a sense of relief when you finally publish - now we want to drive users to the page to really stress test it. Seeing how it interacts with our other content too is important - as with our topics they can very easily blur into one for people. As simple and clear as we try to make our content - these are hard things to grasp.

A tale of two meetings

Had two meetings this week which couldn’t have been more different. One was an exploratory meeting with Caroline Jarrett whose work I’ve followed and admired for years. I’ve said for a while if we ever start thinking about how to research and work on our advance decision form - she is the person to talk to. It didn’t disappoint, she was great and we even found out she’d written a blog on living will (advance directives) years ago. It felt a little bit like the professional/work stars had aligned. Anyway, she was interested in the topic (not always a given with us) and I do hope we’ll figure out a way to work with her. The other meeting was frustrating and I won’t go into details other than it’s one of those where we heard about something that we probably should’ve earlier. Where decisions had already been made. Safe to say it was a very different experience to the Monday meeting. I’m still trying to unpick what it means.

It reminded me of a quote I saw in a blog post in the past few weeks. The original quote is from Ben Holliday:

“Being pragmatic (you can’t achieve everything today), while still being optimistic (the bigger picture is still worth caring deeply about).”

Other things

Some other fun things which happened…

• A lovely lunch where my parents met my partners parents for the first time. A bit nervous about how it’d go (not for the normal reasons) but it was great. Turns out good home-cooked thai food and sun helps.
• I turned 36. I never make much of birthdays, but I had several lovely meals out. A burger which realllly hit the spot (haven’t had one in a very long time which I think helps) and a classy one at the Garden Café. A bit of a hidden secret, lovely food and lovely venue. Lots of glass and plants.
• I saw Portrait of a Lady on Fire at the BFI Stephen Street screening rooms. An old film which I didn’t catch when it came out in 2019 but wow. Right up there for me as an LGBT love story. Captivating, smart, steamy and beautifully shot - an absolute triumph. The venue was also very cool, felt like a little secret screening - tip here for seats is that it’s one of those rare screens where actually sitting closer is better I think.

So well in fact that I feel like I’ve managed to transition into wearing an interaction design hat for the past few weeks. An ill-fitting hat, but one that I think I’m becoming more comfortable wearing.

A lot of this was prompted by coming across this ridiculously useful X-GOVUK resource. It’s billed as:

A community-maintained collection of resources which are useful for working on GOV.UK services.

What I’ve found particularly useful is this blog post about using the GOV.UK Eleventy Plugin to spinup several types of GOV.UK styled pages and templates tailored for your particular needs.

Focusing on internal user needs

One idea that’s come up for me time and again at work has been the concept of institutional knowledge.

This term might mean different things to different people, but for our context it’s about how we retain and make use of our organistional memory and skill on our particular specialist subject area.

I think most people might intuitively understand why it’s important, but I think there are a few other incidental benefits of investing in the notion of institutional memory.

A primary reason is about how to retain specialist knowledge of the organistion:

Each time someone leaves their job, a chunk of the organisation’s memory leaves too. How, then, do you run complex systems, see through long-term projects, or avoid past mistakes?

In our context, I think there is an incidental benefit of improving service consistency.

We run a helpline service for people who need help thinking through how to prepare for death and dying.

So… my design hypothesis:

If we can document and present our organisational knowledge we fix the primary issue of retaining institutional knowledge…

…whilst also creating a more consistent experience for people using our helpline service as all our staff use the same knowledge and tools.

A knowledgebase

So this is where prototyping comes in. Using the GOVUK Eleventy Plugin mentioned above - I’m working on a prototype ‘knowledgebase’ to test this.

Knowledgebase may be the wrong name - but naming things is hard, and as of yet this thing is trying to do multiple things so I’m kicking that can down the road for now.

Still very early days on this piece of work, and I’ve yet to even have the internal conversations about scoping this piece of work. But for me that’s the strength of this protoyping mindset. You can spin-up something so quickly and at such low cost that when we do come to talk about it together as a team I can show and tell. Not just tell.

Other things…

I’ve been in Thailand since my last weeknote… so great, so hot.

I’ve also just come back from the Lake District. Turns out it’s my 10th visit!

The same old problem with DNR decisions

We released a report last week which showed medics are still really bad at communicating DNR (do not resuscitate) decisions. It’s pretty depressing reading, as it seems not much has changed since we released our last report during the pandemic. We’re still seeing the same failures around communication and knowledge of the law. The results are equally distressing for people and their relatives.

It’s timely, as I’ve applied for a Churchill Fellowship to look into what we can learn from other countries. I’m on an interview waitlist so I’m trying to not get too invested in the idea. I am excited though by the prospect of seeing how other nationalities and cultures deal with this problem as we just have not cracked it here in the UK.

Am I unconsciously competent?

We had a supervision session this week where someone mentioned this concept of ‘conscious competence’. I found it fascinating - I’ve not given much thought about competence in terms of consciousness, but it absolutely makes sense to me now I’ve thought about it. It was raised in relation to how confident we feel answering our helpline calls. Confidence or in other words competence with the knowledge which helps us support people varies, and we talked about how you can be unconsciously competent. You may feel like you don’t know enough, but actually you know plenty. Yes, always room for improvement but essentially don’t sell yourself short?

I then chuckled about the scarier view that I’m maybe consciously incompetent…

In the same meeting someone made a cracking analogy in relation to being a passenger in a car. Similarly related to the idea of being confident to answer our helpline calls, the analogy was how being a passenger in a car doesn’t necessarily mean you learn the roads and how to navigate… you actually need to be driving. Similarly, you may hear lots of phonecalls happening around you (the passenger) but actually being the person answering the calls is a whole other thing. Great analogy.

Having fun with protoyping

We’re at the stage of testing our content on best interests decisions and so came to a familiar challenge of how best to prototype our content. In my last weeknote I mentioned we’re looking at trying the step-by-step pattern from the GOV.UK Design System to present options to our users. Because of this, I thought I’d have a crack at using the GOV.UK Prototype Kit to mock-up our page.

After a lot of trial and error, and some quite frankly educated (clueless) hacking around in multiple guides and websites we ended up with something pretty decent and we’re taking it into testing.

Other things…

I had a lovely weekend away in Mallorca. I ate some King fish!? Never heard of it, but turns out it’s the tastiest fish I’ve ever eaten. Also saw a dolphin and went on a hike.

Our content crit

We finally got round to putting our first content iteration of our webpage on best interests in front of staff this week. I always find these a bit daunting, but it was nice to hear some good feedback. Some insightful suggestions too.

One of the most interesting things that came up was that it was content that could potentially be used by staff to help support callers. Essentially acting as an internal knowledge base (except that it’s external).

Best interests: it’s complex

This content discovery into best interests decisions has been the most interesting I’ve been involved in. There are so many elements to it. We’ve had to explore not only the topic itself, but we’ve been sent on little side research projects like looking into healthcare mediation and how to navigate the Court of Protection.

Our research showed most people have a general understanding of what ‘best interests’ means. But we have a challenging task to try and communicate that the law has a particular definition, and how it’s applied can be quite confusing and surprising.

Research also highlighted that there seems to be a gap between what the law and professional guidance says should be happening and what people seem to be experiencing with best interests decision making.

We need to communicate that yes, the law around best interests decisions is clear in what should happen. But in practice it’s not always being followed by professionals (for a number of reasons).

We don’t want to give people unrealistic expectations as that helps no one. Not the people who will think they’re getting poor care, or the professionals who are struggling to provide good standard care through lack of training, time and other reasons.

Focusing on how to help people get better care

What we are focusing on is practical ways we can upskill people so that they can push for better decision making. In fact we’ve identified six things people can try to if someones’ wishes are not being respected:

1. Check if a mental capacity assessment has been done
2. Gather evidence of their wishes, feelings and values
3. Ask for a best interests meeting
4. Ask for a second opinion
5. Get a third party to help resolve disagreements (mediation)
6. Ask the Court of Protection to decide

We’re going to test whether the step-by-step pattern from the GOV.UK Design System might help present these options in a clear, sequential way.

Relentless clarification

I really liked this line I came across from Neil Williams’ blog:

Relentless clarification - just doing the thing you’d readily confide to a coach most needs doing
I find stuff like this useful to think about in terms of my own work and figuring out how to do less, but better. How to decide what to focus on.

What I watched

Since my last post, I watched:

1. A re-screening of Dune at the cinema - possibly my favourite sci-fi movie… a triumph of other wordly imagination.
2. Big Trouble in Little China - a cult classic screened at the BFI. What a laugh.
3. Winter 282 - a cool little documentary about Kevin Woods’ attempt to climb Scotland’s 282 Munros in a single winter season.
4. Hamilton (for the second time) - sheer genius.
5. Dune: Part Two - didn’t quite meet my high expectations, but still enjoyed.
6. Beyond Utopia - a documentary about several families as they attempt to escape oppression in North Korea. Genuinely astonishing, shocking, bleak and uplifting. Please watch.

The importance of good writing

I read a few things in the past few weeks which reminded me how important good writing, and writers are.
In difficult moments, I think society needs writers able to capture the zeitgiest and put words to the struggles and worries of our time.
Not sure about others, but I’m worried about the NHS. So when I read these two things below I was thankful that publications are putting their writing talent and serious thought behind the issue:

1. The Times Health Commission report into the state of health and social care in Britain
2. The BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS

Content testing

I also read this interesting piece about a Court of Protection case from December 2023. It raises interesting questions for me about the responsibility of organisations to make sure people are writing content which is being understood and therefore acted upon correctly.
It concerns the role of the certificate provider in lasting power of attorney, but I think my question applies much more broadly.

I worry there is a presumption that information written on a page is assumed to be understood in full by someone reading it. If you’re involved in any form of content writing and testing with users - you’ll know this is a tricky issue. It’s incredibly hard to write content that is universally understood. Yes, there are techniques you can use to make this more likely but I do think there are limits.

Do we need to test out content more? Do we need better techniques for measuring understanding and comprehension?

I do know that when we’ve tried using content testing techniques I was left a little wanting at the number of methods available to a user researcher to really test content to any degree of confidence. We’ve tried paraphrase testing with varying degrees of success. Would love to hear of other methods other user researchers have used?

What I watched

Saw All of Us Strangers and just loved it. The acting is stand out. The story is sad, but beautiful. This write-up captures many of my thoughts.

What I worked on and thought about

Bit of a slow start to 2024. But, we’ve finally got a list of findings from our research into best interests decision-making. We found these blogs from Will Myddleton helpful:

1. Acknowledging discovery is messy
2. How to finish off a discovery

I read an interesting blog post this week about Oh shit banners. It’s a great piece, I particularly liked this take:

There’s news, and then there’s news.
Sometimes something momentous happens. This necessitates a hierarchy of attention that goes beyond the regular flow of information.

I found it interesting as I’ve talked before about how we added friction to our online advance decision service. Our design hypothesis was that by adding an ‘interruption screen’ we can better inform users when their decisions about refusing medical treatment will apply. This addressed some concerns in user research that people weren’t quite understanding the implications of a refusal of treatment and when it would apply.

As we start to think of writing some new content, I was reminded of a few interesting pieces about reading age. Did you know for US presidential hopefuls, simpler language resonates? We make fun of Trump, but he speaks to voters at fourth-grade level and you know what, it obviously works. It’s not unique to the US, here in the UK The Sun was found to be the easiest to read (with a readability score similar CBBC’s Newsround), while The Guardian was scored as the least readable.

Lots of things to mull, but the study authors say:

“…the failure of many citizens to engage with political news or with environmental problems like climate change may, in part, reflect the fact that these news topics tend to be written in less readable language than most others. Indeed, the failure of many citizens (notably those in countries like the US and the UK) to understand what climate change is or the scale of the scientific consensus and alarm about it may not simply be a product of efforts to make it appear controversial.”

Lots of coverage this week about the Post Office Scandal. I’m still getting my head around this one. But I find it amazing how long it’s been known about, and how crazy it is that a TV drama can be a catalyst for change. Assisted dying is frequently featured in film, TV and culture. But the law hasn’t changed in this instance, why? Maybe there is something more to it than just chalking it down to life imitating art? Or is it the other way around…

What I watched

I’ve never really tracked what I watched on TV or in the cinema before, but it could be fun so I’ll try in 2024. In January so far…

1. Boy and the Heron (Curzon Soho) - loved it, wacky Ghibli as ever
2. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Curzon Bloomsbury) - fascinating insight into Estonian Sauna culture
3. Poor Things (Curzon Soho) - bonkers, but marvellous
4. The Zone of Interest (Curzon Soho) - chilling insight into humanity and what we’re capable of (and how easy it is)

Looking back at my reflections at end of 2022 I’m struck by how much there was to ponder. Some really big things. I thought about funeral literacy and how we’re all a bit uncomfortable around death and dying. I also had the biggest health scare of my life which thankfully ended without bad news, in fact quite the opposite.

Again I find it hard to think back on a whole year and pick out moments, so I’ll reflect on my 2022 list.

Work

It’s funny I still think of myself as a boomerang employee despite having been back for two years. Reflecting on another year of work - I’m still thankful to work in a sector and on issues that are intellectually challenging.

The problems are gnarly, the topic is deep and important and my colleagues are great. It’s a fine balance though. This year has shown how tough it can be working around death and dying. Everything and everyone can seem fine and resilient… until they’re not. No one is immune from stress and burnout. I said I don’t have any answers, but I do think we’re aware of it which is a first step.

Oh, soon I won’t be the only boomerang 🪃.

Projects

We launched a new website, and a new online advance decision service.

Both huge projects that at the time didn’t feel perfect or perhaps go as intended but with time and perspective I’m really pleased with the work. Incremental progress, and a platform for future good work.

Godfather (and uncle)

I’m still thinking about my role as both a godfather and an uncle. As someone who’s on the fence about whether I want kids I do think about the role of kids in my life. I feel like I’m learning from friends and family about what it takes (a lot). And the beauty and wonder of raising another human being. Also, just the sheer effort… kudos.

Filial duty

I’m very much still grappling with this concept of filial duty. A hard year in this respect, with no answers. More questions really but also more reflection that family is important to me.

My back, hobbies and holidays

I had a bit of a renewed effort this year to work on my chronic back pain. I’ve had a very short-lived experiment joining an outrageously expensive gym with personal training sessions… the whole shebang.

My take is that spending more does absolutely NOT equal better when it comes to this sort of thing. It’s crazy how many people want to spend this much on gyms, absolutely nothing against it - but it’s not for me. Back to Better for me in 2024 I think.

I’ve carried on with my movie thing this year - to the point where I’ve recognised it very much as an outlet for me. I think I need it. I’m a member of Curzon and Picturehouse. Both nice. I’m pondering a Curzon Cult membership, basically unlimited films. One day perhaps.

This year, I made it to:

• Paris (more on this below)
• Lake District (only once which is perhaps not enough)
• Slovenia and a first ever trip to Italy
• Bath
• Whitstable
• Lisbon

I’m grateful for lots of trips, but was talking recently how I’m hankering for a big trip somewhere soon. There is something different about a big trip isn’t there…

A health scare, and what it led to

So, best till last…

My first ever proper health scare changed my life. I’m very very lucky that for me, it was in the best way possible. I remember at the time being very aware that for loads of people these health scares end up with awful news. I’m still a bit reticent to talk about it so openly, but weeknotes innit.

Anyway, for someone with a health anxiety the whole experience made me double down on an already formed view that life is short. Working where I work it’s hard NOT to think in this way, but this really crystallised my outlook on life. Health changes at the drop of a hat. One moment you’re fine, plodding through life and within what seems like a second - it can all change.

In my 2022 reflection I said I’d use this to guide my decisions even more in the year ahead. What I didn’t quite expect was that it’s led me into my first ever long-term, loving relationship. Those that know me may laugh that this is what it took, but it really is funny what an impending colonoscopy will do. It’s all a matter of perspective.

For years, I was someone who genuinely enjoyed being single - and the solitude it brings. Now I’m living with someone I love doing all the usual couple things. Who’d a thunk it? Not me.

The best example of this life is short philosophy? Asking my new partner to come with me to Paris two and a half weeks after meeting. Fun times.

Plans for 2024

More living. More travel. More work.

Over and out.

I had several chats this week which made me think about how well we’re all doing. I don’t think anyone’s really recknoned with the pandemic and its impact. Lots of thoughts about organisational resilience, burnout but not many answers really. All I can say is the Christmas break seems like it’s coming at a good time.

We’re trying to wrap up our user research insights before Christmas so we can hit the ground running in the new year. Lots of rich analysis which we don’t want to lose - but the research has turned into a bit of a monster so we’ll just have to adapt.

You’ll notice this is on a new website. I’ve wanted to move my writing from Medium for a while, but hadn’t quite figured out how. Then I came across Blot.im via Neil Williams’ weeknotes. You write in a text editor and essentially upload files into a Dropbox folder and it publishes them to your site. Good fun so far, and quite simple to use.

Things I’ve read

• I’m reading this book by Russell Davies called Do Interesting: Notice. Collect. Share. I’m very hit and miss with these sorts of books - but this one is already a hit. It’s really helping me frame my jumbled brain into some semi-coherent ideas for creative thinking. If you’re interested in writing, weeknotes, open working or just a curious person it’s a strong recommend from me.

• Really enjoying this story based advent calendar - I thought about that a lot from Amy McNichol.

• Weeknotes from Neil Williams are giving me a lot of creative energy right now.

More user research

This week we conducted a few more user research interviews with people who’ve experienced issues getting the care and treatment their relatives would’ve wanted. It was hard to hear how much these people have struggled against a system that despite the best intentions seems to inflict pain and trauma on people trying to get the best care for their loved ones. I actually found it quite demoralising to hear how brutal the NHS can be sometimes. This was one of those weeks where I had the guilty thought that the NHS is fundamentally broken.

MoneySavingExpert for the NHS

Perhaps linked to this, one night whilst struggling to get to sleep I was thinking about Martin Lewis (as you do) of Money Saving Expert fame. I think we need a Martin Lewis to help people navigate the NHS.

His amazing work building Money Saving Expert (which helps people attain ‘financial justice’) has helped his reputation as the most trusted man in Britain. I think his approach to financial journalism — with it’s focus on research, tools, tips and hacks is the sort of approach we need to help people fight for the right care and treatment in the NHS. That’s how bad I think it can be. I’ll be mulling this over and floating it to the team.

A new passport

I received my new passport through the post this week. I used the GOV.UK Renew your passport service. It’s as good as everyone says. I found it simple, easy to follow throughout and an absolute marvel in service design. When you think about what’s involved — it’s super impressive.

UKCharityCamp

I attended the first UKCharityCamp yesterday up in Birmingham. Modelled on the successful UKGovCamp format this version for charities followed the same unconference format. I found it energising and thought provoking — things that for me are a sign of a good day out. I think working in digital in the charity sector we need these days every so often. To realise others are thinking through or experiencing similar problems or quandaries. Not every session I was in was immediately practical to my role — but it opened my mind to a few things I’d not considered before. Plus just being in the same room as lots of smart, motivated and kind-hearted people is just quite a nice experience. I’d forgotten how tiring a full-day conference outside your home city/town can be though. Huge thanks to the organisers and looking forward to 2024.

• I still haven’t quite got settled into a rhythm of weeknotes, but it does help seeing others get stuck in. I’m enjoying reading these from Neil Williams.

• After prepping for our subject matter expert user interviews we finally got stuck in. Reminded that I love doing user interviews. They are very very rarely not just absolutely fascinating chats learning about people and interesting things. We talked to an academic researcher about mediation, a barrister and an ICU consultant. All hugely informative but lots of work to do to turn these sessions into actionable insights and analysis to inform our content work.

• We had a team session talking through our priorites for next year which was a really useful exercise in aligning everyone before writing our business plan. I really valued the experience and I think it should set us up nicely for the year ahead in terms of workload and expectations.
  Had a cracking dinner at The Barbary in Covent Garden. Seriously tasty food. It made me slightly re-assess my list of restaurants I’d written off for being too hard to get tables at. Watching a screening of Interstellar at the Prince Charles Cinema followed which was fun.

• Also watched Anatomy of a Fall at the Curzon Bloomsbury. Which was one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. Really recommend.

• I spent some time putting in an application for a Churchill Fellowship. I stumbled across this scheme a while back and really like the idea of taking some time out to research international experience of a topic to see how we can improve something in the UK. My proposal was about looking into how can we improve DNACPR decisions by building shared understanding. Conscious not to get too invested, as it’s a long shot and I won’t hear back for months…

• I joined a new squash club a month or so ago and after a slow start have started to get some regular games which is nice.

• We had a the first of a number of content workshops to help us think through how we think about social media more strategically. Our strategy has always been a bit reactive and thoughtful historically. Perhaps a bit too thoughtful at the expense of getting our message out there repetively like the best brands or organisations do. I’m interested in the potential of this work to see how it can better showcase some of the great work of my colleagues. We’re working with Richard Roaf who I recommend.

• Had one more user interview today with someone who’s been part of a hearing at the Court of Protection. A fascinating session which I think highlights just how difficult our task is at de-mystifying and creating some clear, simple content on best interests decisions.