Budget setting in progress

The sunset last Friday, on what was a sad week for me, was completely brilliant.

Friday night's sunset

It marked the end of the first week for my father without his wife of many decades and the end of our first week of him living with us. The dog is already enjoying the extra attention he gives her and he is relishing some blue skies. 

Saturday's sky

This working week I have been concentrating on another key part of my role facilitating the democratic process and in particular the setting of a legal budget. In truth, the development of the way forward for our corporate plan and a budget which meets the constrained resources at our disposal has been underway for many months.  

Indeed, in this blog I have made reference and added links to our budget consultation exercise ‘Stop, Start, Change’ and our animation spelling out where the money comes from and what it is spent on. But the process of 54 councillors meeting their obligations to set a legal budget culminates in Budget Council and this took place last night, Thursday 26 February.  

Budget Council at Hove Town Hall

The Council

At Budget Council 

This year we were faced with a very complex set of options for members, namely three alternative budgets to be discussed with 14 amendments tabled in advance. A lengthy and open debate on the amendments and the substantive proposals took place between 4.30pm and 11pm.  

However, despite a number of adjournments and constructive discussions between Group Leaders, there was no basis for a majority agreement by that time of the night and the meeting was adjourned until Tuesday 3 March at 4pm. I very much hope that the constructive discussions that began last night will end up in forming a new alternative budget resolution which can find majority favour and enable us to set a legal budget within the required time scale.  

In practice the decision needs to be taken and the relevant papers prepared for the printers by Thursday 5 March. The law requires the decision to have been made by Tuesday 10 March. The strongly held and differing opinions in the chamber reflect very well the strongly held and differing views of our residents when they are consulted and so coming to agreement is necessarily difficult and will require some compromise. The whole process underlines the demanding responsibilities on our elected members to be both representatives and leaders of their communities and citizens. Our role, as officers, is to support them to fulfil these obligations and it is important that I end by recognising the fantastic hard work of colleagues in the unsung areas of finance, legal services, democratic services and communications, not forgetting my own talented and committed Executive Leadership Team.  

At a recent ELT meeting

Throughout our work we seek to behave in line with our organisational values and to fulfil the obligations of our work objectives enabling the council to play its part in making this city a fantastic place to live, work and visit. 

Best wishes
Penny

Pride in our public service

Hello everyone

As an alternative to today's rainy sky, this was last Friday's walk to work

Care from our public services
I have to start this week with the sad Valentine’s day I spent with my father, dealing with the death of my dear stepmother Helen, from Alzheimer's. The relationship of this event to work is that for the short term at least, I have become the carer of a carer. After two years of devoted caring for my declining stepmother, my father is exhausted and sad. His achievement of care at home and a peaceful death in her own bed for the woman he loved for more than 40 years was enormously aided by a whole range of public servants. And as we left the registrars on Tuesday, he commented that every single public servant from the assistant registrar to the carers who recently started helping him with her personal care, to the GP and myriad of others, have all been quite fantastic. This is an accolade for services in East Sussex but it is also an accolade for public services more generally. It goes to the heart of why I am a dedicated public servant and proud of what we achieve every day. The services that our staff and partners give, are critical to sustaining a civilised society. And let's not forget the volunteers (of whom Helen was one) whose contribution is often unsung yet so key to making the challenges in the cycle of life manageable.

When I went into public service I remember one of my university tutors writing and congratulating me. I hope that university tutors would still do that nowadays, but I rather wonder. As a local authority we ensure and assure a wide range of services and functions. Whether it's seafront services ensuring the safety of those caught unaware by the ferocity of the sea; social care staff enabling a dying citizen to achieve their wish to die at home; or council tax staff who ensure we receive the necessary payments to contribute to supporting the £2.1 million we spend each day on the 800 or so services we provide.

Seafront services on Hove promenade

Our customer service centre at Bartholomew House

A speedy response
Another key area of public service that I want to raise this week is that of refuse and recycling. I am delighted by the speedy clear up following on from last week’s industrial action. It’s not just me that has noticed, so thank you. I have also received a number of supportive messages on twitter following the super quick removal of some graffiti that I had drawn to my attention at the end of last week. Again this public service is noticed and makes a big difference.

The graffiti before it was removed 

A festival to celebrate
Finally I wanted to end on an optimistic and on celebratory note. On Wednesday night the programme for 2015 Brighton Festival was launched. This year the guest director is novelist Ali Smith. As ever, the programme, including the Children’s festival, looks eclectic and exciting. And culture is vital to wellbeing and happiness, so I for one am going to start planning some cultural events for May and I encourage you to do the same.

The 2015 Brighton Festival brochure - get your copy around the city

Keeping our city running, together
So coming back to my theme of public service, I would like to thank everybody who works for and with local authorities, whether in health, the police or the private and community and voluntary sectors. It’s our shared effort that keeps our city running with vital services for citizens and support to the vibrant economy of the city. We must work together, and in tough financial times prioritise, find new ways of doing things, and be prepared to be open and share our resources and responsibilities with citizens and communities.

Best wishes
Penny

Safe and secure

The sun shone this morning reminding me that all week we’ve had a dull, cold February without much sun and so here's a picture of this morning’s brightness.

A glimpse of sunshine

Visiting the Brighton Centre

The last time I recall seeing the sun was at the weekend and particularly on Friday afternoon when I visited the Brighton Centre and met with Ian Hardy and Howard Barden. We reviewed how we are working together on plans for the seafront, including exciting waterfront developments that will eventually see a new conference centre and arena down at Black Rock. It was a delight to meet members of the management team to look around the building and to see a conference gathering momentum while I was there.  Keeping the business flourishing through this time of planning and change is at the forefront of Howard and Ian’s minds and keeping the building safe and secure is one of the constant challenges to the whole team, and they do it very well.  

Howard, Carrie, Colin, me, Rebecca, Michael, Ian

Being vigilant

Keeping our buildings, staff and citizens safe and secure has been a theme of this week and I have reminded everybody to be vigilant, recognising the heightened security threat level announced by the government recently, particularly in respect of police and our Jewish community. But the message of being safe and secure and remaining vigilant is equally one for all of us; so simple things such as always wearing our council ID, not allowing people to tailgate when we come through secure entrances and following our intuition if we have concerns, are all important things to do.

All talk and no vote

Running a fair and open election process is also on my mind and this week I met with my deputy returning officers to particularly focus on the workforce plan for the elections.  We have also started a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of registering to vote 'All talk and no vote'. I am really keen that the hard won vote is something that should be exercised by all eligible citizens and, of course, registration is essential to allow that to happen. So far the campaign does seems to be having an impact and citizens are busy adding their names to the electoral register.

One of our adverts on the side of a bus

Meeting our unions

On Tuesday I met with the branch secretaries for GMB (Mark) and Unison (Alex), at their request, to review the state of our industrial relations. From my perspective it’s important that we keep open channels for communication and maintain a respectful relationship that allows us to discuss and agree over differences. Despite a number of individual issues at the moment, ours was an open and good natured meeting. It’s important to me that we have a well led organisation with good industrial relations characterised by openness and respect and, ultimately, a commitment to working together.

Me with Mark and Alex

Redefining how we work

Over the coming months and years, how the council, communities and citizens work together will need to be redefined.  We will have to learn how to enable volunteers to have more autonomy in supporting their communities. One of many examples of this is happening already is in Hollingdean where some active citizens want to be able to open the Children’s Centre as a community building at weekends. I met with Valerie Foucher and Yvonne Rivers to review how this work is going with Steve Barton, head of service, Sam Warren, city neighbourhood co-ordinator and Richard Tuset, head of policy and communities. The news was encouraging and we had a really stimulating discussion about a collaborative agreement with citizens being at the heart of new ways of working. 

Richard, Sam, Steve, Valerie and Yvonne

Restoring Saltdean Lido

Another example of collaborative working was the meeting with the community interest company for Saltdean Lido fronted by its chair, Rebecca Crook, and Bridget Fishleigh. Local citizens have formed a Community Interest Company (CIC) and successfully bid to restore and run the magnificent Saltdean Lido. It’s clear that the council was not in a position to ensure such an outcome for Saltdean Lido without collaborative working. The CIC has taken on the challenge of securing a safe future for a wonderful building and a fabulous leisure offer for an important part of our city, namely Saltdean. We wish them well. 

Rebecca and Bridget

From the Lido archives

Providing employment

Many of us want to see Able and Willing become a flourishing business for many years to come. It provides employment for learning disabled adults and makes and sells important promotional and embroidered products. It is clear that this will need some continued support from us but it also needs a business plan that can support commercial independence. We held a meeting this week with two members of the business community who want to assist with advice and support. We agreed that they should join our monthly meeting and help it become a Support and Challenge board with the aim of Able and Willing becoming a viable business. I am grateful to them for volunteering to bring their expertise and commitment. We see this business as playing an important part in our strategy for people with a learning disability and achieving their aspirations to be able to live, work and play independently.

Geoff White, Able and Willing business manager

Being safe and secure means adapting to circumstances, taking new opportunities, seeing and mitigating new threats. Look out for yourselves and one another and I hope we see a bit of that sun that peaked out this morning over the weekend.

Best wishes
Penny

Working together

As regular readers will know, every day I am delighted and entranced by the seascapes I see as I walk to work. 

Seafront on Tuesday morning

Walking in on Wednesday morning

City Management Board

Tuesday was no exception, as I walked along our seafront to meet with partners in the City Management Board at Jubilee Library. The main focus of our discussion was the way forward; how we respond to the demography, finance and policy challenges that we all face. There was complete agreement across police, universities, health service and council that our agenda of working together with our common vision is the only approach that is going to get us through tough times. Encouragingly, we are all committed to promoting wellbeing, resilience and aspiration and we share a joined up view of public service. We all see a bigger role for volunteering and would very much like to see public service volunteers working across neighbourhoods and communities supported by all the public service organisations of the city.

First joint meeting

Working together sums up the spirit of the first joint meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Board and the Children & Young people’s committee that took place at Hove Town hall on Tuesday afternoon. Councillors, senior health representatives, parents, carers and young people came together to hear about and approve a strategy for joined up services for children with educational special needs or with disabilities. 

Regan Delf presenting the first strategy

Then we went agreed a strategy for adults with learning disabilities which came out of an independent review of services. Both pieces of work involved those who use services and carers and parents. Both pieces of work had the needs and aspirations of service users at their centre and both pieces of work firmly committed us to joining up services and personalising them. The two reports were approved unanimously and set us on a course of making changes.  These changes will improve the experience of service users and will make better use of our resources. It really was a very encouraging meeting and I was moved by the degree of support and agreement for both plans. 

Mark Hendricks presenting the second strategy

Adult Social Care conference

Working together could also have been the theme of the Adult Social Care provider conference that I opened on Wednesday. This annual meeting of staff from across adult social care who work directly with older people, with those with a disability, including a learning disability, is now a firm fixture in my calendar. The session considered change and uncertainty and it also celebrated achievements. 

At the ASC provider conference

Karen Divall presenting at the conference

A highlight for me was Dr Tom Scanlon’s presentation on happiness and mental wellbeing. He left us with a message that a key to happiness is CLANG. CLANG stands for: Connected; Learning; Active; Noticing; Giving.

Dr Tom Scanlon at the conference

Service redesign

Continuing with the theme of working together, I have been encouraged by the tremendous work taking place to develop proposals for service redesign for Refuse Recycling and Parks Services. I know that many staff, as well as external experts, have been engaged with the work. Colleagues from the Executive Leadership Team gave constructive feedback one evening this week. I hope that the proposals will be seen as providing for a secure and efficient future. So it’s very disappointing that we continue a dispute with a small number of drivers who are going to withdraw their labour for a few hours next week and continue a work to rule. I am disappointed that they have not accepted the independent job evaluation. And I am sorry that this action is continuing to undermine the attempts of managers and the vast majority of the staff to demonstrate the reliable service that we want the city to value and recognise. We remain willing to talk to the trade union and its small number of members affected by this dispute.

Budget proposals for 2015/16

Finally we have worked with the administration and leaders of the opposition parties to develop this year’s budget proposals. The budget has been developed alongside the corporate plan and sets out the future purpose, principles, values and priorities for the council. Whichever council tax increase is chosen (0%, 2% or 5.9%), there will be a significant reduction in our budget and changes in the way we do things. We would want to make some of these changes anyway. The two reviews that I mentioned earlier are examples of that. The budget will be considered by Policy & Resources committee next Thursday but final decisions will not be taken until Budget Council on Thursday 26 February.

Thank you for continuing to work together.

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

Meetings of minds

It’s a  pleasure and a privilege to walk to work along the seafront. I think January is as fine a month as any. 

Sunrise on my way to work

And now I am writing this with the winter sun warming my back.

A buzzing MASH

I have to go back to last Friday afternoon to start this week’s blog. I spent the afternoon visiting our Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), guided by Clare Poyner the team manager. It was an uplifting afternoon of meeting a motivated multi-disciplinary team busy at their work who are pleased  that they have the systems to do the job. The atmosphere was buzzing, hardworking and purposeful. A number of staff told me how much they love their work and are finding the new MASH arrangements a really effective way of doing their job. Well done to everybody involved.

Clare Poyner, MASH team leader

In the MASH

Working together

Monday started again with a meeting with colleagues from our neighbouring counties of East Sussex and Surrey. We are exploring ways of working together to improve services and to make the most of efficient use of resources. It is early days, but this theme of sharing and working together is certainly upper most in my mind and activity. We are navigating the challenges of managing with a smaller budget, modernising our services; making best use of our digital age; improving our management performance, all with the clear purpose of better outcomes from our citizens. 

We don't want sympathy

On Monday evening I supported Jason Kitcat as he chaired the quarterly Corporate Parenting board. It was a really informative meeting and included a video made  by children in care about some of the activities they really enjoy. Their key message was ‘We don’t want sympathy’. One of our young people read a poem he had written and recorded inspired by the First World War called “Diary entry 21 October 1915”. 

We also scrutinised the report from Mark Storey, head teacher of the Virtual School. Mark’s role is to ensure the best possible deal and outcomes from the education system for our children in care.

Our Independent Visitors' service

Later on we met with the Independent Visitors’ service. Independent visitors are volunteers who are recruited, vetted and supported to develop a confidential long term one to one relationship with a child or young person in care. We have 44 independent visitors matched with children and young people, including eight who are matched with young people aged 18 or over. We are currently recruiting for independent visitors and we heard from two who enthused us about what a fulfilling and rewarding role this is. The benefits for young people were explained through case studies and we had a very uplifting discussion. 

Some of our independent visitors

Our award-winning legal team’s senior lawyer, Natasha Watson gave a briefing on the legal framework on how children and young people come into care.

Natasha Watson

The Senior Managers' Forum

Our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) meet with senior managers in a forum three times a year. Tuesday was the first session this year. I focused on updating senior colleagues on progress with our priorities – the budget, modernisation, improving our performance. We went on to consider, in some detail, the findings of the 2014 Staff Survey and to plan for actions to address those areas where we want to see improvement. 

At the Senior Managers Forum

Geoff Raw and Angela Dymott in discussion

First we noted that we had the highest response rate that we had for a Staff Survey; 55% which is above average for public sector organisations. We also acknowledged that the results showed staff feel we are Living the values every day. We also had high scores on understanding of the needs of our citizens, our own job roles and the work we do. However the most of the discussion focused on our three themes for 2015 which are: Leading, managing and supporting change in an open way; Giving even more attention to staff engagement and involvement and Providing a clearer understanding of the sense of direction in the organisation. We agreed that we will work together to improve our scores for the next survey  and we are under no illusion as to the scale of the challenge given the budget situation and increasing expectations and needs of our citizens.

Me with Richard Butcher Tuset

Joining up

Also on Tuesday we held a very positive and constructive cross party pre meeting for the Health and Wellbeing board and Children’s committees, which will take place together on the 3 February. This ground breaking meeting will receive reviews of services for children with special educational needs and disabilities and adults with learning difficulties.  We hope that there will be agreement to work on programmes that will see fundamental modernisation and improvement. We will build on the fantastic commitment of staff and the evidence of best practice. This work will be combined with a clear understanding of the wishes and feelings of service users.

A visit to Stonewall

On Thursday, Nicky Cambridge, policy officer and I met with Ruth Hunt chief executive of Stonewall. This meeting acknowledged our high rating Stonewall Index (12th for all organisations and 1st for local authorities). However the majority of the meeting was spent looking to the future and how we can improve the lot of Trans citizens and indeed all protected groups, something very close to our hearts. We were able to tell Ruth about the work that has resulted  from the Trans scrutiny two years ago and Nicky gave her a copy of a progress report which is going to the Scrutiny committee next week.

Ruth Hunt with me and Nicky

One Voice

At the Policy & Resources committee, Jason Kitcat commended the work that is being undertaken by the One Voice group. This is an organically developed meeting of multi faith representatives seeking to prevent the radicalisation of our young people. I raise this here to recognise the courage and commitment of members of our faith communities who want to work together on our shared One Voice agenda. I also mention it as the national threat level has been raised this week in respect of both the police and the Jewish community. 

I want to end by reminding us to take care, be vigilant and to be the eyes and ears of the city. Our One Voice approach is peaceful, tolerant, kind  and these are the characteristics that we value for our city and its citizens. 

And finally, here's a beautiful picture of the seafront at sunset featuring Ross Empson one of our seafront officers last weekend.

I hope you enjoy a crisp winter’s weekend.
All the best
Penny

Good news during a busy week

I start this blog with some trepidation because last week one of my local twitter followers took me to task for the use of jargon. What I did say in response is that this blog is primarily written for people who work for Brighton & Hove City Council. It's very gratifying that it's of interest to local people and other followers from across the country and even a few abroad. So, I will try to ensure that it’s equally understandable but forgive me if I slip into a little jargon in the pursuit of pithiness and a recognition that colleagues will know what I am talking about!

Top ranked council

In a week of big skies, wet and windy days and nights and distressing international news, it was good to have something to celebrate mid-week. 

Big sky in Hove

On Wednesday we found out that we had come 12th in the Stonewall Employers Index and indeed first amongst local authorities. This is testament to years of commitment and hard work. I am pleased and proud for all our LGB staff, citizens and those colleagues who worked hard to demonstrate to Stonewall how we do things around here. I am doubly pleased that we have achieved this recognition this year after the disappointment and consternation of last year when we didn’t make it into the 100. Next week I am meeting Ruth Hunt (chief executive of Stonewall). I hope the focus of our conversation will be very much on making sure that our Trans colleagues and citizens get a fair deal. I will be re-emphasising the importance for us of equality for all and having a fair and equal approach to all protected groups, age, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality and disability.

Ruth Hunt with Richard Butcher Tuset

Management development

I began Tuesday by meeting the 10th cohort of our management development programme. Our development programme focuses on how managers address the performance of themselves, others and their service. It was interesting, as it always is, to hear from colleagues about the benefits of the programme.  I was pleased to learn how our managers have been challenging one another in the interest of improving services to our citizens.

Cohort 10 of the management training

Audit and Standards committee

I explained the importance of management and leadership development later this week, when I was reporting to our Audit and Standards committee on our modernisation programme. This is our agenda for improving the Value for Money of our services, changing how we do things and reducing costs, while improving what we do for citizens. Change is scary. It can be difficult for some and exciting and stimulating for others. As I have often said, change is not optional when we are facing rising demand together with reducing resources. And we need to make the most of key opportunities that are provided by the digital age in which we live.

South East 7

Also, on Tuesday I also attended the meeting of the SE7 (South East 7) chief executives and leaders. One agreed outcome was that we would write a joint letter to the Secretary of State and Local Government Association and others. We will try to re-address some of the misinformation in the press about the ‘crisis’ in A & E and where responsibility and solutions lie. We want to explain that the whole system of Health and Social care (from GPs to A & E) is having to manage increasing expectations, and increasing frailty of our ageing population. We are responding by working hard together in a joined up, planned and committed way, and blaming parts of the system doesn't help.

Wednesday leadership meeting

On Wednesday, the focus of my meetings were the budget and forthcoming agenda for the Health & Wellbeing board. In the afternoon, it was the weekly meeting of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). We agreed reports for Policy & Resources next month and reviewed progress. After a heavy day of meetings it was a joy to go and relax and listen to some jazz at Smalls Jazz club. It takes place underneath the Caxton Arms and Scott Hamilton and the Smalls House band were playing.

Scott Hamilton at the Caxton Arms

A heady mix

Thursday’s activities ranged from meeting with trade unions, The Arts Council, a former colleague who specialises in digital and democracy and a Health and Wellbeing meeting and ending with preparation for the Staff Consultation Forum next week.

Today began with our regular council and health chief executive’s meeting, followed by the first monthly meeting of this year with the three political leaders of the council. Now I'm off to visit our Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) where the council and the police work together to manage our child protection concerns and seek to keep our most vulnerable children safe from harm.

That’s it for a snapshot of the life of a local authority chief executive this week. As you see I move from the big strategic issues like planning the future purpose and functions of the organisation to important individual issues such as complaints that come into my office.

Once again, well done to everyone who worked on our Stonewall submission and have a good weekend.

All the best
Penny