When they met in spring 2022, Simon and Camilla discussed a huge range of national priority topics, including the rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its profound impact on children and young people, addressing inequalities and the core work being undertaken to ensure children have a voice at a national level.
Simon, who also works as a consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey in Liverpool, spoke about the value of bringing in multi-professional perspectives, and really listening to children and young people.
I strongly believe that you can't do this job if you're not actually seeing patients. I think there isn't a day go by that I don't see something with my own patients in a consulting room or in the operating theatre... playing through into some of the national issues that we deal with.
Sometimes, he tells us, you need to stand back and give appropriate time to the long term things. And having a really good team allows this to happen.
You can listen to this 30-minute episode from this page or wherever you access your podcasts. You can also dowload a full transcript below.