NHS Python Community Board

The Chair welcomed attendees to the board.

The board reviewed the Events Survey that was shared with community
members earlier in the week. The Survey was designed to understand the
type of events community members would like to see, attend, and contribute
towards.

Initial findings of the survey were discussed:

- Members would like a mixture of in-person and virtual events. Given
that most community members are geographically scattered and due
to the pandemic, virtual events will be prioritised at this time. The
majority of people want to present work and see other people’s work
at Show and Tells.

- The second most popular event was python healthcare 101 - creating
a value proposition of python; understanding how python is useful in
the digital transformation of healthcare.

- Coffee and coding was the third most popular event - learning
together by understanding coding together.

- A monthly event frequency was the most ideal for members.

- Possible future collaboration with communities that share our values
such as NHS-R.

The Survey ends on Friday 8th September so more responses are expected.

There was an open discussion on what the first python community will look
like.

It was agreed that a Show and Tell in late October or early November would
be a good first event since the launch; to share the application of python or
open code across different health and care use cases.

A call-out for show and tell presenters from the community will be posted on
Slack in due course.

Identifying the best place to share and host python community projects was
discussed by the board.

Celebrating success on the website is encouraged and the board will use the
channels available to engage with members to let them know they can put
themselves forward to post.

Community members are encouraged to share things they are proud of, even
if it isn’t fully polished, as showcasing work may be useful to other members.

A user journey slack channel will be created where members can share their
journey using python. This also provides members with seeing the
development of certain projects within the NHS ecosystem i.e. learning about
how Trust and NHSX projects differ.

There is a responsibility on the board to communicate with community
members on Slack channels. We currently have two slack champions who
share new resources and start discussions.

It was decided that the community will use Slack and the AnalystX platform to
promote projects.

There was a discussion on Career pathways to identify which development is
most beneficial to members.

The following points were made:

- Recognising the different pathways that are out there which lead to
becoming a data scientist using python

- Understanding how we can use these pathways to create more
opportunities.

- Working with suppliers on how we can build learning and
development materials - these will be led by the suppliers themselves.

- AnalystX is currently working with application suppliers to produce
learning material in support of our community - Such as AWS, Google
Cloud, Microsoft, PowerBI, ONS data science campus, etc.

The board closed with the following ideas that are still in discussion:

- Planning the first python community event

- As mentioned in point five, confirmation with the community is needed
to identify which supplier they would like to work with for free
certification.
    
- Python community to link to members’ projects hosted on their own
GitHub repositories.

Next board meeting date: 12 October 2021