Meet Rebecca, Policy & Strategy

Day in the life of a Policy & Strategy trainee

Hi, I’m Rebecca and I’m in my final placement of the Policy & Strategy (P&S) GMTS in the national Nursing Workforce Policy team at NHS England.

I’ve found the Scheme challenging but enjoyable and I’ve learned a lot. Everyone’s placements are different but here’s what a day currently looks like for me.

8:30am: Arrive at the office, make breakfast, read emails

9am: Pull together my messy notes into slides – about the stakeholders and how we’ll engage for a new project

10am: Meeting about how to communicate survey findings and progress on actions to stakeholders, and how to identify and prioritise actions

10:45am: Coffee and add new actions to to-do list

11am: Meeting with regional teams to review funding bids from trusts and hear about trusts’ context-specific challenges. If common themes emerge from different regions, we consider what we can do to further support from a national perspective

12pm: Write up and circulate notes from a meeting yesterday

1pm: Lunch with other P&S trainees

2pm: Emails and add actions to to-do list

2:30pm: Coffee chat with my buddy about how she’s finding her placements and studies

3pm: Chair a GMTS working group meeting. These groups do some great work to improve trainee experience e.g. refreshing the study leave policy and starting EDI networks. They’re an opportunity to meet other trainees and try chairing in a friendly environment

4pm: Meeting for a new project where we agree timelines and assign responsibilities. They’ve just completed a literature review and I’m joining to help create the some of the policy outputs. This requires researching similar international projects and the stances of the main UK political parties ahead of next year’s election. Some of our projects get a lot of political attention and could be stopped or ramped up depending on a politician’s stance

4:45pm: Emails and update to-do list for tomorrow

5pm: Study! On P&S, we do a Health Policy Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) as part of the GMTS. This week’s reading is on payment mechanisms and previous NHS payment reform. It’s a bit dry but starting to make sense and the lecturer throws in some truly terrible puns.

6pm: Head home

7pm: Study more

8:30pm: Done for the day and ready for dinner