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My work

by Craig Ryan

Healthcare Manager — 2024 Election Special

The election special edition of Healthcare Manager is out now.

Election coverage is difficult. There’s a lot of noise to cut through but very little light shed on the big issues. We’ve tried to look at this election from our readers’ perspective, as people trying to manage health and care services in the most difficult environment since World War II. We’ve set out what we see as the business the next government – red or blue – needs to get done in the NHS. We’ve looked at what the experts say about six big issues – waiting lists, workforce, social care, reform, buildings and technology – and what Labour and the Tories are offering. And we’ve examined four (there are many more) looming trouble spots that you won’t hear much about in the campaign.

We also have an interview with GP, comedian and health campaigner Dr Phil Hammond, some tips on how to restart your career after redundancy and some frank advice on what to do if you’re being discriminated against at work.

I hope you enjoy it. The digital edition is free for everyone to download and read. 

If you would like to know more about Healthcare Manager magazine or work with us on a story, please drop me a line.

by Craig Ryan

Healthcare Manager magazine

I’ve been editor of Healthcare Manager since 2016, and worked on the title as a consultant editor since it was launched in 2009. The magazine is published by Managers in Partnership (MiP), the union set up by Unison and the FDA to represent senior managers in the NHS and social care. We publish four issues a year, offering a mix of news reports, analysis, in-depth features and advice on professional, employment and trade union issues.

As editor, I plan and commission content for each issue (as well as the MiP website), research stuff that might interest our readers and sub-edit all copy, as well as contributing news reports and features myself. I work with MiP staff to make sure the union’s priorities are covered and help staff to produce content themselves. I also manage the work of our freelance contributors and photographers, and control expenditure on the magazine within the overall budget set by my bosses at MiP.

Design, layout and production is handled by my colleague James Sparling through our company, Lexographic. I work closely with James to finalise the covers and inside pages of the magazine, including writing headlines and captions, selecting images and signing-off of the pages for print. We also liaise with the printers and distributors to ensure everything runs smoothly and the magazine gets published on time and on budget.

If you would like to know more about Healthcare Manager magazine or work with us on a story, please drop me a line.

Download sample copies of Healthcare Manager

You can always download the latest issue free from the MiP website.

HCM 44 Winter 2019-20 Cover
HCM44 Winter 2019-20
HCM43 Autumn 2019
by Craig Ryan

From ground zero to net zero

Published in Healthcare Manager 56, Summer 2023

Decarbonising healthcare will take everything we’ve got and affect everyone working in the NHS. But well-meaning national strategies are struggling to have much impact on the ground. I spoke to pioneering surgeon Aneel Bhangu about the barriers to change and ask why NHS staff and unions aren’t more involved in meeting our greatest long-term challenge.

Read the web version
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by Craig Ryan

The last report?

Published in Healthcare Manager 53, Autumn 2022

The annual deliberations of the NHS Pay Review body have been a fixture of industrial relations in the NHS for nearly 40 years. But declining trust among staff, high inflation and a marked failure to tackle spiralling staff shortages have put the NHS pay system under severe strain, writes Craig Ryan. Has the review body run out of road? And what could take its place?

Read the web version
Download PDF
by Craig Ryan

Timebanking UK website

Through my company Lexographic, I’m working with Timebanking UK to design and develop a brand new website, which we hope will go live in August 2020.

Timebanking UK (TBUK) is the national charity that supports time banks across the UK and promotes the concept of time banking itself. The new website will provide a wealth of resources on timebanking for general readers, time banks, sponsors and funding organisations. Available resources will include videos, infographics and case studies of people whose lives have been transformed by timebanking.

My job is to advise Timebanking UK staff on content, develop and maintain the content plan, edit all copy and to generally keep the project on track. Design and technical stuff is mainly handled by my business partner, James, working with TBUK staff.

We are planning to begin a second phase of development in Autumn 2020, once the new site has gone live. This will involve a dedicated area for member time banks, a discussion forum and online booking for training and events.

While working with Timebanking UK, I became interested in the potential of timebanking to build stronger communities and tackle social isolation, loneliness, poverty and mental ill-health. In 2019, I accepted an invitation from Timebanking UK to become a trustee of the charity.

To find out more about timebanking and TBUK, visit the charity’s old website (and you may get some idea why we’re replacing it).

by Craig Ryan

Managers in Partnership website

I act as editor for the Managers in Partnership (MiP) website, working with MiP staff, the elected national committee and MiP members to plan, write and publish all the content on the site.

As part of the development team, I helped to plan the site content and structure, contributed to the technical and visual development of the site, and wrote or edited many of the content pages. Since the site was launched in October 2018, I’ve worked with MiP to maintain and develop the website, and to keep the content fresh, up-to-date and relevant to the union’s 7,000 members.

I plan and edit most of the site content, contribute many articles myself, write news updates and advice pages, and work with head office on social media promotion of the website content.

At the moment we are working to integrate our content production, with a single content pipeline for the union’s website and magazine, Healthcare Manager (of which I am also editor). I’m also now reviewing the site structure and ‘static’ pages, to make sure we are providing the information, advice and guidance that members need.

by Craig Ryan

Public Service magazine

Public Service Magazine (PSM) is a quarterly news and features title published by the FDA, the union for the UK’s top civil servants. I launched PSM in 1998, when I was head of communications at the FDA, and was editor for several years before going freelance . I’ve continued to work with the FDA on PSM and other projects ever since. In 2017-18, the union invited me back to the editor’s chair while the current editor took maternity leave.

Back in the nineties, we wanted PSM to be a radically different trade union magazine. We felt conventional union journals, like the FDA’s existing newsletter, were aimed too much at activists rather than ordinary members, and tended to treat readers solely as trade unionists rather than professionals. Our guiding principle at the time, much chewed over in the pubs around Whitehall, was that we were ‘moving from Pravda to The Times’.

We produced content that focused on careers, professional and policy debates, advice and guidance as well as bread and butter employment issues. We sometimes published articles that challenged the union’s official line or which tried to stir up debate. We introduced colour photographs and graphics for the first time, and far higher standards of editorial and design. And we published a lot – eleven issues a year in those pre-digital days! Although the look and feel of PSM has changed much over the last two decades, the magazine remains true to the same ethos today.

Over the years, I’ve contributed hundreds of articles to PSM, including features, news reports, interviews, book reviews and analysis pieces. You can read some of them in my cuttings section, or see some of the issues I edited recently below. Through my company Lexographic, I’ve continued to work with the FDA on projects large and small, most notably on the union’s centenary project, Our Story, in 2019.

Download sample copies of Public Service Magazine

  • PSM Winter 2017-18
  • PSM Summer 2017
by Craig Ryan

You name it, I’ll write it

I’ve been a professional writer for more than 25 years and there aren’t many things I haven’t worked on (actually there are loads but you know what I mean). Using a professional journalist or copywriter can be a much more effective way of getting the content you need than taking on an expensive PR agency (and we’re usually a lot quicker too!).

The writing and writing-related services I can offer include:

Journalism

  • Features
  • Interviews
  • News
  • Reviews (especially books)
  • Analysis
  • Blogs
  • Conference reports
  • Tips and “how to” pieces
  • Diary columns
  • News in briefs (“nibs”)
  • Opinion pieces
  • Long-form articles
  • Ghostwritten articles

Research

  • Policy development
  • Historical research
  • Interviews & round table discussions
  • Archive work
  • Statistical research & analysis

Copywriting

  • Website content
  • Social media
  • Annual Reports
  • Promo copy
  • Discussion papers
  • Leaflets & flyers
  • Slogans and taglines
  • Presentations
  • Brochures
  • Conference reports
  • Book editing
  • Speeches & presentations
  • Forewords and introductions

So if you need get something written, re-written, edited or just knocked into shape, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do. And, as I work with a graphic designer and web developer, we can offer a full design and production service too through our company, Lexographic .

by Craig Ryan

FDA Centenary project

The FDA, my former employer and one of my oldest clients, celebrated its centenary in 2019. As an ex-editor of the FDA’s Public Service Magazine, the union asked me to lead a major research and publishing project on the history and development of the FDA and the UK civil service over the last century.

This involved hundreds of hours of research, then writing and editing three colour supplements on the history of the union and a souvenir brochure. I also collaborated with FDA staff and a production company to produce a short promotional video for the centenary celebrations.

Throughout the project I worked closely with FDA staff and elected members of the executive committee to identify the key themes for the research and to make sure the project fitted in with the FDA’s overall strategy for its centenary year.

I held numerous interviews with key figures including three cabinet secretaries, former union general secretaries and presidents, and FDA staff past and present. I also interviewed and chaired round table discussions with civil servants involved in some of the key events in British government, including devolution, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the setting up of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Arms to Iraq scandal.

The research threw up a number of revelations including the story of the FDA’s first woman leader as far back as 1944, the union’s early support for equal pay for women and employment rights for gay civil servants, and the role of a Tory MP is founding the union itself.

The supplements and brochure were extremely well received by FDA members and the video won an award from the TUC. Overall, the project made a significant contribution to the success of the FDA’s centenary celebrations.