It's 2015 and winter's here

Winter is upon us now. Cold mornings, wet mornings, glorious sunsets and on the news, an awful lot of coverage of the NHS and the crisis in our Accident and Emergency departments up and down the country.  

Winter in the city

Demand on Accident and Emergency departments

My week began with an emergency conference call about Accident and Emergency departments across the whole of Sussex. There was an acknowledgement that locally we are working extremely hard and well together, with the minimum of delays. However, the stand out fact is that more and more people are going to Accident and Emergency and more and more people are requiring hospital admission at a time when public service resources are more and more constrained. So warm thanks and congratulations to those in the council, in the health service and in the private and voluntary sector for the work that they are doing.  The CCG locally has been promoting an awareness campaign to divert people from using Accident and Emergency except in cases of life and limb emergency. 

Our Better Care Fund plan, developed with health colleagues, has a particular focus on improving health and care support in the community and joining up with primary care. I very much hope that over the coming year this will play its part in helping to address and divert what seems to be unending demand on A&E.  

Planning for the elections

On Tuesday I put on my Returning Officer hat and met with colleagues who had visited Sunderland to learn how they manage their elections and how they complete the count in record time. Not all of the actions that Sunderland take are replicable here, but it was fascinating to be debriefed from the visit and again it reminded me of the generosity of local government with a preparedness to share learning. Before long we will be seeking applications from staff who want to participate in the election as polling and count staff and I hope that we get a good response. The election on 7 May will produce two counts, one on Thursday night for the General Election and one on Saturday morning for the local elections.

Planning ahead

Wednesday was an Awayday for the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) when we spent time reviewing the work we have done on our forward planning. We also worked on the way ahead for the local authority up to 2020. 

Draft corporate plan

As we know, we will have a smaller budget, fewer staff, more shared services and be more of an enabler and a proactive partner with other public services, community and voluntary sector and private and independent businesses. In essence, we see the role of the council going forward being one of civic leadership of the wellbeing and aspiration of the city, its citizens and its economy.  

We were discussing the future, in terms of being a modern council and how we work in a digital age. We need to be operating in a joined up fashion, without silos, and be true to our values and our shared work objectives. The day was useful for agreeing some ground rules for service redesigns and we agreed the main areas of focus out of the recent staff survey.

Working at a clear desk

Thursday found me based  in my freshly cleared up room with my almost clear desk following work during new year week. 

Me and my (almost) clear desk

I met with Jason Kitcat, leader of the council and monitoring officer for our regular 1-1 meetings. Later, with colleagues we planned a forthcoming Corporate Parenting Board, where we look at how we are fulfilling our responsibilities to children and young people in our care.

Key Cities

Today I am travelling to London for a regular meeting of the Key Cities group. As previously, we will be working with other medium sized cities of the country on sharing our best learning, developing our economies, seeking devolution of powers where that’s useful and supporting one another in the face of the challenges that we all share in local government.  

Enjoying Twitter

Finally just a word about engaging with social media. One of the joys of my life is the learning I gain from twitter and the enjoyment, particularly from tweets by the East London group.

Those of you who follow me on twitter will know that my twitter timeline has plenty of paintings in it, as well as sharing academic and other references, and indeed some more light hearted exchanges. I am finding that twitter is a really useful way of connecting with colleagues far and wide, keeping on top of what’s going on and gaining some cultural nourishment.  Clearly there are some basic rules that need to be followed when engaging with twitter, particularly with a professional or managerial hat on. However, I very much hope that staff and managers will do so and gain the benefits that I am already experiencing.

I think that’s quite enough for now.

All the best
Penny