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What if children and families could explore a hospital before they arrived? In this episode of Wild Card - Whose Shoes?, I talk to Alan Tisch, founder of Medisites 360, about an innovative project with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital: creating a digital version of the hospital that children and families can explore in advance. Where do we park? Where are we going? What will the MRI scanner look like? What will actually happen when we get there? These may seem like small questions, but knowing what to expect can make a huge difference to anxiety, confidence and attendance - particularly for neurodivergent children and families who may find unfamiliar environments especially challenging. Lemon lightbulbs from this episode  🍋💡🍋 💡 Preparation can be a form of care. Knowing what to expect can reduce fear before a child even reaches the hospital. 💡The hospital journey starts before arrival. Parking, finding the right entrance and understanding the route are part of the experience, not peripheral details. 💡A digital hospital should reflect real life. It needs to show the practical, emotional and sensory realities of a visit. 💡Small uncertainties can create major barriers. For some families, not knowing what will happen can contribute to anxiety, avoidance or missed appointments. 💡Neurodivergent children need more than information. They may benefit from predictable, personalised ways to explore unfamiliar spaces at their own pace. 💡What we measure shapes what we improve. Attendance figures alone may not reveal the anxiety, effort or support required to get to an appointment. 💡Technology should strengthen human connection. A virtual experience cannot replace reassurance from a trusted person - but it can make that conversation easier. 💡 Imagination can make preparation engaging. Virtual elves, games and activities for siblings can transform waiting and exploring from a source of stress into something more manageable. 💡Digital design can expose health inequalities. We need to ask who has access, who is represented and what additional support families may need. 💡 Good ideas need courage and collaboration. The conversation connects with my own history at Alder Hey, Joanne Minford’s inspiring work, earlier Whose Shoes? coproduction conversations and ... the new neonatal unit now becoming a reality because people listened, believed and turned ideas into action! This is a wide-ranging conversation about how technology can make healthcare more human, not less. What would help you feel less anxious before arriving for a hospital appointment? LINKS Find out more about Alan Tisch and Medisites 360 Find out more about Whose Shoes and the #CYPWhoseShoes work We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

In this episode of Wild Card – Whose Shoes?, Gill Phillips is joined by Samira Ben Omar, newly appointed Professor of Inclusive Practice at St Mary’s School of Medicine. Samira is helping to shape something genuinely exciting: a brand-new, socially accountable school of medicine, built around communities, inclusion, humility, curiosity and trust.  Rather than starting with programmes or project plans, Samira talks about starting with conversations — coffee mornings, community spaces, lived experience and the real messiness of people’s lives. Together, Gill and Samira explore what it means to train future doctors and healthcare leaders who are more than “book smart”; people who can sit with discomfort, listen deeply, understand power, and recognise the huge resource that already exists in communities. There are powerful stories in this conversation: parents navigating SEND systems, GPs learning from mining communities, the importance of faith and community spaces, the role of music therapy, and the challenge of measuring what people actually value. A conversation full of goosebumps, lemon lightbulbs and a very big “watch this space”. For anyone interested in the future of healthcare, co-production, community power, medical education and human-centred care - this one is not to be missed Lemon lightbulbs from this episode  🍋💡🍋 💡 Communities are not an “extra” - they are the lifeblood of local action. Samira makes the powerful point that community and faith spaces are where so much real support, trust, advocacy and practical action already happens. 💡 Future doctors need to be more than “book smart”. Clinical excellence matters, but so do curiosity, humility, listening deeply, understanding communities, and being able to sit with messiness and discomfort. 💡 Trust takes time - but trustworthiness can start now. Do what you say you will do, be known as a person, and honour reciprocal relationships. 💡 “I am your red book. I am your integrated neighbourhood team.” Fatuma’s story is incredibly powerful: the parent as the holder of the whole memory, navigating everything for her child in a fragmented system. 💡 "People do more when they decide for themselves." A beautifully simple line with huge implications for healthcare, co-production, leadership and communities. 💡 The system often responds to complexity with more complexity. Samira reminds us that “simple is very difficult to do”. Huge synergy here with Whose Shoes! The answer is not always another framework, strategy or project plan. 💡 Relationships require you to move beyond your role. If Samira needs to make coffee at the Roehampton coffee morning because they’re short of volunteers, that matters. It says: I’m here as a human being, not just as a title. 💡 Communities can sustain clinicians too. A really interesting twist: communities are not just people to be “helped”. They can be allies, advocates, bridges and sources of nourishment for doctors working in difficult systems. 💡 Human-centred care goes beyond person-centred care. Person-centred care can sit within a clinical interaction. Human-centred care asks how we design whole systems around people, families, communities and real lives. 💡 Measure what people value - not just what the system asks for. Samira’s commitment to co-designing an outcomes framework feels huge. Not just measuring activity, but working with communities to understand what really matters. 💡 Power needs to be noticed, not ignored. This conversation keeps coming back to power: professional power, institutional power, community power, lived experience power - and the need to design spaces where those dynamics are acknowledged. 💡 The future doctor who  learned from going down the mine, before the consulting room. The story of the GP in Wales being sent down the mines on day one is unforgettable. You cannot treat people well if you have no feel for the lives they are living. SO. Watch this space. This is not just a set of nice ideas. St Mary’s School of Medicine is trying to build something different from the start - with communities, inclusion and social accountability as the golden thread.  SUCH an exciting conversation. Thank you and good luck, Samira!   We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

On the day before my 70th birthday (how did that happen?!), I wanted to mark the occasion by talking to someone who is making us all think differently about ageing. My guest is Sian Lockwood - co-founder of WIGO (When I Get Old) and writer of the brilliant OOPS blog: Outspoken Older People Subverting. We talk about what it really feels like to get older - from feeling 35 in your head (most of the time!) to navigating the realities of changing energy, friendships, family life and purpose. There’s honesty, humour, a bit of ranting about ageism … and a strong sense that life is still very much for living. A warm, wise and gently subversive conversation about growing older - and making it count. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon Lightbulbs from this episode  💡 You don’t stop needing purpose just because you get older. 💡 Ageing isn’t one thing — some days you’re 35, some days you’re 120. 💡 Being older can make you invisible — unless you choose not to be. 💡 Purpose doesn’t retire when you do. 💡 Don’t waste a minute of the time that’s left. 💡 Slowing down can help you notice more, not less. 💡 It’s not about pretending to be young — it’s about living fully as you are. 💡 Older people still want to contribute, not just be cared for. 💡 Sometimes the best thing for your wellbeing is to get up and do something for someone else. LINKS OOPS blog - Outspoken Older People Subverting WIGO - When I Get Old campaign Brian Dolan - End PJ paralysis Episode 64. Dorothy Hall - age discrimination in the NHS Episode 67. VE Day Special - Dulcie Matthews and Dorothy Hall - Hope, Resilience, and the Spirit of Coventry We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

In this powerful and deeply human conversation, Gill Phillips is joined by Lindsey Douglas – parent carer, advocate and DMI trainer at Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Lindsey speaks with honesty and warmth about family life with her son Grayson, who is autistic, has a severe learning disability and complex needs, and about the journey from crisis and exhaustion to greater understanding, support and hope. She shares what it means to look beyond behaviour, to ask what sits underneath it, and to recognise behaviour as communication. The episode explores the value of curiosity, the importance of understanding unmet need, and the difference genuine lived experience can make when it is welcomed into the workforce in meaningful ways rather than as a tick-box exercise. Gill and Lindsey also reflect on the award-winning #CYPWhoseShoes work with Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the development of new Whose Shoes? resources around supporting children and young people, and specifically those with SEND and neurodivergence, and how Staffordshire partners used these conversations to help shape their SEND strategy. This is a rich conversation about co-production, trust, family life, young carers, practical support, and the power of bringing parent carers and professionals together in ways that build understanding rather than blame. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon Lightbulbs from this episode  💡 A child who seems like a “dream baby” may actually be missing early interaction and communication cues. 💡 Behaviour is not “bad behaviour” to be controlled. It is often communication of distress, pain or unmet need. 💡 Curiosity changes everything. Instead of asking “How do we stop this?”, ask “What is this telling us?” 💡 Diagnostic overshadowing is dangerous. Not everything is about neurodivergence; sometimes a child is simply in pain. 💡 Parent carers are often managing extreme risk at home without the training professionals receive. 💡 Lived experience can break down barriers fast, because trust grows when people feel truly understood. 💡 Co-production is not asking people to comment on a finished plan. It means shaping it together from the start. 💡 Whose Shoes? works because the cards create safer, less confrontational conversations about difficult issues. 💡 Supporting one child well means supporting the whole family, including siblings and young carers. 💡 Sometimes the bravest family decision is to choose peace over social expectations. We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

What does hospice care really look like? What if hospice care isn't about the end of life - but about helping people live well for as long as possible? In this special Podcasthon episode of Wild Card – Whose Shoes?, Gill Phillips visits The Myton Hospices in Warwick and brings together the voices of staff, volunteers, families and community supporters who make the hospice what it is. Podcasthon is a global initiative bringing together thousands of podcasts around the world for one week each year, all dedicating an episode to a charity they care about. The aim is simple: to use the power of podcasting to raise awareness, spark conversations and support organisations doing vital work in their communities. Totally aligned to 'Whose Shoes?' values. For Gill, choosing Myton was easy. Gill's own mum died there in 2017, and the experience further shaped her understanding of what compassionate care really means. In this episode you’ll hear from Olivia, a registered nurse and Community Engagement Manager, Julie, Senior Staff Nurse, Kay, a Telephone Support Volunteer and volunteer Receptionist, Anil, Head of Retail, Holly, Director of Marketing and Communications - and members of the wider community who support Myton in different ways.  Along the way, we discover how hospice care often begins much earlier than people expect. We hear about small moments that make a huge difference for families, from late-night conversations to Prosecco parties, beach days and even a virtual trip to the Grand Canyon. This episode is about the whole community - we can all play a part. Because The Myton Hospices isn’t just a place.  It’s a network of human kindness.  And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that hospice care is not only about dying well – but about living well for as long as possible. 🍋💡🍋Lemon Lightbulbs 💡 Hospice care often starts much earlier than people expect – early support can transform people’s experience 💡 Supporting carers helps patients too – helping someone become a daughter or husband again, not just a carer 💡 A hospice isn’t defined by medical tasks – it’s the human moments people remember forever 💡 Creativity makes a difference: motorbikes, beach days and even virtual visits to the Grand Canyon. 💡 Volunteers are often the first friendly voice people hear – and sometimes the one they recognise instantly. 💡 Community support comes in many forms: shops, events, legacies, and organisations finding their own ways to help. 💡 Hospice care is truly holistic – caring for the whole person and the people around them. 💡 Many families say: “We wish we’d known about hospice support sooner.” 💡 When care is compassionate and personal, it can shape not only a good death – but a good bereavement. LINKS Welcome to The Myton Hospices If you enjoy this episode, please share it as part of Podcasthon, helping more people discover the crucial work of hospices.  We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

Wild Card - Whose Shoes? Podcast | Mike Nicholson: Progressive Masculinity (and why boys do want to talk) What if the real issue isn’t that boys don’t talk - but that we rarely create spaces where they feel safe enough to? In this episode, I’m joined by Mike Nicholson, former English teacher and founder of Progressive Masculinity. I first heard Mike speak at an education conference in Wolverhampton organised by Sarah Milne, and his session stayed with me long afterwards - especially the powerful “mask” exercise exploring how young men feel they must appear versus how they really feel. Drawing on nearly two decades in the classroom, Mike shares what he saw: thoughtful, capable boys quietly limiting themselves to fit narrow expectations of masculinity - and what changed when they were simply given permission to talk. We explore: Why the idea that boys don’t talk is a mythThe impact of safe, non-judgemental spacesEarly intervention and “upstream” preventionOnline rabbit holes and algorithm-driven risksHelping boys decide what kind of men they want to becomeA values-led approach to confidence, identity and belongingThere are strong echoes here of my #CYPWhoseShoes work - listening deeply, understanding different perspectives, and recognising that real change is often felt before it can ever be measured. 🎧 If you have boys or young men in your life - as parents, teachers, grandparents or colleagues - this conversation is well worth a listen. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon Lightbulbs from this episode Boys don’t avoid talking - they avoid judgement.The gap between the “outside mask” and inside feelings is often huge.Prevention starts with belonging, not behaviour management.Algorithms can take curiosity to harmful places faster than adults realise.Listening with young people changes everything.Some of the most important outcomes can’t be captured on a spreadsheet.If we remove unhealthy spaces, we must create healthier ones.Values help young people navigate peer pressure.Supporting boys and empowering girls are not opposing goals.There isn’t one way to be a man - only the freedom to become yourself.Links Progressive Masculinity Whose Shoes? Our #CYPWhoseShoes project Men and boys' champions #WhoseShoes #WildCardWhoseShoes #CYPWhoseShoes #Belonging #Education #MentalHealth #EarlyIntervention We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎙️ This episode was recorded jointly with the So, Who Cares Anyway? podcast, hosted by Ruth Germaine. In this warm, wide-ranging episode, I’m chatting to fellow podcaster and Darzi alumna Ruth Germaine to explore what it really takes to tackle healthcare’s “wicked problems” through coproduction. A powerful invitation to think differently. Drawing on our shared roots in the Darzi Fellowship network, we reflect on why lived experience, curiosity and relationship-building matter far more than tick-boxes and tidy solutions. I share my journey from social care and local government, through cancer, to creating Whose Shoes?® - a deceptively simple, colourful board-game approach that opens up honest conversations between people, professionals and those in positions of power. Along the way, we explore the power of poetry, the beach-ball metaphor, and why Whose Shoes scenarios are so open-ended – the discussion will be the one YOU need to have. Our conversation ranges from maternity services in Buckinghamshire to SEND roadshows and a neonatal unit in Liverpool, illustrating how ‘planting seeds’ can lead to outcomes no one could predict at the start. We also reflect on the challenge of evidencing impact, the limits of KPIs, and a Whose Shoes hallmark: the pledge - small or bold actions, taken from the heart. #NoHierarchyJustPeople This is an episode about creativity, courage, and the quiet magic that happens when people feel truly heard. 🍋💡 🍋 Lemon Lightbulbs Co-production isn’t a method - it’s a mindset If people don’t genuinely feel valued and listened to, no tool will save you.The answers are in the room Real change starts with free-flowing conversations, not a prescriptive agendaYou can promise something will happen - just not what That uncertainty isn’t a flaw; it’s the essence of true co-productionPeople see through tick-box listening instantly You can’t fake curiosity or shortcut trustCreativity creates capacity - even when time is tight Fun, colour and poetry don’t distract from serious work; they unlock itRipples to ... IMPACT! A conversation can lead — unexpectedly — to things as big as a new neonatal unitJust because it's countable, doesn't mean it's what matters most What matters most (trust, insight, confidence, connection) rarely fits a KPIThe best change work draws people in When it’s real, people text friends: “Get down here — this is different.”Pledges work because they’re personal Small actions “from the heart” beat grand strategiesLearning happens with people, not to them Networks for learning together generally beat programmes and coursesLINKS So, Who Cares Anyway? Podcast by Ruth Germaine It takes a Village - Buckinghamshire maternity Whose Shoes? event Whose Shoes? comes to Nottingham We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎄🎧 A bit of a Christmas cracker (with maverick music included)  A conversation full of humanity. In this Wild Card – Whose Shoes episode, Gill Phillips chats with Maff Potts, founder of the Camarados movement and creator of Public Living Rooms - simple, welcoming spaces where people can put their feet up, enjoy no-agenda company, and look out for each other. No labels. No tick boxes. No “fixing”. Just people.  Maff brings stories (and piano!) from his journey: from working in homelessness, to advising government, and very intentionally returning to grassroots connection, where real change happens. Together we explore why kindness, laughter, and belonging aren’t “nice extras” - they’re essential. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon lightbulbs 🍋 “Where would you put the KPI for this?” The case for humanity, music and improvisation over metrics. 🍋 Public Living Rooms = connection + purpose (without needing a “service” or a diagnosis). 🍋 Permission to be a bit rubbish - and why failure/iteration can be a superpower (England vs Silicon Valley!). 🍋 A powerful example of language changing everything: when “Put your feet up” became “It’s time to talk #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek”… footfall dropped from 1000 people to 40. 🍋 The “how” matters: how we welcome, speak, listen, and create environments that help people feel human. If you’ve ever felt weary of spreadsheets, assessments, and VIP top tables … this episode is for you. #NoHierarchyJustPeople 🫖 Want to start a Public Living Room? Find out more at camarados.org (and you might just receive a beautiful permission-giving box to get you going). #JFDI  Happy Christmas everyone!  Links: Home - Camerados “It takes a village”  We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

Amelia Wilkinson: Living (and parenting) with Type 1 diabetes - beyond the data Published on 14 November (World Diabetes Day), this conversation lifts the lid on what most of us miss about Type 1 diabetes - the mental load, the masking, and the trauma that doesn’t show up on a glucose graph. Podcast host Gill Phillips talks with Amelia Wilkinson, diagnosed at 10 and now a mum, about growing up through school exclusions and assumptions.  Topics include why behaviour is communication, navigating a high-risk pregnancy, and the power - and limits - of technology.  Amelia calls for two big shifts: train the adults around children with Type 1 (teachers, carers, clinicians) to spot the emotional toll AND separate Type 1 and Type 2 awareness, so misconceptions stop harming care. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon lightbulbs 🍋 Type 1 ≠ Type 2: why the confusion hurts 🍋 Grief for a ‘former self’ and the hidden mental health toll 🍋 School stories: control, freedom-seeking, and being labelled ‘naughty’ 🍋 Pregnancy with Type 1: what it really took for Amelia to have her daughter 🍋 Masking, peer support, and life beyond the data 🍋 Don’t make assumptions – ask how the person is doing, including mental health 🍋 Train the grown-ups! 🍋 Separate the awareness days! If you work with children and families- or love someone with Type 1 - this one’s for you. Links Type 1 Diabetes: The Comic Book Stories (courtesy of FAB Fab NHS Stuff) World Diabetes Day Overview of Whose Shoes Wild Card - Whose Shoes podcast with Aurora Thompson 💛 #WorldDiabetesDay #Type1Diabetes #NoHierarchyJustPeople #WhoseShoes #WildCard We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

In this powerful episode of Wild Card  -Whose Shoes?, Gill Phillips talks with Aurora Thompson - a remarkable young woman whose story of trauma, survival, and resilience will stop you in your tracks. Aurora shares her lived experience of abuse,, bullying, mental health crises, and being sectioned as a teenager.  She talks about her diagnosis with autism and what difference it has made. But at the heart of her journey is a message of hope: a force she breaks down into four vital elements — connection, love, opportunity, and purpose. 🍋 All behaviour is communication - don’t judge, listen. 🍋 How is it okay to restrain but not hug? 🍋 The cost (emotional and financial) of crisis care versus the value of early intervention 🍋 The role of “golden people” — those rare professionals who bring honesty, humour, and humanity 🍋 From despair to purpose: how a photo of a therapy dog sparked hope, and how participation work with Barnardo’s became a lifeline 🍋 “Aim for the stars and you might just land near the moon” - Aurora’s call to dream big. We also explore diagnostic overshadowing, the importance of holistic care, and why systems must stop lazily labelling children as “complex” and start seeing them as whole people. Aurora is now studying philosophy, working with young people, and speaking out with passion and clarity to help change the system for those who come after her. Her voice is brave, authentic, and unforgettable. 🎧 Listen in for a story that is painful, inspiring, and ultimately hopeful - and perhaps take away your own lemon lightbulb or two. 🍋💡🍋 We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎙️ Wild Card – Whose Shoes? with Gill Phillips Episode: An #IntentionalCoffee with Dr Ben Allen In this episode, Gill Phillips speaks for the very first time with Dr Ben Allen - transformative GP, former ICB leader, and curious explorer of how the NHS can work better for staff, patients, and communities. Ben and Gill have connected through LinkedIn where Ben describes himself as: "GP, NHS leader, convener and innovator. Releasing potential, creating joyful and effective teams. Supporting large scale improvement." On the podcast, Ben shares his bold decision to step away from a formal leadership role to pursue a two-year “personal learning experiment” - visiting teams, shadowing people across the NHS and beyond, and testing new ways of connecting, leading, and learning. ✨ Ben and Gill dive into: Building trust and psychological safety in teams.Why creativity (perhaps a RAP or a ball of wool!) can shift culture.The power of connections and ripples in complex systems.How social media can be more than noise - a space for learning, challenge, and collaboration.The hope found in unlocking the untapped potential of human beings.It’s a rich, hopeful, and energising conversation about leadership, curiosity, and finding new ways to make change happen. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon lightbulbs 🍋 “Make everything work harder” – capture, share, and amplify learning so others can benefit. 🍋 Psychological safety is built when we stretch people’s vulnerability just enough – trust grows through human connection. 🍋 Creativity in healthcare (a poem, a musical, a ball of wool!) can feel radical because our systems are so rigid – yet these moments are what people remember. 🍋 Impact in complex systems is messy and hard to measure – but ripples matter. 🍋 Relationships are as vital as evidence; systems are only as strong as their connections. 🍋 Social media isn’t just a hobby – it’s an underused engine for ideas, learning, and collaboration. 🍋 Hope comes from recognising untapped potential in people and organisations – not just from more money or resources. 🍋 Stepping out of your comfort zone to explore and learn can bring rich rewards. Useful links Find out more about #CYPWhoseShoes: 'Whose News?' Edition 14  BRAND NEW - The #CYPWhoseShoes story so far, told with a ball of string!  Ben's Youtube channel #MatExp the Musical Listen to the episodes around #UniversalHealthcare (Episodes 56-62) - explore further some of the issues and people mentioned in this conversation: 56. Becky Malby – Universal Healthcare https://www.buzzsprout.com/1838805/15239449  57. Tom Holliday - Children get less https://www.buzzsprout.com/1838805/15363315  58. George Winder – Don’t medicalise poverty https://www.buzzsprout.com/1838805/15461390 We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎙 “You’re amazing!” But what if hearing that doesn’t feel amazing at all? In this powerful and deeply moving episode, Gill Phillips meets awesome Benedicte Symcox – parent carer, founder of Tugboat SEND Navigation, and passionate advocate for children and adults with complex needs. Benedicte’s story is breathtaking. From the moment they met at Yvonne Newbold’s wedding (!), Gill and Benedicte struck up an instant connection – and this podcast brings it to life. With wisdom, humour, brutal honesty, and astonishing lived experience, Benedicte takes us on a journey through parenting three very different children – each with their own profound challenges and triumphs. 🎧 Expect to hear: The rollercoaster of navigating health, education, and social care systemsTeenage mental health, neurodiversity, and diagnostic overshadowingRaw conversations about suicide, resilience, and “extreme parenting”How Benedicte’s lived experience powers her work supporting other families through TugboatWhy kindness, curiosity and valuing every life are non-negotiables in a broken systemThis episode goes live in #CoProductionWeek - the week that  #MPFTWhoseShoes, the extraordinary Whose Shoes journey to better support children and families, is showcased in Staffordshire. With her signature wit and passion, Benedicte reminds us why real voices matter. This is one for the ninja parents, the professionals trying to do better, and anyone who wants to understand what truly matters. 🍋💡🍋 Lemon lightbulbs 🍋 Every life matters – regardless of age, ability, or achievements.  🍋 Stay curious, be kind  🍋 No one’s coming to save you – a tough truth from Yvonne Newbold that hits hard but empowers families to take action 🍋 Value doesn't come from capability – our culture must stop measuring people’s worth by what they can do or produce 🍋 You can't fix what you don't truly see – honest, raw stories like Benedicte’s open eyes and hearts 🍋 Children with complex needs are not always ‘inspirational’—they’re human. They get stroppy, funny, scared, brilliant... just like any child 🍋 Diagnostic overshadowing destroys lives – assuming one label explains everything leads to devastating gaps in support 🍋 We need to talk about suicide – actually talk about it – no euphemisms, no sidestepping. Say the word. Save lives. 🍋 Professionals are often also parent carers : dual perspective 🍋 Honesty matters more than heroics – saying “this is hard” is more powerful than pretending to cope 🍋 Sometimes kindness means saying uncomfortable things  🍋 Honest conversations are vital – especially around 'taboo' topics : sex, disability, parenting, mental health 🍋 Parenting doesn’t come with guarantees – ‘success’ can mean just surviving another day 🍋 Systems should support families, not punish them – blaming parents, gatekeeping support, and making people fight for help is not acceptable. 🍋 Hope lives in connection – whether through a podcast, a wedding, or a kindness conversation, real change starts with human stories Links Tugboat SEND Navigation – Steering you through SEND waters Please visit the episodes with Cath Crock, Bob Klaber and Steven Russell We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎙 Episode 67: Dulcie Matthews and Dorothy Hall – Hope, Resilience, and the Spirit of Coventry This very special VE Day episode of Wild Card – Whose Shoes? is a real treat. 🕊️ Join me, Gill Phillips, as I welcome two extraordinary women: Dorothy Hall, familiar to listeners from Episode 64, and her equally inspirational friend Dulcie Matthews, aged 88. Dulcie grew up in wartime Coventry, and shares her moving memories of a city scarred by bombs but brimming with resilience. Her evocative memoir From Paradise to Eden brings the 1940s vividly to life — and today, she brings that world to us through her words, wit, and warmth. 🌸 In a beautifully candid conversation, Dulcie and Dorothy reflect on ageing, creativity, and retaining a sense of identity and purpose when society would often rather render older people invisible.  ✨ From Dulcie’s lockdown poems and fairy tales for her great-granddaughter to their joyful adventures searching for "fairy doors," this episode is packed with wisdom, hope, and humour. We talk about social prescribing, the healing power of music and nature, grief and resilience — and dreaming up a bold new vision for compassionate care in later life.  🍋💡🍋 Lemon lightbulbs 🍋 You are still you Despite how society treats older people, identity, creativity, and inner fire do not fade with age 🍋 Stay curious and always say yes Dulcie has stayed open to life’s opportunities, even through deep grief and loss 🍋 Creativity is an escape — and a lifeline Nature, writing, fairy stories, and music offer not just escape, but deep healing. 🍋 Invisible no more Calling out the way healthcare systems often marginalize older people — and fighting to be seen and heard. 🍋 Rediscover your roots Dulcie rekindling her love for Coventry reminds us that reconnecting with our past can offer hope for the future 🍋 The world changes — and we adapt From wartime Coventry to lockdown Britain, Dulcie’s reflections show resilience as a constant thread through life 🍋 Music unlocks memory, joy, and connection The powerful role of music in both healthcare and daily life — lifting spirits and bridging generations 🍋 Imagination is ageless Whether it's fairy tales or reimagining community care, creativity thrives at every age, so support people to use their skills and feel they can contribute 🍋 Challenge stereotypes by living fully Wearing jeans, playing piano, creating stories — refusing to be boxed in by other people’s ideas of ‘old age.’ 🍋 Reimagine care: people first, not conditions A visionary idea: flexible, creative care communities inspired by the hospice model but open to all _______________________________________________________ Dorothy's key message? "Be more imaginative about how care is offered " Dulcie’s key message? "Stay curious. Always say yes!" ____________________________________________________ This is a celebration of courage, creativity, and connection — the spirit that saw Coventry rise again after WWII, and the same spirit that Dulcie and Dorothy embody today ❤️ 🌟 A heartfelt thank you to Dulcie and Dorothy for sharing their stories so openly. A perfect listen to inspire you this VE Day. Links  Episode 64. Dorothy Hall - age discrimination in the NHS Episode 40. Prof. Cath Crock - music in health care - our first international podcast guest! Episode 22.  'Symphony of Us' - please disturb We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

In this electric, soul-stirring conversation, Dr Guddi Singh joins me to explore what it truly means to radically reimagine health. From the frontline realities of paediatrics to the bold edges of creative health and social justice, Guddi brings her full, vibrant self — and invites us all to do the same. We talk about what’s broken in our health system, why simply fixing sickness isn’t enough, and how real health is built in homes and communities, not hospitals.  We shine a light on creative co-production, interdisciplinary approaches, and the untapped power of arts, storytelling and relationships to transform healthcare. Guddi describes herself as a closet creative and lifelong learner, and you’ll hear exactly why — from training citizen scientists to founding WHAM (Wellbeing and Health Action Movement) and leading the Powering Up project. This episode is bursting with energy, honesty, hope¦ and a few well-placed mic drops. Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋 🍋   Health is not built in hospitals – it’s built in our homes and communities 🍋   A child cannot be healthy if the context they live in is sick - we have to treat the context – hunger, poverty, poor housing – not just the symptoms 🍋   “I’m a closet creative trapped in the body of a doctor” : Guddi’s mission blends creativity, academia, activism, and medicine to drive meaningful change 🍋   The system doesn’t work for patients — and it doesn’t really work for staff 🍋   There’s no KPI for what actually matters — to patients or professionals 🍋   Maybe the most powerful KPI is: Will you remember this? Did it change you? 🍋   Human connection doesn’t fit in a spreadsheet – but it’s what makes the work meaningful. 🍋   Fixing health inequalities starts with ordinary clinicians and patients,  and creative approaches  🍋  Powering Up isn’t a project – it’s a movement 🍋   It’s hard to lie to kids - Powering up unearthed the real issues 🍋   The system may be blind, but our stories can open its eyes 🍋   Dance saved my life. Why isn’t creative health part of the NHS mainstream? 🍋   We’re lighting up little patches of the world. What if we joined the dots? 🍋   We’re not alone — it’s time to bring our lemon lightbulbs together Links: BBC Radio 4 - Three Ages of Child  Wellbeing and Health Action Movement (WHAM) Powering Up Project National Centre for Creative Health Episode 54: Dr Mary Salama - connecting across boundaries Episode 57 : Dr Tom Holliday - children get less Join the Movement This is more than a conversation It’s a call to action. Whether you’re a clinician, creative, policymaker or passionate citizen, this episode will leave you asking:  What’s my role in radically reimagining health? #coproduction We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

This special episode of Wild Card – Whose Shoes? is part of The World Podcastathon, a global celebration of podcasts that spark conversation, challenge perspectives, and inspire change. I’m thrilled to welcome the incredible Nicola Enoch, founder and CEO of Down Syndrome UK, a powerhouse advocate who is transforming perceptions, challenging outdated maternity care practices, and empowering families. Nicola’s journey is extraordinary—one that began with fear and stigma when she learned her son, Tom, might have Down syndrome, and evolved into a mission to support parents, shift mindsets, and tackle inequalities head-on. We explore the power of language in maternity care, the importance of early development, and how health inequalities continue to impact people with learning disabilities. Nicola also shares how her organization is training healthcare professionals and educators to see the person first and break down barriers that still exist today. This conversation is raw, real, and packed with lemon lightbulb moments—insights that challenge us all to think differently. Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋 🍋  Words shape experiences – Describing Down syndrome as a “risk” or “abnormality” impacts how parents feel about their child. Language matters. 🍋  Breaking bad news? Or sharing unexpected news? – How healthcare professionals frame a diagnosis makes all the difference. 🍋  Assume competence – Expecting less from a child with Down syndrome limits their potential. High expectations open doors. 🍋  Health inequalities are real – Diagnostic overshadowing leads to preventable health issues. Parents must advocate fiercely. 🍋  Community is everything – Peer support groups are lifelines. No parent should feel alone. This is a must-listen for anyone passionate about maternity care, inclusion, and human stories that challenge stereotypes. 🎧 Listen now and join the conversation! Links: We hope you will donate to this important charity - here is how you can find out more! #WildCardWhoseShoes #WorldPodcastathon #DownSyndromeAwareness #ChangingTheNarrative #CoProduction We LOVE it when you leave a review! If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful please  share your thoughts by leaving a review (Spotify or Apple are easiest to leave a review - navigate via 3 dots) and comment on your favourite episodes. Connect with me - Gill Phillips - on LinkedIn, especially if you are interested in our brand new #CYPWhoseShoes resources or our well-established #MatExp (maternity experience) work. I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes  and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS. Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.