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The PSC In Conversation

The PSC In Conversation

By The PSC

Insights into leadership, partnership and success from influential voices in public services.

Hosted by The PSC (previously 2020 Delivery), a team of public service consultants based in the UK and united by the belief that better public services are the key to a stronger society.
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What Went Wrong At The Post Office?

The PSC In ConversationJun 07, 2021

00:00
19:58
Every Interaction Matters - Why Psychological Safety is Vital for your Team
Mar 13, 202439:37
A Review of 2023
Dec 19, 202328:09
In Conversation with Tim Thomas on Quantum Computing

In Conversation with Tim Thomas on Quantum Computing

Chris Bradley - Senior Partner of The PSC and Tim Thomas of Applied Quantum Computing put their heads together to discuss this emerging technology and all of its potential guises.


Listen in as they lift the veil on Quantum Computing and break it down beyond the incredible processing power that these computers will have.

Nov 22, 202343:15
In Conversation with Ourselves

In Conversation with Ourselves

Antonio, Katie and Jonathan from The PSC get together to review all of our party season content. From Liberal Democrats, Conservaties and Labour key themes and insights. Take a listen to hear how this fits with our mission of making public services brilliant.

Oct 25, 202318:03
In Conversation with James Friend

In Conversation with James Friend

Join Jonathan and James as they discuss Governing in 21st Century.


James was former special advisor to Jeremy Hunt as Secretary of State for Health, he has also twice served as Leader of Mole Valley District Council and is currently Chair of Good Shepherd Trust a Multi-Academy Trust with 18 schools and is Director of Digital Strategy at NHS England – London Region.


All views expressed in our podcasts are of the individuals and do not represent the views of The PSC.

Oct 04, 202331:30
In Conversation with Jamie Martin

In Conversation with Jamie Martin

Join Antonio and Jamie as they discuss Governing in 21st Century.


Jamie was former Special Advisor to Michael Gove while he was Secretary of State for Education. He also worked as a management consultant, focused on the public sector, in the UK and Middle East. He has also run EdTech startups based in South Africa, and now India. 


All views expressed in our podcasts are of the individuals and do not represent the views of The PSC.

Oct 04, 202328:07
In Conversation with - Alan Leaman OBE

In Conversation with - Alan Leaman OBE

Antonio Weiss and Smriti Singh of The PSC in conversation with Alan Leaman on the topic of Governing in the 21st Century.


Alan is the former Liberal Democrat Director of Strategy, speechwriter to Paddy Ashdown, was the CEO of the industry association for management consultancies (The MCA) from 2008 until 2019 and was awarded the OBE for political and public service. 


Listen in as they discuss what it means to govern in this day and age.


All views expressed in our podcasts are of the individuals and do not represent the views of The PSC.

Sep 26, 202335:55
Virtual Wards

Virtual Wards

In our latest episode, Harris Lorie & Dr Stefano Palazzo discuss what virtual wards are and the benefits and challenges the represent.


Stef is a respiratory doctor at King’s College Hospital. He is also a much-respected and loved ex-colleague of ours at The PSC. He shares his first hand experience of virtual wards.


This podcast is hosted by Harris from our Transformation team.

Aug 04, 202349:29
Really listening to those who are seldom heard, Part 3: The importance of accurate representation in user research

Really listening to those who are seldom heard, Part 3: The importance of accurate representation in user research

Welcome to the third instalment of “Really listening to those who are seldom heard”, a podcast mini-series focusing on digital inequality in modern Britain.

Today’s episode is brought to you in partnership with Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Acas are on a mission to make “working life better for everyone in Britain”.


In this episode, David Finch from Acas speaks to our very own, Shuying Xu and Eleanor Bruce. They discuss their recent collaborative project and the process involved in developing an inclusive and accessible channel strategy at Acas. The project involved many discovery interviews and inclusive research, with a key focus on the seldom heard groups.

Together, they discuss the benefits of improving services for those hardest to reach, the challenges faced when trying to ensure the seldom heard groups are correctly represented and how these learnings will shape the future of accessibility within public services.


We’d like to thank David and the Acas team for the valuable insight taken from this project.


If you could benefit from the support or advice of Acas, you can call their helpline on 0300 123 1100 (translation services available), use the Relay UK text service on 18001 0300 123 1100 or visit their website www.acas.org.uk

Acas are an independent public body that receives funding from the government.

May 17, 202337:49
Can digital and data save the NHS?
Mar 29, 202346:59
Really listening to those who are seldom heard, Part 2: Citizen Science

Really listening to those who are seldom heard, Part 2: Citizen Science

In this, the second episode of our 'Really listening to those who are seldom heard' mini-series, we're speaking today with two fantastic guests from the Netherlands. Dr. Özlem Safranti-Bozkurt is a Policy Advisor at the City of Dordrecht in the Netherlands and a Citizen Science expert and Dana van der Zee is a Digital Innovation Consultant at Bax & Company

They give their insights into how Citizen Science can actually work on the ground to improve lives, with real concrete examples of how the power of people and citizen engagement can change the way people use parks, think about their cities and even think about global challenges.

You can read more about some of the projects we discuss: 


Feb 01, 202334:51
Really listening to those who are seldom heard, Part 1: The Good Things Foundation

Really listening to those who are seldom heard, Part 1: The Good Things Foundation

This is the first in our new 'Really listening to those who are seldom heard' mini-series tackling digital inequality in modern Britain. 

Today's podcast features the fantastic Helen Milner, CEO of the Good Things Foundation, dedicated to building 'a world where everyone benefits from digital'. And what a challenge that is, with 10 million adults lacking the most basic digital skills, and 2 million UK households unable to afford internet access. 

In a fascinating and wide ranging conversation Helen speaks to us about the role of community, large businesses, volunteering and government in solving these massive challenges and bridging the digital divide. 

Mentioned in this podcast is the Virgin Media O2 Databank, set up by the mobile network 'to help those in need stay connected' by giving free data to people across the UK. Find out more and give 7GB of data at the O2 Databank website. We also said we'd share a link to the Good Things Foundation website's 'Get Involved' section, where you can help in a wide variety of ways. 

Jan 30, 202335:56
Public sector trends for the year ahead

Public sector trends for the year ahead

This week we speak to Derek Alton, head of Community at Apolitical, which hosts a network of more that 170,000 public servants worldwide. Derek recently asked Apolitical’s network what public servants around the world viewed as the most important trends of 2022 and what they’re most excited and concerned about for 2023. We knew we had to get him on the podcast to find out more.


Make sure to sign up to Derek’s newsletter, Insights from the Field and follow him on Twitter @DerekAlton.

Jan 23, 202321:54
How To Fix The NHS

How To Fix The NHS

In this special - and urgent - episode of The PSC in Conversation, we speak to Lord Bob Kerslake about the current crisis the NHS is facing. We diagnose the current state of affairs, how we got here, and some potential solutions and recommendations that could support NHS and social care leaders moving forward.

Lord Bob Kerslake was previously head of the Home Civil Service, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Communities and Local Government, chair of King’s College Hospital, and currently Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and a cross-bench peer, amongst many other things - we can think of few people better to speak to on this topic and we hope you find the conversation interesting.

Jan 05, 202337:02
How can scanning improve patient safety? With Dr Kelsey Flott

How can scanning improve patient safety? With Dr Kelsey Flott

Dr Kelsey Flott, Deputy Director of Patient Safety at NHSX talks to us about finding her passion for patient safety at an early age, the future of technology to drive improvements in patient safety, and how she navigates her full time work at NHSX and her academic work at Imperial. 

Kelsey and our digital lead, Phil Buckley, discuss how scanning implantable medical devices can improve patient safety, save clinician time and prevent stock waste at Trusts using just very simple technology. 

We've loved working with Kelsey on this scanning programme and thoroughly enjoyed hearing more about her career and research on this podcast! 

Jun 23, 202223:35
Top tips to start your SME's sustainability journey

Top tips to start your SME's sustainability journey

This week, our sustainability team pairs up with our friends and long term collaborators on sustainability initiatives, JMAN Group. 

The teams discuss everything you need to know about kick starting a sustainability initiative for your SME - from defining what sustainability means for your organisation to getting wider company buy in, setting targets and measuring change. They share lessons they learned along the way and top tips for others considering starting their sustainability journey. 

Thanks to our fantastic guests from JMAN Group, Molly Buxton and Freddie Hampel and our wonderful The PSC hosts Eleanor Gibbon and Donato Melchiorre. 

Enjoy! 

Jun 15, 202235:24
Can tech solve the biggest challenges in higher education?

Can tech solve the biggest challenges in higher education?

This is a special episode of The PSC in Conversation featuring an inside view of our fantastic panel event last week. We discussed the big question: can technology help us tackle some of the greatest challenges in Higher Education?The chair for our event is Lord Bob Kerslake, Chair of Civic University Commission and Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, and our stellar panel of leaders in Higher Education are:

  • Sara Custer, editor, THE Campus, Times Higher Education
  • Rajay Naik, CEO of Skilled Education
  • Jonathan Slater, former Permanent Secretary, UK Department for Education
  • Susie Whigham, National Programme Director, The Brilliant Club
  • Antonio Weiss, Senior Partner, The PSC

Should we unlearn the lessons of digital learning during COVID? Does technology really increase inclusivity? Listen to find out more...If you’d like to come to future panels and events that we organise at The PSC, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn or twitter @wearethepsc and we’ll keep you up to date with what’s coming up.

May 30, 202201:19:27
What does a product manager do? With Mark Buckley

What does a product manager do? With Mark Buckley

Meet The PSC digital team's newest product manager, Mark Buckley! 

With nearly five years experience at the Government Digital Service, Mark has worked to develop GOV.UK PaaS (Platform as a Service), a secure cloud hosting and software development platform for all government needs. From small beginnings, it is now running more than 3,000 applications and services for the public sector and processes around 130 million requests a day.

Mark speaks to Katie Burns about why he wanted to work in the public sector, how he became a product manager and they bond over the first Midlands accent only podcast on The PSC in Conversation! 

May 23, 202215:21
How to stop wasting millions through bad buying with Peter Smith

How to stop wasting millions through bad buying with Peter Smith

We're so pleased to speak with procurement expert Peter Smith. He is the author of the fabulous "Bad Buying: How organisations waste billions through failures, frauds and f*ck-ups" and "Procurement with Purpose" among other titles. 

With a long career in the procurement industry working across both public and private sector - Peter shines a light on how ineptitude, mismanagement and fraud are costing companies billions. In his newest book he talks about how that mismanagement is also impacting the environment.

Peter and Tony discuss why being a procurement manager is a great job, the difference between procurement in the public and private sectors, and Peter shares some tips of how to improve procurement efficiency... 

It's a must listen for anyone running a business or involved in buying! 

Speaking of buying... you can buy Peter's book here: https://badbuying.com/ and follow him on Twitter @gpetersmith. 

May 11, 202239:16
How inequality is driving A&E attendance - with Rhian Monteith

How inequality is driving A&E attendance - with Rhian Monteith

People that frequently use A&E services make up less than 1% of the population but account for more than 16% of A&E attendance. 

This week, we discuss the role of inequality in driving A&E attendance and how High Intensity Use services can help to reduce pressures on A&E by putting people first. 

Rhian Monteith spearheaded a project for The British Red Cross last year, and our podcast hosts Katie and Mikoto were thrilled to work closely with her on it. In this episode, Rhian discusses their findings, her career, and why frequent use of urgent care services is a systemic problem to solve, not an individual problem. 

Rhian Monteith is National Clinical Lead for NHSEI of the High Intensity Use (HIU) Programme.

Read The Red Cross report here: https://bit.ly/3keQg4s

Follow Rhian on Twitter @MonteithRhian! 

Apr 26, 202239:30
IWD Special with Vikie Bew

IWD Special with Vikie Bew

Meet Vikie Bew, head of Strategic Projects at HM Treasury. She talks to us about wanting a career with social value and how to make sure that the organisations you work with are making the best use of your skill sets. 

This is the final episode in our mini-series where we speak to powerhouse women in the public sector who previously worked at The PSC - they speak to us about the women who inspired them, how they managed their career and much more. 

Apr 19, 202232:51
IWD Special with Phoebe Robinson

IWD Special with Phoebe Robinson

Our second episode to celebrate last month’s International Women’s Day.Phoebe Robinson is the Director of Maternity and CYP at NHS England. She talks to us about her career path, discusses what she’s learned on the way and opens up about some of the women who have most inspired her professionally and personally.

Apr 06, 202228:48
IWD Special with Caroline Cake

IWD Special with Caroline Cake

Happy International Women's Day! 

The PSC is celebrating this year by launching a podcast mini-series featuring our fantastic The PSC alumni who have gone on to do great things in the public sector. 

These powerhouse women talk about what inspires them, their experiences both positive and negative navigating their career as a woman and their hopes for the future of public services.

We begin the series on a real high by speaking to Caroline Cake who worked at The PSC for over 12 years and helped to develop it into the values based business it is today. She is currently Entrepreneur in Residence at Oxford Sciences Enterprises, applying her deep health data knowledge to the challenges of dementia. It was an absolute joy to speak to her! 


Mar 07, 202223:50
What makes a good education? With Jonathan Slater

What makes a good education? With Jonathan Slater

We join the Ex-Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) - Jonathan Slater - in this year's first The PSC in Conversation podcast.

Jonathan helped steer The DfE through enormous change both before and during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing the closing of schools to providing laptops and online materials to support online learning from scratch.

He speaks to Antonio about admiring his parents who were teachers, what a good education looks like and what technology's role could look like in the future of education.

Jonathan has joined The PSC as our latest Senior Advisor to help grow our support for education clients.

Jan 27, 202243:50
A Holiday Special With The PSC

A Holiday Special With The PSC

The PSC digital team reviews some of the digi highs and lows across the public sector over the past year and what they're most looking forward to in 2022.

From working with the Red Cross to shine a light on inequalities as a driver for A&E attendance, to working with the UKSA to reduce debris collisions in space – the team share their personal highlights at The PSC too.

Dec 17, 202127:40
Living with Legacy, Part 8: Is Legacy Tech Always Bad?

Living with Legacy, Part 8: Is Legacy Tech Always Bad?

Over the last two months, our digital team has spoken to rocket engineers, Gov Tech experts, academics, authors and technical architects to try to understand the true role of legacy tech in our lives and whether we should be worried about it.

In this podcast, the team shares what they learned…

Oct 25, 202111:33
Living with Legacy, Part 7: Derek Alton
Oct 11, 202137:00
Living with Legacy, Part 6: Dr Adam Baker

Living with Legacy, Part 6: Dr Adam Baker

Our final Living with Legacy guest is no other than a rocket engineer! Our host Fiona Jamieson speaks to Dr Adam Baker, an entrepreneur who designs more affordable space launch services and is committed to sustainability in space.

We speak to him about the shelf life of space technology, managing the economics versus sustainability of repairing satellites and why it’s so hard to hack a satellite. If you want to understand more about the future of sustainability in space, this is the podcast for you!

Oct 04, 202129:26
Living with Legacy, Part 5: Emily Mills, UKSA

Living with Legacy, Part 5: Emily Mills, UKSA

Our Living with Legacy series hurtles into space this week as our host Phil Buckley speaks to The UK Space Agency’s Emily Mills.

When it comes to space, what goes up doesn’t come down. So, our near space is starting to fill up fast with space debris that sadly poses an active threat to our live satellites that we rely on down here on earth.  

Emily tells us about the UKSA’s very exciting programme to manage space debris in orbit, and how it could also help us service active satellites in space to prolong their life.

When it comes to legacy tech, the space sector seems ahead of its curve in managing it, and what we discuss reveals the exciting future of sustainable use of space.


Sep 08, 202119:07
Improving Mental Health Services with Dr Fredrik Johansson

Improving Mental Health Services with Dr Fredrik Johansson

Does the road to truly outstanding personalised care lie in standardisation?

On this week’s episode, we’re talking about NHS mental health services. There’s been a huge push to improve access to these services in recent years, but how can we make sure they’re best designed for both patient experience and the quality of care they provide?

We meet Dr Fredrik Johansson, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. He provides leadership to the Islington Crisis Team – one of the first in the UK – to develop community services to support people in mental health crisis.

We talk about approaches to reduce admissions and readmissions in mental health services, and what has and hasn’t worked in his experience as a Quality Improvement lead…

If you’d like to hear more from Dr Fredrik, go and follow him on Twitter @doctorfreddie

Sep 01, 202149:14
Living with Legacy, Part 4: Archana Beeram

Living with Legacy, Part 4: Archana Beeram

Where would you find the most legacy tech – in the US or UK healthcare systems?

There aren’t that many people with direct experience working in healthcare settings on both sides of the pond who also have an interest in legacy tech - but we’ve found one and she’s our latest Living with Legacy guest, Archana Beeram!

Archana works with us at The PSC helping NHS Trusts solve complex operational challenges such as tracking implantable medical devices, but she also spent time at the start of her career working at different hospitals in New Jersey.

Archana discusses the nuances of the two systems and how even though they are very different beasts, the challenges they face in standardising tech isn’t all that different…

Aug 23, 202125:21
Living with Legacy, Part 3: Dr Tanya Filer

Living with Legacy, Part 3: Dr Tanya Filer

Throwing back the veil on the complicated, at times murky, and often wonderful world of GovTech this week – we welcome Dr Tanya Filer, our latest Living with Legacy guest. 

With over a decade’s experience researching how governments across the world use and procure technology, it was fascinating to hear her say that ‘being interested in GovTech is also being interested in the limits of GovTech.’ We discussed misinformation in elections, how GovTech can impact the character of a state, and the importance of avoiding solutionism when it comes to technology…

We’d highly recommend you follow her on Twitter @TanyaFiler and through her digital innovation advisory firm @StateUpHQ . You can also delve into her research at The Bennett Institute for Public Policy.

Aug 01, 202133:49
Living with Legacy, Part 2: Robert Hettrick

Living with Legacy, Part 2: Robert Hettrick

We continue our Living with Legacy series this week by welcoming technical architect to the stars – Robert Hettrick. And by stars, perhaps we’ve spent too long working in the public sector digital world, but we mean The Department for Education and the Government Digital Service, among others…

Robert tells Tony why being a technical architect is a bit like being an elevator architect, how ‘groupthink’ led to the Post Office Scandal and how the future of technology and managing legacy systems will hinge on ethical application and taking a more holistic view.

Jul 26, 202133:55
Living with Legacy, Part 1: Marianne Bellotti
Jul 19, 202133:16
What Went Wrong At The Post Office?

What Went Wrong At The Post Office?

This week we speak about the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice - The Post Office Scandal.  This is the tragic story of a failed IT system that led to innocent post office workers going to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft. We drill down into the digital side of what really went wrong and what it can tell us about how to manage legacy systems across the public sector.

Jun 07, 202119:58
Delivery Units: Do They Work?
May 05, 202118:15
COVID’s Unsung Heroes of Tech

COVID’s Unsung Heroes of Tech

Do you think TikTok or the NHS Test and Trace app has been downloaded more in the UK during the pandemic? If you’re not sure, then this episode is for you. Our digital team share the stories of the unsung heroes of tech that haven’t quite had their fair share of the limelight. We also discuss what people buying tech for the public sector can learn from this period.

Apr 09, 202115:33
Unbiased Recruitment: Is It Possible?

Unbiased Recruitment: Is It Possible?

Unconscious bias has hit the headlines since the UK Chair of a major management consultancy reportedly told colleagues that it doesn’t exist. We’ve been working to reduce unconscious bias in our recruitment process for the past few years with our partners Be Applied, so we wanted to have a frank conversation about our experiences. Tune in to hear how and why we’ve changed our approach to recruitment, and most importantly – is it working?

Mar 04, 202120:11
Skin Deep: Diversity In Medical Images

Skin Deep: Diversity In Medical Images

This week we’re thrilled to have Dr Kaylita Chantiluke on our podcast. She's a paediatric registrar and also the organisations lead of Skin Deep - an initiative aimed to provide a free, open-access bank of photographs of medical conditions in the paediatric population in a range of skin tones.
You can check out her blog called 'Musings of a Black Medic' where she writes on topics intersecting blackness, feminism and medicine. 
On this podcast, we talk about her experiences in medicine, how the Skin Deep project is being received by the medical community and her impressive aims for the future.

Feb 11, 202116:55
The Race To 15 Million

The Race To 15 Million

What would it take for the UK to hit 15m COVID vaccines by 15th February?

In the midst of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people’s hopes for a return to normality are resting on the successful and speedy roll out of the COVID vaccine. In this episode, our host Antonio speaks to Chris Bradley from The PSC’s mass vaccination support team, and Jyotika Singh, a pharmacist and associate with The PSC who has worked on the annual flu jab programme.
With their help, we unravel some of the trickiest logistical challenges of the vaccine roll out from keeping the public engaged to ensuring the programme is inclusive.

Jan 15, 202131:08
How Can Universities Choose Students, If No-one Trusts Exams?

How Can Universities Choose Students, If No-one Trusts Exams?

The controversy over A-Level results this year has led to massive over-subscription at many universities. GCSE results faced a huge backlash too.

So, next year, how long your school stayed open during the pandemic may matter more in determining grades than pupil knowledge or aptitude. How should universities respond?

In this recap of The PSC x Tortoise Media Live Event on 11th November, we hear from students, teachers, policy makers and leaders in Higher Education on this pressing question.

Nov 23, 202019:39
Are Algorithms Really Worth It?

Are Algorithms Really Worth It?

With so much controversy about algorithm use in the public sector, Rose and Antonio from The PSC join us this week to discuss some of the thorny questions emerging.

In conversation with our host, Katie, they break down: what we mean when we talk about algorithms in public services, how effective they are and whether we can make them better.

Oct 23, 202024:43
Roundtable - Collaboration & Partnerships

Roundtable - Collaboration & Partnerships

In Episode 2 we share our findings from our recent roundtable with special guest Peter Lees.

Last week, as part of our partnerships event series at The PSC, we hosted a roundtable of executives from across the NHS to hear first-hand how COVID changed their ways of working.

We wanted to know three things. Can better collaboration between trusts help us tackle the huge backlog of elective activity post-COVID? Did COVID change ways of working and communicating across hospital trusts, and might that be for the better in the long term?

We were thrilled that the roundtable was hosted by Peter Lees, Chief Executive of the intercollegiate UK Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, an organisation with over 2,200 members. He also serves on the Clinical Governing Body of West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group, the General Advisory Council of the King’s Fund and the NHS Leadership Academy Steering Group.

Katie caught up with Peter after the event, where he shared his thoughts on what had been discussed at the roundtable.

Aug 17, 202017:17
Leadership In Crises

Leadership In Crises

Katie and Antonio from The PSC focus on Leadership in Crises, and specifically the impact of Coronavirus in the UK.

Our guests are Chair of The PSC, Sir Ian Carruthers, and Dr Stefano Palazzo, a PSC consultant who has returned to the front line during COVID-19.

Jul 27, 202026:59
Introducing our new podcast...

Introducing our new podcast...

Katie and Antonio introduce the new podcast from The PSC, a specialist consultancy dedicated to improving UK public services.

Featuring challenging and insightful interviews with influential voices in public services, the team at The PSC will be uncovering insights into health, education, digital transformation and data science.

Subscribe wherever you listen.

Jul 25, 202000:48