Reposted by Tom SymonsTom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 26/06/2026THREAD. A collection of photos I have taken of excellent cats I have met on walks. You will find the captions to the photos in the alt text. 21847208
Tom Symons @tomsymons.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Old enough to remember Healey's time as Housing Minister c09-10 & his reforms to the Housing Revenue Account. Housing finance is a dry topic but this drove greater local control + enabled councils to build council housing again. With devo and council houses on Burnham's agenda it's a nice call-back 020
Tom Symons @tomsymons.bsky.social · 15/04/2025Today we launched the final report for A Fairer Start Local - innovation partnerships with the brilliant Leeds, York, Stockport & GMCA. I wrote this for the LGC on the lessons we learnt on innovating well, hopefully useful for the emerging Opportunity Mission! www.lgcplus.com/services/chi...lgcplus.comTom Symons: Six lessons for early years innovation | Local Government Chronicle (LGC)True partnership between families, communities, professionals, policy makers, funders, researchers and innovators is needed, writes the deputy director of 073
Reposted by Tom SymonsRobert Shrimsley @robertshrimsley.bsky.social · 06/03/2025British politics - and Labour in particular - has not adjusted to how much the Trump crisis will change domestic politics and reshape the whole agenda www.ft.com/content/fc7a... 36920
Reposted by Tom Symonsgquaggiotto.bsky.social @gquaggiotto.bsky.social · 25/02/2025[Hmm...] The Public Benefit Innovation Fund - $20M to catalyze AI innovation and digital infrastructure to improve equitable access to social services www.publicbenefitinnovationfund.org#our-workpublicbenefitinnovationfund.orgPublic Benefit Innovation Fund – PBIFThe Public Benefit Innovation Fund is a philanthropic venture fund and R&D lab. We provide seed funding and technical support for researchers, nonprofits, academic labs, startups, and technologists wo... 021
Reposted by Tom SymonsKaren Hao @karenhao.bsky.social · 27/01/2025As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/ 21161242339
Reposted by Tom SymonsNesta @nestauk.bsky.social · 23/01/2025⚡ Join us for our free Future Signals event in London on 27 February. Learn more about the tech & trends that could transform 2025, hear from the experts who curated them, and connect with industry leaders shaping the future at our immersive, interactive event. Register: bit.ly/42mtNtH 014
Tom Symons @tomsymons.bsky.social · 23/01/2025Excellent to see MPs like @tomhayesmp.bsky.social starting to talk more seriously about the role of play in a good childhood. Providing another opportunity to plug nesta's 2025 Signal www.nesta.org.uk/feature/futu... (next week we'll have more on our work on play in Leeds too!)nesta.org.ukPlay renaissance: this is the year play gets seriousAfter a decade in the wilderness, play is about to rocket up the political and policy agenda in England 030
Tom Symons @tomsymons.bsky.social · 06/01/2025I was lucky enough to write one of nesta's 2025 Signals - had a lot of fun writing about how this could/should be the year policymakers in England take heed of the grassroots social movement in children's play and with a policy commitment to good play in childhood www.nesta.org.uk/feature/futu...nesta.org.ukPlay renaissance: this is the year play gets seriousAfter a decade in the wilderness, play is about to rocket up the political and policy agenda in England 0111
Reposted by Tom SymonsAndrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 15/11/2024Right - EPC reform! You know those energy performance certificates that you see on Rightmove? They’re terrible, everyone in the energy sector hates them. But actually reforming them is tricky. My colleague @tomleach.bsky.social tries to chart a way forward www.nesta.org.uk/blog/epcs-ne...nesta.org.ukEPCs need radical reform - here’s four ways howThe system has become too complicated. It's time to make EPCs useful. 119827
Reposted by Tom SymonsJames Plunkett @jamestplunkett.bsky.social · 27/08/2024Failed to resist jumping into the debate about dashboards, nerve centres, and missions in government. Inspired by @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social and others medium.com/@jamestplunk... (I'm trying a new era of not posting this on Twitter at all, so grateful for RTs to help me hold out!)medium.comDashboards or notI’ve been mulling the question of whether or not we like dashboards, and how we should think about data in the context of missions. 87151