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

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