Lots of the team are on leave this week, with Digital team representation at Harry Styles, Lily Allen and The Cure concerts! The rest of us have been kept busy as always:

Webinar: How we’re seen and why it matters

Hannah, Jane and James attended a webinar on public and stakeholder perceptions of NRW. It was found that within the general public, around seven in ten people “recognised” NRW in some capacity, but only 11% of those understand our role – so just 7.7% of respondents know what NRW actually does.

Public and stakeholder perception is very mixed, with more frustration directed towards higher-level organisational decisions and slow or confusing processes, rather than at staff members. Stakeholders understand that NRW’s remit is massive, and that resources are limited. Some of the themes identified include frustration with the lack of consistency across departments, with slow response times and complicated and/or contradictory advice being given from different places – these all slow down processes, leading to increased costs and strained relationships. However, they also highlighted excellent feedback for officers “on the ground”, and noted that strong collaboration with long-term staff fostered better cooperation and understanding between both parties.

Stakeholder suggestions for improvement included: having a single point of contact for each area of NRW, clearer guidance and signposting, transparent feedback channels, and training for staff on awareness of our various stakeholders and what they do. We anticipate that the Digital team will be key in helping to achieve some of these. Eventually, the goal is to have “one door into NRW” - though everything is still in the very early stages for now. We look forward to hearing about the progress!

Photo of Lucinda and the team surveying rockpools for invasive species

Using our volunteer days to support INNS surveys

Lucinda also spent some volunteer time on Monday exploring the rock pools at Rhosneigr as part of an INNS (invasive non-native species) survey. The morning was spent recording species within assigned quadrats, which turned up plenty of flat and edible periwinkles, a beadlet anemone, and a very tiny (and aptly named) sea spider known as a “gangly lancer.”

While Lucinda’s quadrat was clear of invasive species (a win!), the wider survey did find some familiar culprits, including wireweed and oyster thief seaweed. The team also spotted a small stack of slipper limpets.

This week, we have been up to:

  • Alex and Sophie met with Alix, Beth and Aled to discuss an All DDaT Teams Channel Group, to discuss the kinds of content that will be shared in the group and how to engage positively with the wider organisation. We will spend the next week confirming titles ahead of sending them to translation and getting the ball rolling on the channel.

  • The publishing officers have been a team member down, but it’s thankfully not been as manic this week – we’ve had a few evidence reports to check for accessibility before publishing, consultations and updates to public registers and the intranet. Sophie is continuing her dosbarthiadau Cymraeg, and Hannah has started learning the basics of Figma website design.

  • James is testing various card sorting tools to find the right option for testing our intranet site navigation. He’s also organising a user needs workshop with our Fleet team.

  • Lucinda expected to be out of her depth in a cross-government software engineering webinar on an accessibility-first interactive map. She was pleased to find it was approachable, and surprisingly easy to follow.

  • Heledd has been working on future digital concepts for NRW. She also got her hands on the much anticipated book ‘Bad Services’ by Lou Downe, which untangles why, despite our best efforts, organisations struggle to deliver services that work and what we can do to change it.

Photo of Heledd's new book - Bad Services by Lou Downe