Reflections from our roadshows

I am covering for Penny this week as she is on annual leave, and that includes writing the Chief Executive’s weekly blog.

I thought I’d include some reflections from our staff roadshows. This week we had the last of four sessions for staff in Finance & Resources and Legal & Democratic Services and we have nearly completed them across all directorates. There’s been lots of positive feedback and people have particularly welcomed the opportunity to join in the Stop, Start, Change conversations and enjoyed hearing about service achievements.

The Stop, Start, Change conversations have been wide ranging but a common theme in our roadshows was people suggesting ways to cut down on bureaucracy, duplication and making decision making quicker and easier.

Another theme was suggestions for further income generation. This is being looked at as part of the Value for Money Phase 4 programme. The Life Events service for example has just done a comprehensive review of all its charges and some significant changes were approved by Policy & Resources Committee in October. There is however always a balancing act for new income generation or fee increases as it can create additional work and could be a distraction from the council’s core business – this is something we need to consider on a case by case basis.

Unfortunately the ongoing disruption within Cityclean was also a topic of disappointment and frustration for many. We are one council and it is important that we acknowledge that this impacts on all of us. I sincerely hope this situation is one that we can change so that we can all be proud of the services we provide to residents, businesses and visitors in our city.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to hear from a wide number of staff about service achievements over the last year and I am really proud of the difference we’ve made. There were so many people who volunteered to speak that I can’t do justice to them all here but I thought I’d mention a few things that really stuck with me:

• Lucas Petrykow and Luke Chittenden from the Architecture and Design team showing a Meridian News bulletin about the new Holland Road site for West Hove Junior School where a child said he was giving a “two thumbs up” to the design which converted the former Police Station
• Hale Ucar, our Workstyles programme manager, showing a graphic of the paper in Kings House and Hove Town Hall and how it would stretch all the way from Hove to Beijing if it was laid out end to end
• Natasha Watson from Legal Services proudly describing how her team had won the prestigious Local Authority Family Law Team of the year award and had achieved something they had previously thought was impossible in terms of radically reducing the time for care proceedings
• Two of our ICT apprentices, Riley Blunt and Trevor Lee, talking very personally about the positive impact that the scheme was having on them – they definitely got the most resounding applause from the audience and Carla Butler in HR is always looking for areas willing to take on apprentices and work placements
• Trevor Love on behalf of the Registrars service introducing a video made by Debbie Reynolds about the first same sex marriages – it was incredibly emotional and uplifting

The senior team all got asked some challenging questions in the roadshows with a question time session and we are busy preparing written responses to all those we didn’t get a chance to cover in the sessions themselves. I think the best question we got asked was, 'what difference had the Living our Values Every Day management development training made to how we did our jobs and led our services?'. I talked about how it had made me recognise the importance of giving prompt and clear feedback to people on things they had done well and also where performance needed to be improved rather than storing up those conversations for a 121 or appraisal. Others talked about the collaboration that it had promoted and the open dialogue with colleagues across a range of different services. And there was also strong feedback about how eye-opening the visits out to services and community groups had been in understanding how difficult the council can be to engage with and what we can do to simplify that.

I hope people keep asking that question to all managers who attend the training and that we make sure everyone puts the learning into practice.

Catherine Vaughan

Executive Director of Finance & Resources

Becoming a learning organisation

Hello everyone

Joining the College of Social Work

“I hear those voices that will not be drowned” is the theme of Maggi Hambling’s scallop sculpture on Aldeburgh beach. Annie Hudson, chief executive of the College of Social Work, quoted this as she introduced the corporate membership of the college to a group of our children’s and adults social workers on Monday morning at the racecourse. 

Annie Hudson opening the event

I was delighted to be there with Pinaki Ghoshal to introduce the launch in the morning; something that Denise D’Souza did again in the afternoon.  Corporate membership of the College of Social Work means that our professional social workers will have access to an evidence base, a national peer group and a strong professional college. Alongside this, are its capabilities framework and code of ethics which helps to back them up in the challenging and essential work that they do with some of our most vulnerable citizens. These social workers have to be registered with the Health Professions Council, indeed re-registration must take place by 30 November this year so, if it applies to you, don’t forget. 

Our corporate membership of the college underpins, in a very practical way, the importance of retaining, recruiting and developing the best professional social work practitioners that we can.  For me, a learning organisation has got to create the conditions for its individual members to develop and progress. 

Annie Hudson and Pinaki Ghoshal with me

Corporate Parenting responsibilities

The role of social work was again a feature of a meeting at the end of Monday when the Corporate Parenting Board came together to discuss the annual reviews for fostering and adoption and the key issue of the education of children in care.  Our new head of the “virtual school”, Mark Storey, set out an ambitious and challenging agenda for his role.  It was gratifying to learn that housing for young people leaving care is something that we have made significant progress on in the past few years. It still remains a challenge and while changes in regulations are allowing young people to stay with foster carers beyond the age of 18, this is by no means the option for everyone.

Working with others

A learning organisation works with others to improve outcomes and that was very much our approach at the City Management Board breakfast on Tuesday. 

Sunrise looking east on my way to the breakfast

Looking west from the same spot at the same time 

Here were the most senior accountable officers from the local authority, health organisations, universities, police and probation service and their main agenda item was the issue of mental health and policing. We discussed how we might reduce the number of mentally unwell people who find themselves in police custody for their own safe keeping rather than for any criminal offence.  We learnt about the triage system in Eastbourne which is having a positive impact on reducing numbers by the provision of a mental health nurse alongside a police officer to triage such situations. We fully supported work underway to look at the best options for Brighton & Hove. I hope that the 24/7 rota for approved mental health practitioners will play a significant and constructive part in addressing this shocking issue. A group focussing on crisis care is working on an action plan and I hope to see an item at the Health & Wellbeing Board before the end of the year.

Geoff Raw talking at the CMB breakfast 

Funding awarded

This week we learned that the Arts Council are making an award to Brighton Dome for essential works as part of our ambitious plans for the Dome and Royal Pavilion estate. We are absolutely delighted that essential works will be able to be done and we very much hope that the bid to Heritage Lottery Fund will also be successful. 

Royal Pavilion in summer (image: VisitBrighton) 

City Sports and Physical Activity Awards

Because of the demands of the day on Wednesday, which went on well into the evening, I was really sorry to miss the City Sports and Physical Activity Awards but delighted to know that a number of worthy winners enjoyed the evening. Congratulations to Goldstone Primary school won the award for Sports School of the Year and indeed to all the winners and those who were highly commended. 

Chris Pearson, headteacher with Ivan Horsfall-Turner from Freedom Leisure

Stop, Start, Change

I am pleased that numbers of you are giving us feedback on #BHbudget Stop, Start, Change on the Wave. We are looking at all the suggestions we receive and encourage you to put your best thinking to this challenge.

Staff Survey 2014

Can I also give a final plug for the staff survey?  We have extended the survey time by a week to allow more staff to complete it.  As I have said before, a learning organisation needs to be open, and to hear from staff, as well as taking evidence of best practice from elsewhere and having a culture of review and evaluation.  So please do complete the staff survey online or pick up a paper copy.

Discussions ongoing

I had hoped that I might have some better news on the situation with refuse and recycling. While discussions are continuing and the planned service review is taking shape, we still do not have an end to the action.  I can only apologise again for the impact of this, on you as residents and on you as ambassadors for the council whose reputation is being dented by this issue.

Key Cities meet in Brighton

Finally then, today we are hosting the Key Cities at Brighton Pavilion.  This is a grouping of 25 cities who have banded together. As a group we will try to influence the government on the importance of cities and to lay claim to opportunities for further devolution of powers and opportunities to raise revenue, in particular by retaining more of the business rate.  I am delighted that we are hosting this quarterly meeting and have been encouraged by the progress we’ve made by raising the economic and social impact of cities on the national agenda. 

Key Cities representatives meeting at in the Pavilion

This brings me neatly back to the learning organisation. Our work with the Key Cities is giving us the opportunity to learn and share together with other places across the country. I am proud that we are hosting our colleagues today in our unique and beautiful Pavilion.

Best wishes
Penny

Celebrating success in the council and the city

Hello everybody

Customer Service week

Last week was Customer Service week and, last Friday I had the honour of handing out Institute of Customer Service award certificates to a number of our staff and managers. This was a really uplifting occasion and the group was addressed by Sally Duff, account director from ICS who opened the proceedings.

Jane Dowdell, housing customer services manager

The enthusiasm and commitment that colleagues have shown in undertaking this work and the support they gained from their coaches was really commendable. Janet Dowdell who is the housing customer services manager talked briefly to us about the difference that ICS had made to her and although she was battling with a cold she made a really impactful presentation. 

Around the housing centre

After the celebration I was able to do a tour of the housing centre and meet all of the teams there. The estates team showed me how they have saved money by washing dusters mop heads in their washing machine, saving four boxes of mops a month (300 mops). Here is a picture of Chris, Naomi, Chloe and Les. 

Chris, Naomi, Chloe and Les

I met the income services manager and heard something of the challenges experienced by many tenants in the light of welfare reform. I also met the resident involvement team. 

The resident involvement team

Whether I was talking about car spaces and garages, lettings or housing office management, sheltered housing or housing inclusion, performance or contract compliance, asset management, repairs and maintenance or mechanical and electrical teams, all of those I met were positive and enthusiastic about their work and it was good to meet and have these brief conversations.

Stop, Start and Change

This week the roadshows have been continuing and our initiative to get staff and residents thinking about what we should Stop, Start and Change in the light of our financial and improvement challenges is well underway. Please look on the Wave at the posts already there and do add to them if you would like to. All the good ideas generated at the roadshows will be assessed and analysed and I am grateful for the contribution that everybody is making. 

Our staff survey 2014

Can I also put in a plug for our annual staff survey and ask that you take the few minutes required to complete it. It really will help us and as you know we are acting on the results of last year’s survey. Just to jog your memory the key themes were management capability, communications and resilience. 

Big Difference Autumn award

While I am plugging things can I ask if you would consider the Big Difference Award nominations. We do the Chief Executive’s Big Difference Award three times a year and we are receiving submissions now. 

Greater Brighton 

This week I have been involved in three significant meetings in public. The first of these was the Greater Brighton Economic Board which took place in Lewes Town Hall on Tuesday. 

Greater Brighton Economic Board with Geoff Raw 

Chris Tomlinson with a colleague

Among the items discussed was the Rampion Wind Farm and we received a really interesting presentation from Chris Tomlinson of Eon who described the history and the scope of the 122 square kilometres wind farm whose planning for construction is well underway. The three year construction programme begins in 2016 and will mean around 300 jobs. It was impressive to see that the organisation is involving local people and businesses as well as local authorities. I was impressed to hear the commitment to local jobs and indeed apprentices. The board also took an update on the projects that are underway as a result of city deal and agreed the branding, see below, for the Greater Brighton Economic Board.

Branding for the Greater Brighton region

Already we have secured £92million of investment funding for the Greater Brighton City region and the progress that is being made is really encouraging.

Health and Wellbeing Board

Late on Tuesday, the Health and Wellbeing Board met and again a diverse agenda was before us.  It included proposals for the re-tender of Substance Misuse Services and the approval of annual reports of the Adult and Children Safeguarding Boards. We also agreed the new pharmaceutical needs assessment and Brighton & Hove dementia plan. 

We discussed cancer screening in Brighton and Hove and agreed that there should be a task and finish group to consider our take up rates and how we could be improve in those parts of the city where they are exceedingly low. This board is made up of members of the Clinical Commissioning Group, five leading councillors and the statutory officers in the local authority for children, adults and public health and me, as the Head of Paid Service. It conducts its business in an open and frank way seeking to achieve consensus and on those items were certainly the case. The re-tendering of the Drugs and Alcohol services was agreed after it went to a vote.

Health and Wellbeing board

Some of our Public Health colleagues

Last night's Policy and Resources committee 

The final significant meeting in public was the Policy and Resources Committee last night which agreed the City Plan. It's an important document, which we hope the planning inspector will approve and provide clarity about where in our area there can be development. 

Again, a packed agenda and a packed Hove Town Hall council chamber heard debates on the future of Drugs and Alcohol services and Integrated Community Equipment store. The latter item had to be adjourned for further work with the Clinical Commissioning Group and will come to a future meeting. 

Members did not agree on a proposal for a temporary travellers site next year, when the permanent and temporary sites at Horsdean are being developed.

The Queen's Award for Enterprise

Finally, it was gratifying on Thursday to be present at the presentation of the Queen's Award for Enterprise to the growing company in Portslade D3O Lab. 

Mostyn Thomas, D3O, Stewart Sawyer, D3O, Lord Lieutenant Peter Field and Deputy Lieutenant Hugh Burnett

 This growing business produces an amazing substance which hardens on impact and is playing an increasing role in sports and safety equipment. I even discovered that my own phone cover is made with it. It was a pleasure to meet the chair, chief executive and staff and to see the difference it has made to them by winning this prestigious award.

A demonstration about the product

Mayoress Nora Fitch testing out the product

So, another week of working in collaboration comes to a close. I'm hoping that the meetings with the Heritage Lottery Fundthis week and that the time the Executive Leadership Team spent taking stock on the budget and modernisation and improvement will all bear fruit.

Have a good weekend.

Penny

A week of walking and talking

Hello everybody


From a stunning sunset on Monday evening to a boiling sea on Thursday morning, this week the weather is already playing a significant part in the life of our city by the sea.

Walkabout with the transport team

So I was relieved on Tuesday morning that my long planned transport walkabout was not too badly affected by the weather and it allowed me to see a number of service and projects all the way around the city that are led by our transport colleagues. 

My tour was guided by Mark Prior, head of Transport and along the way we met a series of colleagues starting firstly with Christina Liassides and Jody Easkiovitch in the Pavilion Gardens where we looked at the refurbishment of the lighting there. We are developing a proposition to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of our lights throughout the city, but for the time being it was good to see the impact of this project. 

Jody Easkiovitch, Christina Liassides and Mark Prior 

From there we learned about the proposals for the Valley Gardens which will see, over the coming four years, a simplification of the road ways and the enhancement to the quality to the public spaces.  This will restore Valley Gardens as the lungs of the city, accompanying its beating heart in the Pavilion Gardens. Jim Mayor and Andy Renaut outlined the proposals and I am following up with Jim to hear more details shortly. 

Jim Mayor and Andrew Renaut

From Valley Gardens, it was a short walk to Edward Street to see the improvements that are taking place for walkers and cyclists and the provision of crossing facilities at junctions. It is intended that travelling by bus will become quicker as a result of the changes. It was good to meet Martin Baldwin, managing director of Edburton, the company undertaking the work. I learnt that not only do they recycle and reuse 100% of materials, they also source all their labour within 10 miles of the city. 

Martin Baldwin, Edburton with David Parker, transport planning

Leaving Martin and Dave, our senior managers for the project, we headed straight down to the coach park at Pool Valley.  There we saw the good work that we have undertaken to improve the area. However, there remains no proper shelter or facilities for the million coach passengers and we are following up with the coach company to see if they will resurrect their dropped plans of a few years ago.

Tom Campbell, project manager

Up at East Street, I heard about the potential walking network and met members of the highways enforcement and maintenance teams, David Fisher and Chris Simmons. I was shown examples of their work and was assured that all streets across the city are inspected at least six monthly to ensure hazards are identified and dealt with.

David Fisher, Chris Simmons, Christina Liassides and me

Looking back up East Street

At the Lanes car park, I was shown around by Austen Hunter and Tracey Wardle. I heard more about the transformation that took place between 2009 and 2011 leading to the award of 'Car Park refurbishment of the Year' in 2011.

Austen Hunter and Tracey Wardle with me in the car park

Then we headed to the seafront, meeting Mike Wright one of our engineers, who is overseeing the sewer mending. 

Mike Wright, engineer

We were joined by Leon Bellis, project manager, who is responsible for the propping for the shelter under the A259 and is looking at the long term plans to secure the seafront arches. Leon has already successfully managed the first phase of arches restoration which has been such a triumph. 

Leon Bellis, project manager

The morning illustrated very well the breadth of work undertaken by our transport colleagues and the strategic and operational importance of these various projects. I was struck by the preparation and enthusiasm of all of whom I met.

Management development

I have spoken before about our culture change and performance management programme Living our values, every day. This week, I had the privilege of giving the short opening address to Cohort 13 of the programme. 

Cohort 13 of the management development programme

Cohort 13 of the programme

Richard Dunstan, programme facilitator

Already I have heard from a couple of managers within that group who are eagerly looking forward to the benefits of this programme, and I can’t emphasis too much the importance of equipping managers to lead of the delivery of change and improve performance. We will make progress, with our values driving their behaviours and their work objectives, demonstrating clearly that they are accountable, delivering, working together and having a positive personal impact. This programme is just one of our actions to address last year’s staff survey whose high level feedback was that management capability, internal communications and personal resilience should all be addressed through the year.

Roadshows

The roadshows that are running across the council are another example of action following feedback. I very much hope that you get the opportunity to attend a roadshow and to contribute to conversations about what we stop, start and change. This is part of our response to the challenging financial situation and the need to adapt to the digital world, as we meet needs and play our leadership role in the city. One of the highlights of the roadshows is the celebration of achievements and it’s been gratifying to hear of the range of examples that have been described. 

Question evening

On Tuesday evening, I chaired a question time session at University of Brighton, hosted by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). It was a follow up to a session in February I participated in on ‘How women lead’. 

This time the question was: What contribution can men make to enabling more women to be leaders? It is unusual for me to be happy to hear an all-male panel and the reason was that the last time it was an all-female panel (with a male chair). We were very lucky to attract a good range of speakers; Michael Edwards, CEO of Albion in the Community; Richard Upton, CEO Cathedral Group; Giles York, Chief Constable of Sussex; James Rowlands, BHCC Commissioner of Services for Women and Girls affected by Violence; and Simon Fanshaw, broadcaster and trainer. 

The panel

A lively mixed audience threw all sorts of questions to the panel and the events were recorded, for those who are interested (I'll add a link when it's available). Interestingly, a dominant theme emerging from the discussions was the importance of an open organisational culture, driven by behaviours that respect everybody and which value diversity and in which women want to work and progress. That brings me back to Living our values, every day and the importance of us all demonstrating our commitment to collaboration, efficiency, customer focus, creativity, openness and respect.

Award-winning legal services

Our prestigious award

As the week ends, I hope colleagues will be celebrating the prestigious awards won by our legal services this week – congratulations to Natasha Watson and team for Family Law LA Legal Team of the Year,2014 and to Andrew Pack for Family Law Commentator of the Year, for his blog.  

Industrial action 

And while next week’s national strike on the 14th October has been called off, I am very sorry to say that we are in for three more days of strike action from Refuse and Recycling driver chargehands. This is despite a positive proposal for a review and redesign of the service, and us explaining the clear position that we cannot unilaterally increase the pay of one group of workers without a change and increase in role; nor can we afford a re-grade across the organisation. I am truly sorry that residents will suffer further inconvenience and a further loss of confidence in the service and the council. What we want is a reliable, high performing refuse and recycling service which can win more business and advance us as a clean, sustainable city.  

Let’s end with the spirited attitude of one of our street sweepers, Stella, battling the stormy weather this week, sweeping leaf filled drains and cheerfully telling me that nothing is impossible as she got soaked and blown. She was indefatigable.

Stella hard at work

All the best 
Penny

PS I'm just back from the Housing Centre where I presented Institute of Customer Service awards.  Well done to everyone and their coaches.

Well done to everyone

Going out and about and digital

Hello everybody

From the sofa

When I ended up sharing a sofa with Mark Turner on Monday morning while I awaited a lift to visit a housing scheme, I earnestly hoped that by the end of the week we would have agreed the arrangements for a piece of important work to review the design of Cityclean and Parks and the way we ensure our street scene is clean, green and safe. Sadly, yesterday morning, I heard that the discussions between ourselves and the trade union broke down. I fear that we will have continued working to rule and some further strike action and I am truly disappointed and sorry about that. I very much hope that the conversations can continue and that we can get our shared redesigned plans back on track.

During the same period on the sofa in the reception area of Kings House, not only did I greet numbers of our staff as they came into work but I took the time to thank Martin Hedgecock and his team for the work that they do behind the scenes to ensure that our accommodation is well supported. Martin and his team tend only to get profile when something goes wrong such as the floods and lightning strike a few months ago. Day in and day out they play an important role in helping the council to function, as do so many other colleagues in IT services, finance, commissioning, procurement, HR and communications, to name but a few.

Martin 'I don't need to show the values on the lanyard because I live them' Hedgecock,
Facilities & Building Services Manager

Walking in residents shoes

What I was waiting for on Monday was a visit to a Sheltered Housing Development where, under Angela Smithers’ leadership (Angela is interim head of housing) we have redesigned some very out-dated studio flats that do not have internal bathing facilities into very desirable one bedroom apartments with integral showers. Angela told me by walking a mile in residents’ shoes, we have come up with a design that uses the same space but so much better. We hope that some council residents will be interested in giving up bigger properties to move into these flats, or that current tenants will appreciate no longer having to share communal showering facilities, which surely is something that should be unnecessary in 2014.

Sean Grier, Mears site manager with Peter Huntbach, operational housing manager

Management development

On Tuesday morning, I opened cohort 10 of the management development programme, part of our living our values every day change programme, which his being rolled out to managers across the council. I will personally be the sponsor of this cohort and hope to meet with its participants from time to time during the programme. This programme is absolutely vital to us. It will enable managers to have the capacity and capability to manage the inordinate challenge of change that we are facing at the moment and which you will have heard about or be hearing about in roadshows. I am really encouraged by the response to the programme and the extent to which there is real commitment to living our values every day. 

Our corporate values

Sunsets

After many meetings over the last few days with members and managers preparing for forthcoming Policy and Resources and Health & Wellbeing boards, it was a delight to walk to a meeting on Tuesday evening along Brighton seafront as the sun went down. It is amazing what pictures an iPhone will capture and perhaps you would like to see one or two of these.

From West Hove to Brighton

Digital councils

Yesterday I was at the Digital Conference that the South East 7 group of authorities is hosting at the Amex Stadium. The day kicked off with stimulating presentations from the leaders of East Sussex and Brighton &Hove, input from Becky Shaw, chief executive of East Sussex County Council and a presentation from PWC. The conference challenged us to embrace digital technology and recognise that councils operate in a digital era and need to be fit for the digital world, rather than just developing a digital strategy and I couldn’t agree more. 

Cllr Jason Kitcat, leader BHCC

Cllr Jason Kitcat, leader BHCC

Nick Hibberd, BHCC Head of City Regeneration

Becky Shaw (CEO ESCC), Cllr Jason Kitcat (leader BHCC) , Cllr Keith Glazier (leader ESCC), Tony Singleton (Director Gov Digital Service

Becky Shaw, chief executive, East Sussex CC

In and out of Brighton station

It was a joy to grab a tasty small batch coffee in the CyclistBrighton café on my way from the Amex to St Albans for a meeting today with permanent secretaries (the civil servant heads of government departments). The CyclistBrighton is becoming a go to eatery and meetery and I hear tell it has a beer festival coming soon (soft drinks too I'm sure)! 

CyclistBrighton cafe in Brighton Station

Beautiful detail at the CyclistBrighton cafe

At today’s meeting, I hope that this will be an opportunity to extend the communication between central and local government. I also hope our meeting reinforces the impact of the financial challenges we are facing, as well as getting us recognition for what is already being delivered and the extent of the change that we are managing in the interests of our citizens.

Have a good weekend 

Penny