Being prepared

Penny is on leave this week so I'm covering for her. 

Fire on the roof

It's been a week of some drama. The fire on the roof of Hove Town Hall brought home the importance of regularly practicing our evacuation and fire drill procedures. Thankfully no-one was harmed. Our teams, working closely with the emergency services, quickly brought the situation quickly under control. Alongside our Health and Safety teams, they are supporting the investigation into the causes of the fire and debriefing on the lessons to be drawn for the future. 

Hove Town Hall on fire

In the era of smart phone news, the communications team quickly swung into action and Tom Scanlon, director of Public Health, got the message across that the situation was under control and that staff were able to get back to work within a remarkably short period of time. A vote of great thanks to all affected.

Upcoming elections

Talking of votes, the Electoral Services team are well into making their final electoral preparations for national and local elections on 7 May. It’s a major logistical exercise requiring the support of a large number of people, many of whom have volunteered to support the team and the election process. Yesterday evening I attended the training sessions for count supervisors. 
Brighton & Hove always attracts national media interest and we are home to a very vibrant political community, so no pressure on those organising the electoral process! 

The planning going into the election event and count for both our MPs and local ward councillors is extensive and intense. While all the voting for parliamentary and local elections takes place on Thursday 7 May, the count of votes for Parliamentary candidates will start after the polls close and will be declared in the early hours of Friday morning. The count of votes for the local council elections will start early on Saturday 9 May. So not only a major logistical exercise but also something of an endurance experience for all those involved over this period.  Spare a thought for Claire Wardle, Valerie Pearce, Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis, their teams and all those who have volunteered.

Reviewing and planning

Last month Full Council signed off the 2015-16 Budget and the Corporate Plan. Since then management teams with support from finance, performance and HR business partners have been compiling the end of year statistics on how we did during the whole of 2014-15. 

This information will help us evaluate what went well and also the lessons from what didn’t go so well. Service and personal performance evaluation is at the heart of the discussion I have been having recently with Penny, as my manager, and my conversations with my managers. It is a conversation that has always helped me focus in what I need to do for the year ahead. 

Yesterday the Environment, Development and Housing directorate management team took time out to review our business plans for the coming year and to think carefully about how we will prepare for the next administration.  We discussed preparations to support the induction of new councillors and how we might quickly form a strong working relationship with whoever is elected to be our political leaders.  

Support for Children's Services

Of course we don’t always get the luxury of time to prepare. As my colleague Pinaki Ghoshal has blogged about already, Children's Services are in the middle of an Ofsted Review. The team know they can be subject to unannounced reviews and inspections at almost any time, so being on top of their work and being able to account for often difficult decisions in demanding circumstances is critical. Many people appreciate the spotlight that has been thrown on social care teams dealing with vulnerable people. In recognition of this, Pinaki received a small token of support for the team from the last authority receiving an Ofsted visit – sweets, headache pills...  

Pinaki with the team's gifts

The team are working their socks off to give a an open and honest account of their work and we all wish them well.  

Like a good many people involved with elections, they will be taking a well-earned rest after 8 May when they receive the results of the inspection.

Geoff
(Executive director Environment, Development and Housing) 

Me - Geoff Raw

What an enthusiastic city!

A marathon effort

Well the marathon was a triumph. In its sixth year it has become the second biggest marathon event in the UK and 1700 people volunteered to make that happen and to create the unique community involvement vibe that we experienced on the day.  It was a particular delight for me to see the women's front runner, Pennina, zip past me. How do they do it? Thanks to everybody who volunteered, I know many of them work for us and their unstinting enthusiasm and preparedness for a long day is truly commendable.

Pennina zipping along

Volunteers on a water station

Young volunteers waiting for the action

Volunteering

Thanks to Carol Grant for the pictures, they are better than mine! 

The magical weekend weather didn’t hold and I took some eerie pictures on Monday as I walked home through a misty Hove. 

An eerie seafront

And later in the week, I managed to get a beautiful picture of the West Pier from the top of the Grand Hotel.

Looking out from the Grand Hotel

On air

Happily, by Tuesday and an early stint on BBC Sussex radio first thing in the morning the sun had re-emerged.  I was there to talk about how we ensure that everybody has the opportunity to vote and particularly those with a disability. I was delighted to have the chance to explain all that we are doing to make the election known about to everyone so that they can register their votes and then exercise their democratic right.  In terms of disability all polling stations will have disabled access and there is special provision for those with a visual impairment.  Despite all of the practical arrangements that we have in place, for me the most important safeguard for us is the quality of our staff and the training that they receive, so that the whole of the election team will be committed to ensuring that everyone can exercise their vote.

At the radio studio

Out with the RNLI

A highlight of my week and continuing the theme of volunteering came on Tuesday night when I was taken by Richard Pearce to meet the RNLI Lifeboat crew on their Tuesday training night and to have a go out on the lifeboat.  What I discovered was that we have a squad of volunteers who are available to crew the lifeboat 24/7 and who train twice a week.  These enthusiastic people come from all walks of life and are part of a voluntary organisation which is extremely professional in the way that it goes about its business. I am deeply grateful to Richard, Malcolm and all those whom I met on the night for the work they voluntary do every day and for giving me such an enjoyable evening.  The fact that it was calm and a beautiful sunset in the marina only added to the delights.

Preparing to go out with the crew

A screenshot from a previous search

Back at base with the crew

Me with Mark ( Rusty) Steel at the helm, Roland Farrar, Nick Clamp, Nigel Horn 

Be the Change

Returning to the theme of voluntary work and citizen engagement, I was one of a number of senior managers invited to participate in the Be the Change event held at the Amex Stadium and sponsored by Brighton and Hove Jobs and run by an outfit called Humanutopia. The event was focussed on young people from Year 10, who for one reason or another, maybe disengaged from school or lacking confidence in their own abilities. The purpose of the event was to help these young people discover their unique qualities and to help them see that our personal qualities are very important, alongside and sometimes more important, than qualifications.  There was an impressive turnout of young people and adults and the facilitators certainly created a powerful event.

At the Be the Change event

All of the people from business and public services who attended came because they want to do something positive to ensure the best of opportunities for all our young people. Certainly that was the reason that I came, and with our commitment to providing civic leadership for wellbeing and aspiration this is the sort of event we should support.  

Ofsted inspection

I dashed back from the Amex to meet an inspector from Ofsted and enjoyed our discussion. Ofsted will be inspecting us over the next four weeks, evaluating the way we safeguard and look after young people. I am very grateful to all of the staff and managers from the council and our partner agencies for the extra efforts that they will have to make to ensure that we meet the expectations of the inspection process. I very much hope that our commitment to young people and programme of improvement will be recognised and I am sure that we will learn from valuable feedback.  

The Dance Space

I thought that volunteering and citizen engagement might be the theme of this week’s blog but it is beginning to look as though enthusiasm might be the joining quality of all the events and tasks that I have been involved in this week. Particularly because last night I, my partner and a number of colleagues including Paula Murray, assistant chief executive, and Nick Hibberd, head of city regeneration, were part of an intriguing evening to launch South East Dance Circus Space fundraising push. 

At the launch

Nick Hibberd and other guests at the launch

The launch moved to the Emporium on London Road

Artistic director, Charlotte Vincent

This project has been a very long time in the planning but we are now at the stage where the Circus Street development, involving the university, the council and South East Dance, is taking shape and physical building will start later in the year. The council has been very supportive of the development of a dedicated and unique dance space in Brighton and this was acknowledged yesterday as South East Dance launched the push for their final fundraising. I know Paula Murray, who has been associated with this initiative for more than six years, was particularly moved by the acknowledgement of progress and the reality that we will soon see a dance space in our city.  The work that she and Nick have led has been very much behind the scenes but hugely important and I thank them for it.

A clean and sparkling city

Finally, I was struck by the commitment and enthusiasm this morning of Nick James on Hove seafront.
 

Nick James

Along with his chargehand colleague Max and some passing residents, we discussed how we could try to change the behaviour of people so that less litter is thoughtlessly discarded. We all agreed that we need to do something. I hope that we are all proactive ambassadors for a clean and sparkling Brighton & Hove and that we all model the behaviours that we would like to see from other citizens and visitors alike.  I will be taking my litter picker home with me tonight!

All the best
Penny

PS 

I'm just back from an inspiring visit to Stanmer Park to see some of the work that we will be doing funded by our Heritage Lottery Bid. I had the pleasure of meeting John Gapper, gardener, who was one of the first two Cityparks apprentices and has worked for the council for 56 years. He is also one of our most enthusiastic volunteers. We have John to thank for the growing and promotion of wild flower planting across the city.

John and me at Stanmer

Planning for elections and a marathon weekend

I hope you enjoyed the beautiful Easter weekend. I have to say the sun caught us unawares on Bank Holiday Monday. We enjoyed a wonderful time on Brighton & Hove’s seafront but paid the price with  a need for aftersun cream! Only in Brighton would you find a harpist and a double base along the seafront and I’ve seen both this week.

Hove seafront

Only in Brighton (& Hove)

Planning for the elections

After fresh air and exercise and frolicking with family over the weekend it was back to work on Tuesday, again with a focus on elections preparation.  

Before meeting with my deputy returning officers for an Elections Planning meeting I went to visit the elections team. Here colleagues are working hard to ensure that everybody is able to register under the new individual electoral registration scheme. 

Adam Fishwick and Will Skyrme from the elections team 

Dave Jones and Alessandra Scheiber from the elections team

Fiona Mason and David James from the elections team

Alessandra Scheiber and Tracey Barsley from the elections team 

At the same time they’re processing requests for postal votes, Claire Wardle, elections manager, was working with Mark Wall, head of democratic services, to register nominations for both parliamentary and local election candidates by the deadline of 5pm on Wednesday 8 April.

Mark Wall and Claire Wardle registering nominations 

We published our list of candidates and they can be found on our website.  All of this work is painstaking, involves an awful lot of paper despite the use of new technology where possible, and all of it is absolutely critical for ensuring that we achieve the open and fair elections expected of a mature democracy such as ours. I am grateful for the hard work of the elections team whose labours often go unsung and on whom we very much depend. The pressure is on for them at the moment and they were quick to express appreciation for the support of the contact centre at Hollingdean depot who are fielding phone queries on the election and playing a very important role.

Tony Mernagh's retirement

This week the Mayor and  Mayoress held a reception for Tony Mernagh who as director of the Enterprise Partnership and chair of Brighton & Hove Connected, our strategic partnership, is taking retirement this week. A good gathering of colleagues, including the police, councillors and business representatives came together in the Mayor’s parlour to recognise the huge commitment and talent that Tony has brought to his several roles in the city over many years. Simon Fanshawe gave an entertaining address on everyone’s behalf and it was a fitting send off for someone whom I am sure will continue to play a sparkling role in the city in a voluntary capacity; I hope so anyway. Our warm thanks and appreciation go with Tony into the new chapter of his life. 

Tony Mernagh

Tony with Simon Fanshawe

Modernising our council

If the election has been taking up a good part of my week this week another key focus has been our modernisation agenda. On Wednesday the council’s corporate modernisation delivery board met to review progress and forward plan the way that we will look to make savings, find opportunities to work together with partners and optimise technology. The session was creative and productive and underlined what we all know already; that we have a huge challenge before us. That said, our corporate plan, our sustainable community strategy and the undoubted talent and commitment of managers and staff in the council and across our partners will ensure that we turn our challenge into an opportunity. 

Part of the key to the future lies with our working across both the city region and the wider Coast 2 Capital region overseen by the local economic partnership. Today we are reviewing their business plan for 2015. 

Looking after our children

Finally, my formal week ends with a meeting with Graham Bartlett, the chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). This is a regular opportunity to assure myself that we are doing everything that we can and should be, to ensure that children and young people in the city are safeguarded.

Inevitably there will be some discussion about sexual exploitation and radicalisation of young people as well as the more familiar topics of neglect, physical and sexual abuse and how we are dealing with and learning from these sad cases.  

Marathon weekend

Finally, while not competing in the Marathon myself, the importance of this big weekend as the culmination of months of dedicated training and a big charity fundraiser has not passed me by. I won't be running; I will support from the sidelines. Good luck to all runners, and to the organisers and volunteers who make it happen. I will leave you my tip for health and stamina - useful for a CEO and marathon runners alike....it's hummus and vegetables. Here is my daily lunch!

As ever, thank you for all you are doing.

All the best,
Penny

Preparation, review and laughter

Listening to our residents

Licensing, noise, planning, refuse & recycling, party houses, and the future of the seafront were all issues raised in the Q&A following my talk about my work as CEO to the Kingscliffe Society AGM last Saturday morning. We had a good exchange of information and views and the residents there gave warm feedback on the openness of our session.

At the Kingscliffe Society AGM

Planning for the election

Monday morning started with me recording a short film to introduce training for presiding officers in the election. We will have 128 presiding officers running our polling stations right across Brighton & Hove and their role is absolutely vital. They will be responsible for opening up and running the polling stations, ensuring that everybody registered to vote in the city has the opportunity to participate in a free and fair election. And they are just one group of staff who will be supporting me as Returning Officer in running these elections - Poll Clerks, Count Assistants, Election Team staff, Count Supervisors and my Deputy Returning Officers will make up the team of several hundred.

Make sure you register to vote by 20 April

Later in the day I met with my Head of Elections and the Head of Comms to review our plans. Many people have very little idea about what it takes to run an election and I am hoping that they will be interested to see the short film that we’re going to make about the process to shine a light on what it entails and to make good our commitment to absolute openness and transparency.

Tuesday began with me undertaking the e-training for Presiding officers. This informative training which takes an hour and a half and ends with a test was extremely well put together by the Electoral Commission and it will certainly be a vital part of the training for our staff.

Talking through our actions

But this week has not been only about election planning. I have had the usual round of 121s including with Nev Kemp, our Chief Superintendent from the police, with whom we share so many issues that we are addressing together. Tuesday was also Trans Visibility Day and I was grateful for the update I received from our Policy Team briefing me on the actions we have progressed since the Trans Scrutiny last year.

With Policy Development Officer, David Humphreys

The Trans flag

On one of the brighter days in the week my walk home into the setting sun was a particular delight.

My walk home

Understandably quite a number of people are taking leave this week and so the regular Executive Leadership Team meeting on Wednesday morning had a number of substitutes who came together to share developments and work on a number of the issues including; staff parking, the business development for our Cityclean services and planning the implementation of our directorate plans to support the Corporate Plan.

Our ELT meeting with a few added guests

The Care Act

A high point of the meeting was our celebration that the Care Act came into force on Wednesday and the 491 must dos were almost completed - making us 96.7% “compliant” with over 400 requirements of this act. It’s the biggest change in social care legislation for probably six decades, and marks the moment when the duty of wellbeing becomes enshrined in law. It makes the Adult Safeguarding Board a statutory requirement and gives everybody access to social care assessment and provision. It’s good legislation, yet it will bring a financial challenge as we begin to assess those who are funding their own care, in preparation for taking over that funding when they reach the government ceiling on what they can be expected to pay.

Denise with Dr Glen Mason, Director of People Communities and Local Government, visiting to see how we are leading Health & Social Care change and delivery

Our new “My Life” web pages will support the introduction of the Care Act and allow people to enquire about services and make self-assessments digitally in the future. I must thank Denise D’Souza and her whole team for the fantastic work that they have done to ensure that we can meet the requirements of the act. The amount of work involved cannot be underestimated and has come at a time when other responsibilities and challenges have been piling up as well. Denise would be the first to acknowledge the support from colleagues right across the council and especially ICT, Finance and Communications.

My Life pages on our website

Our Clermont Family Assessment team

Today I have been to visit the Clermont Family Assessment centre team. This multi-disciplinary team of social work practitioners, child therapists, clinical psychologists, family therapist and adult psychiatrist undertake independent assessments and reports for the local authority and the courts and offer a range of individual and group work treatment and therapeutic services to help families experiencing problems. We are extremely fortunate to have this service and I spent a stimulating and encouraging hour talking about the role of the service in the new and changing landscape of childrens’ services. We all agreed that the renewed focus on the value of professional social work and the reinvigorated focus on the family in our work is absolutely the right way to go. I was able to share with them the importance of this service in the wider arrangements for the health and wellbeing of children and families.

l-r: Liz Henstridge, Alyn Pope, Penny Coombs, Binan Taylor, Tony Flynn, Barbara Cohen, Dr Tim Ojo, Michelle Race, Richard Price, Lianne Smith and Nicola Boyle

A little light relief

As a complete contrast, thank you to the communications team for brightening up my day with yesterday’s April Fool.

Our April Fools' Day news story

So if this week’s blog has had a theme I think it’s one of preparation, review and a little laughter.

Well I would like to say that we can look forward to a bright and sunny Easter weekend but I’m not sure there’s evidence to support that! So I leave you with some lovely Spring flowers if not a promise of sun. Get some relaxation if you have a break over the weekend and to those who are running our 24 hour services, as ever, I thank you.

Good wishes,
Penny