On March 12th 2025, news of a dramtic change in health policy was leaked to the Health Service Journal. The headline was "ICBs ordered to cut costs by 50%" For those of you who doesnt know, the HSJ is the health sector version of the Daily Mail. A subscription, members club , of rumour and tittle tattle and "opinion". On March 12th details of the insecurity of my job was not delivered to me by my leadership team, but through a channel that I do not have access to. Poor. Realy poor. Since then, there has been little or no progress made by NHS England to provide clarity to me and my colleagues about when my role will be subject to consultation and likely redundancy. 192 days, and counting, of uncertainty. Make your own mind up if thats a acceptable level of stress to be placed under.

We now have the joys of being told that there is no pot of money, up to £1b, to fund redundancy packages. The current Head of NHS England has come out and said he never promised a pot of money. Bless him. The consistent thing through all this uncertaintainty is how much lack of thought has  gone into this. Its beginning to unravel further too as reported in The Guardian this week  NHS integrated care boards halt job cuts in row over £1bn cost

The savings were meant to be realised by December 2025. Good luck with that.

We continue with the uncertainty. 

It dawned on me this week that post redundancy another possible outlet for me might be as a driving instructor. With one of my daughter's passing their driving test in the last 2 weeks and the other beginning driving lessons, I have experience of sittng alongside them and helping them gain confidence on the roads. I coined the phrase "road craft" which encompasses all aspects of confidence and skills needed to be a strong driver. Could be an option for the future. Other changes of roles include barister, postman, supermarket delivery driver and train conductor. All allign with my values and why not take the opportunity to do something completley different? Doing good work is important to me as is helping others to succeed.

I am enjoying a new (to me) podcast at the moment. "Strangers on a Bench" by singer-songwriter Tom Rosenthal, in which he approaches strangers in London parks and records anonymous conversations about their lives. The show explores ordinary people with often extraordinary stories, with new episodes released weekly.  Have a listen whereever you get your podcasts.

There is a serious amount of noise in the world and finding techniques to help calm and reduce that noise might send you down the road of meditation. I have tried it (in the traditional sense) but I dont seem to be able to pack away the noise and clam my brain. I've realised though that there is a version of meditation that works for me. Running is my meditation. I dont run with music but instead listen to the sounds of nature, take in whats around me and enjoy being present and in the moment. Just because I'm not sat on the floor with my legs crossed doesnt mean that I'm not meditating. Stephen Lock will tell you that rather than trying to block out all the noise, identify and count the number of different noises you can hear. Its a different way of doing it. Being present is tricky but very valuable. Take a walk, what can you hear? What can you see? Look up. What's up there in the trees or above the first floor of a building. There is a really good app called Merlin Bird ID. Stand still, switch it on, what birds can you hear?

Friday 5th September 2025

A great deal has happened recently and certainly much time has passed since the most recent entry on this blog. So it feels like a good time to provide an update and start to develop some new areas of interest for me.

My role at the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board is now not secure. March 2025 saw a leaked government announcment to the Health Service Journal (HSJ) about reduction in running costs of ICBs, to the tune of 50%, very soon after a previous round of cuts of 30%. A consultation was pencilled in to begin on Wednesday 3rd September 2025 but for various reasons, mostly around NHS England not being able to provide confirmation of 4 (reasonable) requirements from the ICB, that consultation has been stopped. No new date in the diary either. So the uncertainty goes on. Conservative estimates of the total cost of redundancies are £1billion across all ICBs. 

This uncertainty hasnt been fun over the past few months but I have been doing lots of work on myself with the help of Stephen Lock Coaching and his impressive HeRO Programme to help me understand me much better and to understand my goals and values. 

Working with Stephen, who I have known of for many years and had conciously decided that "one day I will work with this guy", has been an eye opener. Becoming more self aware and putting things in place to help me achieve my goals and participate in the HeRO programme has led me to consider where my passion lies. Linked to the uncertainty over my employement he (rightly) offered the thought that "no one is coming to save me." Its up to me to be physically and mentally fit for the challenges that lie ahead. I have made peace with my anger and upset about the uncertainty in my employment. I feel ready to show up to my work for both me and my teams and offer whatever support they need.

Considering how I view my life through 5 lenses has been a useful framework: 1. Myself 2. My family 3. My community 4. The work I do 5. My practices towards a happy life. My response to these 5 lenses can be found on the front page of this website underneath the blog section.

A conversation with Stephen about, why am I so bothered about #MakingStuffBetter for the people of Leeds led to a thought about doing different things. Doing good work is important to me and the feeling of having my work valued but also feeling connected to a Place. I have applied to be on the Board of Trustees at Volition in Leeds and was invited to their Strategy Day at CATCH this week.  I enjoyed the day very much which was organised and facilitated by the fabulous Volition team and the super star that is Holly Dannhauser from Moon & Mountain We had a Space themed day which worked really well to keep everyone on track and each activity was cleverly linked through the theme. Meeting a bunch of enthusiastic and committed people harnessing the power and voice of the Voluntary and Charity Sector in Leeds is humbling.

CATCH is quite a place. Do take the time to have a look at their web site and in particular look at their video  Peace Starts With Us. Sometimes it is hard to make the connection with what happens at the grassroots level of community work to the bigger picture of what we see on our TVs, the Press or even the Places we live or work in, but this mission is entirely connected to the frankly dark and scary things we see across the world right now. Empowering and educating young people in safe spaces seems like a good idea to me. As a venue, CATCH is magical. Discussing strategy whilst surrounded by goats, chickens, llamas and guinea pigs....whats not to get inspired by?

Further to addressing "doing good work" has also led me to volunteer my time at Harrogate Neighbours on their Board of Trustees. Harrogate is the Place in which I reside and where my family are - yet I dont feel as connected to it as much and deeply as I do with Leeds. Thats something for further thought of course but I am looking forward to getting involved with this organisation.

I have recently qualified as a Leader in Running Fitness (liRF) with my running group, Stray Runners, and next week, with colleagues, will begin to deliver a 12 week (Stray) Couch to 5K programme. This is something that is outside my comfort zone and being front and centre is not something I seek but this is another personal development opportunity. I've had a number of injuries recently, hamstring and ankle, but they seem to have sorted themselves out. So, back to a regular 5K run with Stray Runners twice a week and if life permits, a weekly parkrun. I achieved my 250th parkrun on Saturday 2nd August, and celebrated a new age category on the same day! It was fabulous to share the experience with friends and family and afterwards retired to the perfect Kingfisher Kiosk at Conyngham  Supporting small, community run venues makes me happy.

What makes you happy?

I am not going to labour the point here but I'm doing a marathon. Big deal. It is a big deal to me. Its because I am doing it , not for me, but to help others. I am doing it to help raise awareness and raise much needed funds for Rob Burrow, the former Leeds Rhinos rugby league player, and everyone in the MND community. The funds will help research into this horrific condition and to create a space in Seacroft for the community.

I have been running for a few years. Not to any degree of success and I am never going to win anything but thats not really the point. I enjoy the outdoors, the open spaces and the mud that comes with trail running. When I say running, this really is the loosest sense of the word.

As an adult there are few times you can go out and play in the mud. Cross country and trail running gives me that return to childhood.

The video posted here hopefully introduces me and if you want, I would love you to support my adventure on my Just Giving Page I'm running for Rob