Hello! I haven’t written a blog for ages and people keep asking me if I’m ok as I’ve seemingly disappeared off LinkedIn and X so I thought I’d take the opportunity of it being International Women’s Day to say a few things I’ve been thinking about for a while and share a few thoughts on my new role.

I’ve been reflecting that often when people said they’d read my blog they would also say – and women in particular – ‘I should really do something like that’. It struck me how we compare ourselves to one another, but we only ever really see people at their absolute best on these platforms. So I wanted to say that I haven’t been doing my blog as I’ve been super busy in my new job – which I love – spending all my extra energy meeting lots of amazing people – staff and service users and getting to know my new teams. I’ve also been finishing my loft conversion at home – I spent the first two months of my new job sleeping on an airbed in the front room which regularly deflated in the night!

So I just haven’t had the head space for social media and that’s fine. We put ourselves under so much pressure but we’re all doing amazing just to get up, sort the house, get the kids out (if you have them or other caring responsibilities), put our all In to our days work, listen and be kind to one another, do the washing, get the kids to do their homework, make tea, sort the house and round again! Oh and don’t forget to eat healthily, exercise and make the right choices for the environment! So here’s celebrating all the women and everyone who is giving it their all every day. We all have wings – whether we have time to tell everyone about it or not.

I love that phrase – we all have wings. I found a poem with that title at Manchester Museum where we went recently. It spoke to me about the potential we all have to thrive if we have the right support and the right environment and that’s what our job is at LSCft I think – for our service users and our staff.

A Busy Six Months

I’ve been in my new job for six months as Chief Digital and Infrastructure officer at LSCft. That means I have executive responsibility for digital and estates. We’re a mental health, learning disability and autism trust and a large provider of physical health community services for the population of Lancashire and south Cumbria.

It’s been a tough six months, I’ve learnt loads and it’s been a privilege to get to meet so many amazing people whilst out getting to understand the organisation better and observe care. From really committed and kind staff to service users who have been really open with me about how we could improve our services. It’s been fascinating to hear how much service users talk about their environment, and it shows what a huge difference we can make through our plans in estates.

I am so lucky to have brilliant teams who are so committed to the organisation and I’m excited to be part of an Exec and Board team who have a genuine focus on values, to listening and creating an environment where people can speak up, and who have the drive and ambition to do the best we can for our people.

Since I’ve been in role we’ve opened a new inpatient unit, rolled out Multi Factorial Authentication, focussed a lot on improving safety in particular fire safety, started to build partnerships that will enable digital innovation and launched the digital ideas drop to provide an open space for all staff to talk about digital ideas.  By the end of March we will have procured a new data centre, a new cloud data warehouse and a new community physical health EPR and progressed our plans for better use of our Estate focussed on our communities. It’s going to be a busy year! We have plans to make sure we get the basics right, get our infrastructure up to scratch and enable us to maximise the potential of our estate and digital systems through co design with service users and staff. All aligned to our new quadruple aim strategy with a clear focus on improving safety.

Deeds Not Words

I’ll end with some final reflections linked to International Women’s Day. My 6-year-old son said to me the other day – ‘deeds not words mummy, deeds not words’. He’s been learning about Emmeline Pankhurst at school which I was delighted about. Without women like her who dared not just to speak out but to take action against the patriarchy we would not be where we are today.

I thought about this again when we had a talk recently from Dr Hannah Barham-Brown, a GP who speaks on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She talked about the small actions we can take to support one another, particularly those in marginalised groups and how those small actions can make a difference.

I wanted to just share a moment that happened to me at work that has made such a positive difference to how I feel as a working parent.  We have a big campaign at LSCft about flexible working and I try to always be vocal about having caring commitments so that others feel ok about it too but I’ll admit quietly I still feel a bit bad sometimes leaving a meeting after 5 where everyone else seems to be able to stay, especially in a new role. There was one occasion where I had to leave an exec meeting at ten past 5 so I could make it back in time for the after school pick up. I apologised a few times and made my way. The next day I had my one to one with my boss Chris Oliver, our CEO, and he started by saying – ‘Listen – please don’t ever apologise or feel bad for having to pick your kids up’. This totally took me by surprise, but I can’t tell you how much that meant to me and how much better that has made me feel when I have to leave to pick the kids up. I feel so well supported as a working parent.

So have a think – what small action you could take that might make a huge difference to someone you work with.

Well this blog has been words but I am determined that my actions in my new role, working with my teams, will help keep service users and staff safer, deliver the best therapeutic environments, maximise the potential of technology and data to understand the needs of our communities and deliver the services our populations deserve centred around their needs.

Until next time….

This blog is written in my own personal time and represents my personal views