CST blog

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I sent out an Email today to the 102 people signed up to the CST/CORE Email update list.  This particular Email was triggered by the GDPR legislation and confirmed that I am 100% confident that everyone on the list gave their information to get on the list voluntarily so I/we (i.e. CST) have consent for us to hold this.  That means that the only other thing we needed to do to be fully GDPR compliant was to make available the details about our data processing and privacy policy.  For the lists that data is actually stored by mailchimp and their privacy policy and details of their data handling are at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.  For any other personal data I/we hold for CST it is handled in line with our policy now up at https://staging.coresystemtrust.org.uk/privacy-policy/.

OK. That’s all the legalistic stuff (and I, and we, do take data protection very seriously even though it ends up reading as very dull stuff), what about CORE?  Well, CORE is thriving really though you wouldn’t know it from that Email list as that was the first time I’d actually sent a message there.  Partly that’s because CORE is now keeping me busy 4-7 days a week with things that always seem to be more important than sending out an update. 

The web site has been a problem as the man who owned the plugin we were using to serve up downloads seems to have disappeared and his plugin is broken.  I have replaced the plugin and now have to rewrite every single one of the 93 download links which is very frustrating and only going slowly. 

Various CORE measures, and all or part of the CORE-A, are still very widely used in the UK despite not being forced on services by the NHS: that has left us true to our philosophy that good routine change measurement is “bottom up”: driven by practitioners rather than “top down” driven managerially or politically.  In other countries, particularly Italy and Spain, it’s also increasingly used within a number of “bottom up” developments that are very exciting and papers and reports that have used instruments and measures continue to emerge far faster than we can keep track of them.  Most of my research time is taken up, as it has been for most of the last decade at least, with translations and psychometric explorations.

Now I really must get into a monthly rhythm of updates on the list and blog posts: there’s a positive spin off from making sure we’re GDPR compliant! If you’ve been caught up as a researcher in GDPR anxieties, I recommend Emily Blackshaw’s blog post: GDPR-related anxiety disorder (academic-type).  She and I have had fun making ourselves 100% sure our YP-CORE work is fully GDPR compliant but it is!

Of the three of us, I’m responsible for the web site, most Email that come via the site, and all the translation work. Since our post on 7/7/16 I was very caught up in finishing my clinical post (permanently) at the end of July and then setting off on a trip of a lifetime: trying to cycle from London to Stantiago de Compostela in Spain.  I had to sort out some nasty problems with the web site (WordPress is mostly great but some plugins we have had to use really aren’t) and do a number of pressing bits of translation related work.  On my trip, having time, energy (it’s hard work cycling in the heat for all it’s a wonderful privilege!) and, above all, working IT/wifi/internet has been a nightmare and I have given first priority with that time to the pilgrimage site (www.psyctc.org/pelerinage2016/)  

I am very sorry, but I am simply not going to be able to handle more than tiny CORE related things until my trip is over and I’m back at work: the first week of October. However, one reason for finally stopping clinical work was to make more time for CORE so I hope I will be able to make real inroads into the backlog when I do return.  Apologies for now … but do have a look at the pilgrimage web site as it may amuse you and I do touch on important CORE and healthcare issues. I always hoped to have time to think about them properly like this.