That end of term feeling

This week has had a real end of term air about it.

Working across the region

Last Friday Becky Shaw, chief executive of East Sussex County Council and I followed Giles York, the chief constable, in addressing the annual Lieutenancy Conference.  Here, Lord Lieutenant Peter Field and his deputy lieutenants meet together to review the year and hear from leading partners. The Lieutenancy takes as its themes; helping individuals, helping communities, and helping industry. So Becky and I took these themes and updated the conference on the work that we are doing in the county, in the city and together on these topics. It ranges from work with establishing the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub to the progress with Greater Brighton and driving jobs and our economies. We all agreed that our challenges are shared ones and include helping people to help themselves while also managing public expectation; making more of collaboration as we face our shared financial challenges; making best use of the digital age; and responding to the vibrant politics.

Becky Shaw, Peter Field, Giles York amd me

Social work conference

On Tuesday, I had the honour of opening our Children & Young People’s Social Work conference. As someone who spent 12 years in children’s social work before becoming a manager, this conference held a particular importance for me. And I was truly moved to be able to listen to Jenny Molloy, also known as ‘Hackney Child’.

Jenny Molloy (@HackneyChild) 

Jenny Malloy

Jenny and I talking afterwards

Jenny and I follow each other on Twitter and she is someone who has become a passionate advocate of good social work. She gives powerful testimony to the vital role social workers played in her life, helping her to break the cycle that saw her parents in the care system and brought her and her brothers into the care system in turn. Jenny is a true expert by experience and she had the whole huge Amex Stadium conference room paying keen attention as she spoke of her life experiences. It was quite clear that her story was both inspiring and valuing of those in the room in equal measure.

Fiyaz Mughal from our One Voice programme also spoke at the conference. He talked about the radicalisation of young people and the importance of relationships in communities and between individuals.

Fiyaz Mughal

The job our social workers do is often poorly understood and I for one applaud them for what they do and am pleased to see their role as key to our whole purpose – providing civic leadership for the wellbeing and aspiration of Brighton & Hove.

Working as one organisation

The end of term theme is an appropriate one for the day we spent as a Corporate Management Team on Wednesday. Our purpose was to review the achievements from the last four years and to share the learning and to consider the staff survey as it relates to CMT in particular. We also considered how we tackle the cross-cutting issues that will face us over the coming years. It was a lively, positive day, where we recognised the value of working corporately as one organisation to tackle our challenges, both financial and strategic.

At the awayday

On the way to the session I marvelled at the beauty of the sculptural pier, its strength and yet its fragility. Perhaps this is a comparison for those of us leading in public service.



The beautiful West Pier



Final meetings

The final momentous end of term experience this week was Full Council last night. With a rich mix of public questions and petitions, approval of key plans and strategies including our Corporate Plan, Medium Term Financial Strategy, Local Transport Plan and Housing Strategy. The 54 councillors were taking some important decisions in preparation for a future, but many of them will not personally be part of. The evening was also marked by some moving and generous tributes paid to those standing down, including very long serving councillors from all parties and of course the leader of the Council, Jason Kitcat.

Full council last night

Earlier this week Councillor Kitcat chaired his final Corporate Parenting Board where we fulfil our obligations to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our children in care. He also chaired his final meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Board where tribute was paid to the vision and courage showed by councillors in moving to a more ambitious role for the board providing system leadership to health, social care and wellbeing in the city.

Preparing for election

So councillors will now be preparing themselves for the election. Our Elections Team are working hard in preparation. I am delighted that this year the whole of the Executive Leadership Team will be supporting me on the day and the night, to make sure we bring the best of our management to ensuring free, fair and transparent elections for both the parliamentary constituencies and the whole council. And it's worth reminding everyone that the Purdah period starts this Monday 30 March.

Personal impact

As well as having an end of term feel this week has made me think a good deal about personal impact. The impact of managers leading, like myself, who need to inspire confidence and promote working together while providing sound advice, challenge and listening. In summary being demonstrably an accountable officer. I have also witnessed the personal impact of Jenny Molloy, whose life experiences, learning and readiness to change have so much to teach us. And then there is the personal impact of our elected members whose public service is given in the interests of improving the lives of all citizens and ensuring the city continues to be a fabulous place in which to live, work and visit. Don’t let us underestimate the importance of personal impact and putting it to positive use in all we do.

Finally, on a personal note can I say thank you and great good fortune to Jenny Hughes who retires from the council and the role of PA to chief executive after almost 26 years. Thank you Jenny for all you have done and enjoy more time for running, horse-riding and gardening, you’ve earned it!

Goodbye to Jenny

Best wishes
Penny

Stretch, change, challenge

As I wait to see whether a miraculous lifting of cloud will allow us to see the rare eclipse that is forecast for this morning (it didn’t!) I reflect on a busy week where I have barely stood still.  

Meeting sixth formers

Last Friday I told you about meeting and celebrating with graduating apprentices. What I didn’t have to hand were the photographs from an earlier meeting in the day with sixth formers from the Brighton & Hove High School who wanted to find out more about the running of the council and being a woman chief executive.  They asked challenging and pertinent questions, ranging from reasons for homelessness to the meaning of my politically restricted post, to my career path and driving ambitions. I hope they took away a message that we can all take responsibility for our learning and development and that satisfaction from holding responsible posts comes from some perhaps unlikely sources. For me, in answer to their question about my greatest satisfaction, I had to say that it was seeing the development of colleagues and seeing, and hopefully helping them, achieve their potential. I hope that the students took away from the conversation the importance of stretching and challenging themselves and facing change with positivity. 

Pete Edmunds Year 13 manager

At the sixth form

The BHHS sixth formers

Care Act summit

Stretch and change are regular themes of my blog and have been features of this week. On Tuesday morning, which was World Social Work Day, I had the privilege of opening the Care Act summit for assessment services. The focus was the introduction of the 2014 Care Act, which comes into place this April. Here I met a hall full of motivated, enthusiastic, professional staff who have been preparing for the very welcome, but significant challenge of the new Care Act. 

With Brian Doughty, head of adults assessment

Angela Emerson, head of Financial Assessment & Welfare Rights

Part of the presentation

Brian addressing the audience

More people will be eligible for assessment to gauge their support needs; carers can expect more recognition and support and adult safeguarding will be put on a statutory footing alongside the safeguarding of children.  All these developments are the right things to do but we are going to have to find new ways of meeting them because our resources are reducing. The spirit and creativity in the room was notable. I have every confidence that we will be ready for the Act in April and I appreciate all the efforts of managers and staff alike who have prepared for this.

Brighton & Hove Connected

Change was also in the air when Brighton & Hove Connected (our strategic partnership) met together with week. Its chair, Tony Mernagh, is retiring and after the election we will consider how this partnership should function in the future. But it is important that we meet together as public service organisations with the community and voluntary sector organisations. Brighton & Hove Connected is a powerful brand and has adopted an ambitious needs based community strategy. It's is a key driver behind our corporate plan. We’ll be considering over the next few months whether we should continue to meet on a bi-monthly basis as a board, or adopt an approach through a series of theme based summits.

Presenting flowers to Tony Mernagh     photo Sally Polanski

Tom Scanlon talking through the Health and Wellbeing strategy

Award winning staff

Stretch and change also were the drivers behind the winners of our Big Difference Award for Spring which I presented yesterday. The individual award went to Susie Haworth who has managed an increase of 4000 school meals in very short order in response to the increased eligibility for all infant school children. Susie’s energy, enthusiasm and determination shone through and she had led enormous change in a short time with very positive outcomes. Congratulations to her. The team award was won by our Internal Audit service. They also have experienced enormous change and challenge over the last year. Despite having only temporary leadership, they continued to deliver their work programme while also taking on a very high profile complex investigation. The whole service is key to us being a well run organisation and I was very delighted to recognise their contribution through the Big Difference Award.

Susie Haworth winner the award

Kathy Downes and Sue Coleman from the Internal Audit team

So stretch, change, challenge, call it what you will, we cannot just stay doing things the way we’ve always done them because we’ve done them that way. 

Public servants

And that brings me to the unhappy situation that we find ourselves in with regard to some Approved Mental Health Practitioners. Unfortunately the need to require these professional staff to be part of a 24/7 rota has come to a head. No longer does the voluntary arrangement we have had for a long time mean that the rota is always covered. So we are going to have to insist that people take their part in the rota and fulfil the requirements of their job description. What we can’t do is compromise on the safety and wellbeing of our citizens. We cannot have a situation where our police colleagues, or hospital colleagues, are unable to rely on us to play our key role in the mental health assessment. 

So I finish the blog on a sombre note hoping that we can find a way through and reminding us that we are only here, as public servants, to meet with needs of our citizens. 

As Policy & Resources Committee endorsed last night, and I hope Full Council will agree next week, our key purpose 'is to provide strong civic leadership for the wellbeing and aspiration of Brighton & Hove'. We will be successful if we are judged to deliver a good life, a well run city, a vibrant economy and a modern council.

Thank you.
Penny

Working to our Corporate Plan

A good life

Monday was a difficult day. I illustrate it with a funereal sky, with a glimmer of pink. My step mother’s funeral was a fitting event. It marked and celebrated a good life with family and friends. We remembered my stepmother, less for her final difficult years enduring Alzheimer’s, and more for her independent, adventurous and creative years in her work, her marriage and her artistry.  Alzheimer’s is topical this week, particularly with the sad and early death of Sir Terry Pratchett, who endured early onset dementia with such grace and humour. 

A funereal sky

 
Supporting citizens with life changing and limiting conditions and supporting their carers has got to be at the heart of our purpose even when we’re facing limited and reducing resources. In the corporate plan, that will be discussed next at the Policy and Resources committee, a good life is one of the four strands of our purpose. We want to ensure that we have a city for all ages inclusive of everyone and protecting the most vulnerable.

A vibrant economy

Wednesday, by contrast to Monday, ended up being a day of surprise and celebration. A group of us from the council’s Economic Development team, led by the head of city regeneration, Nick Hibberd and supported by Jason Kitcat and I headed off to London to the Local Government Chronicle awards. Here, to our surprise and delight, we won the only award we had entered - the Driving Growth award. 


Jason and me on the train home


This award recognises the creative work we have done to achieve a City Deal for Brighton & Hove and our partner districts. It acknowledges how we developed the concept of Greater Brighton with a commendable track record of new jobs, start-up companies and an economy that is thriving with cultural, creative, hospitality and digital industries at its heart. This award is won for us – the council, our  partners locally and also the whole of Greater Brighton. We were quite delighted to achieve the recognition of our peers in a category that was very competitive. A vibrant economy is the second strand of our purpose. We want to promote a world class economy with a local workforce to match and we cannot be complacent even with the achievement of this award.
 

Our city regeneration team

A well run city

On Thursday I was pleased to introduce, alongside Jason Kitcat, a Community Safety Summit involving our partners from health and the police and also our diverse community and voluntary sector. 

Richard Butcher Tuset and others at the summit

Delegates at the summit

We came together to discuss how we can sustain Brighton & Hove being a demonstrably safe place and tackle some of our key community safety challenges with reduced resources. Our proposition and discussions were that we can achieve more by involving with our communities more. We heard a stimulating and encouraging presentation from Lisa Perretta, business crime reduction manager, from our Business Crime Reduction Partnership. Very quickly we were thinking about transferable learning from the very exciting schemes that she runs, which are fully funded by local businesses. This summit was absolutely in line with the third strand of our purpose: a well run city, which is kept clean, safe, moving and connected. We will not achieve this alone, rather by pulling together across community and voluntary sector, private businesses as well as the public sector. There was terrific support for the notion of a joined up public service ethos and effort across all our sectors. 

A modern council

I have just come from a really stimulating meeting about our approach to equalities. Along with colleagues from across the senior management team,  and with representatives from our Workers Forums, we agreed that we need to redouble our efforts to make sure we meet the equality standard for local government. We need to give equal efforts to being an inclusive, effective organisation for all our staff; including every protected group, favouring none.  

I have been to a celebration of our apprentices this afternoon where many have graduated from their scheme. Our apprentices are fundamental to the organisation. We need to create opportunities for young people in our organisation so that we develop our talent base. I was delighted to join them today. These meetings contribute to the fourth strand: to be a modern council, providing open civic leadership and effective public services; a good employer. 

Penny with Sue Moorman at the apprentice celebration

Our council apprentices at the celebration 

These four strands; a good life, a well run city, a vibrant economy, a modern council; will deliver our proposed purpose of providing strong civic leadership for the wellbeing and aspiration of our city, Brighton & Hove. My week, this week, has been a fine illustration of the importance of that purpose, supported by our values and work objectives in action.

Our corporate values and work objectives

Update: Silver IIP award

I'm just out of a feedback meeting with our Investors in People (IIP) assessors, and I'm pleased to announce we have achieved a silver award. This is fantastic news and a huge testament to the whole organisation. I would like to thank all staff and managers, and in particular the support of Caroline Bottrell, our Head of Organisational Development. 

Have a good weekend.
Penny


Blog amended at 16.46 on Friday 13 March.

Spring is in the air

Is Spring here? Certainly the mornings are bright. The snowdrops are out and the evenings are lighter and longer.

Bright mornings 

Snowdrops are out

The importance of health and safety

So with the spring in my step and the sun in the sky, I arrived at Tuesday morning’s Health & Safety committee to review performance of the past quarter. I was quite dismayed by the number of trips and falls that have caused colleagues across the council and our schools to experience some nasty injuries and some significant periods off work. We will be doing some campaigning and communications to remind us all to take care of ourselves and colleagues. Violent or aggressive incidents are the second highest cause of health and safety reports and being hit by a moving object or person the third highest. This latter category is not acts of violence but walking into doors or other people. Over the last quarter there were 233 incidents accounting for 642 working days lost. So there is something for all of us to take seriously. I can’t stress how important it is that we do take health and safety seriously in this organisation and I would like to pay testimony both the Health and Safety team, to the trade unions and to all staff and managers who work to keep each other safe every day.

My view at the Health and Safety committee

Planning for our future

Later on Tuesday, you will know by now that, councillors reconvened in Full Council and set a legal budget. The amendment that had been agreed, had been worked on over the past few days. I am pleased that we have the funding for our Corporate Plan which will be agreed at Policy and Resources and Full Council later this month. 


The hard work really starts now. Or should I say the hard work continues now. Over the past three years we have made reductions of £77 million and this year we need to make reductions of £26 million, and this is not going to be easy. It’s going to involve service redesign, stopping doing things, changing how we do things, making the best use of technology and working with our partners. Public servants are committed and resilient and I am sure we will continue to pull together to make sure we deliver on our plans and make the very best use of the financial resources available. But I am under no illusion that this is going to be a challenging year. We will be looking at management layers, spans of control and improving our managerial leadership supported by our culture change and performance programme for managers, Living our values every day which focuses on the performance of self, others and service. That programme is already bearing fruit with staff recognising that behaviours are being driven by our values. We are becoming a learning organisation, open to reviewing how we do things and making changes where necessary.

Our corporate plan

International Women's Day 

'Making it happen' is what we are going to have to do with the budget and corporate plan; it is also the theme of this year’s International Women’s day. I am pleased to be introducing the session today that has been organised by the Women’s Network in the council. We will have the benefit of hearing from comedian Kate Smurthwaite and a workshop on developing resilience. 



Carolyn Bristow. Debbie Waldon, me, Kate Smurthwaite, Sophie Pointer, Adriana Silva



A thank you

Lighter evenings 

Finally, can I thank those who have offered me condolences and recognised the challenge of the last few weeks both personally and professionally. Alongside working with members to create the conditions for setting the budget, I have been caring for my grieving dad and organising my stepmother’s funeral. Having the funeral director hum Elgar’s Nimrod down the phone to help me to select the music for the event, was a warming highlight of my week. The funeral takes place on Monday and I hope it will be a fitting tribute and celebration of a life well lived, enabling my sad dad to move on with the rest of his life. For the time being our little dog is proving a source of huge comfort and exercise for him, which can only be good.

Take care
Penny

Photo of International Women's Day added after post was first published