Weeknote 11: week ending 16th February 2024

We are fairly motoring through February. Halfway down in fact. Half term is over, so (some) distractions out of the way.

What I’ve been up to

1. Last week was super busy (which week isn’t). In the office for four days and for some reason had 9am meetings each day which meant an actual rush hour commute each day. Haven’t done that in years.
2. We kicked off some high priority work to draw together our thinking on strategy, roadmap, business planning, future op model, support for future change initiatives and funding with a workshop on Tuesday which covered a lot of ground and generated a lot of questions. We are working on a v tight timeline to complete this work before financial year end. Huge appetite and enthusiasm in the room to commit to getting this done.
3. Had another session on the budgets we require for next year. This is partly informing, and partly being informed by, our emerging work on future operating model and target customer experience so its a little chicken and egg but its starting to firm up and look like a strong approach.
4. Four days in London meant some time was eked out to catch up with colleagues from across public sector digital. It was particularly great to get two laps of St James’ Park (and a coffee!) in with Matt Ballantine who is always good to bounce ideas off.
5. We nailed down an agreed working version of our digital strategy so that we can use it to start engaging with colleagues across the wider organisation and use it as the focal point for the high priority work mentioned above.

What I’m doing next

1. Wednesday is the first time all the managers in the Digital Directorate will have been together since I joined Homes England. Very much looking forward to meeting everyone and spending some time together. Also a little daunting when I’m used to seeing people in one inch squares on Teams calls. Lots of prep in advance of the day and hope we can make it a useful event for everyone who attends.
2. Leaning in hard on the work around next years funding requirements as the operating model work delivers at pace.
3. I have some time with colleagues next week to work through what the triage model might look like for requests for digital change next year. We want to move to a user centred service governance model but its easier said than done.
4. Getting into the detail of how we work with our transformation programme colleagues and how we will support digital products and services developed by them when they go live

Anything else to note

Yes! – I’m advertising a role in my senior leadership team – Assistant Director Digital Delivery and Architecture. Its a great opportunity for a digital leader to come and join the digital leadership team at a critical point as we shape the future of digital service delivery for Homes England. Please apply!