This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in February 2019, but published much later. My life is weird. Again. Looking out over London from the top floor. The Eye is glittering and the Palace of Westminster is glowing. Someone pours me a glass of (very expensive) champagne, as the Secretary of State laughs at my witty bon mot. Is this my life now? People of distinction and influence listening to what I have to say? It isn't an oak-panelled room, with deep armchairs, where cigar-smoking …
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This is a retropost. It was written contemporaneously in 2019 - but posted in 2024. I had just been seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care to help kick-start NHSX. I kept a diary of my time there - including working through COVID. As it has been 5 years, and I no longer work in Government, I thought I would publish interesting extracts from it. My 4th day in a new job and I'm sat in a meeting with the Secretary of State. I've been in rooms with CEOs. With celebrities. With…
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A year ago, I swapped my comfy job at GDS for a new role at the Department of Health and Social Care. So, this is a sort of informal end-of-year review. It has been a fun and challenging year. Some of the things I've tried have worked, others less so. The Good Helped kickstart NHSX. I think that counts for something! A bit of that was procedural stuff like obtaining the domain name and convincing Twitter to give us the @NHSX name. Some of it was sitting in rooms while senior people turned to …
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I loathe performance reviews. OKRs, KPIs, EYRs? Bleugh! There's a level of introspection which always makes me intrinsicly uncomfortable. Besides, I always feel like I've done nothing worthwhile other than arse about on a computer. In my new job, I decided to keep an achievement journal. Well, a Trello list of tasks I've done well. This has been most useful. I looked though my record of achievement and picked out the highlights. This isn't a new tip - but one I'm glad to have rediscovered. …
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This is what I've been working on in my new job: Matt Hancock@MattHancockBig welcome to @NHSX - harnessing technology to deliver for patientsTransforming health and care@NHSXHello, World!gov.uk/government/new…❤️ 513💬 0🔁 24012:24 - Tue 19 February 2019❤️ 41💬 4🔁 014:50 - Tue 19 February 2019 BOOM! With a fancy announcement in the House of Commons and everything! It has been a lot of work - and I'm obviously not the only person involved - so I wanted to explain some of the lessons I learned alo…
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Previously on "The Terence Eden Adventures!" I have a new job. I am a bit scared by my new job. This week - WTF? OMG? BBQ??? I've been working for DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) for two weeks. I've made a list of every single new acronym that I've heard. Here it is: AAC - Accelerated Access Collaborative AHP - Allied Health Professional BMA - British Medical Association CAMHS - children's and adolescent mental health CSU - Commissioning Support Unit DDC - Digital…
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