It will be really sad to go, but I leave with so many fantastic memories, friends & an exciting opportunity to come 👀

It's such a privilege to work in a think tank and be exposed everyday to experts and officials who are so generous with their time and want to make the world a better place

And to work with colleagues who are all pulling in the same direction and I now consider close friends

And last (but not at all least) to @seaneke.bsky.social
and @floconway.bsky.social who are both total legends, I've had some of my best work memories with and are so committed to everyone they work with and everything they do

And to @rosiebeacon.bsky.social who is an absolute powerhouse, the MVP of interesting office chat, and such a pleasure to work with

Backed up by @alicesemark.bsky.social who has hit the ground running (sprinting!) at Reform, lives and breathes what we do, and is relentlessly positive

A massive shout out to Sylvie Macdonald who single handedly runs our GOAT events programme, is such a pro and brings the best possible energy to the office

To @sebrees1.bsky.social and @indiaww.bsky.social who made Reform the best place to start my career, constantly went above and beyond and are two of the most fun, proactive people you could hope to work with

To @stkaye.bsky.social and @jo3hill.bsky.social for being such incredibly generous, kind and thoughtful line managers

Their feedback has always helped me see things differently and their enthusiasm for everything that goes on here is infectious

Firstly, @charliepickles.bsky.social, who I've been so lucky to work with and learn from and who's not only helped Reform triple in size(!) in the time I've been here, but also built it into *the* most exciting and forward-looking think tank working to redesign the State and public services

Report here: reform.uk/publications...

I think this is key, nothing in principle is preventing government changing some of this very quickly.

And, e.g., moves to create specialist DDaT pay bands are encouraging.

If government is cutting “admin costs” by 15% (and headcount) now is definitely the time to get serious about this stuff.

I think there are small pockets that show that - with the right political buy-in - it’s possible to flex pay and certain aspects of culture/branding (relevant section of report below).

But agreed, question is then how you scale this against enormous resistance to breaking current, uniform approach.