An week of inventive and involving work

Our unique festival

Last weekend saw the inventive Paddle Round the Pier seaside festival and it was a delight to visit on both days. 

One of the races at Paddle Round the Pier

Our wildflowers on Hove Lawns

As well as tasting the delights of an impromptu lunch with Karl from Moshimo, I also took advantage of our newest seafront loos as I walked towards town. It has been pointed out since that I took a loo selfie! 

My loo selfie

All I wanted to do was to capture and share with people the brightness and quality of the newest addition to our public conveniences. It was good to meet the proud temporary attendant Rob Short who works for Wettons. 

Rob Short at the new loos

And on Sunday our Cityclean paddling crew did a good job and raised over £500 for charity. Well done to them.

The cityclean team 

Paddling round the Pier

Reimaging the Royal Pavilion estate

On Monday I met with the Pavilion café’s David Sewell and the Friends of the café as we grouped to re-apply for funding to invest in the whole of the estate that is the Pavilion, Dome, Corn Exchange, Museum and gardens. We intend to be inventive and involving as we reimagine this uniquely beautiful and extraordinary heart and lungs of our city.

Friends of the Pavilion cafe with Janita Bagshaw and me

Local Government annual conference

Then on Tuesday it was off to sunny, sandy Bournemouth with Jason, leader of the council to join the local government family for its annual conference. At this time of recession it is important to take opportunities to learn and share and the conference gave us plenty of that. 

Simon Stevens, chief executive NHS

Members and chief executives from North and South and East and West of the country came together to be inventive and to involve one another in sharing how we can respond to the challenges of reducing resources, increasing demand and rising expectations. The conference was characterised by generosity, optimism, collaboration and creativity. The Innovation Zone was a safe space for sharing, the conference provided platforms for discussing problems and new initiatives especially focussing on the opportunities of digital and the importance of outcomes over traditional service arrangements. We picked up ideas such as solar rubbish bins.

Jason Kitcat and one of the solar rubbish bins

There was intelligence in the form of a Ipsos MORI survey (PDF 1.42MB) of latest perception. There was no end of information. And we had the opportunity to meet new and key players especially Simon Stevens the NHS Chief Executive from April. He led a full session and a private session on the leadership challenge and opportunities for collaboration with local government and the NHS.

Ben Page from IPSOS Mori

Along the way I met up with long standing friends in local government and made new ones. Listening to stories of inventiveness and involvement and taking heart for our challenges. What is absolutely clear is that we need to work differently, embrace more change and be ever clearer about our purpose, priorities and partnerships, to ensure the best outcomes for our place; the fabulous city of Brighton & Hove.

Our Big Difference winners

I am now back at base and delighted that today we have awarded the winners for the Big Difference Awards for exceptional work and they are Martin Reiley from Cityclean, who went out of his way to help a resident track down stolen items and the team who worked on our first same sex marriages in March. It was very interesting to hear from all the staff who were shortlisted and is never an easy decision to make. Everyone who gets on the shortlist is a winner in their own right. There will be more about the winners on the Wave next week.

The shortlisted staff for the Big Difference awards

As always enjoy the weekend. 
Penny