iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Coco

👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 29/09/2026

GOD BLESS NIGELLA “I don’t approve of talking about food as naughty” I have been needing bake off to say that for YEARS. Food is a pleasure, not a guilty pleasure!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Our band commissioned a 3D printing company to make miniature keepsakes of our European trophy 🥹💚

A wooden bookshelf with three awards. In the centre, the silver 3D printed European trophy. Either side are two glass plaques for previous year’s band awards

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is much more like it 🍒 #EXEvGLO

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Home safely from an enjoyable few days at #SDinGov 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 There’ll be no blog post from me this year; I simply have nothing left in the tank! You’re probably all sick of my voice anyway 😂 If you want to hear about HFU, our awesome team are writing about it: mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/category/hom...

mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk

Homes for Ukraine – MHCLG Digital

The blog of the digital and data teams in MHCLG

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Reposted by Coco

Ben #ActNow 🔥🌳🌊 @benaldo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

New job role at GDS: Deputy Director for Digital Standards and Inclusive Design. Deadline end of 8th October. Public sector only... Come be my boss! If you're nice, and good. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk

Quick Check Needed

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Passed my last assessment before my apprenticeship portfolio gateway 🎉 Thank goodness!! The most stressful results day wondering if I’d need to rapidly rewrite my assignment… 😅

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Talk is done, and my brain is overstimulated and ready for some quiet 😅 Time for a quiet evening in my hotel with new Bake Off and Ted Lasso 📺

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who came to our talk @sdingov.bsky.social today, and for the thoughtful questions! 🇺🇦 Now to relax and enjoy the rest of the conference 😊

A smiley selfie with my speaking partner Jo. We’re stood in front of a large screen that’s projecting the talk title: “Homes for Ukraine, Rapid Design in Crisis”

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Who’s going to be at SDinGov this week? 👋🏻

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Check out our lovely shiny openly-available GitHub repo 😍 It’s not always easy to work in the open, but it is worth it to ensure we’re contributing back to the knowledge pool that enabled us to do our work. Hopefully it helps another team on their journey 🚀 mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2026/09/18/m...

mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk

Moving Share Homes for Ukraine data’s code to open source

Share Homes for Ukraine data, our in-house system for managing Homes for Ukraine data turned one this week. In this blog post, we talk about how we recently open-sourced the code for the system and wh...

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Just recorded a piece with radio 3 about the band, and our European title winning piece ‘West Wind’ by Oliver Waespi 🤩 my episode of ‘Brass Banding with Hannah Peel’ should be out early November! 🎶

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Good evening Birmingham! Delighted to be here ☀️ Tomorrow we attempt to take the British Open title at your beautiful concert hall! 🎺 🥁

A smiley selfie with sunglasses on, in front of Birmingham central library

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I spoke last week about the importance of shouting about your own work, else nobody will find you! The Civil service awards are open for nominations. We’re writing an entry. If you’re in CS, why don’t you have a go too? 😄 www.civilserviceawards.com

civilserviceawards.com

Civil Service Awards - Civil Service Awards

Planning for the 2026 Civil Service Awards is now underway, and we’re excited to be refreshing our award categories. To stay informed about programme updates, entry information, and important deadline...

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

6th university assignment is in 🙌🏻 Final project and portfolio submission still to come. I massively underestimated how much work this apprenticeship would be 😅 nevertheless I’m so glad I signed up, as I’m learning loads!!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Next up: Edinburgh! I’ll be at all three days of SDinGov, and really looking forward to corridor camping once our talk is out of the way 😄

A poster for our talk at SDinGov conference on 23 September. I’m speaking with my colleague Jo Frances from Made Tech on the topic “Homes for Ukraine: rapid design in crisis”

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Lovely job for this morning - writing an awards nomination for one of my team 🥰

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Should I buy this t shirt? 😆

A black t shirt with white writing on it that says ‘that wasn’t very data-driven of you’

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Doubly exciting day - I found out that I passed my latest uni assignment 🥳 I wrote it in a 4 day blur when I was on a cocktail of antibiotics in July, and I knew it wasn’t my best work but I was determined to submit something, so a pass is a huge win!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Thank you @jukes.ie @debblanch44.bsky.social and @visitmy.website for another terrific day! Lovely to meet lots of new people, and hear about brilliant work happening across the sector 🤗

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Amazed/terrified to hear we’ve been assigned the BIG room at SDinGov 😅

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Who’s coming to Product for the People on Thursday? 👀 So excited to see people after being in a bubble for a while!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Spring was incredible but frenetic. Summer was a blur of sickness and sadness. Here’s hoping for a lighter, quieter autumn 🧡

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Another bonus of blogging: being able to reference my own and my colleagues‘ work when writing uni assignments 🤩 #WorkInTheOpen

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Talk is written 🥳 see y’all next Thursday!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Temporarily lost my sparkle while I navigate a painful break up, but it’ll be back soon ✨ How do younger people cope with all these big feelings though. It’s hard enough now, with a fully developed frontal cortex…

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Whoever those lucky civil servants are who get the secondments into mayoral authorities, I hope they have the subtle balance of enough self-confidence to drive the roles forward, tempered with enough humility to recognise the skills and expertise that already exist locally. No superheroes, please.

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Talk writing for Product for the People is going well 😅

A photo of one of my slides. One of the penguins from the Madagascar movies is having an existential crisis

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Another great morning sharing our work with colleagues from other gov departments 🙌🏻 We don’t expect anyone to carbon copy what we do, but if we can help accelerate their progress then we will try to do so! Relatedly, we’ve recently made our web app repo public 👀 Hopefully blog post coming soon!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

All the stress is worth it for stories like these 💛💙 I’m proud to play a small part in helping people like Dmytro find a safe haven in the UK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Ukrainian refugee wins place to study music at Oxford University

Nineteen-year-old Dmytro has been accepted to study music at Oxford, four years after coming to the UK.

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

My incredibly clever sibling (and inspiration for much of my working in the open/blogging 🥰) wrote a superb blog post about bug tracking - check it out!!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

💛 Share Homes for Ukraine - September events 💙 1 year on from launching our government-owned data sharing system for the Homes for Ukraine programme, we're heading out on the road to share what we've learned! Please come and see us at one of these events:

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Reposted by Coco

Neil Tamplin @neiltamplin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Hi folks! 👋I'm keen to have a chat with anyone who has knowledge of product owner type roles that work with customised off the shelf systems, ideally in a local government setting. Thanks in advance!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

First date night for two months this evening, after we’ve both been sick with various ailments. I can’t wait 🥰

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I may seem like a broken record, but I will continue to post regularly about our massive project of 2025. Because, contrary to popular opinion, good work does not speak for itself 📣

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Exciting to return to work to a bunch of emails from colleagues across government wanting to speak about our work on Share, off the back of the BBC article 😄 If you’re in the public sector trying to exit a big supplier and/or get more control over your systems, we’d be delighted to chat! DMs open

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Going back to work tomorrow after a rollercoaster health month. 5 appointments over 4 weeks with 3 different dentists, plus 2 kinds of antibiotics — all for 1 tooth. Grateful for modern medicine, and hoping my usual sparkly energy returns soon 🙏🏻

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Names are hard. That’s why our content designer Denise put serious thought into our service name; it wasn’t random. It has the added bonus of being a super Wordle starter too 😂 mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/28/n...

mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk

Naming a service: how we chose a name for Share Homes for Ukraine data

How do you choose a clear, accessible name for a new service? Find out how the Homes for Ukraine Digital team found a user-centred name that would work long term for its new system for managing Homes ...

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Off to my fourth dentist appointment in three weeks 🙃 Unbelievable how much havoc and expense one tooth can create. But thank goodness for antibiotics! Pre-AB this infection could have been deadly.

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Still available for tomorrow!

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

🎟️ Theatre ticket on offer 🎟️ I have one ticket for Book of Mormon in London for Monday evening that I won’t be able to use. Row B of the circle. Was £23 on TodayTix but I’d take £15 to get rid of it. Any takers?

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Also: open source repo is coming soon 👀🎉

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Thrilled to hear that our team won MHCLG’s inaugural Permanent Secretary award ❤️ Such a brilliant, hard-working group of people. Creating Share is proof that while vendor lock-in is a hard problem, it is not an inevitability. Proud doesn’t cover it 🥹 What we do:

mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk

From emergency to sustainability: creating Share Homes for Ukraine data

Learn how the Homes for Ukraine Digital team in MHCLG delivered a sustainable, in-house digital service at national scale to support a humanitarian crisis, transitioning from emergency response to lon...

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

3rd in the world championships. Not too shabby 😄

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

We’re on the way to the Netherlands to represent England at the World Music Championships 🤩 Little Coco would be astonished ❤️

A newspaper clipping. I’m stood in the centre of frame, aged 6 or 7 wearing my school uniform. Next to me are two adults dressed in traditional African clothing and holding hand drums

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I’ll be speaking at (sold out, waitlist only!) Product for the People in September 😍 Currently kicking around talk ideas. I think it’ll be along the lines.. the value of hidden/invisible enabling work that PMs do, in my context of building a new digital service but not being involved in the tickets

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

One week today, we’ll be on the ferry to the Netherlands for the *world music championships*. What on earth?! How lucky am I 🥰

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Has anyone ever had to use GWR lost property? Clearly I’m too tired/distracted, as I left my suitcase on a train last night 😭 I’ve reported it and it has a tag so should find its way back to me, but I’m curious to know how long it takes.

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Genius over here decided to bake a birthday cake on the hottest day of the year 🥵

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Coco @cocochan.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Away from the national news yesterday, there was a significant update in the brass band press… 4barsrest updated their rankings for the first time in 6 months.. We are now ranked world no 1 in both systems 😎💐 (Nobody knows why there are 2 😂) www.4barsrest.com/news/64817/w... www.brassstats.com

4barsrest.com

World Rankings: June 2026

Flowers bloom as Gloucester band reach No. 1 in the world after historic European triumph.

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