Friday 13 November 2009

I visited the Browfort hub on Monday to lead the Team Wire discussion. We talked about the "wicked" issues that are important to everybody at the moment, including pay harmonisation - what's happening and when?, the new chief executive - what's he like?, the budget - what's the current situation?, plans for work place transformation, culture - the values and behaviours in the organisation, ICT - what's working and what's not?, and the management restructure - why now? We had a good conversation for 90 minutes on these issues and I encourage all staff to do the same at their team meetings. These things are important and we must continually address them - to explain to all what's happening and why?

Tuesday was full council. The key business included approval of changes to member allowances, approval of the Core Strategy for the south (this identifies where the housing and business development will happen over the next 20 years), ratification of the appointment of the new Chief Executive, and a decision to include sprinklers into all new build schools. You can see from this the diversity of decisions that elected members take which affect our customers, communities and our organisation.

Today I am with the Department of Children and Education all day. We are looking at the budget situation over the next 4-5 years and will be developing outline commissioning plans for key services to improve service performance for our clients and customers whilst reducing cost at the same day. It will be a challenging, but fun day.

Thanks for reading and talk again next week. The Steam Museum was excellent by the way. My eight year old is a budding loco. driver which makes me so proud!

Carlton