Just notes
I’ve not published weeknotes or monthnotes since August. Where have I been? What have I been doing? Why have there been no weeknotes?
Well work has been focussed on procurement, internal processes and people stuff. This has meant that it has been hard to talk about much of my work publicly. The procurement and some of the internal processes are still ongoing. The people work relates to the reorganisation, restructure and recruitment but more importantly, making sure people get the right support throughout, that we do this work as humanly as possible and do it conscious of the impact it can have on people’s lives. There have been some tough decisions and situations and there have been some really rewarding experiences, including work to enable colleagues to move into user research roles and seeing people achieving promotion into more senior ones.
Recruitment!
The reorganisation and restructure is now at the tail end and the good news is that the difficult work has meant that we are now at the point where we have new user researchers coming into the organisation. We also have the opportunity to welcome new user research leaders through the Lead User Researcher recruitment campaign that has just launched and the Senior User Researcher Campaign that will launch in mid January.
You can read more about the lead user researcher roles here https://jobs.digital.nhs.uk/vacancies/2758/lead-user-researchers-multiple-opportunities-across-nhs-england.html
The even better news is that we have also finally been able to advertise our inclusive design lead role. (The role will go live in January at this link https://jobs.digital.nhs.uk/vacancies/vacancy-search-results.aspx )
This is something that has been part of the inclusive design strategy and roadmap that we developed 18 months ago, something I made a commitment to deliver. Quite rightly external recruitment was put on hold when the merger and restructure was announced but we have continued work to deliver on that strategy in the absence of this role. We have an inclusive design definition and principles which Ellen and Sam talk about in this blog post https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/design-matters/2023/what-is-inclusive-design and our inclusive design work forms part of the inclusive digital healthcare framework for the NHS https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/inclusive-digital-healthcare-a-framework-for-nhs-action-on-digital-inclusion/
The role also leads on accessibility, one of the outcomes of inclusive design. One of the other great things that happened since my last weeknotes was the official launch of our accessibility lab. Covid and a move to our new building meant we had to re-home the lab. It now has a great space with upgraded equipment, all testament to the hard work of the accessibility working group. The progress we have made in inclusive design is down to the commitment of colleagues to equity and inclusion work. The potential progress we could make with a dedicated lead for this work is pretty exciting.
The role of Inclusive Design Lead may have the word design in the title, but inclusive design is something that a whole team delivers, so this is not a ‘design’ role. People from content, user research or design backgrounds would be great candidates, as would people who are from any other non-user centred design profession. This role is about leading work to ensure our products and services are inclusive and embed inclusive practice into our service delivery. Ability to do this is important. Background profession is not.
We are on an equity and inclusion journey which is why we need this role. This also means our processes, including our recruitment process, can be improved. If there are ways that we can make the process more inclusive for people applying then please get in contact. As always, if you are thinking about applying for any of these (or any other) roles but are not sure whether you meet all of the criteria for the role, my advice is please still consider applying. Nobody will tick every single criteria on the application. Also, make sure you use the supporting statement space to your advantage and fill it with examples of how you meet each of the criteria for the role. I see many applications where this space isn’t used and people not getting to interview as evidence that they meet the criteria isn’t there.
There are some more good tips about applying for roles at NHS England written up by Tero here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/increasing-your-chances-advice-how-apply-jobs-nhs-england-v%C3%A4%C3%A4n%C3%A4nen-ob3ze
What else has been happening?
We have kicked off the ‘not a repository work’. We have a number of working titles including user research finder and a prototype that we have been testing. We think we have something that will meet the needs of our user researchers and the many users of the research knowledge they produce but will only know when we pilot it in the new year.
I had an inspiring few days in Edinburgh attending Service Design in Gov and delivering my keynote. You can see the recordings from the conference, including my keynote and some really great talks here https://govservicedesign.net/videos . My keynote discussed journeys and the concept of utopia. A lot of what I said has resonated in conversations since, in fact the concept of being within a journey has been really useful to ground things when in turbulent or difficult times.
Another source of inspiration was our user research community away day. This was our first as one official new NHS England user research community. The focus was on story telling and we had some great speakers talking about how they tell stories through data and how they build and use stories to help them in their role. We also had time with members of our senior leadership team where we got to grill them, ask difficult questions but also hear from them about the importance and value of our work.
Tom and I also hosted the Data and Analytics exec team in our user research lab, showing them the kit, discussing the work we do, how we do it and ways in which their teams could use it.
Reviewing the year
I took a look at my weeknotes from a year ago. This time last year, my weeknote talked about what matters to me . The over riding theme was ‘making a positive difference.’ That was what mattered to me at the end of 2022 and this hasn’t changed a the end of 2023 eventhough a lot has changed around me during this year.
In January this year I stated what I was planning to focus on for 2023. This was:
· Inclusive design
· Building UCD capability including UCD maturity
· Developing people and UCD skills
There is always space to do more but I can see that even with the upheaval and the reorg rollercoaster I have managed to keep that focus. In terms of what I want to focus on next year, I am going to take some time to reflect over the next couple of weeks but I know that making a positive difference will still be core to it and that the 2023 areas are each a journey that has a continuous destination.
Wishing everyone, a happy and health 2024.
Things I intend to do in the next couple of weeks
· Spend time with family and friends
· Make sure that people that have done things that made a difference to me this year, know about it
· Switch off (no work or weeknotes).
(Exactly the same bullet points as my weeknote from this time last year)
