So long, farewell!

A lot can happen in five years of employment and it has been quite the wild ride on occasion.

Below are some of my highlights, lowlights and overall learnings:

• Winning ￡70k of new business in my first week on the job and bringing in hundreds of thousands of pounds of income to the comms team over the years
• The creative campaigns! Some of which saw the light of day (a campaign to encourage the public to visit their GP with cancer symptoms which successfully increased referrals, thank you Ross G Palmer ) and some of which (alas) did not for various reasons. RIP NHS number campaign, Andrea and I will forever be sad about that one because of the brilliant creative ideas of Gino Di Meo
• Being embedded into West Yorkshire ICB comms for what was meant to be two months, but ended up being the best part of a year instead. A fantastic team of people Karen Coleman Mary Jo Pearson (plus team) and an inspirational, forward-thinking organisation
• Being a tiny part of the Covid vaccination programme and working alongside some fantastic people at NHSE
• Also see a national pandemic kicking off a few months into the job. Somehow managing to juggle work with a one and three year old at home due to lockdown and nurseries closing. While I very much appreciate that I was not on the front line, I still break into a cold sweat every time I think about Teams meetings and toilet training happening at the same time
• Always having a people-centric, strategic approach to comms. Listening is an underrated skill
• The number of positive relationships I’ve built over the years by having a solutions-driven approach. People buy people. Always offering expertise because trust and relationships are everything, as is a willingness to help out
• Unravelling (and fixing) what I can only presume was thousands of technical social media related difficulties. Why Facebook Meta Business Manager, why?
• Developing and delivering a suite of social media training programmes for internal and external customers
• Creating an “it is what it is” jar to be paid into whenever I have uttered these words (now full enough to fund an all-expenses paid trip to Ibiza for a week)
• The films! So much fun, thanks to Pete Whelan
• Redeveloping the NECS website. A mammoth task. Six months of my life. A lot of coffee. Some mild to moderate usage of swear words. Counting the time I successfully edited 12 pages of copy for one service into a one page synopsis as a personal achievement
• Partnership working with other organisations. There’s room for everyone to get their mention!
• Regularly threatening to wear a t-shirt with COMMS IS A STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT FUNCTION emblazoned on it (probably with “It’s PR, not ER” on the back…IYKYK)
• The people I have worked with, both internally and externally. Too many names to tag, you know who you are! Inspirational people who are fundamentally dedicated to making life easier and bettering the health and outcomes of others. It has been an honour to work with (and tell others about the good work of) those carrying out both interesting and inspirational work
• Handling various issues that I can’t go into on LinkedIn, but let’s just say as an example that taking a member of a local parking wars community group from publicly enraged to friendly on social media in 24 hours was an achievement. Never underestimate the soft skills of a comms pro!

But, as is usually the case, the flipside of highlights is inevitable lowlights...

• Facing two significant bereavements during my employment, one in 2021 and one in 2024. Ever grateful to my northern comms colleagues who offered endless support and practical help (and the colleague who helped me to find available care home places) We say it a lot, but be kind to your colleagues because you don’t know what they are going through behind the scenes
• My role going from thriving to non-existent in the space of a year and the very reason I am typing this farewell tribute - redundancy!

The last few years has taught me to take time for the important things (health, family) because these are the irreplaceable things. Work is important, but work is replaceable. I will never regret taking time off work so I could provide end of life care for my Dad earlier this year. This was a privilege.

I have also learned to never underestimate the power of the following: a sense of humour, good colleagues, resilience, stepping away from your desk to get some fresh air before responding to discourteous emails, the ability to listen, collaborating to find a middle ground, building trust, having empathy and decency, offering a clear rationale for decisions, living according to your own personal values and being able to spot bullshit a mile off. And emergency chocolate.

And as a final nod – thank you to the many friends I’ve made over the last five years. Thank you to Andrea, Gail, Joe, Abbie Mulgrew Lee K, fellow Hullian Lee Hansom Lucy Carr Michael, Ben Landon Nigel Charlesworth Nicola, Jayne (fingers crossed for working together for a third time!) A particular shout out to the lovely, supremely talented/ grossly underbanded Lynne Dawson , the infinite oasis of calm that is the wonderful Paul Scott (I'll never know how you achieve this Paul) and not forgetting my good friend and work wife Simon Clayton . Keeper of sanity for the last few years. Kindness personified. Even our dogs are friends!

Thank you to everyone who has played a positive part in my NHS experience. From Monday, I’m available for freelance work while I complete my MA and carry on working out what’s next!

Change might bring uncertainty, but I’ve always been a believer that it comes at the right time for the right reasons. Change is an opportunity. To quote Florence and the Machine, there’s always darkness before the dawn (she also said you can’t dance with a devil on your back, but that’s one for another time)

Onwards and upwards :)