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

Change and uncertainty

On a week of the Holocaust memorial day, the red poppy bought for my birthday from the Tower of London exhibition arrived at home.

A poppy from the Tower of London

It will soon join another poppy in our garden and will stand as a constant reminder of the horrors of war; the brutality of man’s inhumanity to man and the selfless humanity of those who stood up and were counted.

So the theme this week could be one of conflict and compassion but instead I want to talk about change and uncertainty. 

Changing times

In our  regular consultation meeting with the trade unions on Monday, these themes underpinned our discussion on the budget and the actions to change this organisation. Our drivers for change include: reduced finances resulting from austerity; the expectations of an increasingly tech savvy population; the needs of a minority of residents who are becoming poorer and more frail; and the opportunity to learn from best practice. 

Change is coming. And we are treating this as an opportunity to reconsider our purpose as a local authority and to focus on our core principles, values and priorities. These will be set out at a high level in our Corporate Plan when it is agreed in March and in the budget when it is set by councillors at the end of February. 

This is where uncertainty comes in. The work on budget options is underway and until decisions are taken, there cannot be certainty. All I can say to all of you is that I empathise with those who are under notice of redundancy or who are managing one of the number of service redesigns currently underway. 

I can’t take the uncertainty away but I can acknowledge it. Senior trade union colleagues understand the position very well and are doing their job representing their members and voicing concern regarding changes. I want to record here the importance of the work of the trade unions and to also reiterate my request that they work in partnership with us in coming up with the best approach to achieve a more modern, smaller and effective Brighton & Hove City Council in the future. 

Leading the change

Change and uncertainty needs to be led and well managed. And this is one of the reasons for the introduction of our management development programme part of our culture change programme, Living our values, every day.

I met with a number of managers who were completing the programme this week. I wanted to hear their feedback and to support and encourage them in their development. The focus of the programme is the management of self, others and service, with the best outcomes for citizens as its result. 

Meeting managers on the development course

At the heart of the programme is the importance of behaviour which are authentic and consistent with our values. I heard positive examples of new collaboration within the organisation. I also heard of challenges in terms of us being open and efficient. The benefits of such a development programme are often a slow burn rather than an immediate hit.

There was general appreciation that this investment in managers is really crucial at a time that when the demands of public service are changing and becoming more complicated and diverse. I very much hope that this programme will assist managers in leading through change in a time of uncertainty. 

Briefing potential election candidates

Change and uncertainty must certainly have been key themes for potential election candidates when they came to our briefing this week. We had a number of people who are considering standing for election and want to find out what the role of the local authority councillor will be. 

Prospective councillor briefing

It was a very positive session; and benefited from hearing from three current councillors who joined us. Their overwhelming theme was one of living our values and putting the city and its citizens first and foremost when conducting the business of the council. They all agreed that, once elected, the place for campaigning is not the council offices and committees. Their commitment and respectful preparedness to collaborate was impressive. I hope we left prospective candidates with a realistic view of the important role of councillors and the challenging circumstances that are faced both in term of resources and responsibilities.

Our purpose and ambition

So although we do not know who will be in government or indeed in administration of the council in May, we do know that our purpose and ambition will be to provide civic leadership, supporting the wellbeing and aspiration of our citizens and our city and its economy. We do know that we will need to be better managing the opportunities provided by our digital age, to enable citizens to connect and contact us remotely. And we will ensure that those who need face to face communication and support can access that easily. 

Our draft Corporate Plan

We do know that we will need to be sharing more services with other organisations including other councils, building on examples that already exist here. We do know that we need to be working openly with our citizens enabling them to do more for themselves and their communities. We know that we need to sustain our vibrant economy and continue to have an attractive offer for our 11 million visitors a year. And we do know that we have to do the things that prepare the ground for setting a sustainable budget for the next four years. 

That sustainable budget will require us to change, reduce, reimagine and manage uncertainly. For some of us change is exciting, for others it is daunting. I know many of you that work in this organisation would like there to be more certainty and I am only being open with you when I say there are some things that will remain uncertain for some time.

Let’s hold on to that which is certain, namely that we are here as public servants to work in the best interest of the city and all its citizens, particularly to those most vulnerable. Our purpose and our values of openness, respect, collaboration, creativity, efficiency and customer (citizen) focus must guide us.

Our apprentices

And now for a completely different take on change and uncertainty. A group of our current apprentices have made a film explaining why they took this route and what they are getting out of the experience. 

                  
                      Apprentices at Brighton & Hove City Council from SeeThat on Vimeo

All of them have made a change and all are enthusiastic and committed. I have worked with Ellie when she filmed me, and I have met some of the others. I think they are great ambassadors for apprenticeships and for Brighton & Hove City Council. So watch the film and feel the energy, it's less than three minutes long. 

Thank you, as always, for all you do.

Best wishes

Penny

Final paragraph edited Friday 30 January 3pm