A day in the life of...

I started at CIRU in September 2023, having previously worked in various roles within the University of Southampton since 2011. As the General Manager for the COVID testing Programme, I worked alongside people within CIRU as we developed and implemented a robust testing and reporting system. Prior to that, I was the Head of Quality Management in the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and worked alongside both James Batchelor (the Director of CIRU) and Nicole Vaughan-Spickers (CORE Data Analyst Programmer) as we navigated clinical trial regulations.

Now my life as a Programme Manager at CIRU, in my head is planned and structured with a to do list and Excel sheets. However, the reality of being a PM is that, more often than not, things fly in from all sides and I usually end up doing other things that are more urgent and need my immediate attention. The Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE) programme is definitely one where things fly in at the last minute, disrupting plans, and often requiring assistance from others within the team and therefore ends up disrupting their plans too – shout out to those who have jumped in to resolve issues and provide solutions!

The remainder of my time is spent being a part of the team planning and delivering ISO 27001. The CIRU needs to show that our processes are robust and the system can hold patient identifiable data. The certification will provide assurance across all of our systems. The project is going well, and it is great to work alongside so many within the CIRU to review, and where necessary improve, our processes and so protect people’s data across all our systems.