Thursday 8 November

It’s another busy week with lots happening.


Tuesday I was at Monkton Park all day; firstly for Cabinet, then Capital Assets Committee, then a meeting with all the Cabinet and Portfolio holders for the services which I’m responsible for. This is where we go through all of our key performance measures to ensure we’re delivering what we need to for our communities; we examine our budget position and make any adjustments that we need to ensure we come in at year end on balance; and we assess the key risks that the services face and how we plan to mitigate these. Finally I met with all of the political Group Leaders to discuss a number of issues relating to the running of the organisation and particularly next week’s full council meeting. I really enjoy these days as we get a lot done.

Today, Thursday I am with my service directors all day. We are assessing where we are in terms of work load and the pace at which we are delivering and seeking to explore ways of doing things differently to improve our performance and free up some time. Easy to say and tricky to do! I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with them all.

Tomorrow I will be in London all day. I have meetings at the department for Communities & Local Government (CLG) and then I’m speaking at a conference on running an organisation without a CEO. I suspect there may be some heckling as there will be some CEOs present! As I shall say, any leadership model can work well or fail badly – it’s all down to the individuals in post.

Could I thank all of our staff who were involved in clearing the roads last weekend after the flooding in several areas of the county. They did a terrific job and most roads were open again within a few hours. It’s a reminder that we operate a 24-7 business with important life and limb services which communities rely on.

I would just like to remind everybody that there will be a number of events scheduled on Monday 12th for Children In Need in the East Wing. This will include a very large raffle, so please join in and give generously. I know you always do.

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 and we’ll talk again in a week or so.

Carlton