This weeks blog is being posted
from a smog covered Singapore. I am slightly tired from the travelling, so apologies for any typos. However,
having said that, I did cram a great deal into last week, and although busy, it was a very exciting week. I met some really interesting
people, had some fabulous conversations which made me feel
alive and buzzing. For example, on Monday I was pleased to be part of our School celebrations
of Saudi Arabia National Day. We have a growing number of PhD students from Saudi,
and they are a real privilege to work with. The day’s events celebrated the
birth and growth of the Saudi nation, and its many achievements in education and health care over what has been
a relatively short period of time.
The Mary Seacole building was decorated
in the Suadi colours, green and white (growth) and there were tastes of Saudi
life illustrated through food, pictures, music, the opportunity to dress in
traditional Arabic dress, and if you wanted, even henna tattoos. It was a
wonderful day and I was so proud of the hard work of our students in organising
and facilitating the day – it was brilliant! Monday evening I had dinner with one
of my Deans of School colleague’s, Hisham. He is the Dean of the School of the
Built Environment (SoBE).
It was an opportunity to talk about
mutual ambitions and of course the odd whinge and moan, but essentially it
provided us with some time to reflect on where we had got to in facilitating the
achievement of the ambitions of our colleagues
working in both Schools. I learnt lot about what colleague’s in SoBE
were up to with their research, and there was plenty for colleagues in our
School to join in with. Friday I was on a plane on my way to Singapore and sitting
next to me was a young man by the name of Louis who had just joined SoBE as a student. He was on his way to spend a long weekend in Dubai. Louis wants to be a Quantity
Survey and after my conversation with Hisham, it was clear he had chosen the best place to be in realising his ambition.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday was
given over to further exploring the opportunities of 'Devo Manc' and considering
where the thinking had got to over the governance and decision making processes
for the transformational board. Tuesday also included an opportunity to reflect on the opportunities afforded by the very welcome decision that the Salford Royal
Foundation Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Fount Trust had gained approval
for a Vanguard 2 bid for Acute Services. Being part of the WWL bid was a
wonderful experience, and it felt like I was really able to contribute to the
re-shaping of health and social care services for the North West of Greater Manchester
- again a great privilege to be part of this work.
My last meeting on Thursday was
with colleagues working in the Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group and the Manchester
City Council. I was able to discuss some ideas around entering into a partnership
to work with them in taken forward one of Simon Stevens (Chief Executive of the
NHS) top three ambitions around making the health and social care workforce a
healthier one, and the organisations they worked in healthy places to work. Greater
Manchester has some of the worst socio-economic indices in Britain, and health
and social care workforces are really well placed to make a difference to the lives
of the population in general and those they employ in particular.
Of course I said yes in terms of
becoming a partner and have already alerted colleagues in both the health
schools at the University to start the conversations while I am away. For me it
was a good example of what might be achieved through our new strategic Industry
Collaboration Zone (ICZ) initiative. The ICZ initiative looks at creating synergies
where there weren't any before, allowing new teaching programmes to be
developed and new research areas to be funded and taken forward. It allows our
students access to industry organisations, in this case the 'health industry'
and reinforces the strategic and powerful partnerships the university can have
with its stakeholders. For the first time ever, I made a podcast. It's focus was what I
think the ICZ might deliver to the School, and this was published online last
Friday. So far I have received mainly positive reviews about its usefulness.
Singapore is 7 hours ahead of the UK, so yesterday, after travelling from Manchester I had a bonus day to spend in
Singapore. There was only one thing to do, and this meant going to one of my favourite places, Raffles Hotel. I fancied a
drink in the Long Bar, famous for its still colonial décor and ambiance and of
course the monkey nut shells which form a carpet across the floor. I was unable to
do so however, as there was queue of people all waiting to go in. It was clearly a popular place to go to. As I have been
there a few times before and as it was baking hot, I chose to go somewhere else
for a glass of lemonade. Later today I start the final leg of the journey to
Australia. I will tell you all the news of the conference in next week’s blog!
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