Monthnote: June 2026
Some mid-year notes. I’ve been taking a break from writing during what has been a busy, more family-focused time so far in 2026.
As an upfront reflection, there was a time when I would have worried more about not posting anything on my blog for 6 months. But I’m increasingly comfortable with taking a step back when I need to. Balancing time and priorities is hard, and it’s okay not to work in the open for a while …I’m not sure too many people ever say that part out loud – “always do what you need to do.”
Work highlights
It’s been a positive year so far, continuing work as part of our leadership team at TPXimpact. We have lots of new interesting client work in both government and health spaces. As a result, we’re growing our design teams again. So this means welcoming lots of new faces and a continued focus on hiring. After lots of hard work, we’re now back to being one of the largest specialist design teams in any public sector consultancy business.
I’ve been in different versions of my Chief Design Officer role now for 9 years, and our design practices are at a great point of maturity, especially with the experienced design leaders leading our different practice areas – all of whom have been with us for several years.
As another reflection, I believe more strongly than ever that you get back the investment that you make in your design practices and leadership. In this context, I mean the support, space and permissions you create for design communities to meet and collaborate outside of the pressures and demands of client work – which is the norm in a busy consultancy business. I still don’t think that happens in the same way, or with the same levels of investment, in most other places.
On a personal work note, I’ve enjoyed being closer to some client work since late last year, initially stepping in to lead Discovery work focused on the transformation of the UK’s digital offer for business. This is work that sits within the Department for Business and Trade, but is also linked into strategic product and service priorities at GDS/DSIT.
More recently, it’s been great helping to set up an expanded team for Alpha, allowing me to step back into my more usual strategic advisory (exex sponsor) role.
Better by Design
June’s work highlight was a trip to Ireland, where I was invited to be a keynote at the Better by Design conference. The event, hosted at the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin, focused on the launch of new government design guidelines, with a day of keynotes and panel discussions. It was a privilege to take part in, reminding me of the type of early optimism and momentum I felt being around digital government in the UK for the first time in 2013.
It was impressive to see Ireland’s design principles and the new supporting guidelines, all of which, from what I understand, have been developed and championed on relatively limited resources up until now. What followed were some really good conversations, and I particularly loved the thread and focus on ‘life events’ throughout – this took me back to some of our early FutureGov work, which I reflected on in my keynote.
Finally, it was great to hear supporting pledges for new ways of working needed to support future service transformation. These were made by several senior leaders and Ministers attending. I want to call out Trevor Vaugh, Public Service Design Lead, who kindly invited me to speak. Trevor and his team have been key in making this all happen. It was also great to meet Charlotte Barker, whose team at the Institute of Designers in Ireland have been key partners – Charlotte, chairing and hosting the day brilliantly.
It was a quick 48-hour trip over; however, this was my first time in Dublin and the Republic of Ireland, so it was great to visit. I managed to see a few sights by taking an early (rainy) morning walk the day after the conference, before I had to head off to fly back to Manchester.
CampDigital
Another recent highlight I wanted to mention, building on the theme of conferences, was making it back to CampDigital in May. This is now a long-standing event organised by the team at Nexer. I think, after talking to Chris Bush, this was my first time at CampDigital since speaking there in 2015, when it was still held at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum. I remember that talk well because the government had just called a general election. As a Civil Servant at the time, I had to rework most of the talk at the last minute to comply with pre-election restrictions.
The 2026 edition of CampDigital was a really great day, and it was lovely to catch up with so many friends in between conference sessions. I think it was also my first time back at the Northern Royal College of Music since the NUX conferences that used to be hosted there. It took me back to probably one of the most important talks I’ve ever given at the NUX3 conference in 2014. That talk on that big stage under the lights gave my profile and career in digital government an enormous boost at the time, just as I was moving into a new leadership role, and before eventually becoming the permanent Head of Design at DWP.
Football and the joy of a World Cup
I’ve been enjoying watching the World Cup this month with my now 8-year-old son. There is a real joy in seeing him experiencing the tournament for the first time. He’s become seriously interested in football at just the right moment, and we’re mostly enjoying the morning highlights with many games scheduled late at night and into the early hours. Alongside this, other parts of his first World Cup experience are taking me back to my own childhood, like the joy of collecting Panini World Cup stickers – my first sticker album was from Italia ’90, which is still in the loft somewhere.
All of this, until potential England heartbreak, is making up for his first full season of being a Tottenham Hotspur fan. It has been the most stressful season to support Spurs since I started following football more seriously at about the same age. We avoided relegation on the very last day of the season, which is not an experience I want either of us to go through again!
What I’ve been reading
To keep track, a very quick round-up of some reading so far this year. Starting with fiction. I discovered a new author, Sarah Hall, and have read her most recent book: Helm, as well as one of her previous books: Hawswater. Both are excellent. I also read Villager by Tom Cox, which I enjoyed, although it took some time to fully get into and finish.
I’m currently reading The Midnight Train, the latest by Matt Haig, whose writing I always like. And earlier in the year I enjoyed a few other lighter reads on our family holiday at Easter – The Long Shoe by Bob Mortimer, and The Impossible Fortune, the latest Thursday Murder Club book in the series, by Richard Osman. I make no apologies for such light reading this year – sometimes it’s just what I need to switch off after work, or on holiday.
With more work-related and non-fiction reading, back in February, I finished reading The Brain at Rest by Dr Joseph Jabelli.
I also listened to a very interesting audiobook in April: Your Mind, Your Rules by Marissa Peer. This is broadly about overcoming limiting beliefs, or changing the story – something I think about a lot as part of how design works in the context of transformation work.
Walking and upcoming summer holidays
With the busyness of June, I haven’t managed any walking this month. However, I am making progress on my goal of completing all 214 Wainwrights in the UK Lake District. April and May tend to be when the best weather window opens each year, and it’s also when I have the most free weekends before the summer months start to get busier at home.
I’m currently at 159/214 fell or mountain summits completed, and in May I completed the last of the Central Fells and the Northern Fells while off work for a few days. That’s four of Alfred Wainwright’s seven original books now fully complete. But there are plenty of adventures still to come and plenty of hikes left if I’m going to complete them all in the next few years.
I’m particularly proud of some of the recent walks I’ve completed – some with more scrambling as my confidence has grown. While I know my limits, this is still not the most natural of things for me. I honestly don’t have the best head for heights, and I also struggle with balance sometimes due to my hearing issues.
Looking ahead, we’re a month away from the school summer holidays, so I can see my diary filling up until our next family trip away to North Cornwall. I’m hoping for some dry, maybe even warm, weather while we’re there. Just nothing like the heatwave the UK suffered through together last week. That heat really tested my home working set-up to the maximum. I just about melted in my upstairs box room office with its small window. And the trains didn’t run reliably enough to attempt travelling to any of our air-conditioned offices.
See you again soon.
This is my blog where I’ve been writing for 20 years. You can follow all of my posts by subscribing to this RSS feed. You can also find me on Bluesky and LinkedIn.