Podcasts about eu exit

In this episode of The Crafty Show, Toby Hornett, Head of Community at Crafty Counsel, sits down with Mel Nebhrajani CB, Director General for Litigation with Justice and Security at GLD.Mel, who previously served as Legal Director at the Department for Health and Social Care, led the department's legal response to the pandemic while also navigating EU Exit challenges. She is now Director General for Litigation with Justice and Security at GLD In this episode, Mel shares insights from her experiences so far, as well as the lessons she has learned from her role in both the response and inquiry.Join the Crafty Counsel Community to discover a space where in-house legal professionals can find joy, insight, and connection. Register for the Crafty Counsel Community for free.

President Trump seems poised for another primary blowout, and the AFD opposition party is arguing that Germany should follow the UK out of the EU.

Meta's Quest 3 headset promising improved AR performance, OpenAI's potential exit from Europe over new AI regulations, the impact of Twitter's algorithm on public opinion and democratic engagement, and a new pre-trained transformer model called BiomedGPT that could improve healthcare outcomes. Contact:  sergi@earkind.com Timestamps: 00:34 Introduction 01:37 Quest 3 hands-on confirms Meta's building a ‘far thinner and lighter' headset 03:02 OpenAI Could Quit Europe Over New AI Rules, CEO Sam Altman Warns 05:01 State of GPT 06:01 Fake sponsor 08:13 Twitter's Algorithm: Amplifying Anger, Animosity, and Affective Polarization 10:00 BiomedGPT: A Unified and Generalist Biomedical Generative Pre-trained Transformer for Vision, Language, and Multimodal Tasks 11:32 Large Language Models as Tool Makers

When bombs started falling on Ukraine in February 24, fellow Europeans were fast to open their homes to provide shelter to Ukrainians. The EU was fast to react, too. On 4 March, 22, it pulled the so-called Temporary Protection Directive, for the very first time. One year into the war, the Directive, that had proved to be effective, was prolonged for another year. Nevertheless, the question remains: What can be ways out of the Temporary Protection Directive? ICMPD Senior Policy Advisor, Asylum Expert Martin Wagner, reflects back and looks into the future of Temporary Protection Directive and why it's important to start to look for exit strategies now.  

Join us as former UK Minister of State Lord David Frost reflects on the political and economic situation of Britain two years after the country's exit from the European Union. He'll also discuss how conservative politics need to develop in Britain if the opportunities of Brexit are to be fully exploited as well as Britain's global role, including how it should position itself in the face of the challenge from China.Lord Frost began life as a professional diplomat but entered the political fray as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Chief Negotiator for EU Exit and subsequently as Minister in his government responsible for EU relations. He delivered Britain's exit from the EU against the odds and negotiated the Trade & Cooperation Agreement with the EU in 2020. He resigned from the government last December to protest plans to introduce a further coronavirus lockdown. Lord Frost is now a writer, commentator, and Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange, the UK's leading think tank. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Molly and Jason catch up on the big news stories from the weekend. First, we talk about the Joe Rogan & Spotify saga (1:51) and size up the odds of Rogan finishing out his contract with Spotify (15:41). Then, we cover Facebook warning about pulling Instagram and Facebook out of Europe due to privacy regulations (29:54). Next, we cover GoFundMe's decision to pull funding for the “Freedom Convoy” protesters in Canada. We wrap with a discussion of the WSJ's reporting that Amazon is considering acquiring Peloton (57:26). 0:00 Jason and Molly intro today's topics! 1:51 Daniel Ek's comments on the newest Joe Rogan controversy: Is Spotify a publisher? Why or why not? 14:26 Ourcrowd - Check out the deal of the week at https://ourcrowd.com/twist 15:41 Jason predicts the endgame for Joe Rogan and Spotify, Molly and Jason break down the odds of Rogan finishing out his contract with Spotify 27:45 Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist 29:03 Wrapping on Rogan/Spotify 29:54 $FB warns the SEC and shareholders they could pull out of Europe pending new privacy laws, how Meta could win over public sentiment 39:29 Superside - Go to https://superside.com/twist to get $3000 or more in credits when you sign up for an annual subscription 40:51 Meta's need for a “coalition,” does $FB need new leadership? Plus, Jason fixes Meta's PR mess 45:52 GoFundMe's controversial decision re: Canadian truckers “Freedom Convoy” 57:26 Amazon rumored to be looking at a potential Peloton acquisition, Jason takes credit for a hot take FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Molly and Jason catch up on the big news stories from the weekend. First, we talk about the Joe Rogan & Spotify saga (1:51) and size up the odds of Rogan finishing out his contract with Spotify (15:41). Then, we cover Facebook warning about pulling Instagram and Facebook out of Europe due to privacy regulations (29:54). Next, we cover GoFundMe's decision to pull funding for the “Freedom Convoy” protesters in Canada. We wrap with a discussion of the WSJ's reporting that Amazon is considering acquiring Peloton (57:26).

Welcome to the Living With SMA Podcast.  Today SMA UK Host Steve Jones talks to Eden Kent and Josh Wintersgill about SMA Type 3.If you prefer to watch this episode, please visit our YouTube channel here.Steve is 28 years of age, lives in London and currently works for the UK Government in the Civil Service, where he has worked in a number of different roles from EU Exit to Code Response and is now involved in the HMRC.  Steve also has SMA Type 3. Eden Kent is 21 years of age and is in her final year at the University of East Anglia  studying Psychology and also has SMA Type3.Josh Wintersgill is 28 years old, he was diagnosed with SMA at 18 months old.   Josh graduated University in 2015 after studying IT, Management and Business.  He worked for a couple of years in cyber security then founded Able Move 3 years ago, working closely within the aviation and travel industries.  Each of our guests today shares their own  personal views and individual stories.If you do have any questions for Steve, Eden, Josh and the team at SMA UK please email us at connections@smauk.org.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/SMA_UK_Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpinalMuscul...Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sma_uk

We speak to CTSI's newly appointed Chief Executive, John Herriman, about the challenges facing the institute and the wider profession, including the long-term effects of Covid-19, the impact of EU Exit and the need to push for more diversity and inclusion. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Should nationalists win the Scottish parliamentary elections, "Scoxit" could ensue – out of the UK and back into the EU

In Episode 5, the final in this series, we hear from a Gloucestershire company celebrating 25 years - ProCook. The kitchenware makers and retailers export many products to Germany and France - and we find out how they are navigating the EU Exit with this in mind. The Founder, Daniel O'Neill, discusses the challenges and solutions with out host Sophia Franklin, as they look to use the EU Exit as an opportunity to grow within Europe in a way they hadn't planned to before. To access free support from your local Growth Hub on EU Exit, please visit:Gloucestershire: https://www.thegrowthhub.biz/euexitSwindon & Wiltshire: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/support/EUExitWest of England: https://www.wearegrowth.co.uk Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 4 we're diving into the insurance sector with another of our experts, as we hear how Alastair James Insurance Brokers are navigating the EU Exit. The Cheltenham based broker have been working with their clients to adapt to life outside of the EU, by updating insurance policies and assessing the risks. Founder, Alastair Roberts, spoke with our host Sophia Franklin about how work has changed for the company, how the insurance world has evolved and his advice for clients. To access free support from your local Growth Hub on EU Exit, please visit:Gloucestershire: https://www.thegrowthhub.biz/euexitSwindon & Wiltshire: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/support/EUExitWest of England: https://www.wearegrowth.co.uk Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 3 it's back to the experts, as we hear how BPE Solicitors are navigating the EU Exit in the legal sector. The Cheltenham based lawyers have kept up with the changes and adapted how they work as the landscape changed, whether that's advising clients on paperwork at borders - or helping them to move their business overseas. Dale Williams, partner at the firm, is an expert in corporate & restructuring law, as well as insolvency. Our host Sophia Franklin speaks with him about how work has changed for the legal sector and the advice he gives to his clients. To access free support from your local Growth Hub on EU Exit, please visit:Gloucestershire: https://www.thegrowthhub.biz/euexitSwindon & Wiltshire: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/support/EUExitWest of England: https://www.wearegrowth.co.uk Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 2 we hear from one of Gloucestershire's largest employers Renishaw, about how the British engineering firm are navigating the EU Exit. With the majority of their products exported across the world - particularly into Europe - the company has taken huge steps to manage life outside of the European Union.Our host Sophia Franklin speaks with three key employees at Renishaw who have been instrumental in the firm's transition to this new world - Patrick Tampkins who is responsible for compliance issues, Shaun Crosbee who is highly experienced in issues relating to export transactions and Dave Wallace who is Director of Group Operations.To access free support from your local Growth Hub on EU Exit, please visit:Gloucestershire: https://www.thegrowthhub.biz/euexitSwindon & Wiltshire: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/support/EUExitWest of England: https://www.wearegrowth.co.uk Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 1 we hear how Randall & Payne are navigating the EU Exit. The Cheltenham based chartered accountants have changed how they work with clients as a result of the EU Exit - from business advice to tax services.Rob Case, partner at the firm, overseas the tax department and its specialisms, with his own being VAT. Our host Sophia Franklin speaks with him about adapting in this new world and his advice for businesses. To access free support from your local Growth Hub on EU Exit, please visit:Gloucestershire: https://www.thegrowthhub.biz/euexitSwindon & Wiltshire: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/support/EUExitWest of England: https://www.wearegrowth.co.uk Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

While the EU Exit has had little effect at farm level so far, there are wider implications for the industry still to come, including changes to policy and farm support. Sarah Millar, Director of External Affairs for QMS highlights the opportunities she feels this presents to the agriculture industry. Sarah is joined on the podcast with farmer and director of Crafty Maltsters Ltd, Alison Milne.Listen now to hear how Alison has adapted her business to overcome the instability of the commodity market and become more resilient

This week's podcast discusses some of the operational changes post EU Exit and highlights how businesses are adapting. Tom Gibson, Director of Market Development at Quality Meat Scotland is joined by Jill Barber, Head of EU Exit at Scottish Government.

After UK Transition: Working with Chemicals - Episode - 4 - PPP, BPR and Industry voices In this instalment, we  invite two industry voices to discuss changes to Biocidal (BPR) and Plant Protection Product (PPP) regulations and explore the actions they have taken to keep their businesses moving following the end of the UK transition period. It should be noted that the views of any guests on HSE podcasts/recordings do not necessarily reflect those of the HSE or the wider government. Moreover, further website guidance was released in the time following the recording of this podcast. For the most up to date guidance relating to EU Exit, visit www.hse.gov.uk/brexit/chemicals-brexit-guidance.htm or email EU-exitchemicals@hse.gov.uk   Podcast Transcript   Welcome to the HSE podcast with me Mick Ord.  I hope you're well and looking forward to happy and prosperous year. In the past few episodes we've been hearing from some of HSEs and DEFRA's own EU regulatory experts about many of the changes that businesses face, now that the UK has left the European Union, and how they should prepare for it, but for this episode and the next one, it'll be a bit different.   We'll be hearing from the businesses themselves about what the past year has been like for them as they try to plan for life outside of the EU.  The views of people whose businesses are being affected on the ground provide much food for thought and I'm confident that some of the things that they've observed will be ringing true for many listeners to this podcast.  What they say will also hopefully help to steer you in the right direction as you maybe tackle some of the hurdles that they've been negotiating. In today's podcast we'll be hearing from John Mackenzie, the Regulatory Affairs Manager at the long-established chemicals manufacturer Thomas Swan.  They're a family owned and run business with a UK base in Consett in County Durham, directly employing around 170 people with other bases in the USA and China.  Also joining us is James Clovis, MD of London-based Gemini Agriculture – a company which specialises in the supply of agrochemicals to the UK market.  James founded the company five years ago. In this episode I've been talking to John and James mainly about how they‘ve been preparing for the changes in the regulations pertaining to PPP – Plant Protection Products – and BPR - Biocides Products Regulations.  First of all I asked John what it was like for his company navigating the transition period last year. John: In the beginning it was pretty difficult really because there was so little information.  I have to say that one of the immediate impacts of the vote to leave the EU was actually positive for us because the exchange rates changed and we were able to export more because we became more competitive in some markets and so actually it was a help in the beginning but the regulatory burden is going to be massive because of having to deal with two regulatory authorities – ECHA in Europe and HSE in the UK, but navigating it we just had to find whatever information was out there and initially there wasn't much. We've have kept in close touch with the Chemical Industries Association, the CIA and they've been brilliant with keeping us up to date.  We've had regular meetings with them and they've organised meetings with the Government Departments BEIS, (Government department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) Defra, HSE and so on, that's been our main way of navigating it and finding our way through, up until more recently when more information has come out from Government departments.  The impact is mainly going to be dealing with two regulatory authorities like I said.  The regulatory burden is going to be increased in a department where there are only two of us working on regulatory issues.  It's going to mean quite a lot more work for us and therefore more cost.   James: I think John's nailed it there on the regulatory side.  We're quite lucky in Gemini because we primarily sell only in the UK.  I think from an import and export point of view that's where it's going to impact us the most.  A lot of the technical material comes from India and China which we can't manufacture within Europe and within the UK and I think it's going to have a fundamental impact on how we bring products in, you know what processes and what systems we have to work with and also how the parallels go and the extension.  The extension of the active materials for three years is going to be very beneficial in one way.  It kind of gives the UK a bit of longevity in certain products but it's also going to have a delay because ECHA was dealing with a lot of the Annexe I and Annexe II renewals and I think what's going to happen now is that we'll see delays and I think even for generics as well as the multi nationals, we are kind of locked out of those chemicals whether we can access them from a competitive point of view or just from a multinational trying to modify any of their registrations, they're going to be locked out for an extended period of time. Mick: And how can you prepare for something like that? James: Well it's interesting.  I think that from an import/export perspective, I think a lot of people have brought product into the UK whether it's technical material or finished goods.  I think we've seen an increase in product being brought in and stored.  I think we've seen an increase in utilisation of certain Toll Manufacturers, there's an awful lot of those being locked up very early on now.  So I think primarily there's a lot being brought into the country and is sat in warehouses and I think there are other preparations being made, but it's trying to be informed as you possibly can and myself and Gemini – we've spent a lot of time working with forwarders and the importers trying to make sure that any documentation or approvals that they need, have been submitted well in advance.   For Northern Ireland we've applied for an EORI number extension, the X number I believe it is now and so we are trying to do everything we can but again, we don't know all the answers yet so it's trying to prepare as best we can when something pops up, you've got to jump on it as quick as you can. Mick: John what actions have you taken or at least started to take to ensure your products are biocide compliant? John: The main thing we've done, well a couple of things really, but one of the big things is that we've recently transferred – there's a thing called the Article 95 list which is a list of active biocides that are allowed to be used in the EU, and so because we are out of the EU now, we had to transfer our registration on that list over onto our representative in the EU.  Now of course being a small company, we had to use a consultant to do that and of course they don't come cheap, so they are now going to become our representative in the EU working on our behalf and so we are now listed still on the Article 95 list, but with a representative in place rather than have a direct registration ourselves. The other thing we've done though, as a company we've decided as a mitigation against the potential border friction that will no doubt occur, we decided that we would apply for a thing called AEO which is Authorised Economic Operator, something which is much more common in Germany and some other European companies but not so common here.  I think the last count I saw was about 700 companies registered in the UK whereas there are about 10,000 or so in Germany.  Anyway, we did that, it was a lot of work but it means that now we are registered on that scheme, that should help with our paperwork, it should reduce cross border friction between UK and EU, but also within the EU itself so it means that the red tape is cut out to a large extent and means we can deal more directly with our customers in the EU. Mick: And James what about you on that score – what actions have you started to take?  James: What we've basically done is, all our registrations are UK Article 34 registrations, we have a couple of parallel imports as well.  So as it stands most of ours will be compliant to the new system and we won't need to do anything.   I think REACH is a slightly different kettle of fish and I think moving forward it's going to take – it depends how you approach it – I think there's going to be quite a lot of work for certain companies to make sure that all of the intermediates or components are registered in time.  We've started working with the supplier of the intermediates and also the Toll Manufacturers as well to make sure everything is REACH compliant when we know exactly what we need to do going forward for that.   Mick: We'll be touching on REACH in the next episode.  James what about PPP compliancy? James: As I alluded to earlier, all of our products are already registered with CRD/HSE and we expect that there won't be much change going forward to the existing registrations.  Going forward for new registrations though, that's going to be interesting to see if there's much change at all.  One, to the documentation or requirements but also I think, as I mentioned earlier, to see what happens with the delays on the Annexe I, Annexe II renewals.  From actions there's not much we can do now, we are basically sat in a holding pattern for certain products waiting for the protection to come down so we can apply for registrations.   There's not a whole lot on the action side that we need to prepare for. Mick: So it really is the information that you need isn't it?  That's what you're looking for and then you can take your actions.  So far, where have you been getting your information from, John you mentioned about the trade body before.  Do you visit the HSE webpages for example? John: Yes, I have done.  I have to say until recently at least, the HSE webpages weren't terribly helpful, but they've now improved that dramatically.  Recently, I was having a look at them and they've made a big change in the information which is available especially on REACH.  Biocide, it's getting there.  We've also used a lot of other sources too.  I find that the Government websites are pretty good now, there's a lot of information coming up on gov.uk/transition, but the main source for our information has been our trade body the CIA, at least in the initial stages.  Latterly, more like HSE and gov.uk. Mick: That's good to know.  What about you James? James: Very similar to what John's just mentioned.  We do use the CRD/HSE website for updates.  We do also use the Government emails and updates which are sent through as John mentioned.  And again we use the Crop Protection Association and they've disseminated quite a lot of information basically over the last two or three years with most of the changes as well as being involved in a lot of the work. Mick: John, and in fact you too James, where would you go to find more information? James: I don't know about John but I think primarily the internet is the No. 1 source for most of the information we've tried to find, but we've got contacts in CRD as well and without obviously getting anyone in trouble there's a lot of information you can actually request, so just by talking to some of the CRD members, you do get a good feel for the way things are going and they can also relate it back to specifics that you're going though.  So I think direct contact with CRD, the Government and emails. Mick: And you, John? John:  We've got a couple of different sources that we've got subscriptions to that we pay for information from.  Organisations like Chemical Watch, Kerona, (European Regulatory Consultants) people like that have provided us with information as well.  James is absolutely right, the best place is go to the internet and search on Google and ask a question and see what it comes up with.  HSE has been good as well though.  If you have a specific question for them, they've got a helpdesk and I've asked them a few questions over the past couple of years and they've been really helpful actually and pretty prompt in replying. Mick: And what actions would you recommend John for businesses which don't feel prepared? John: If you don't feel prepared, I would advise, go to the Government website, like I said before, gov.uk/transition they have a checklist which will provide you with a series of questions.  It will ask you a question and whether you say yes or no, it will give you different answers and take you different places and checklists to make sure you're covered with everything.  We've done this two or three times where every time you do it again, it comes up with something else.  It might not be related to biocides we are talking about just now, it might be if you are employing European nationals.  One thing that we've found, we've got one or two people from Italy, Spain and France working here and they need to consider the documentation that they need to have in place to continue to work in the UK.  There are grace periods.  I think that the European nationals are allowed up until sometime in June to submit whatever documentation they need, but they still need to do it. Mick: James have you got any handy hints for people listening who feel - Oh blimey, I'm not prepared? James: I think the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is probably the best advice, but don't panic!  I think it depends on the size of the company.  I know big companies who've been scenario planning for years on the impact of Brexit.  From my side what I would say is, try to find out as much information as you can and I think make contact with trade associations – the CPA has done multiple things for our side of the fence, not only discussing things with Government officials and looking at presentations to the Expert Committee on approval process and things like that.  Most trades associations will be on spot with this so I would contact those but I would also talk to other companies.  You'll have competitors, you'll have partners in the industry and try and find out what they're doing.  John: James I really like your reference to the Hitchhikers Guide.  I've got written down here in big, friendly letters – don't panic, the world will not come to an end, the UK will continue to exist, we'll have new circumstances to adapt to and that we will adapt and we will survive, but it will just look different.   Mick: That's a good point to end this interview on John.  John Mackenzie and James Clovis thanks a lot for joining us today that was really, really useful.  In a couple of minutes time, I'll be giving out some really important information not only about the HSE website, but about the HSE's eBulletin service.  If you have a particular question you need answering, email us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.   (Music Interlude) Many, many thanks to John Mackenzie and James Clovis for their time today and for sharing their views on the past few months, their hopes, fears and advice for the future.  I hope you found it useful. There were quite a few mentions in the interview of the HSE website which is being regularly updated with news and information on PPP and BPR not to mention the other regimes which have been affected by the changes.  We've updated our guidance on the chemicals industry – this is available on our website which is linked to the notes on this podcast.  Remember too to subscribe to our e-Bulletin newsletters – you pop your email address into the subscription box which appears on the pages of the website.  And if you want to contact our helpdesk with a question about the new regulations for the chemicals industry then email them at EU-exitchemicals@hse.gov.uk and we'll respond as soon as possible.  Again this email is in the notes which accompany the podcast. We won't actually be saying goodbye to John Mackenzie as he'll be joining us in our next podcast where he'll be discussing – along with another business guest, the changes to CLP, REACH and PiC regulations. The guest in question is Chris Howick, from Inovyn who, according to their website, manufacture a wide range of chemicals that are used as raw materials in almost every industrial process.  They specialise in Chlorvinyls and have sites in the UK and throughout Europe. So join me Mick Ord for what will hopefully be an enlightening and useful discussion with our two industry voices….take care and we'll hopefully catch up with you very soon.

KCSIE 2020 (2021 Post EU Exit) change summaryKeeping Children Safe in Education (2020) was updated on 18th January 2021 to reflect legal changes following Brexit, including guidance on checking the past conduct of individuals who have lived or worked overseas. In this micro-CPD-episode, we discuss those new changes. 

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We hear from CTSI Lead Officer for Food Standards, David Pickering, about the ways in which EU Exit could affect things like labelling, certification and risk in food standards – and whether the arrival of chlorinated chicken in the UK is a realistic possibility, or just media scaremongering. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We hear from CTSI Lead Officer for Intellectual Property, Gavin Terry, who guides us through the roles of entities such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the European Patents Organisation in protecting the intellectual property rights of UK businesses, and assesses the various risks and threats posed by an uncertain post-Brexit future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We hear from CTSI Lead Officer for Travel, Bruce Treloar, who through the key points of the current legislation – specifically the 2018 Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements regulations – and discussed how Brexit could present problems or, in perhaps opportunities, to improve and clarify some of the existing consumer protection mechanisms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We speak to Steph Young, CTSI Lead Officer for Animal Health and Welfare, about what is and isn't likely to change once a new legislative framework comes into force, discussing the risks to animal welfare brought about by changes to financial support for farmers; the new requirements for businesses involved in animal feed; and the implications that arise from losing access to data-sharing and alert systems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We speak to David Mackenzie, CTSI Lead Officer for eCommerce about the salient aspects of consumer law which Brexit may impact, the threats presented by regulatory divergence, and the various ways in which eCommerce cross-cuts with other aspects of trading standards, such as product safety and cross-border access to justice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We hear from Peter Stonely, CTSI Joint Lead Officer for Fair Trading, about the potential risks of an end to harmonised legislation; the opportunities for clarifying and even strengthening fair trading law that Brexit represents; and the potential impact of a new legislative regime on trading standards enforcement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | We hear from Elisabetta Sciallis, Lawyer at the UK European Consumer Centre (UK ECC), about the potential threats EU Exit presents, and what trading standards professionals need to be aware of as the end of the transition period approaches and why the badly needed UK ECC and its role in supporting the public is now in question. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UPDATED JANUARY 2021 | In this introductory episode, Richard Young, Managing Editor of the Journal of Trading Standards, who has been carrying out the interviews with the EU exit experts, talks about some of the themes he's observed in his discussions and talks to host Paul Evans about the large areas of uncertainty that remain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We really managed to create a community of doers. Our people always look at how they can impact the world, how they can impact change.”  - Colombe Cahen-SalvadorIn 2016, Colombe, Laura, and Andrea were devastated by the UK's decision to leave the European Union. Colombe is French, and Andrea and Laura are Italian. For them, the E.U. is a symbol of a more open and global society.In response, the team completely changed their lives to organize. Colombe and Andrea started by creating Volt, a pan-European political party. They were the first to attempt and succeed in building a continent-wide political party. But in doing so they realized the biggest issues of our time weren’t just European issues, they were global issues–climate change, big tech, and the rise of fascism. Action would be meaningless unless the world bands together. Colombe, Andrea, and Laura have been working over the last year on a global campaign movement called NOW! to unite and solve shared global challenges. We talk with them about how they are developing leaders around the world and taking action together.Highlights, inspiration, & key learnings:What brings Colombe, Laura, and Andrea to this work. The need to bridge gaps across the continent and the shared experience of Erasmus.Shifting direction. Making the decision to redefine who their community was built with from local to global. And, inviting members from the original community to stay engaged.Forging a watering hole. A global platform to connect people with varying access to technology.Listening. Creating space to hear community and systems to reflect insights back in tools, resources, and stories.Shared activity. Bringing together volunteers, the most energized members, for weekly community chats, talking about global topics from a local perspective.Call to action. How you can get involved.

This week’s guests Sarah Baker, Senior Strategic Insight Manager Phil Bicknell, Market Intelligence Director David Eudall, Head of Market Specialists (Arable) If you are an arable or livestock farmer this podcast is for you. The guests in this episode of the AHDB podcast share their insight to help you make informed decisions about your business now we have left the EU and move towards the uncertainties created by the arrival of ELMS payments. Later this month, we'll also be looking at how our exit from the EU is shaping farming's future in a number of webinars, whether that's emerging agricultural policy, trade prospects, or the new opportunities that British farming will have – keep an eye on our events page for all the details. Useful links EU exit: food, farming and agriculture (https://ahdb.org.uk/eu-exit) The latest industry news, insights, government guidance and technical advice. Business Impact Calculator (https://bic.ahdb.org.uk/) This tool can be used to simply calculate how BPS payment reductions in England will impact your farm business.  Preparing for change: The characteristics of top performing farms (https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/horizon-preparing-for-change-the-characteristics-of-top-performing-farms) Learn the things which set the highest-performing farms apart from the rest and improve your own farm performance AHDB change programme and strategy 2021–2026 (https://ahdb.org.uk/strategy) We are embarking on major change at AHDB to improve value for levy payers, find out what this means for you and how you can give us feedback.   Join one of our town hall meetings to find out more: https://ahdb.org.uk/events   Feedback We'd love to know what you think of our podcasts. If you’d like to give your feedback, please complete our short questionnaire (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=S-UsoT09RkOV7_8Tyl3UfSY0mE5-VsRLr3CrMaFf9dtUNUZHSERTT0VUVDNRMzhVNk9HQk02U1pPRy4u%20) , which will help us to improve the podcast on an ongoing basis.

As the UK prepares for Brexit and the end of the transition in January 2021, we bring you an insight of upcoming changes that farmers and growers need to prepare for - ensuring agriculture is fit for the future.    In this podcast, John Bates welcomes special guests, Sarah Baker and Duncan Wyatt to provide an insight into what the impact of leaving EU will be on livestock markets. With the latest news discussing EU trade talks – it's vital to understand what will this mean for dairy and red meat sectors.  Listen to discover:  Where the UK sits in terms of trade and self-sufficiency on each of the red meats, and what implications does this have as we leave the EU? Is there anything that will change, whether we get a trade deal or not? What do our levy payers need to think about as we approach the deadline at the end of the year? If you'd like more information:  Check out the characteristics of High Performing Farms in the UK (https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/the-characteristics-of-high-performing-farms-in-the-uk) Discover the Brexit Calculator (https://ahdb.org.uk/brexit-toolkit)   AHDB's EU Exit webpage (https://ahdb.org.uk/eu-exit) to explore useful tools and resources, including latest Brexit-focused webinars

As the UK prepares for Brexit and the end of the transition in January 2021, we bring you an insight of upcoming changes that farmers and growers need to prepare for - ensuring agriculture is fit for the future.  In this podcast, John Bates welcomes special guests, David Swales and David Eudall to provide an insight into what the impact of leaving EU will be on crop markets. With the latest news discussing EU trade talks – it's vital to understand what will this mean for the crops sector. Tune in to find out:  What will be the main changes farmers see on Jan 1? How will the new trade tariffs impact farmers? How is agricultural policy changing? How will this impact farmers financially?  For further resources, please visit:  Check out the characteristics of High Performing Farms in the UK (https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/the-characteristics-of-high-performing-farms-in-the-uk) AHDB's EU Exit webpage - You can catch-up on our Brexit-focused webinars  (https://ahdb.org.uk/eu-exit) If you'd like to keep up-to-date with Market Prices and Information, fill in our keeping in touch form  (https://ahdb.org.uk/keeping-in-touch)

Hosts Ben Eagle & Will Evans are joined by Chris Walkland for his usual milk market update, along with dairy farmer Henry Lewis and Kite consultant Rachael Madeley-Davies who discuss the looming labour issues in relation to the impending EU-Exit. Most farms, even those employing minimal numbers of local staff, struggle to meet their current labour requirements and with confirmation last week that, from an Immigration Policy perspective farm workers are considered neither skilled nor in short supply, this issue will only be exacerbated further once we leave the EU on 31st December. Rachael and Henry discuss what this might mean practically for dairy farm labour supply and what a future dairy farm labour and recruitment might look like.

This is an audio recording of an IfG Live Event Leaving the EU means the governments of the UK have new freedoms to set standards in areas which have been subject to European rules, including the environment. Such freedom could enable the UK to meet its goal of delivering global leadership on the environment and improve standards (as several governments in the UK have expressed their intention to do) but does not prevent a move toward deregulation or the lowering of standards in pursuits of other policy goals.The UK government introduced the UK Internal Market Bill to manage trade between the four countries of the UK from the end of transition which has sparked controversy for a number of reasons. The bill has sparked controversy for a number of reasons, including concerns from the devolved governments that the proposals will infringe on existing devolution settlements and threaten to stall - or even undermine - their development of ambitious standards and regulation.How can the integrity of the UK internal market be balanced with the governments' environmental objectives? What would a regime that promotes a race to the top look like? How would that be reconciled with the UK government's ambitions to do trade deals around the world?To discuss the role of the environment in the internal market, our panel included:Martin Harper, Director of Global Conservation at the RSPBDr Viviane Gravey, Lecturer at Queen's University BelfastDr Emily Lydgate, Senior Lecturer in environmental law at the University of SussexGail Soutar, Chief Adviser on EU Exit and International Trade at the National Farmers' UnionThe event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.#IfGBrexit This event was kindly supported by Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Global Philanthropy — "...stakeholders, not just shareholders." Colleen Ebbitt (J.P. Morgan | Vice President for Global Philanthropy EMEA) Colleen and I met in 2019 and I walked away so impressed with her work and remarkable views of the world; her brief bio below speaks for itself. In this conversation we covered so much; her history and JP Morgan's philanthropical efforts in South Africa (not many folks know that they're behind several high profile initiatives over here). I pushed Colleen on her BREXIT work, angles on inclusive economic growth versus capitalism, social enterprises, definition of 'value' and we covered the philosophical (and controversial) aspects of philanthropy. A casual chat that surfaces her fascinating posits. What a privilege to spend this time interviewing another incredible woman making a global impact! Enjoy! P.S. The book mentioned can be found via the link below. Colleen Ebbitt has oversight for philanthropic grants supporting more inclusive economic growth in South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey. Colleen joined from the UK Government’s Inclusive Economy Unit where she was a Senior Policy Advisor specializing in innovative social finance and social enterprises. Colleen was also on temporary assignment as team lead in EU Exit data management as well as EU strategy. She spent 9 years as a Vice President private banker at J.P. Morgan in Switzerland and the United States managing wealth for individuals and family offices. She was a 2015 LGT Impact Ventures Fellow working on strategic growth initiatives for a sub-Saharan African maternal HIV/AIDS charity, mothers2mothers, based in South Africa. Colleen is a frequent public speaker and champion for impact investment and gender empowerment. Colleen's incredible professional career https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-ebbitt-6232052a/ The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy by Mariana Mazzucato https://amzn.to/3c88Vdj Follow Stafford on Twitter https://twitter.com/staffordmasie Connect with Stafford on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stafford-masie-69489726/ When you're ready to #BeHeard, contact the podcast specialists at

Laura Stevens: Hello and welcome to the Government Digital Service Podcast. My name is Laura Stevens and I'm a Creative Content Producer here at GDS. And for this month's episode, we're talking about Content Design. We're going to find out what it is, how it helps government and where you can learn more. And to tell me the answer to these questions are Amanda Diamond and Ben Hazell. So welcome both to the GDS Podcast. Please could you introduce yourselves and your job roles here at GDS. Amanda first.    Amanda Diamond: Yeah, hi, Laura. I'm Amanda Diamond and I'm Head of GDS Content Design and Head of the Cross-government Content Community. I joined GDS in 2016, so August 2016, in fact. So it is 4 years exactly that I've been at GDS. Last year I went on loan to Acas as their Head of Content to help with their digital transformation. And prior to that I have worked in journalism. So I started out as a journalist. Prior to GDS, I worked at Which?, the consumer association, as their Deputy Editor for Which? magazine, Deputy Editor for their travel magazin, and I helped launch and run their consumer rights website as their Consumer Rights Editor.     Ben Hazell: Hello, I'm Ben Hazell. I'm a Content Product Lead here at GDS on the GOV.UK programme. I currently work on a team dealing with Coronavirus Public Information Campaign. In the recent past, 5 months ago, I was working on the EU Exit Public Information Campaign. And prior to that, I've been working on the means of publishing and production for content on GOV.UK, looking at workflows and providing the tools and data that help people manage the content on GOV.UK. Prior to that, like Amanda, I was actually in journalism. I worked on a big newspaper website for about 9 years.   Laura Stevens:  So thank you both for introducing yourselves. And I want to start with the first of my questions which is, what is content design?     Amanda Diamond:  I don't mind starting, and that is a great question, Laura, and one that I love to answer. So basically and I'll tell you for why, people often confuse content design with different things, mainly comms. They also think that content design is just about the words. And of course, words are really important and content design is you know concerned with words. But it's not the only thing when you're talking about content design.    So content design could be a map, it could be text on a button or a sign. It also includes things like charts or graphs. Content design is about packaging up the right information in a way that makes it easy for people to understand at the point that they most need it.    So for me, I often tell people that content design is at its core: problem solving. And what do I mean about that? Well, I mean that it's about asking the right questions to get to the best solution for your audience. So the best solution for your users. So asking questions like, well, what do our users need to know? What do they need to do? And what evidence? - it's all about the evidence - what evidence do we have to support what we think our users need to know or need to do? Because there’s a big difference between what we think our users need, and what they actually need. And that can often confuse things. And we also ask things like, how can we make the overall experience better for our users? So before Content Designers even put like a single word to a page, what they need to do is like dedicate a lot of time, a lot of effort to understanding the problem in the first place so that we can give people what they need.    Ben Hazell:  Yeah, and I definitely, I agree with all of that. There's no doubt that there's a fair chunk of writing in what we do. But it's also about use of evidence, about research and about iteration, about constant improvement. And I think a lot of it comes back to being humble about understanding that it's not about what we want to say, it's about finding out what people actually need from us.   We're trying to make things simple. In my teams, we often talk about making information easy to find and making sure information is easy to understand. And making things simple - that's not dumbing down. That's actually opening up and being able to process complexity and distill it down to what other people actually need to know and can act upon. That is both important and rewarding. And it's often the kind of fun puzzle and it can be as much about what you're getting rid of and pruning down to find the shape. So perhaps I could compare it to sculpting. You know, the thing exists in the centre of the marble and you just keep chipping away to get to the beautiful thing that people need.   Laura Stevens:  I did enjoy the sculpture one as well because Amanda you're coming to us from an artist's studio as well. So clearly there's something in this recording.   Amanda Diamond:  And interestingly, my other half, he -it's not my studio, my artist studio, I’ll hasten to add, if only! It’s my partner’s and he is a sculptor by trade. So yeah, full circle.    Laura Stevens: So now we know what is. Let's go back in time a bit. So GDS is actually the home of content design in the government too as the term and the discipline originated here under GDS’s first Head of Content Design, Sarah Richards. And why do you think it came out of the early days of GDS?   Amanda Diamond:  So really good question. And I think it is really useful for us to pause and reflect and look back sometimes upon this, because it's not, you know, content design, as you said, it came from, as a discipline it came from GDS.   So really, it only started to emerge around 2010, so 2010, 2014. So in the grand scheme of things, as a discipline, it is very young. And so it's still evolving and it's still growing. And so back in the early 2000s, before we had GOV.UK, we had DirectGov. And alongside that, we had like hundreds of other government websites. So it was, it was a mess really because users had to really understand and know what government department governed the thing that they were looking for.    So what GOV.UK did was we brought websites together into a single domain that we now know of as GOV.UK. And that was a massive undertaking. And the reason for doing that was was simple. It was, it was to make things easier for users to access and understand, make things clearer and crucially to remove the burden on people to have to navigate and understand all of the structures of government.    So back in the early days, GOV.UK, GDS picked I think it was around, I think it was the top 25 services in what was known as the Exemplar Programme. I think things like that included things that Register to Vote, Lasting Power of Attorney, Carer's Allowance. And so I think through that process, we, we, we discovered that it actually wasn't really about website redesign, it was more about service design.    And that's where content design and service design, interaction design and user research kind of came together under this banner of user centred design because you can't have good services without content design essentially. All services contain words or images or artefacts, content artefacts, workflows, journeys, and so you need a content designer to help build these. So I think that's kind of where it, where it sort of emerged from.    But really, fundamentally, with a relentless focus on putting the user at the heart, heart of everything, rather than always relying on what government wants to tell people and what government wants to, to push out to folks. It was a sort of like a reversal of that and a relentless focus on what folks needed of government and what folks needed to, to understand and learn to do the things they need to do as a citizen.     Ben Hazell:  I felt what I could add to that is perhaps my journey into content design and how I came to understand what GDS was doing, because in the late 2000s, kind of 2008, 2009, a lot of my work in newspapers was around search optimisation. And that was quite a big change for that industry, because instead of everything being based upon some kind of monthly reports of sales figures and editors who had a kind of supernatural knowledge of their reader base, suddenly you actually were presented with almost real time data about what people were looking for and interested in.    And sure, there were all the criticisms about tons of stories about Britney Spears all of a sudden, but what it actually came back to was you could see what people wanted to find out from us and we could start to model our online content around what people's expectations were. And it opened up a really interesting era of kind of experimenting with formats, experimenting with the ways in which news content was produced.    And from there, I started to kind of get quite interested in what I could see GDS was doing and they were winning awards at that time for user centred design because it was taking that evidence base about what people actually need for a variety of digital mechanisms and applying it to create not just pieces of content, but structures of content that better serve people. And of course, it was wonderful to move from the media over to somewhere like GOV.UK, which is not beholden to advertising.   So it was that combination of the availability of digital data and being able to more effectively get to what government wanted to happen, because this is also all about not just about making things simpler for users, but making things simpler for users has great benefits for government. If you make things easy for people to do, you reduce any burden on support services, you increase the level of compliance, they're happier. It's more cost effective for government.    Amanda Diamond:  I don't have exact figures, but I, I do know that savings in the millions have been made because of, as Ben rightly describes, our reduce on support services, calls to contact centres and enabling people to do the things they need to do more easily and to self-serve. And so, I mean, that's a huge, that's a huge benefit not just to government, but to the taxpayer, to the public purse.    Laura Stevens:  And I think one example of content design that has also got a bit of attention recently was the Sara Wilcox NHS blog on the language of health and why they need to be searched and found using pee and poo, people understood that and that is a huge benefit that people will search that and that will help their health. So I think as well as saving time or money, it's also directly making sure people get the information they need when they need it at those urgent points.    Amanda Diamond:  Exactly. If you think about the history of language and the history, sort of professional or sort of authoritative language - it’s, it's lofty and it is full of jargon and it is full of often if you think of legal, the legal profession is full of Latin terms and even science as well it’s full of, you know, the medical profession is full of Latin phrases.    Now, that doesn't do anybody any justice because it is just putting up barriers for people to be able to understand and act on. And so what we do as content designers is we and, and that blog that you talked about, Laura, is about reducing those barriers and really sort of democratising language - like language is for everyone. And we shouldn't be, we shouldn't be sort of putting those barriers in place. We should be trying to break them down.    Ben Hazell:  Yes. And I'd say we have to also we do think about the audience for any given piece of content. So it's not that there's a general fight against technical language. Sometimes something has a precise term and a precise name, and that is the efficient way of communicating it that's right for the audience in question.    But on the other hand, what we also know and we have evidence to show this, is that there's this assumption that as people pick up more professional skill, they like more and more verbose language, which seems exclusive. Whereas actually the opposite is true. People in high skilled professions, highly qualified professions, often want things to be simple because they don't want to have to spend their time unpicking complex documents. They need to get on with their job. So, yes, we use technical language where it's appropriate to do so. But we're also always looking to make things simple whilst also keeping them precise.    Laura Stevens:  Picking up on what you’re both just saying, and I just want to talk about the link between content design and accessibility. We should always think about accessibility with everything GDS does because people don’t have a choice when they interact with government, they have to use our services. They can't shop around. So would you would you talk about how the language being used helps with making sure that we don't create any barriers unnecessarily to services?   Amanda Diamond:  Yeah, absolutely, Laura. I mean, like accessibility is, I think really is at the heart of content design as a discipline. If you make things clear and simple, that means writing things clearly and simply in plain language and in language that users use themselves.    Also, I think people, people make a mistake and often kind of confuse what we mean by accessibility. Accessibility is not something that is just for a certain group or subset of people. Accessibility is about catering to everyone and all of the time. So there is a difference between, you know, there might be people who have permanent accessibility needs, there might be people who have some temporary accessibility needs and there might be people who have situational accessibility needs.   And the great example that I can point to is, you know, somebody who has got - who’s had an arm amputated. That is one that that is a permanent, that is a person with a permanent need, accessibility need. Somebody that might have sprained their wrist or broken their wrist. And so their need is temporary, but they still need, they might still need to access and access our services. And then there's a sort of a situational need as well. So, you know, if you're a parent and you have to hold a child, well, you have to do something quickly, then you are impaired because you are holding a child and that’s situational, that's not going to last, but you still may need to you know, do something in that time.    And the same thing goes, I think, for sort of cognitive access needs as well. If we are, you know, if, if we are writing in language that is convoluted and verbose and lofty, we are unintentionally creating barriers to people who might have cognitive challenges or who might have dyslexia or people who who are just reading at speed and need to do something really, really quickly and access and sort of comprehend something really, really quickly.    So, yeah, I think like accessibility for me, beyond the legal requirements that we have, we know that there are new accessibility requirements coming into force on the 23 September this year. It's beyond for me, beyond a legal duty and it's also a moral duty as well. And I think that should be at the heart of everything that we're that we're doing as government.    As you said, Laura, people don't have a choice other than to interact with government. People are not looking at the GOV.UK website and hanging out in their lunch break and just browsing and having a good old read. People are coming to our site because they need to do something because government has mandated that it's a legal requirement to do a thing or to get, you know, get document to do a thing or whatever it might be. And so it really is our duty then if we're making people do these things that we have to make the information in the ways in which they need to do these things as simple and as clear as possible.    Ben Hazell:  I would agree with all of that, I’m reminded of that phrase, ‘this is for everyone’. I specifically work for GOV.UK, which is always worth mentioning is just one highly visible part of what GDS does. But GOV.UK as a platform is designed to be very, very adaptable. So all the information that is published should be in a clean HTML form, which can then be picked up and experienced in different ways. Now, some of that is going to be about assistive technologies, but actually it also speaks to the need for people to come by information from GOV.UK in a variety of different ways now.   So by having properly structured clean text, we can work with voice interfaces. We can make sure that Amazon, Alexa or Google Home can interpret our information. We make sure that a Google search results page can quickly deliver a quick answer to a person. We make sure that content can be syndicated out through API so it can be republished by other organisations who might have closer contact with people who need it. So we can syndicate things very efficiently in a structured way over to organisations like Shelter or Citizens Advice if they were able to make use of it. There's a lot to be said for the platform itself being quite an open platform which can easily be adapted upon.   One interesting thing about coronavirus content has been the accelerated shift in the mobile audience, as you might imagine, with everybody staying at home, they're not actually accessing the internet quite as much on work computers. And we saw at the peak up to 90% of all traffic to coronavirus information was coming from smartphones. Now, we've long on GOV.UK practiced mobile-first design, but something like that really draws attention to needing to communicate clearly and put things in a logical order for people viewing it in a single narrow screen. So when we talk about accessibility, another thing to think about is just the sheer movement to a mobile audience. And what that actually means for how we produce things. We simply can't get away with big charts or diagrams that are only designed to be read on a work computer screen. People are using their mobiles at home and that's what we need to design for.    Laura Stevens: And sort of I thinking about, Ben, what you're saying about your SEO, your search engine optimisation experience earlier, also content design surely helps like how, where to find all this information on GOV.UK.    Ben Hazell: We're in a time with coronavirus and the EU Exit when lots of things are changing quite rapidly. I think some of the most exciting things we've been playing with on GOV.UK is around adaptive content, about the fact that there are many variables. So the guidance for any one person needs to follow could vary quite a lot based on their individual circumstances. And we've been doing more and more with experimenting with content, which actually asks the user some questions so that we can understand exactly what their needs are and then modifies and adapts the guidance to give them just the elements which are relevant to them.    So one of the most interesting examples of that has been the Get Ready for Brexit campaign or which we refer to as the EU Exit Checker. The Brexit Checker is about, is about asking people to help us understand exactly what they need and only showing them the information which is relevant to their circumstances. So it makes - it drills the information down to just what they can act upon without needing them to wade through lots of supporting material. And it also can join up quite effectively lots of related documents that relate to the task they have in mind. So they're not having to look up one list over here to see if they are included in the category and another list over there. That's a challenge across government. And I think adaptive content is a really exciting opportunity. And we've been trying lots of things and we've been making mistakes and we've been learning a lot of things.    Laura Stevens: Well, that's led me nicely on because I was going to ask actually what are some of the challenges you've both faced in your career as content designers. Is, is it something to do with the, perhaps it's an emerging discipline, so you're working with people who are unfamiliar with what you do or what you're trying to do? Or is it something broader than that? Or yeah, what challenges have you come across when working in content design?    Ben Hazell: An interesting challenge I'm aware of at the moment is recruitment. Is how do we expand the pool of people we're bringing in as content designers? Because I did a lot of work, that was probably content design adjacent in various roles, often job titles I got to make up because professions didn't exist. And it was very late in my career in newspapers that I’ve ever heard of the term content design. And I think we can do a better job. And we're definitely doing a lot at the moment with running events. But we're trying to widen access to content design to help people who have things to offer, map what they already can do and their skills to the sorts of things we're looking for.    There's quite a wide variety of skills which can blur into it, and we have colleagues with a wide variety of backgrounds, because these are overlapping skill sets, they are thinking about an audience or user need and how things can be communicated and how you can better understand people. So that's a really interesting challenge for me. How do we widen the pool from which we are drawing people in to both increase our diversity and also make sure we're getting the most skilled people we can get because it's really important work and we need we need people who are going to really thrive on it.    Amanda Diamond: Yeah, that's a really great point Ben. And as Ben said, we are we're doing quite a lot at the moment in this in this area, both, as Ben said, to bring in diverse voices, but also to bring in people from underrepresented groups into the profession.   There are lots of different routes into content design and the skillset is varied. And so I think, again, in the way that I think it's incumbent upon us to educate, you know, within government about the value of content design, I think we also need to think beyond government and talk to sort of a wider pool of people, wider audiences, about what content design is and how, you know, what transferable skills, skills are useful.    To that end, we've been running with our UCD, user centred design colleagues, careers events and we're actually going to run a content design careers event so dedicated for content design.   And it's also probably worth saying as well that the actual profession, the discipline as itself, is changing. As Ben mentioned, this idea of structured content, of serving up content to people that is configured to their specific circumstances - there’s quite a big technical element to that as well. And so I think content designers of the future, I would certainly encourage them to to be more technically minded and also to look across different disciplines.   So, yeah, it's an exciting profession. And it's exciting time, I think, to be in content design. But it's changing as the world is around us. And so I think we need to be adapting to that and looking ahead to what the profession needs so that we can be equipped as government to continue providing, you know, excellent digital services to our citizens.   Laura Stevens: And talking about new ways in which you're reaching out to people to speak about content design. I also wanted to talk about The introduction to content design course. And I've got it a clip now from our colleague, Agnieszka so I'll just play this.   Agnieszka Murdoch: So my name is Agnieszka Murdoch and I'm a Content Learning Designer at Government Digital Service and I'm part of the content community team.   Laura Stevens: And what are some of the things you've been working on during your time over the past 8 months or so you've been in the Content Community Team?   Agnieszka Murdoch: Yes, I started in January this year and basically I sort of jumped straight into working on the introduction to content design course scheduled to go live in May.    Laura Stevens: And so what is the course?   Agnieszka Murdoch: Yes, Introduction to content design is basically a course hosted on FutureLearn, which is a social learning platform with approximately 12 million registered users. The introduction to content design open course that we launched in May actually had just over 11,000 learners register, which was fantastic.    And it's basically an introductory course for anyone who's interested in user centred content design. We teach people about things like how to think about your users, how to do user research a little bit, how to design and kind of clearly structured easy to read accessible content, how to write in plain English. We also cover topics like evaluating the success of your content and managing the content lifecycle. So a wide range of topics. And it's basically a self-paced course, it’s divided into 4 weeks and learners can kind of do it in their own time.   Laura Stevens: And you mentioned there that 11,000 people did the course when it was launched in May. So who were these people? Who can do the course?   Agnieszka Murdoch: The original pilot of the course was just for those working in government, whereas the open course that we launched in May and that we're now launching the second run of is open to anyone who's interested in content design.     So this will be obviously colleagues from different government departments. There will be people working in local government as well. Other public sector organisations as well as the private sector. And we had people from lots of different places in the UK, all different nations, lots of different countries around the world.    The pilot of the course was intended just for content designers, but this open course actually attracted more people than just content designers and people who have ‘content designer’ in their job title. So it's obviously for those starting out in the role. But it's also for those working in related disciplines.   What was also interesting was that was the range of experience among the learners on the course. So even though the course is called an Introduction to content design, we had people who were completely new to the field, but also people who are very experienced. And what we found was that it was sort of equally beneficial for those different groups, regardless of the level of experience they had.    So like I said at the start, FutureLearn is a social learning platform, which means you're not just following the content of the course, but you're also expected to get involved in conversations, to complete tasks, to answer questions and to interact with other learners. And that's part of the learning.   Laura Stevens: And I also saw on FutureLearn you received a 4.5* review from the learners. And so can you talk a bit more through about people's response to the course? Was there anything particularly that went well or anything that needed improvement? And perhaps has that changed as the course has gone from pilot to first opening and now to the second one?   Agnieszka Murdoch: Yes. So we got, we got quite a lot of feedback actually from that first open run, which we did in May. And the second iteration of that we’re working on at the moment is going to be addressing some of those feedback points. So what people really enjoyed were the interactions with other learners, so being able to kind of share experiences, but also read about other people's context. Yeah, the social interactions between learners was something that we got a lot of positive feedback on.    Also, the fact that we conveyed the content through stories rather than just telling people the rules or sharing the theory of content design. I think that was a very important aspect of why people, why learners potentially benefited from the course. Also, the variety of content so FutureLearn is a platform that allows you to add different types of content to it, such as video, audio, articles, polls, quizzes. So I think the variety of content really was a great thing because sometimes it can be quite tedious if you're just going through a self-paced course that just has video or just has articles.   And in terms of improvements, we had some feedback on actually accessibility. There was one task that we included that wasn't accessible because it involved highlighting things in green and red. And if you know anything about the basics of accessibility, you will know that that's not very helpful for people with kind of accessibility, certain types of accessibility needs. So that was, that was a mistake that we're correcting.    Laura Stevens: I also wanted to talk about it being an online learning course, which has always been the case since it’s development back in 2019. Of course given the developments of 2020 with coronavirus and a move of lots of things to remote working or remote learning, but why were you thinking about online back in 2019?   Agnieszka Murdoch: So the main reason, so that kind of if we go back to the pilot, the reason why the pilot was designed was to address some of the kind of practical challenges with running face-to-face training.    So things like obviously the cost. The fact that the trainers would have to go, travel around the country and go to each face-to-face session, kind of separately, train the people there. It costs a lot to travel. It costs, it takes up a lot of time. But also, I think another challenge of face-to-face learning is that you only have access to those people who are in the room at the time the training is happening. Which means that you're not really able to share ideas or generate new ideas as effectively as as you are if you're doing things online and opening it up to thousands of people. The practical kind of challenges and the challenge of sharing were the 2 main reasons.   So just to give you some numbers, like I said, we had about 11,500 people enrolled and we were actually only expecting 2,400 because that was the mean number of sign ups in that specific course category on FutureLearn. We had 18,500 comments. So as you can see, this is quite an overwhelming number for a moderator or somebody who's even reading those comments as a participant. But it shows the kind of how active the discussions were and how active the learners were and how much knowledge was shared.    Sixty-seven per cent of those learners were active learners, which means they completed a step and 26% were social learners, which means they commented at least once. So, again, you know, if you're running face-to-face training, you can't expect every single person to contribute. There isn't enough time for that. And also, the different kind of learning styles that people have don't always allow for that.    Laura Stevens: So yeah, I want to talk about this - the September opening of the course, which starts on the 21 September. And so if I'm hearing you speak about it, and I’m really excited to hear more. How do I sign up?    Agnieszka Murdoch: Yeah so if you want to join the course, you can keep an eye on the GDS Blog. We will be blogging about how we built the course and how we sort of iterated it. And there will be a link there to sign up. But if you're too impatient and you don’t want to wait for the blog posts, then you can go on FutureLearn and you can search for it there, it's called Introduction to content design.   The course is perfect for anyone who is starting out in content design or who is thinking about moving into content design or anyone who kind of already works with content and feels that their work could benefit from learning more about content design.    Ben Hazell: Yeah, so the thing that put me in mind of was the content design is a set of job titles and a role within the government digital jobs framework. So there's a nice clear job track that you can join. But it is also a set of practises. It's a set of methodologies and a mindset so I think it's a really valuable skill set even if you don't intend to become a titled ‘content designer’. I think you can apply it in lots of ways and this is a great opportunity to dip your toe into those waters.    Amanda Diamond: And for me, I am just astonished at the number of people who signed up and who are interested and also the number of folks who completed the course as well. And just the level of social interaction that Agnieszka spoke about there. I mean, that is fantastic.    And I think for me as well, it's just about the reach. You know, an online course like this that can scale to this extent would, is, is, is, is the only way we can reach all of those people from different backgrounds, different, you know, different skill sets. And we would never be able to reach that number of people and that volume of people around the world as well if we were just doing face-to-face training.    Ben Hazell: And most importantly, it can be taken at the user’s own pace and in their own time - they can go back over things, they can expand in particular areas of interest. And I think when you have engaged and willing learners, that becomes a very effective opportunity. And I used to do a lot of in-person training for GDS on content design, but obviously with a reach of more like 12 people a day rather than 10,000. It was always hard with a classroom full of people to meet each of their individual needs and to find a pace that wasn't leaving people behind. And it was also not kind of losing the engagement of the people who were running ahead. And that's where this adaptive content in these online courses can really excel. And I think are really interesting examples of that sort of personalisation of content to people's minute by minute needs and requirements.    Laura Stevens: Yes, for sure. And as Agnieszka said, there will be a link to the course on the GDS Blog if you’re interested. And so that's all for today, so thank you both so much for joining me, and to Agnieszka too.    And you can listen to all the episodes of the Government Digital Service Podcast on Apple Music, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms. And the transcripts are available on Podbean.    So yeah, thank you both again.    Ben Hazell: Thank you.   Amanda Diamond: Thanks Laura, thanks for having me having us.

Naomi O'Leary, Europe Correspondent with the Irish Times and host of The Irish Passport podcast, reports from Brussels. The Stand is proudly sponsored by Tesco.

As the UK's long divorce from the EU continues, food and farming remain two of the most important sticking points for negotiators on both sides. On the latest Agenda Podcast, we look at how Brexit could change attitudes to fishing and farming for Britain and for the rest of Europe. First on the podcast, I talk to Nick von Westenholz, director of EU Exit and International Trade at Britain's National Farmers Union. He's joined by Philip Clarke, executive editor of industry news magazine and website Farmers Weekly. Von Westenholtz explains to us where UK farming is in terms of becoming self-sufficient [01:20]. While Clarke tells us why UK farmers won't necessarily have less red tape to deal with now Britain has left the EU [04:34]. We also speak to Marcel van der Vliet, president of CELCAA, the voice of European traders in agri-food commodities. He explains why a no-deal Brexit could destabilize the food-supply chain in the UK and in Europe [11:20].

Brandon Kenneth Lewis CBE PC is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as Minister of State for Security and Deputy to Home Secretary Priti Patel for EU Exit and No Deal Preparation since July 2019. Eric Jack Pickles is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar from the 1992 general election to the 2017 general election and was the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government until May 2015. Iain Dale All Talk brings a sold out Edinburgh Fringe show to the podcast world, where he interviews some of the most high profile names from the world of media and politics. Rate and subscribe on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts and connect with Iain on Twitter: @iaindale

In the latest episode of the Government Digital Service Podcast, we speak to GDS Director General Kevin Cunnington about his time at the organisation and his career so far. A full transcript of the episode follows: Angus Montgomery: So welcome to the latest episode of the Government Digital Service podcast. My name is Angus Montgomery, I’m a senior writer at GDS. For this episode I’m in the slightly unusual position of interviewing my boss, or the boss of the organisation I work for. It’s GDS Director General Kevin Cunnington. Kevin, thank you very much for joining us on this podcast. Kevin Cunnington: Thank you for inviting me Angus. Angus Montgomery: So Kevin, I’d like to talk to you today about your time in GDS. So you’ve been here for, getting on for three years I think, and your priorities for GDS as we enter the new financial year and what’s coming up over the next year. But before we get onto all of that, I’d like to talk to you a bit about your time before GDS and before government, because you’ve been a technologist, or involved in digital and technology for your entire career, and you’ve got quite a storied career before you joined GDS.   I think first of all, as I understand, you studied computer science and you have a master’s in artificial intelligence, so what first led you to that subject matter, to wanting to study technology and then develop a career in it? Kevin Cunnington: So I went to a boys grammar school, well rather dare I say, a stuffy traditional boys grammar school, where you really had a choice of doing the arts or the sciences, so I did the sciences - maths, physics, chemistry and luckily, a bit on the side, general studies. And I was always fascinated in two areas beyond that, which were computer science and astrophysics. And oddly, at the time, both were equally as bonkers because I had never seen a computer, none of us had. No boy from my school had ever gone on to study computer science, so when I decided that was what I was going to do, I was the first boy ever from my school to study computer science, having never seen a computer [0.01.58]. Angus Montgomery: If, at the risk of asking a very personal question, and you can answer in general time, what sort of general time are we talking about? Kevin Cunnington: 1979. Angus Montgomery: Right. Oh wow. Kevin Cunnington: Yes, I went ‘79 - ‘82. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, yeah. Kevin Cunnington: So if you’re familiar with the history of computer science, we’d just about invented the BBC Micro in ‘79. But the first real personal computer, the IBM XT80, XT, came out in ‘81. So you know, nobody had ever seen a personal computer. They existed only as mainframes really in large regional centres that none of us had ever seen. So taking a punt, and doing a degree based on something I’d never seen before, seemed like quite an odd option really. But it’s worked out ok I’d have to say. Angus Montgomery: And your master’s as well, I presume at the same...at this sort of time, artificial intelligence was in the very early stages of our understanding. What was it that drew you to that and what was the kind of, what was going on in artificial intelligence then and is it still relevant to what we’re talking about today? Kevin Cunnington: No, it was very different then. So you’re right to say, there was very little work in A.I. back in ‘83 when I did my second degree. And we just had this report called the Lighthill report which said, largely it was rubbish and it’ll never work. So my timing wasn’t perfect but my interest in A.I and computing has always been with the effect on people really and how it kind of works, not necessarily the programming, but the effect of computing - although I do love programming as well. But it was different then, ‘cause we actually used to programme A.I systems by hand. Angus Montgomery: Wow. Kevin Cunnington: In these really obscure languages like Prolog and Lisp, which are based on quite complicated mathematical constructs oddly enough, the last thing you’d expect to be quite natural. And so I spent a whole raft of my master’s degree programming Prolog and Lisp on things like chess playing. My thesis was around, kind of flexible airport selection. So I built this system that learnt that if you couldn’t go to that airport which was your favourite, then you’d most likely pick the next one, and therefore we could offer that as a potential option in the first place. Angus Montgomery: Oh wow. Kevin Cunnington: So yeah, quite ahead of its time really. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned, I mean obviously you were involved in writing programming back then, is that something you still do today when you have time or are still involved in? Kevin Cunnington: No, because when I started out in programming in the traditional languages like Pascal and C, and I actually come past programming Codebar oddly enough, but my passion was always Prolog and Lisp, and since they’re no longer really around, I just, you know, wouldn’t have the skill set to programme in Java or Ruby nowadays, so I’ve not done any for years really Angus Montgomery: But it’s still there, still there, the skills I’m sure. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, I think I’d like to go back to it when I retire kind of thing. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, go back to early ‘80s artificial intelligence. And then, so after studying you worked for PWC [Pricewaterhouse Coopers], and developed, or pioneered their use of Agile methodology. Can you tell me a bit more about sort of, again, what Agile methodology was like, and presumably this was sort of mid to late ‘80s, and what was Agile like back then and how does that relate to what we’re doing now and how we use Agile? Kevin Cunnington: So I think the kind of crystallising example is I got sent to this regional city in England to help a large insurer try to automate the process of life insurance, underwriting for life insurance. And people had had a go at that in the past and failed miserably because it’s quite complicated. And I was the first person to try it using A.I techniques and it worked, first time in the world it ever worked, and we came out with a programme that could underwrite life insurance quite comprehensively. Angus Montgomery: Wow. Kevin Cunnington: And it was really...so A.I was like user researchers now. Angus Montgomery: Right, yeah yeah. Kevin Cunnington: You used to sit down with people, we used to actually video the experts doing their job and then we used to interactively programme up what they’d told us and we iterated that over time, so very much like Agile is today, lots of user research, lots of interaction, lots of feedback, lots of intelligent challenge. And then in, I think it was ‘92, PWC shipped me off to their, what they called, their technology centre in California in Menlo Park, to write down everything I’d learnt about doing A.I using Agile. And this I duly did, it took me six months to deposit the whole contents of my mind onto a book, which was actually quite big, but that then became PWC’s global methodology for developing expert systems, A.I systems, using Agile. And it was broadly what you’d expect to see today. You know we said prototypes are important, you need to understand the scope of what you’re doing, you need to test and learn, you need to do user research and it’s all not changed very much if we’re being brutally honest over the, what’s that, 25 years. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, well it works, so yeah, why change it? And your background, so as well as working at PWC, you worked for various other sort of large organisations, so Vodafone, Goldman Sachs. Kevin Cunnington: Yes. Angus Montgomery: And it covers, your background kind of covers large organisations as well as startups and entrepreneurial work, so you’ve got a, quite a varied kind of work history before you came to the public sector. How do you use that experience in your current role in government and kind of, what are the similarities and differences between that and what you do know? Kevin Cunnington: So I think you know, my kind of, original company was PWC, which was a management consultancy. And apparently today, PWC run the best kind of, fast track scheme in the UK, and they probably in fairness to them, did then. And it was really helpful because as a scientist, my ability to write and present and critique, you know, was that of a scientist. So I was taught how to present, I was taught how to write, I was told how to do analysis and that, it turned out to be a really great start in life. And I spent that, broadly best part of a decade, doing A.I systems. And as people know, in the ‘90s when greed was good and lunch was for wimps, I sold out and went to work for Goldman Sachs in New York running their trading systems. Which when you say it that way sounds slightly mad but all trading systems are written using Agile. So the fact that I knew how to do Agile at scale and quite quickly and quite well, turned out to be quite a big advantage for them and for me. Angus Montgomery: Yeah definitely. Kevin Cunnington: And then as you say, I had a spell as an entrepreneur. Having been a successful entrepreneur originally, I made quite a bit of money and most people know I lost 13 million quid on a venture, which I do say to people, if you meet my wife, please don’t mention it ‘cause she has stopped mentioning it now. But at the time obviously it was quite traumatic. And then I went back to work for Vodafone as their Global Head of Digital before joining the Civil Service about five years ago now. Angus Montgomery: So you joined, so your first role in the Civil Service was with DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] as Director General of Business Transformation, that’s correct I think. Kevin Cunnington: It was. Angus Montgomery: Can you tell me a bit more about that role and what you were responsible for and what you were doing? Kevin Cunnington: So back in the day it was called the Director General for Digital Transformation and my job was really twofold. The overarching part of the job was, how to transform DWP to be fit for digital and you know, as we know, we did that via the Academies, and all the rich picture work that we did in creating a vision. But the really tangible part of my work was helping to recruit, train the digital teams for the big programmes like Universal Credit back in the day. And that’s broadly what I spent the first two and a half years of my Civil Service life doing. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, so it’s kind of, bringing people in and building capability. Those, those two things across the department. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, I’ll tell you, the big thing we did was bring in the Academies. Which was not a new idea, it was an idea that we’d used in Vodafone. But in Vodafone, we’d used it to train largely graduates in digital, because even Vodafone couldn’t get ahold of enough graduates. In the Civil Service when we first tried it, we blatantly took the idea and reimplemented it and I wasn’t sure whether it would work, and this would be one of the big positives and learnings for me that, we’d tried it on graduates, in the Civil Service we were trying it on older people like myself, and it was at all clear to me that older people would respond to being re-trained in digital. But the reality was they loved it because it gave them a whole new lease of life, it made them feel really modern and updated, and they really warmed to it. And it’s been, some of the big successes, we’ve had people put off their retirement because having been re-trained, they enjoyed it so much, they want to carry on working. Which was, you know, you’d never believe that was true but they’ve been a massive success. We’ve trained 10,000 people now in the Academies over the five years. Angus Montgomery: Brilliant. And when they first started five years ago, was it in DWP? Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, 24 Feb 2014. Angus Montgomery: Even got the date. Kevin Cunnington: It’s my birthday Angus, so it’s hard to forget. Angus Montgomery: Oh right, wow. Very fortuitous. And so that, and again the Academy, the idea of that is upskilling people with potentially no digital capability, or no digital knowledge whatsoever and kind of giving them the skills and potential for a new career. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah exactly. When I first joined DWP, we were kind of in that twilight of 2013 in the Civil Service. And I was told DWP, when I think about this now and I was reminiscing the other day, I must have been incredibly controversial because DWP told me they got 300 experts in digital. And after the first few days, I hadn’t met one so I was beginning to get a bit suspicious, so I wrote down as a word cloud, the 50 terms you really need to understand to understand digital and particularly if you like, the GDS version with discovery, alpha and beta. And challenged the whole of the organisation if someone could get 50 like I could, then I would absolutely consider them an expert, and that’s fair enough. And a lot of people came forward and the highest score was 20. Angus Montgomery: Oh really? Wow. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah. And you realise actually, we probably are kidding ourselves relative to industry. We’re not where we think we need to be. And at that point, that’s how we kind of came to the academy system. For me, it was always better to retrain our folk even if that was a gamble in the way we described earlier than it was to kind of, you know, put them to one side and hire a whole set of new people who aren’t part of the Civil Service culture. But, and this again is a really true story. When we first trained people, and then put them back into their departments and their host building, people used to say to them, ‘we don’t do it like that around here Kevin’. So in the end I got this entire building, bit like we are here today, in Leeds. And we commondered the first floor, the ground floor, and we used that to train people in the Academy. Then we commandeered the next two floors for people to go off and do digital programmes. So they were entirely sequestrated from the rest of the business because, if they were put in the business, we had this terrific organ rejection. And you think about that now, and you think that must have been incredibly controversial that I set up a building to incubate digital. Angus Montgomery: To develop this new way of thinking. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, yeah but it’s all true and you know I, again I was reminiscing the other day, I even stopped people who weren’t qualified from going through the Academy from doing digital for a while. Angus Montgomery: Oh wow. Kevin Cunnington: Because we had a number of people who thought they knew, you know ‘cause of the 300 expert thing again, thought they knew what they were doing and they didn’t, so I stopped them and made them get completely trained in the Academy, then I let them crack on. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. And were you seeing, so when people were being trained in the Academy and then going back into DWP and sort of, after this sequestering, were you seeing then the change in the department or the capability building? Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, I think it took, so in DWP over the first 3 years, I think we trained 5,000 people. Because, at peak, we were training 3000 people a year. And it was only through you know, mass re-education if you like, or mass education, that we got to a point where, you know these people who knew about digital weren’t strange folk anymore. They were more you know, the core fabric of the business. And it still is a fact that 80% of the people who were trained in the Academies are really around awareness of digital, not practitioners for digital, only about ⅕ of the people go on to be practitioners. But the majority of the effort was just stopping people from being worried about it or thinking it was alien or thinking it was different. And eventually critical mass won and we thought digital was part of our DNA, and if you went into DWP today, you’d never consider doing something that wasn’t digital, you would genuinely be digital by default. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. So it was a real culture shift. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, exactly. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, yeah. That’s great. And obviously while you were at DWP, GDS had been around for 2 or 3 years beforehand. What was your kind of relationship with GDS and how were you working with them when you were at DWP? Kevin Cunnington: So, GDS invented a construct which, I still think to this day is a really good idea, called Digital Leaders. And it was essentially getting all the heads of digital together on a monthly basis, chaired by GDS. And I was part of that. So I was always part of the kind of family. DWP did have, occasionally, some GDS folk working with us on some of the programmes but relatively small numbers. I think it wasn’t until about 2015, that the chair of the Digital Leaders changed to be Chris Ferguson and myself. We completely changed the dynamic to say it wasn’t just about the centre but the centre in partnership with a big department, and from there I had a lot more engagement with GDS. Obviously prior to arriving here in GDS. Angus Montgomery: I think it was August/September 2016 when you joined. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, I think it was. Yeah. Angus Montgomery: You joined as the first Director General of GDS, and tell me about when you joined, what were your sort of, first impressions. I mean obviously you knew the organisation well, you’d been working very closely with it but actually sort of, coming in the door and sort of, becoming part of GDS, what were your impressions of it? Kevin Cunnington: Oh it was definitely quite different to DWP, even though, I mean honestly we had absolutely mimicked GDS in DWP in our digital centres by putting up the bunting...you know, really ruthlessly just stealing all the good ideas. But GDS was just fundamentally, purely digital and it was, yeah, incredibly different. It was much more challenging, people were much more open, it wasn’t anything like so hierarchical and it was still kind of like, a big startup back in ‘16 [2016]. And like, you know where it is now in ‘19 [2019] where it feels more like an enterprise. Angus Montgomery: Yeah yeah yeah. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, it was way different and you know the statistic today in GDS, is 47% of us are in the age bracket of 30-40. Angus Montgomery: Oh wow. Kevin Cunnington: So that’s quite a lot different from I guess, the general profile of the Civil Service. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Kevin Cunninton: And particularly DWP. So you really did notice it had much more, yeah, much more youth on its side immediately when you walked in the door. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. And what, and when you joined what were your first priorities for, well yourself and for GDS? Kevin Cunnington: Oh I think they’ve honestly remained the same. And it’s funny because I had my equivalent from Australia here today to chat, and I was saying, the two bits of advice I always consistently give digital organisations, digital countries, starting out are one, build capability, get the academies sorted at scale. Two, don’t start building applications until you’ve got your identity strategy sorted out. Angus Montgomery: Right. Kevin Cunnington: Because if you don’t get your identity strategy first and foremost ahead of, then you find yourself in the kind of position we are which is, playing catchup on identity. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Kevin Cunnington: And there the two, they’ve always been my two priorities here at GDS. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Kevin Cunnington: Support the Verify programme, build out the Academies. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Brilliant. And what were you, when you joined, obviously you said it was very very different from DWP, what were the differences in the sense of like, moving from a department to the centre and what you could do here and what you couldn’t do from the centre that you could do in departments? Kevin Cunnington: I think the main thing is that I always felt in DWP, notwithstanding the fact that I was running a bigger group probably two or three times the size of GDS, I wasn’t quite as busy if that makes sense. I had more time to think about the strategy. And famously we used to have these Friday morning breakfast meetings with the ‘brain trust’, quotes around that, where we just used to think about what DWP could look like in 2020, 2025, 2030. And I think it’s taken you know, as you say, nearly the two and a half, three years I’ve been here to get to a point where I think I've now got the right structures and management team in place, that I’m actually beginning to free up to think about what is our 2030 vision, what is the future of A.I in the workplace and yeah, it’s taken quite, it’s taken much longer than I thought it would to get to that point where I’ve got that same quality of thinking time that I had in the departments. Kevin Cunnington: Which is just an interesting observation, really. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, that is interesting. And well in what other ways as well, I mean you obviously, in that respect GDS has changed in that you kind of, now have that space to think about that stuff. What other ways do you feel that GDS has grown and developed so far in your time here? Kevin Cunnington: Well I think the two obvious things you’d highlight is, it’s much bigger. It’s 860 people today, and I think it was about 400 when I joined, it’s of that order, so it’s much bigger. The new building here in Aldgate is just brilliant. I think it’s made a massive change of quality of life for all of us here in GDS. But I think there’s some other things as well. Acquiring the Academies gave us a national footprint for the first time. Angus Montgomery: So we have Academies, sorry, in Leeds and.. Kevin Cunnington: Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle. Hopefully I keep saying Bristol outloud, for the good people of Bristol to hear me, so hopefully that’ll come true at some point. And I think the other thing that’s changed is we’ve now got the Introvert Network and of course, we’ve got the BAME [Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic] Network, which didn’t exist back then, so I think we are you know, continuing to embrace diversity and inclusion here in GDS. Angus Montgomery: And that’s a very obvious thing that diversity and inclusion is, it’s something that we talk about a lot in this organisation, and rightly so, but I think I’ve not worked in organisations like this where it’s so obvious that the organisation cares about that, and I think that that’s really important. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, I’m the same. I think it’s integral to its DNA. Angus Montgomery: Yeah, yeah. Kevin Cunnington: And you wonder, I mean it’s one thing to take great pride in around GDS. I mean it’s not, I didn’t start it but nevertheless I feel the real responsibility of making sure we continue to be diverse and inclusive going forward. Angus Montgomery: Definitely. And looking forward, because we’re recording this in April and we’re moving onto a new financial year. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah. Angus Montgomery: So there’s a lot of work going on in GDS and around government as a whole as people prepare for it and people think about, not just the year ahead but as you’ve mentioned, the 10 or 20 years ahead and what we could do. So first of all, could you tell me a little bit about what your priorities are for the next year? Kevin Cunnington: Yeah so in terms of priorities, I generally try and describe GDS you know, through the lens of history where, in 2012 we started out by digital by default, which was all just about building confidence that as a Civil Service we could insource some of these things and do them. The next phase, 2015 onwards, I would say is building capability. That the integration of the Academies, the GAAP platforms, all the things we’ve done to scale the business. And then I’d say over the last 12-18 months, we’ve talked more about transformation, collaboration and innovation really. That’s the kind of slogans we batted off for Sprint last year and so with that in mind, and we’ve got some big things landing in the very short term, we’ve got the A.I review that we’ve been doing on how A.I could be used in the workforce, that we’ve done in conjunction with DCMS, landing over the next few months. We’ve got the minister’s review on innovation and how that could land, although that report is becoming much broader than innovation. It’s really kind of front-running what I think we’ll end up saying as part of SR19, or spending review 19. Angus Montgomery: Brilliant. Yeah. Kevin Cunnington: And then we’ve got quite a big set of tours really. So we’ve got all the new Sprint conferences in the devolved nations, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, which of course we’ve never done before. We’re doing a special in Leeds and then of course, we’re heading home to London in September. And then on the back of that, we’ve got, we’re attending every Civil Service Live doing keynote presentations, and we’re doing the Let’s Talk About Race workshops as well. Angus Montgomery: Yes, which is towards the end of the month I think, isn’t it? Yeah. Kevin Cunnington: Yes exactly. And then towards the end of the month, we’ve actually got Breaking Down Barriers. Which is our functional view of how we promote BAME people into the SCS [Senior Civil Service] within digital. Angus Montgomery: Into Senior Civil Service. Yeah. Wow. So a lot coming up. Kevin Cunnington: Yes. Angus Montgomery: A lot touring and a lot of talking. And yeah, a busy summer ahead. And as we kind of, as you think about your priorities, in your opinion, what, can you summarise what GDS is here to do and how that role is developing and how it will develop, I suppose over the coming years? Kevin Cunnington: Yeah so you know, we’ve tried to highlight the core values of GDS by putting them into pithy slogans really. ‘Show what good looks like’, and GDS has always been great at showing what good looks like from, right from the early days of user research right through to now. We show what good looks like. Two, slightly new but ‘do the hardest things’. So my view is, GDS should be prototyping things today that departments will want to explore in 2 years time. Good example of that would be voice activation on GOV.UK. Third value is around reflecting the society we serve. We talked a lot about diversity but we also need to encourage SMEs (small-to-medium enterprises) across the UK to work with us. We also need, as GDS, to have a more regional footprint. And then the fourth value we talk about is helping government transform. And that for me, is the one I want to tweak going forward. I think our role is not to help but to lead. Angus Montgomery: Ok. Kevin Cunnington; And just be more proactive about, this is what good in the space of biometrics, or this is what good in the space of voice activation, looks like. And begin to work more proactively with departments to lay out that roundmap that we asked them to follow. Yeah just be much more proactive in the fourth category. Angus Montgomery: Ok. That’s interesting. So is that proactive in the sense of sort of, actively working with these projects or doing these things as exemplars almost? Kevin Cunnington: Yeah exactly, exactly like that Angus. Working with some departments on exemplars, setting the standards and then, really, encouraging, cajoling even, departments to say well, now we’ve figured out how to do voice activation of services, why wouldn’t you make all your major services voice ‘activationable’ by 2027. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Kevin Cunnington: That kind of thing. I think the other big shift is the local digital declaration. Where we’re obviously working much more closer nowadays with local authorities, which I think is a really good thing for the UK because citizens interact far more frequently with local authorities than they do obviously, central government. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. That’s really interesting. And finally, because we’re getting, we’re running towards the end of this episode, just finish with a couple of well, I suppose, quick fire-ish questions. First all, what’s the most challenging part of your job? Kevin Cunnington: Oh quick fire? I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t say keeping your eye on the ball really. There’s a lot going on, and actually just keeping as focused on the core business as well as planning for EU Exit, is definitely the most difficult part of it. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Keeping all, yeah...keeping in charge of everything. What’s the most enjoyable part? Kevin Cunnington: Well this will come as an irony ‘cause most people know I’m quite, well I am an introvert, that’s why I took up computer science but, I love the touring if I’m honest. Angus Montgomery: You’ve got a lot of it coming up so. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah exactly. You know, the fact that we’re going on tour with as we said, Sprint, Civil Service Live, Breaking Down Barriers. I think people also know that when I was in Vodafone, for 3 and a half years, I didn’t spend a single week in the country, in this country. Angus Montgomery: Wow. Kevin Cunnington: I was perpetually as the Global Head somewhere else, looking at stuff in the Czech Republic or Italy. And I feel you know, in the back half of this year, I’d like to do more support our international directorate, Chris Ferguson’s directorate in flying the flag a little for Britain overseas. Angus Montgomery: ‘Cause there’s a lot of work going on there. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, and showing you know, why we have done some of the things we’ve done. And obviously learning from others as we do that. Angus Montgomery: Yeah. Kevin Cunnington: And that, that would make me very happy. Angus Montgomery: Brilliant, yeah. And final question, what’s your, what are you most proud of from your time at GDS so far? Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, there’s, there’s a huge list you know, from GAAP, GOV Wifi, all the work we’ve done on GOV.UK for EU Exit, which I think has been brilliant. The work we’ve started on innovation, the innovation survey, the innovation landscape, the new pipeline process, local digital declarations, the publication of the 7 Lenses book. Being on top of EU Exit, the Academies, the Emerging Tech Development programme, the Global Digital Marketplace. I mean it’s just.. Angus Montgomery: The list goes on. Kevin Cunnington: Yeah, yeah, you could be doing that for quite a while couldn’t you? Angus Montgomery: So thank you again to Kevin for joining us, and thank you for listening to this episode of the Government Digital Service podcast. I really hope that you enjoyed it. If you want to listen to future episodes or in fact, if you want to listen to the episodes that we’ve done so far, please do go to wherever it is that you download your podcasts episodes from, so Spotify, Apple Music, all those places. You’ll find us there, so hit subscribe and we hope you enjoy what we do in the future. And thank you again and goodbye. Kevin Cunnington: Thank you Angus.

Settled status? (Which documents to upload to the EU Exit app) is the subject of this live stream. I am happy to speak with you about your visa options for 2019. Email me at tom.bradford@freeths.co.uk Check out my other videos #settledstatus #brexit #eucitizens.

Podcast: Robin and Sean discover the UK government's Brexit advice website. But is it definite, or maybe? Will you need to come back next week? And how do you handle an EU car crash – literal, or figurative? Who knew there was so much in it? Contains uncertainty. Continue reading The post MMR #11: The government’s EU exit Brexit website: let’s go! appeared first on Modern Media Review Podcast.

John Scott, of Cumbria Trading Standards, looks at sensible measures businesses can take to be ready for Brexit. Click here to complete our Brexit preparedness survey. Here to access the Government’s ‘Prepare for EU Exit’ website. Here for a tool to help you prepare for EU Exit.  Here for official advice on ‘no deal’ planning. Here for the British Chambers of Commerce’s Brexit Hub. And here for advice from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.

John Scott, of Cumbria Trading Standards, looks at sensible measures businesses can take to be ready for Brexit. Click here to complete our Brexit preparedness survey. Here to access the Government’s ‘Prepare for EU Exit’ website. Here for a tool to help you prepare for EU Exit.  Here for official advice on ‘no deal’ planning. Here for the British Chambers of Commerce’s Brexit Hub. And here for advice from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.

Though the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union over two years ago, there are still major differences between the UK and EU regarding how “Brexit” will happen. If no deal is reached, Britain will be like any other country to its massive neighbor and largest trading partner. In this episode, you’ll also learn how to use the phrasal verb “figure out.” Read the full transcript of this episode at http://www.plainenglish.com/80      Transcripts are always free and available now! ¿Hablas español? Você fala português? Parles-tu français? 你会说中文吗？日本語を話せますか？ The episode transcripts include instant translations from English to Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese and Japanese. Hover over or tap a highlighted word for the translation. Connect with Jeff on Twitter (@PlainEnglishPod) and Facebook (PlainEnglishPod). Or e-mail jeff@plainenglish.com If you like the program, please leave a review or rating wherever you listen. It will help others discover the program. Never miss an episode! Sign up to receive updates from Plain English at http://www.plainenglish.com/mail  Subscribers get exclusive links for further reading and additional practice with common English words and phrases. Learn English the fun way! Listen to an American English podcast that you enjoy and understand -- all at a slower speed than normal. | Aprende inglés gratis en línea con nuestro curso. Se habla a una velocidad lenta para que todos entiendan. ¡Aprende ingles con nosotros ahora! | Aprenda Inglês online grátis com o Plain English, a uma velocidade menor, para que todos possam entender.

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of Britain’s historic decision to leave the European Union, and with the October deadline for a deal, set by Michel Barnier, now just months away, this week we look at what is to be expected from the Brexit process in light of Bible prophecy.

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of Britain’s historic decision to leave the European Union, and with the October deadline for a deal, set by Michel Barnier, now just months away, this week we look at what is to be expected from the Brexit process in light of Bible prophecy.