I attended last week’s LGC Summit, held in Marlow, with many senior local authority folk, a few sponsors, and an impressive speaker list. So what did we learn? As ever from these events the learnings are a mixture of points of detail and some broad themes – I’m going to try to capture the wider…
In the Bleak Mid-Decade: The View from Bartle Borough Council in 2017
It’s 2017. We are halfway through the projected decade of austerity. Bartle Borough Council is a (fictional) unitary with 250,000 residents. It describes itself as a “commissioning council” and more than 80% of its services are provided by the private or voluntary sector. Resident satisfaction is pretty good – just below upper quartile. 75% of…
Thoughts arising from … #LocalGovCamp
Attended my first localgovcamp this weekend, (though it wasn’t my first unconference). These are my 10 takeaways – a clever format suggest by someone (possibly even Dan Slee) a little while ago: 1. Struck once again by how extraordinarily easy it is to enjoy the company of people who share a common passion and with…
Themes from the LGA Conference
This week saw the annual Local Government Association (LGA) conference, which is always a great opportunity to understand the position and direction of the sector. Here are some personal reflections: Something Must be Done The LGA presented research making projections of local government funding up to 2020. In the style of the famous Barnet Graph…
Career Planning into Uncertainty
Originally published on the Veredus website. I recently had the privilege of speaking to a London/South East group of the LGC Future Leaders for Local Government, about Career Management at a time of such uncertainty. This blog is intended to capture a few of the key messages, and is aimed at people mid-career. It’s a…
Competing to be the most Business-Friendly Council
This post was originally published on http://www.localgovernmentmatters.co.uk. I recently participated in a workshop arranged by a council to bring together its staff, local businesses and other relevant stakeholders in a session which focused on envisioning a future economic strategy. It was an impressive piece of co-creation, and as is usual with these things the…
Guardian Public Services Summit 2012
This blog was originally posted on http://www.localgovernmentmatters.co.uk The Guardian Public Services Summit is a rarity on the Summit circuit as it draws together people from across the public, voluntary and private sectors to share views on current issues and future opportunities in public service. It provides an interesting snapshot of the zeitgeist and I have…
The Tale of the Town Hall Clock
I wrote this shortly after joining Local Government, in 2001…. The Tale of the Town Hall Clock Once upon a time there was a town hall clock. It was quite a famous clock because it kept very good time, and people for miles around liked to see it, and hear its chiming bells. Lots of…
Solace Summit 2011 – Musings
Last week saw the Solace Summit 2011 – a deliberate change in format from the normal “Conference” event. I think it worked well. One of the key changes was the creation of a communique as an output from the whole thing. It’s here and it’s worth a read as a snapshot of some of the…
Town Councils – 2
After my fictional blog looking back at the success of a Town Council from the vantage point of 2015 I was delighted recently when someone pointed out this – Frome Town Council’s strategic plan is written in a similar way to the blog. It would be nice to think that the blog was mildly influential in…
Wexton Town Council – May 2015
Wexton Town Council Speech of the Incoming Town Mayor, David Sander, to the AGM 5th May 2015 (Check against podcast) I feel a tremendous privilege to stand here today as Town Mayor for Wexton, and a sobering responsibility. The last four years have been incredibly active for our town council and our community and before…
Guardian Public Service Summit 2011
Last year I blogged about the summit . Here are my thoughts from this year: What is the Summit and Who Goes? The Guardian Summit is held annually, lasts two days, and attracts a good range of speakers – examples this year included Nick Clegg, Katherine Kerswell (Kent CC), Peter Marks (CE of the Co-operative…
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