Reform's Blog: Wrapped
Researcher
As the smell of mulled wine wafts down the cobbled backstreets of SW1, the euphony of carols rings gleefully in ears, and the city is lit with festive decorations, we know the holidays are soon approaching.
You know it’s the end of the year too, when Spotify tells you that you are in the top 0.05% of Oasis listeners (just me?) or when your banking app somewhat worryingly informs you that you have had 250 transactions at the Speaker (definitely not me…probably my colleagues).
And as with all the other essentials in your life, it is only right that Reform’s final blog of the year takes on the beloved ‘Wrapped’ format.
So… here goes:
Reform’s Blog: Wrapped
You (should have) read: a total of 81 Re:State blogs this year!
The most blogged genre was Reimagining Whitehall, with 17 different blogs. This was followed closely by 15 Reimagining the Local State blogs and 12 Reimagining Health blogs.
We had some special guests blogging too… including:
- 3 C-Suite contributions: Front door diagnostics: learning from the successes of HIV testing, Richard Angell, Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust; Winning the AI race, James Clough, Chief Technology Officer, Robin AI; and What will it mean to be human: the future of legal AI, Paul Phillip, Chief Executive, Solicitors Regulation Authority
- 2 Combined Authority Mayors: An opportunity for change, Oliver Coppard, Mayor, South Yorkshire; and Delivered by devolution, Tracy Brabin, Mayor, West Yorkshire
- 1 international contribution: The pursuit of joint working: Comparing the UK and Germany, Abi Watson, Research Fellow, GPPi, Philipp Rotmann, Director, GPPi; blogging from Germany
The most prolific Reformer blogger was: a tie! With Policy Director, Joe Hill, and Senior Researcher, Patrick King, both writing 15 blogs each.
Some personal favourites from 2024 include: Rosie Beacon, Head of Health, proposing a novel solution to the communication vacuum within the NHS, and suggesting that it should use Bloomberg Terminals; Joe Hill, Policy Director, discussing why some policy ideas never seem to go away, but never seem to happen either, this blog (and unmissable memes) can be found here; and when Simon Kaye, Policy Director, reflected on the use of ‘design principles’ in policy.
At our Team Christmas, we also had some awards for our year in blogs. I was lucky enough to be awarded ‘Keenest Blogger’, for blogging a mere eight working days after joining Reform; I wrote about the need to go beyond joining up broken services and instead seek big picture root and branch reform. Have a read of that one here. And Patrick King, Senior Researcher, was crowned as the ‘Bravest Blogger’ for asking whether the public should be involved in policy making. His bold blog can be read here.
And if that isn’t enough for you and you fancy a festive(ish) read, check out India Woodward on The pinch that stole Christmas.
Thanks for being such keen readers of Reform’s blog. We hope you enjoyed them, and keep your eyes peeled for even more next year!
Wishing you all a happy holiday season and new year.
See you in 2025!