Malcolm joined the NHS in 1997 after a career in Coal Mining and working on the Channel Tunnel Project. His 26 year career in the NHS has mainly been spent as a Chief Information Officer in Acute Hospitals in Torbay and South Devon and Musgrove Park Hospital in Somerset. Between January 2017 and May 2021 Malcolm worked on national Digital Programmes for NHS Digital, based in Leeds and London before joining NHS Devon in June 2021.
Malcolm currently has responsibility for Digital Transformation across the Devon Integrated Care System, with a real focus on increasing the use of digital technology to enable new models of care and improve the experiences and outcomes of care.
Malcolm has three grown up Son’s and enjoys walking in the beautiful Devon countryside, all forms of theatre and travel. He is an avid sports fan, supporting Leeds United FC and Castleford RLFC.
It is Armed Forces Day on the 24th June and many people’s thoughts turn to our military community. I don’t dwell on the past but at this time of the year I do think a little bit more about my own military service. I left the Royal Navy 4 years ago and since then have been lucky enough to be working for Delt Shared Services as their Chief Projects Officer. Delt’s staple diet is the provision of IT managed services to Plymouth City Council, Devon NHS Integrated Care Board, Devon NHS Partnership Trust, and Transforming Futures Multi Academy Trust. We also provide a range of other services such as soft and hard facilities management, print & mail, procurement, finance, payroll and pensions, and, of course, project management. To deliver this wide range of shared services we need staff with various skills, including leadership.
A key skill of being a successful military operator is leadership. In my head, leadership is not a title or a job description it is a state of mind. The young sailor planning their part of ship maintenance, the chef conjuring up another amazing meal for 200 (and there are many other examples) and then working with their team to deliver are just as important leadership roles as the Commanding Officer of a ship, a squadron or a regiment. Young people serving in our military are exposed to leadership and leading from day 1 of their time in uniform.
As an Armed Forces Covenant signatory Delt is proud to support our military community. We hire veterans and use their leadership skills in our business. As we go through our annual performance management reviews, we select staff to attend one of our leadership training courses. In April this year our leadership training culminated with a graduation ceremony at Devonport Hall. Nine staff members completed the course, 4 of them were ex-military and covered all 3 Services. On that day I was immensely proud of all our brilliant Delt staff. Everyone delivered excellent presentations summing up their own personal leadership journey. There were some amazing leadership lessons, a great deal of emotional intelligence displayed and a few tears! It was especially rewarding to see 4 ex Royal Navy, Royal Airforce and Army men and women show how the experience they gained in the military and the lessons they learned during training and on operations allowed them to operate with confidence in a different environment.
Thank you from Delt to all our Armed Forces for your amazing work, and a special shout out to all the veterans working at Delt for your contribution to our success.
Proper and effective communications is often cited as fundamental to success. So how do we ensure we hit the target when it comes to efficient project communications? How can we avoid the message, send reinforcements we are going to advance, being received as, send three and four pence we are going to a dance!?
An effective project leader needs to be a good communicator and like leadership the way we deliver our message needs to work for the situation we find ourselves in. We also need to think carefully about our desired outcome, our audience, the methods of communication that are available to us and the timing of our messaging. I once found myself being asked to send a letter rather than an email!! My instinct was to push back, but that was a battle I couldn’t win. Best to accept that this person required information to be communicated in a particular way. I conformed and reaped the rewards with a relationship that delivered results. You need to adapt to your customers’ needs, a telephone call, an MS Teams / Zoom / Google Meet… call (camera off or on?) or do they prefer an email or a DM? They might even want you to come to their office and meet in person! Understanding the how of communications is an important step to effective dialogue.
What about the when? You are on the train merrily chugging down the track for your weekend away and the train slows to a halt unexpectedly. To start with you are fine, after all your risk analysis showed that only 89% of UK trains arrive on time (made up statistic!) so your mitigation measure is to arrive 30 mins before you really need to. All good. Naturally you want to know what has happened, something has changed so your plan needs updating. Five, 10, 15 minutes pass and no announcement, you start getting agitated. You need input, your plan needs updating. An early acknowledgement of the delay and commitment to update soon would have sufficed. The timing of customer communications needs careful consideration and experience can be a factor. It is, however, just as simple as asking. Talk to your customer, what do they need / want to know and when. What events need an immediate call? Most importantly don’t leave anyone you work with in the dark, if you haven’t been in contact with your customer for a couple of weeks then you ought to do that now.
I wouldn’t advocate style over substance but the way you package your customer communications will serve as an important indicator to your professional persona. The situation will largely dictate your style, a dynamic young AI start-up will arguably need a different style from a global ‘blue chip’ behemoth. Judge the situation, your audience, the output you desire and craft your message carefully using an appropriate style. And at the risk of being branded a pedant, or even worse having this blog returned to me with all the spelling and grammar errors highlighted, getting spelling and grammar correct and eradicating typing errors is important. The Amstrad PCW 9512 that I had in the late 80’s had a fabulous spelling and grammar checker, so there are no excuses!
Given the considerable reduction in face-to-face meetings there is one aspect of communication style that is now increasingly important and that is how we say things. Google tells me that 10% of conflict is due to a difference of opinion and 90% is due to delivery and tone of voice. Example (stern voice), ‘I need you to get the PID for the Network project sorted today, no excuses just get it done!’ or (calm soothing voice), ‘we need to have a chat about the Network project PID, it needs to be done today. I know you are busy so let’s talk about how we can prioritise your work to give you the best chance of finishing today.’
In summary, communicate with your customers never leave them in the dark, even saying that nothing has changed is valuable. In doing so you need to consider the situation you are in, the desired output, what you need to say, when to say it and how you will deliver the message. Remember the well-worn, but still relevant, George Bernard Shaw quote, ‘the single biggest issue with communications is the illusion that it has taken place’ So always check understanding, you need reinforcements not 3 and 4 pence!
In case you don’t know about Alex the parrot, let me introduce you to him. Alex is/was (unfortunately he is no longer with us) considered one of the most articulate animals to interact with humans. Alex developed a considerable vocabulary and was, amongst other things, able to answer questions about the name and colour of objects. This is pretty impressive, but perhaps not out of the ordinary given there are monkeys, dogs, seals and other mammals that have similarly mastered language skills. What makes Alex more interesting is that he was the first known animal that formed his own question.
Once he had mastered the primary colours, he was shown his reflection in a mirror and asked what colour he was. That’s quite a breakthrough, no longer is he showing willingness to “talk” for a food reward, this was a parrot wanting to use language to enquire and learn more.
The point is that one of the key attributes of the best staff is their interest in development and learning. In other words they are ceaselessly asking questions. Alex stands out amongst all the other talking animals in that he wanted to use his language skills to understand what the name of his colour was. (Makes you wonder if he wasn’t a bit disappointed to be grey given the wide pallet of colours that other parrots enjoy?).
Since the arrival of AI chat bots – with Chat GPT that wrote a previous blog for us – the end game appears in sight for those of us who thought that we were employed on the basis of being able to answer questions. Whilst at times we are expected to know the answers to do our jobs, the arrival of software with the power to understand natural language questions and provide uniquely crafted and increasingly better responses is going to reduce the premium given to roles requiring expertise or analysis. One of the vital skills in a post AI chat bot world has to be knowing what the right questions to ask are. This like any other skill, is one that requires practise. Making time to consciously reflect on the situation we find ourselves in and find the right questions to ask in order to resolve problems or exploit opportunities will be what we need in a modern workforce. Anyone with these skills might also be the more interesting people to share time with too! So, returning to the issue posed by the headline on this article and asking whether which is better: questions or answers, I would contend that whilst we can’t ignore the power of knowing the answer, in the long term those who understand the power of asking a question will be more successful.
Rahima BhattiNewsEngagement, staff, surveyComments Off on NEWS – Delt Partners with Reliance Cyber to Offer Industry-leading Cybersecurity Services to the Public Sector
Delt Partners with Reliance Cyber to Offer Industry-leading Cybersecurity Services to the Public Sector
Delt Shared Services and Reliance Cyber have partnered to provide industry-leading managed security services to public sector organisations.
The partnership with Reliance Cyber aims to provide an ‘always on’ security approach that will strengthen the defences of public sector organisations and safeguard them against the increasing number and complexity of cyber-attacks.
With the increasing number of attacks on the public sector, comprehensive cyber security is vitally important. In August 2022, 36 NHS organisations were impacted by a severe cyber-attack that had significant and long-lasting effects. Incidents like the attack on the NHS are costly, time-consuming, and disruptive. Such attacks, highlight the need for public sector organisations to have comprehensive cybersecurity defences in place.
Delt’s partnership with Reliance Cyber will provide public sector customers with a fully managed security service which includes 24/7, 365-day-a-year monitoring, detection, and response, mitigating their risk of cyberattacks. This partnership is a significant milestone in the expansion of Delt’s capabilities and is a direct response to the market’s need for increased resilience against cyber threats.
Giles Letheren CEO of Delt, expressed his delight at the collaboration, saying, ” We are committed to always providing our customers with the highest level of service, working with Reliance Cyber enables us to further meet this objective. Letheren went on to say, “The partnership provides a top-level security service that supports and responds to the real threats facing public sector organisations. ”
Rob Walton, Chief Revenue Officer at Reliance Cyber, added, “We are proud to work with Delt in protecting public sector organisations from the mounting threat of cyberattacks. Our team of experts is dedicated to providing best-in-class security, and we look forward to collaborating with Delt to further secure their customers.”
The Delt and Reliance Cyber partnership is set to enhance the cybersecurity of public sector organisations and provide Delt’s customers with peace of mind. Delt believes that its clients should feel confident that they are protected by the best possible security service in the market. With Reliance Cyber’s expertise and experience in advanced cyber threats, there is confidence that this partnership will provide customers with the highest level of protection. By working together, this partnership will help clients mitigate their risks, stay ahead of emerging threats, and focus on their core operations with the knowledge that their critical assets and data are secure.
The challenge of the unknown, being asked to develop a new service line, or take over an area of the business that I have had previous exposure to is always an exciting but scary journey.
I have been privileged in my professional career to be given the opportunities to develop new services, new customers, and new people. Of late this has been focussed specifically on developing new services to new and existing customers. Whilst daunting, it’s not something we at Delt shy away from, as we have a collective passion to deliver successful outcomes for our customers and partner organisations.
Our latest venture has been the introduction and integration of Estates Management Services, and now a year in I’m confident to say that there has been a successful transition of the services and significant improvements to our customers. Who, in turn, have a better environment for their service users. Is it easy? No! But with the right mindset, risk appetite and positive can-do attitude we have steered the turbulent waters of turning a service around.
We have always had a great track record of helping our staff to grow beyond their existing roles, and supported them as their personal aspirations are realised. It’s only one small step to take those personal aspirations and use these to define and drive service improvement, be this at a senior strategic level, or on the ground teams. By selling the vision, of the future service outcomes, and then supporting the whole team on the journey we can grow from the services seeded by customers. Those customers who want to see improvements but have completing priorities with their own primary service needs, to freeing already performing teams to be the best they can.
For me, personally, this summer has been emotionally challenging as I was given the opportunity to take a team from one of our education customers and improve the delivery of the service, ultimately to improve the learning experience of some of our communities most vulnerable and challenged pupils. The areas requiring attention were so diverse it was difficult to know where to start, but having those challenging conversations with our customers allowed us to identify the areas which were causing them the greatest challenges and, at least, provided areas of focus.
Collectively we developed a plan of action which was shared, and then we simply started at the beginning and worked though the defined tasks, overcoming obstacles as we went. Being able to clearly lead at times and knowing when to step back and let others take the helm helped to form bonds and gave aspiring leaders the opportunity to shine. Providing ongoing communication was key to successful delivery. From co-ordinating contractors, feeding back to stakeholders and sharing the success with the internal teams. It’s been a long time since I have done physical work but even that was required, on occasion, to support and build the team, walking a mile in their shoes gave me a valuable insight into their challenges and how I can help to overcome those with them.
Ultimately, we made a promise to our customers, and we delivered on that promise, at the same time forming new relationships and strengthening existing bonds. Whilst exhausting, it has been one of the most rewarding summers that I have had in any workplace.
Do you currently feel outside of your comfort zone? If the answer is yes, then you’re not alone. If the answer is no, then you’re missing an opportunity to grow, and I hope that this short story, about a recent experience of mine will encourage you to seek opportunities to better yourself both personally and professionally.
Public speaking to large crowds of people has never been something I ever felt any good at and it’s something I have been largely able to avoid throughout my career. After all, who wants to put themselves into a position where they feel out of their depth and cause themselves unnecessary stress and anxiety? However, over the years I have realised that confronting these things head on by operating outside your comfort zone is a critical component to personal growth.
So, I finally did something about my public speaking challenge thanks to some advice from a colleague [Jane White] and, a few months ago, joined Toastmasters International which is a US headquartered, non-profit educational organisation that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking, and leadership. I joined the club in Plymouth and as part of the educational pathway, I have been challenged to speak to audiences on various topics.
My first speech was called “I am what I am” and is based on a quote from Charlie Chaplin:
“I am what I am: an individual, unique and different, with a lineal history of ancestral promptings and urgings; a history of dreams, desires, and of special experiences, all of which I am the sum total.”
The pathway and club provide a safe environment to learn and prepare for my first speech. But, even so, as the days counted down to the big day, I felt the pressure building and had to spend time in the evenings and weekends to prepare for this inaugural speech. I have to admit there were times when I thought about delaying it as I was too busy at work and I would be better resourced to do it in 4 weeks. Thankfully, I kept to the mission and set myself some small goals, creating a plan taking me up to the day of the speech. I found that this really helped and each time I met the goal I felt an achievement which gave me the motivation to reach the next goal and so on.
Writing the content was the easy part; reflecting on whether it was DNA, life experience or both which made me who I am today. Having done some research, I concluded there is no easy answer and therefore felt that it was a combination of both. I touched on my humour which I know I got from my father, he was a funny man, and like me enjoyed the “work hard, play hard” motto. At the end of it all I really enjoyed writing because it came from a place of interest and desire to better myself.
After plenty of practice the night finally arrived, and I had to deliver this first public speech to a virtual audience, hearing the words “ready when you are”. There was almost a moment of “oh no” but the robot switched on and I went and delivered my talk. Throughout the speech I continually focused on body language, facial expressions, vocal tone as well as remembering my cues which were on a little cheat sheet stuck to my screen (the benefit of virtual presenting!).
On finishing the speech, I felt like I had been on an emotional rollercoaster and I felt shattered later that evening but also elated after a real humbling amount of positive feedback from the evaluator. I am now planning my second speech, so if anyone has any ideas for my next topic do let me know.
Why am I bothering writing this? Well, it’s certainly not to bore you. I hope to inspire and encourage you to push yourself out of your comfort zone. I have always been an advocate for the saying “you reap what you sow” and opportunities rarely land on laps, so seek out those opportunities and don’t give up. I am still in the ‘sow’ stage but hope, one day, to be able to stand on stage in front of a large audience and achieve my long-term goal. Hard work does pay off and I encourage you to go and grab any opportunities out there for self-betterment and above all else – pride!
Rahima BhattiBlogComments Off on Mental Health – a journey not a destination
Mental Health – a journey not a destination
Mental Health Recovery – it’s a journey not a destination. At least that’s how I have come to view my own experience.
I’d love to tell you that I am on the road to recovery and whilst I can see the end it isn’t a finite chequered flag of success. It’s filling my car with all the necessary paraphernalia to keep it running smoothly and knowing what those things are. Sure, there are going to be bumps, the odd breakdown but in the end, I keep moving forward. And that’s all anyone can do.
My battle with anxiety started when I was around 10 years old. 20+ years on and I’ve collected up the titles of Anxiety, PTSD, Depression, Seasonal Anxiety and Post-Natal Depression. Gulp! Typing it out doesn’t sit too comfortably to be honest so this isn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever written.
Ironic isn’t it? My job is to tell the stories about the amazing people and work Delt [and it’s staff] does yet writing my own story feels overwhelming, vulnerable and, if I’m honest, sets off my little anxiety chimp who is screaming at me ‘but what if everyone hates it!?’
Deep breath, here goes…
This post, whilst fully intending to raise awareness of the barriers of Mental Health and the difficulties in talking about it. I’m also writing it as an open thank you to all those who have and continue to support me – including Delt.
I was lucky enough to be given access to crucial Mental Health services, Plymouth is pretty well resourced compared to some parts of the country. When I had my son, I was put on a regular visiting programme through my Health Visitor which meant she saw me weekly (something most mums would never have and not at all during Covid). Alongside that I was referred to Perinatal and CAMHS/IMHT who equally supported me through my PTSD and Post-Natal Depression.
Three years on, and I have since accessed additional therapy, worked on self-educating myself on what is good and bad for my MH. What makes the anxiety more bearable (if that’s possible) and avoiding things that simply make it skyrocket. Of course, that is easier said than done in some cases. Because the reality of children is that they manifest a whole other version of your anxieties. Everything I learnt; all the coping mechanisms I skilfully deployed pre-child became obsolete. Useless. I had to start again.
Amongst all of that, something compelled me to find a new job. I needed stability, routine and an opportunity to think about something else. Focus on something other than what was deemed to be ‘wrong’ with me and stop allowing it to weigh me down. It pushed me out of my comfort zone but into a place that was somewhat familiar to me. I always enjoyed working before Maternity Leave, but it felt scary this time around.
Yet, with Delt I needn’t be fearful. Delt prioritises employee wellbeing, and it shows. They supported me through a really difficult period of grief – and continue to do so. Their resources are pretty cool too with a 24-hour Employee Assistant Programme, wellbeing portal filled with workouts, healthy recipes, self-help guides and so much more. Alongside that the business has trained Mental Health First Aiders who are an initial point of contact for anyone who may need some guidance on where to go and who to speak to.
I know these things aren’t unusual in modern workplaces, anymore, but the thing with Delt is that they go further. From small gestures to ensure you know that you are appreciated and valued to regular wellness check-ins throughout the pandemic to ensure no one feels isolated.
It’s been a tricky year for many of us but working for an organisation that is not only willing to offer support but cares enough to do it well has been invaluable to me. It’s made coming to work easy, it’s given me the drive I need to keep moving forward for myself and my family.
If you’re struggling, there are places and people who can help please don’t be afraid to reach out. It could change your life!
DevonMind Livewell South West Mental Health Foundation First Response 24/7 helpline for adults living in Plymouth 0800 923 9323 Young People 24/7 helpline for those under 18 living in Plymouth 01752 435122 Samaritans Helpline 116 123
Rahima BhattiBlogComments Off on When You Needed Something Yesterday
When you needed something yesterday
It’s a question we ask often “When do you need that by?” and sometimes it is met with a date in the not-too-distant future and others it is a case of ‘yesterday?’.
To support our customers with the amazing work they have, and continue to do, Delt have become very good at taking a deep breath, asking exactly what they need and getting to work (at sometimes what feels like lightning speed). I’m always impressed to see how quickly the wheels can start spinning when everyone is working towards a collective goal.
That was exactly what happened when the request came in from Devon CCG for a way to manage Covid-19 vaccination bookings for thousands of front-line key workers. This came with a couple of caveats,
It needed to be ready and live within 3 days to support the rapid roll out of the first vaccination doses.
It had to be relatively budget friendly.
“An easy one then?” from me feeling slightly nervous but followed by getting stuck straight in. This ended up leading into a very rewarding piece of work and an incredible collaborative team effort mainly done through a MS Teams chat simply titled “Help!” and a lot of virtual meetings and cups of coffee.
The first challenge was identifying what tool could could provide the best solution and be up and running – fast! Luckily, I had done a bit of work earlier in the year, for the customer, supporting their Flu Vaccine programme for staff. We had used the Microsoft Bookings tools for this, so that seemed like a good place to start.
Nothing is ever that easy though, right? The spanner in the works was that this was for members of the public and coordinated across multiple hospitals who all had different requirements for the information they got sent and when they needed it. We settled on expanding the functionality of the Booking tool with the Power Automate tool. As both of these were available within their existing Microsoft subscriptions it simply meant reusing what was already available. Big win all round!
This led to many hours of working with their Digital Team to get the flows and data export that was needed. As anyone who has developed in this way before, and by that, I mean fast and with constantly changing requirements, you will appreciate that it is an emotional roller coaster. There is nothing quite like spending ages trying to get a flow or bit of code to work to get that final wonderful movie moment where you see the words Test Successful on the screen.
In the end, I am proud to say, that we produced a solid booking system with integrated reporting that was up and running in just 2 days; and ready to go live in 3. By the 4th day hundreds of people had used it!
I talk to a lot of people in my role about the power of the tools available to them and being able to use them in different ways, but it was great to get stuck in and utilise them to have real impact during such an important time. I would also admit that I quite enjoyed the pressure of it and having to problem solve quickly, I guess that’s part of the reason I volunteer as a policer office in my spare time… but that’s a story for another day!
Helen Day-Cocking; Product Manager, Modern Workplace
Some years ago, I was working for somebody who briefly had a firm view that we should deliver ‘World Class’ services. That’s an aspiration with which I was very comfortable. Unfortunately, commercial reality began to bite and soon our direction changed. We couldn’t afford ‘World Class’ any more so set our sights on a lower target. I was less happy with this compromise.
As I’ve said several times in past blogs, I’m not very good at lots of things. This is a step up from being incompetent at everything, but quite a long way short of being good at something, let alone world class at it. (Yes, I was once able to escape from handcuffs faster than anyone else in the world, but that’s not the marketable skill in 2021). However, my general lack of brilliance at everything doesn’t mean that I don’t retain an aspiration to be better at things. Whilst aspiring to be amongst the best may lead me to a lifetime of disappointment, I’m much happier with that than the recognition that we can’t afford or don’t aspire to be great.
When we agreed to put Delt through Best Companies Accreditation (perhaps one day leading to a Sunday Times Top 100 employer award) it was because of this desire to be as good as we possibly could be. And to become great at anything, you usually have to be able to measure it. Sir Lewis Hamilton is not the Formula One World Champion because he thinks he drives pretty fast, but because he has been tested and measured. In order for Delt to be a great place to work, we need to measure ourselves.
Our first experience of Best Companies has been fantastic. We’ve got a very good result but perhaps more importantly, an understanding of what we can change to become better than very good. Next step is outstanding, then we aim for World Class. Why wouldn’t everyone want to be a World Class best place to work? It’s not about how much you pay people; it’s about how they feel about what you do and how you do it. This is reflected in what they do for you and, then, in how your customers and potential customers feel about your service. Those feelings directly translate to customer satisfaction, increased revenue and profitability.
Last Friday we were told that not only had we been assessed as a ‘very good’ company to work for but that our score was high enough to get us into the top 20 Business Services suppliers in the whole UK. We didn’t see that coming. Given that our organisation is wholly committed to ‘helping people do amazing things‘ (and that includes our own staff) perhaps we should have done.
In more than 30 years of technology leadership and with a good handful of awards, I don’t think I have ever been so proud.
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