Ten weeks (ish) ago I wrote about finding my feet at NHS Digital. A matter of days after I wrote that piece my role changed and I moved full time onto the COVID-19 Vaccinations Programme.

After 12 years working primarily in small, independently owned design agencies, being involved one of the biggest programmes in the NHS felt like a gear shift to say the least.

Feeling like you’re working on something career defining is both exhilarating and horrifying all at the same time. I joined the programme when teams were still being established and a vaccine was a faint hope…

NHS Digital – 10 weeks

Ten weeks ago I started a new role as Lead Service Designer at NHS Digital. I started that role from the ‘comfort’ of my spare bedroom during a global pandemic. It’s been difficult. It feels important to state these last two points because life as a remote designer sometimes feels like it’s been normalised – for me it feels anything but normal.

Shaping my role

I’ve spent the last 10 weeks figuring out the shape of my role. I feel lucky to be joining a corner of NHS Digital that has a fairly high level of design maturity. Over the…

A year ago I embarked on a 12 month secondment from Service Design agency Snook to drug, alcohol and mental health charity, WithYou (formerly Addaction). All the way through, I’ve had the overwhelming feeling that secondments are a huge opportunity for both individuals and organisations, especially charities.

This piece is written for designers looking to take up a secondment or organisations looking to organise one. It tackles some of the practical considerations. When it comes to my personal experience as a designer, you can read my reflection on my time at WithYou and the impact it’s had on my practice.

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A year ago I embarked on a 12 month secondment from Service Design agency Snook to drug, alcohol and mental health charity, WithYou (formerly Addaction). At the time, I spoke openly about the reasons for my move. As I come to the end of my secondment I want to reflect on my experience.

The first 6 months were hard. I didn’t write much because I couldn’t put what I was experiencing into words. I attempted to speak publicly way too early which was difficult for me. I was in a completely new world and I struggled to adapt.

I was…

By Emma Parnell and Christina Herold

When you walk through the door of a drug and alcohol service you will likely experience all sorts of feelings in a short space of time. These feelings may fight with each other as the elation of finally getting help is mixed with the fear of not knowing what to expect. And for those coming back to services you might layer on feelings of shame and regret around relapse. It’s a really difficult step to take.

“I was scared to death. I didn’t know what to expect. I couldn’t stop crying but they were so understanding. That first day I…

Earlier this year our organisation’s digital and design team were thinking about how to make the first 4 weeks of treatment less daunting for people. We carried out some research to better understand people’s experiences of entering treatment.

What we found was a real need for reassurance. People told us how “unnerving” it was not knowing what to expect. They didn’t know what would happen when they walked through our doors for the first time. This meant they may put it off for months until they couldn’t cope any more.

Fast forward 6 months and what have we done?

Letting people know what to expect

Getting…

For the last two years my professional development objectives have contained something around public speaking. Historically I have failed to meet this objective. Last week I delivered three talks in a week – I’m counting that as my annual allowance!

Last Thursday I spoke at Create Leicester, a lovely community organised event arranged by a bunch of bloody kind people. Some of you reading this will have seen on Twitter that my Create Leicester talk was difficult. And that’s because on that particular day – my anxiety was running the show.

I’d like to be clear here that I do…

Today is my last day at Snook — kind of!

My Snook journey started in a hot tub in New Zealand! I was in the middle of recovering from a relationship breakdown. A friend lent me her car and I rented a holiday home for the weekend. I sat in the hot tub and wrote the story of my career and an accompanying illustration brief for a friend.

Six months later I was finally ready to leave New Zealand. Before embarking on a three month trip around South America I posted my career booklets and handwritten letters to five service…