Friday 24 August

Well it seems that I have hardly been away – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun on your holidays. I‘ve had a good break and actually managed to catch some sun as well as spending an unhealthy amount of time in front of the telly watching the Olympics. The withdrawal symptoms are steadily diminishing now...


This week has been quite quiet, so time for me to catch up, think and plan ahead for everything we have to deliver through the autumn as well as starting to think about the new Council that will be elected next May and which will run from 2013-17. We will start to consider all the aspects of this – vision, communities, customer, performance and resources so that we have the information required by members of all political groups as they start to think about the new council, their objectives and what they wish to achieve. Always good to be prepared!


I have also completed SAP appraisals for four of my service directors. The new system works very well and has enabled some good conversations between us as we completed the appraisal process. Please strive to get these completed through September, I think it is vital that every one of our staff has a proper appraisal. If you haven’t had yours yet please ask your manager.


I moved into the new part of County Hall yesterday. Open plan with limited storage! I must admit I’m blown away with the building, how it looks and feels and am very excited about the possibilities this way of working will open up for us all. The break out space will really help to change the culture of the organisation into a modern, fit for purpose public sector operation. Intra-team communication should be greatly enhanced too with no walls and little rooms to hide away in. I’d like to thank the teams from property, ICT, transformation, service engagement and all the others involved in making the transfer so successful. Everything works so well so far.


Finally, we will open the staff survey shortly to everybody. It is important that we all complete this – yes I always do too – so that we can capture where we are and where we wish to get to from our staff’s perspective. Keep an eye out on The Wire for further information.


For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.


Thanks for reading. Talk again in a week or so.



Carlton