Collaboration for Christmas

Much of my waking life is preoccupied at the moment with the future of the local authority and our public service partners in the face of the financial reductions that we all have to make. Collaboration with chiefs of other local authorities and police, fire, colleges and the voluntary sector is taking place every day as we think and plan a way ahead. 

Official opening of Hove Juniors Holland Road

So Monday afternoon’s official opening of Hove Juniors Holland Road site was a wonderful and welcome relief. Here, all the children of the new school and their teachers, parents, governors and a number of the local police came together to celebrate the transformation of Hove Police station into a state of the art school and a wonderful celebration it was too. The children sang; Janis Taylor, executive head, acknowledged the fantastic work with the council, the police and her own staff and we all left with a skip in our step seeing what excellent collaboration could do to improve the experience and life chances of our youngest citizens. One highlight for me was feedback that a survey of the children, regarding their first term in school, had come out with 100% satisfaction and delight. What I would give for a 100% satisfaction survey! 

Pupils at Hove Junior school Holland Road site

Pupils at Hove Junior school Holland Road site

Janice Taylor, headteacher at Hove Juniors

Inspector Jason Hazzard

New council candidates evening

On the same evening we hosted an open day for potential council candidates in next year’s elections. More than 30 people came to learn more about the role and responsibilities of a local authority councillor and while we didn’t get 100% feedback in our evaluation we very nearly did! I was grateful to Abraham, head of law, and Claire, elections manager, and Cian, my senior executive officer, for joining me in hosting and presenting to this session. We will be doing another session in January.

The Waterfront project

Tuesday saw a very significant decision taken by a Special Policy and Resources Committee which approved, in principle, the plans for the council to work together with Standard Life and Venue Ventures on the development of a scheme we are calling the Waterfront project. 

The Waterfront project

While final decisions have not yet been made, this initial decision gives the green light to detailed preparatory planning for a replacement conference centre and arena on the Black Rock site and an extension of Churchill Square shopping and entertainment centre down to the seafront.

The proposed new shopping area

The cross party support, for this significant investment of more than £540 million into the project and the intended results for our city, was extremely encouraging and testimony to an enormous amount of work that preceded the meeting. I would like to thank colleagues in the council and those in Standard Life and Venue Ventures for, again, another really fruitful collaboration. 

Inter-agency working

Tuesday was a very busy day and at lunch time Jason Kitcat, leader of the council and I met with Katy Bourne, the Police and Crime Commissioner, for one of our regular meetings. This time we focussed on the budget and future plans for both our organisations. We also covered a number of other issues including travellers, domestic violence and the high premium we put on effectively working together across the local authority and the police. 

Meeting with Katy Bourne, PCC

That evening the chief executives of West Sussex, East Sussex and myself plus our community safety managers met with Giles York, the chief constable, and a number of his senior officers to continue the theme of financial and service planning. We also heard early thoughts on what might be a new operating model for the police to respond to significant reductions in funding. That we are working closely together to try and ensure that our plans compliment and do not have perverse consequences, has got to be a good thing.  

At the Brighton & Hove Connected meeting on Tuesday afternoon the budget was, again, a key focus. Once again I found myself presenting both the challenge and the approach we are taking to prepare options for council members to decide in February. As you know, we are out for consultation on our budget and corporate plan. There will be difficult choices to make and it is inevitable that taking £26 million out of the council’s budget will have a knock on to both jobs and services. What we are trying to do, is to ensure that proposals are made in the context of further reductions that will be required in the next three to four years and the importance of prioritising our ability to provide civic leadership ensuring the continued health and wellbeing of our citizens, our environment and our economy.

More meetings

Wednesday is always a big meetings day and this week was no exception, with a Modernisation Board, an Informal Chairs meeting and Executive Leadership team meeting. All of these focussed on managing the here and now and managing the modernisation and development of the council as a public service business operating in a digital age with reducing funding.

The local government finance settlement

Thursday’s local government finance settlement was announced and it’s to the great credit of our finance colleagues that the forecast that we had been working on was correct to an incredible level of detail. So while there was no good news, the situation is no worse than we are planning for.  

A visit from the Ministry of Justice

A morning of internal meetings was followed by a valuable and much appreciated visit from Ursula Brennan who is Permanent Secretary (ie the head of) the Ministry of Justice. Ursula and I have been working as “buddies” for more than a year looking to learn from each other and cement connections between local and central government. I hosted a lunch time meeting involving the police, probation and community safety leads as well as the Abraham, head of law, and we reflected on changes to the court system, the probation service and offered feedback on how arrangements are playing out locally.  

Inspire project 

From this, Ursula and I went to visit Brighton Women’s Centre to hear more about the Inspire project, a collaborative third sector service commissioned to work with women offenders. The testimony of one courageous service user really brought the value of the scheme to life and it was an excellent session, again reflecting the importance of collaboration and diversity in our city’s provision of public services.

Coldean Community Corner

You may remember that I wrote a few weeks ago about a visit to Coldean Community Corner. The project featured on Latest TV this week; a nice positive project in the community that I'm proud we're part of. 

Christmas wishes

I’d like to end this week’s blog with a picture of Tuesday’s sunrise as I walked to work and a message of peace and hope that all of you enjoy a wonderful Christmas and that you find time for some well earned rest and fun with family and friends.  

These are tough times for public services, there is an enormous amount of need, high expectations and ever reducing resources and it requires all of us to be creative, collaborative and resourceful. 

Can I finally end by congratulating the Adult Social Care team for surpassing themselves in their wonderfully decorated Christmas theme?

Kings House room G31 

One of the ASC Christmas displays

I will leave you with that festive picture and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Penny