My day
7.00am: My alarm goes off and I reach for my smartphone to check Twitter and Facebook and any overnight work emails. Turn on the Today Programme and tune in to the TV breakfast programmes to check out the lead stories. Snatch a quick breakfast and enjoy a few minutes peace walking my dog Oskar in my local park.
8.00am: I leave home and walk the short journey to the train station. Today I manage to find a seat and settle down to read the Times and Guardian online searching for any stories with a disability or social care angle, before arriving at our Vauxhall HQ.
9.00am: First meeting is with my media manager to check the day’s stories and discuss priorities for our daily news summary which is emailed to staff before 10am. As our charity covers all disability issues the challenge here is to select the most important ones for us linking to our major campaigns.
10.00am: I take part in a scheduled meeting with colleagues in fundraising to discuss creative concepts for our new community fundraising event – Give & Bake. We all agree on one stand out concept and feed this back to the creative agency.
11.30am: I chair the weekly influencing meeting of directors, including the chief executive, to look ahead at our external priorities and key relationships. At the moment we are focusing on the International Day of People with Disabilities, highlighting the importance of putting disability at the heart of development. Directors report back to the group on recent meetings of significance.
12.30pm: I join a discussion with our chief executive about our early plans for next year’s party conferences. We look back at what went well in 2014 and discuss how we can do things differently next time.
1.00pm: Listen to the headlines on Radio 4’s World at One and review our Twitter feed – I have a lunch date with the managing director of campaigns and among other things we discuss plans for our latest report in our Home Truths campaign for more disabled-friendly homes.
2.00pm: I join a meeting with my marketing team to review a first draft of our new impact film. Our challenge is trying to portray everything we have done as a charity over the past year through short stories to show the difference we have made to the lives of disabled people. The latest draft is both powerful and inspiring.
3.00pm: I travel to BBC New Broadcasting House for a meeting with the BBC’s new disability correspondent. Over BBC canteen coffee we discuss potential future story ideas. Note to self – BBC canteen coffee has improved significantly since I worked there!
5.30pm: I arrive back in the office and catch-up with emails at the end of the day. In the run-up to Christmas we are planning to share our services’ special recipes so am enjoying the enthusiastic responses rolling in ranging from pheasant to the traditional puddings and mince pies.
6.30pm: I finally leave the office to meet a friend for dinner who happens to work in political polling and we debate the likely outcome of the General Election.
9.00pm: I arrive home and scan Twitter for the next day’s newspaper front pages which start coming out.
10.00pm: I watch the BBC’s News at Ten and turn over to BBC2 to watch the beginning of Newsnight and depending who is on I will decide to continue watching. Otherwise, it’s a book and to bed before midnight.
Peter Jenkins, managing director, external affairs at charity Leonard Cheshire Disability
Leonard Cheshire Disability is the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of services for disabled people.
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