My work experience with Bobby Dean 

by Tess Cooper

I spent four days with Bobby Dean and his team which was extremely eye opening to me.

The first day I did admin and media and it was nothing like the assumptions I had in my head. The team here works especially hard and Bobby Dean is at the heart of that with his schedule being packed full of meetings, votes and Treasury Committee meetings. Not only that but he still finds the time in the small gaps of free time he has to go through all of the emails received and listen to all of his constituents which is something the most MP’s don't normally do.
 

The media was also extremely interesting with it surprisingly being my favourite part of the experience. We drafted a press release and a social media post which was something that I had never done before. The press release taught me the importance of political communications and keeping strong relations between politicians and the media so that constituents and the wider public can stay up to date with the changes you are enacting to the world around them.
 

Furthermore, the social media post taught me a lot about finding the perfect moment that can represent what you are campaigning for. To do this, I watched a Treasury Committee meeting that Bobby Dean was in on the HMRC tax code and was tasked with getting key quotes that represent what Bobby stands for while also being able to educate the public on key issues and the solutions he is presenting. Despite the meeting being full of technical terms and being quite fast paced, I kept searching through it anyway and re-watched it thoroughly so that I knew I had the best quotes for the message I wanted to portray. Due to this, I learnt a lot about engaging the masses and the analytics behind videos that I would have never noticed before such as when and why people continue to scroll and what interests people the most.

During this task, I also had the opportunity to look through Bobby Dean's own social media and was interested to see the diverse range of issues and solutions being presented and the variety of methods the social media manager used to do this. I really liked seing what goes on behind the scenes in something that has really high relevance to society now.

The next day, I was taught by the casework team who deal with all emails that are sent from the MP office. It was really great to see how passionate and caring the team were about making sure that each constituent feels heard and gets the best response to their questions. They talked us through how casework is divided into personal, policy and campaign and educated me on the extent of the variety that they help with. From helping with housing requests to asking for an extra rubbish bin to even broader topics such as Bobby's stance on climate change and the economy.

This part was the most interesting as without this work experience I would have never known what the case work team does and how great they are at doing it. They are all genuinely invested in aiding other people’s problems and it was really lovely to see how much effort they put into each request.

On the third day, I was in parliament which was very fascinating as it happened to be Keir Starmers last PMQ’s which we got to watch from the office in parliament and discuss with the team about the issues raised and the unfolding of events. Hearing their perspective was intriguing as they are more aware of the inside workings of the political system so could offer further insight.

I then received a tour of parliament where I was told the history and even got to see some well known politicians leaving PMQ’s such as MP Hannah Spencer from the green party and even Ed Davy leader of the Lib Dems. This felt very surreal to me as they were people I had previously seen a lot of in the media but never thought I would meet them face to face. I then received the opportunity to go up to the Gallery and watch urgent questions to the Minister of Energy. This again was very fascinating as I had only ever seen the debates online and never thought I would witness one first hand.

I then drafted a Private members Bill of any topic of my choice with Bobby's parliamentary researcher. It was very enlightening as I was unaware of the process to make them and the research was extremely enriching as I did a deep dive into a topic that I wouldn't have looked at before which was sentencing laws on domestic violence. The feedback I received on this was extremely important to me as with all the other tasks I was receiving feedback from someone who is very aware of the process and helped to guide me to the best responses to each task.

On the final day, we did policy casework where I had to draft a response to someone asking about Bobby Dean's perspective and personal policy on the topic of slaughterhouses. This was interesting as I am not educated on this topic and so had to put in a lot of research into animal rights and the Lib Dems policies and party lines. This taught me a lot about how to respond to emails in different situations as unlike the personal casework emails I had drafted on my second day, the policy casework needed a different tone.

During this work experience, I had a lot of fun despite having to deal with countless amounts of technical wording and being confronted with issues and problems I had no knowledge on. The team here was extremely supportive and gave feedback every step of the way to make sure I received as much as I could out of the experience and felt encouraged to pursue more of this work in the future.
The feedback is also something that I will be able to leave very satisfied with as it made a lasting impact on how I take on tasks and think through my reasoning. This is key especially when writing emails as I have to be aware of everyone's situation and balance what I say carefully so that each constituent receives an adequate response that they can walk away feeling fulfilled.

It must also be recognised that I did not do this work experience alone as each placement will have 1 other person there who is also doing work experience. This was very useful as we could struggle together and reach solutions that catered to more than just one perspective. I was extremely lucky that the girl I did mine with was very willing to work together so that we could combine our efforts to learn more from the experience and I truly believe I have made a great friend because of it.

Overall, this placement has left me feeling extremely fulfilled and encouraged to pursue the political career path further. I have met so many wonderful people that have been so supportive the whole time and very patient with me and I feel truly grateful to be given such an amazing opportunity. So, a big thank you to MP Bobby Dean and the whole team for having me. To anyone wishing to do a work experience placement here I would definitely recommend it as I have had such a lovely time and learnt so much!