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Week 17: Go, go, go

Frankie RobertoPosted on

Photo of me stood outside a grand old classical building with columns

This week was the big launch for the new RSV vaccine! From 1 September, those who are 28+ weeks pregnant or aged 75 to 79 are recommended to get it, to help protect against respiratory syncytial virus.

The launch kicked off with lots of news coverage, including from the BBC, Guardian, Mirror, Independent and others. I’ve not worked on that many services which get such media attention, so that added a bit of excitement (and nerves).

The service I’ve been working on, Record a vaccination, is just one part of the overall programme, and the whole thing has taken a lot of work from a lot of people. But our team can be proud of the part we’ve played.

Of course, the work doesn’t stop, and in many ways it’s just begun. Lots of iterations, new features, integrations and more to come.

Leeds

In the midst of this, we had a team day in Leeds. As always, it was great to be able to work together in person. We even had a team retro where we could write notes onto a physical whiteboard instead of a Mural.

Just as importantly, we had a team dinner in the evening. As the team has grown, it was the first time we’d met some folk in person, and so a good opportunity to build some social connections.

Design System Day

I went straight from Leeds to Liverpool, taking Thursday off to attend Design System Day 2024.

This year I wasn’t speaking at all, and so could enjoy the event purely as a participant, which was a lot more relaxing.

The line-up of talks was great. I particularly enjoyed hearing from Chikako Masuda about the challenges of embedding digital design practices within the Japanese Government, and from Duncan MacGruer about how the Scottish Government use performance analysis to measure how their design system performs.

The first talk mentioned the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 framework for reducing health inequalities, which I admit I hadn’t heard of, and the last talk focused on how design systems can contribute to fight the climate emergency. Both thought-provoking.

Also lovely to meet lots of people in the breaks and at the after-conference drinks!

It’s ok

Back at the NHS, the digital prevention services leadership team unveiled our version of the legendary It’s ok poster first introduced by GDS back in 2016.

Everyone was invited to contribute ideas for statements to add, and we got lots of great suggestions.

I helped edit them down and turn them into a poster for printing:

A graphic with a blue background and white text saying ‘It’s ok...’ followed by this list: ask what acronyms mean, ask ‘Why?’, offer feedback on other people’s work, share work in progress, ask for help, slow down to think, ask management to fix it, not be the most opinionated in the room, say ‘No’ when you’re busy, say ‘I don’t know, forget to come off mute, make a decision, ask for more time to make a decision, say that you were wrong, celebrate successes, walk and talk, not think about work on holiday, have a child, cat or dog interrupt a call, take some time to understand, speak up for yourself, take breaks, not answer messages during meetings, not check work messages out of hours, ask what the purpose of a meeting is, decline meeting invites, turn the camera off , focus on key goals and let other things drop, not have all the answer, speak last, take time out for training, take time out for reflecting, be open about how you’re feeling, not be ok, be proud of working for the NHS, admit the challenges

We’re now putting these up in the offices in London, Leeds and elsewhere.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped organise Design System Day, and everyone at the NHS who’s working on the vaccination programme! 💙