ABHI Membership

The Friday Blog: Intern-al Reflections

My last few weeks working at ABHI have not necessarily been what I expected. I was not one of the few who correctly predicted a July election (to be fair, I did not have any insider information). Though, rather selfishly, I did want the general election to be called while I was on this placement. I now see that that was perhaps naive as, given a flurry of jobs open up with the new cohort of MPs, it would certainly be a good time to be a fresh politics graduate. While reflecting on work over the last year, I have also been mulling over what I would be doing right now had I applied elsewhere, and though I think I have definitely lucked out with this position, it may have been a good year to be an assistant to Rachel Reeves.

With it being a week, post-election, at the time of writing this we have seen cabinet positions filled and ministers appointed with, as expected, Wes Streeting taking Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Peter Kyle for Science, Innovation and Technology. We have seen the induction of 335 new MPs, a social media investigation into the existence of certain Reform candidates and the England Men’s Football team through to the Euros Final.

Our neighbours in France have also had quite a week, with a ‘high drama’ election that yielded unexpected results as Le Pen’s far-right National Rally fell into third place, a surprising twist following their lead in the first round of elections a week prior. Though France must now navigate the formation of a coalition government.

In this ‘year of elections’, naturally attention has swiftly turned to the US, where the Democratic National Convention in August currently stands almost as a point of no return for Biden. Though he has dismissed the calls for him to step aside, should he do so after the convention, the process for appointing an alternate nominee becomes more complex. Either way, his performance in the first debate of this election cycle has marred him in the polls, undoing the short stint he had in the lead. I recall in the first UK leadership debate Starmer and Sunak being posed the question of what they will do if Trump wins another presidency, a question I thought rather unfair, but it seems to be increasingly relevant, and we can only hope that Keir comes up with a plan that is more than ‘we will deal with it’.

Political ramblings aside, the brief I was given for this blog was around my experience, or reflections, as an intern at ABHI. If you were not aware, and I probably should have clarified this earlier, I joined the External Affairs Team as a Government Affairs Researcher in July last year, following my second year of university. As a result, at the end of the month I will be packing up and heading back to Bath to complete my fourth and final year as a Politics and International Relations student. With my time at ABHI coming to an end, I have been asked many times now what plans I have for the future – post-graduation. Unfortunately, I rarely have an answer more interesting than ‘I don’t know, maybe the Civil Service’, and as much as the Civil Service is instrumental to the functioning of the country, and I am sure it can be a very rewarding job (with some nice bank holidays and pension contributions) that answer will be what you hear from 90% of politics students.

But a major opportunity that I have had with this placement, and an advantage of working for a small company, is the exposure I have had to a range of career prospects. Coming into this role with no background in health, science or public affairs was daunting but ‘jumping into the deep end’ was actually a lot of fun. A few weeks into the job I was able to tag along with Ellie to an event hosted by the US Embassy to welcome Laurie Farris into her role as Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs, at Wychwood House. Not long after that in November we hosted a meeting in Edinburgh, and I was able to attend the Scotsman Conference. In January, stating concerns I would get bored in Ellie’s absence, Peter took me along to a couple of meetings in the House of Lords. February saw the Financial Times quote our 2023 Pulse of the Sector report. In March I attended a parliamentary dinner to ‘soft-launch’ our manifesto and the next week I was up in Glasgow for Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards. There has certainly been a lot to learn, the HealthTech industry is vast and complex, as is the NHS and the UK’s regulatory landscape (which I now know far more about than I ever thought I would) but the stated aim behind completing a year in industry is gaining experience, and that I have definitely done.

Alongside the topic of my future plans, I have been asked by colleagues at various points throughout this placement what my expectations for it were. One thing I did not expect was to enjoy it so much. The ABHI team have been welcoming and supportive and I can only hope that Owain, my replacement, is able to take as much away from his time here as I have. Most of you will be hearing from Owain not long after he starts on the 22nd July, likely to chase for responses for our 2024 business survey, a task that will no doubt end becoming a permanent part of the role’s induction. So, if there is anything you need me to do before I leave, you have until 31st July!