As a Registered Nurse, reflection is something I do often. I take the time to look back over an event, or period of time and think about what happened, how it made me feel, and what was positive (or not so positive) about the experience. I try and make sense of the situation, thinking about what I could’ve done differently, and how I might tackle the same situation if it arose again. As my first month here is almost complete, I wanted to share my reflection on how I’ve spent that time.
It’s certainly been a very busy month spent contacting, and connecting (both virtually, and in person) with some fantastic people from across the Social Care sector. I’ve delivered training on the Data Security Protection Toolkit as part of a project to get Social Care providers access to NHS Mail. I’ve met my colleagues on the NCF team. I’ve seen the results of pilot projects across Social Care supported by NHS Digital. But most importantly for me, I’ve already in these first few weeks met some of our members, and seen first-hand, the remarkable work they do to provide fantastic care for those people who use their services.
I exit my first month filled with so many ideas and thoughts about what the future might bring. The overwhelming feeling, I have at this point in my journey is one of feeling very much ‘at home’ I feel as though everyone I’ve met shares a common goal to improve lives, and I feel so much hope for the future of our industry at what is a very challenging time.
Making sense of the situation is less straightforward. What has become apparent to me is that Digital Transformation is not something I, or anyone else can really try to immediately explain in a few sentences. It’s a dynamic, ever evolving thing. With every new innovation or solution there will be a new challenge or problem, in exactly the same way that Social Care is ever evolving. During my first month the World Wide Web celebrated its 30th birthday so I turn to the inventor of the WWW – Sir Tim Berners-Lee to try and make sense of my role, and my first month in that role. He is quoted as saying; “we need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.”
I hope to try and collate some of that diversity of thought to help our members with the new challenges they face.
Looking forward over the next month, I’m particularly looking forward to working with my colleague Tommy Henderson-Reay on our new Information Governance and Technology Forum (more details will be announced on this shortly).
I’m excited about meeting some of NCFs partners in the coming weeks. But most of all I’m looking forward to connecting with more of the membership, hearing about the work you do, the care you provide, and the challenges you face, so please do send me an email or find me on twitter @ClaireLSutton. You can also email Tommy or find him on twitter @tommy_reay
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