6.32 — weeknotes — LGPN South Conference -Resilience Exercises
Fortnight notes this week — after co-chairing, the LGPN conference last week I didn’t have any brain power left to write these.
As always hectic last week, lots of stuff going on and pushing things along in the run up to Christmas. Couple of highlights from last week…
Tuesday was in Hounslow House in the morning for SLT update on where we are with the budget and then CLT for an emergency planning / resilience update and to sign off the updated major emergency plan. This was a short day in the office because I then had to hot foot it over to the hospital for a finger gate check-up. (starting to get a bit more movement in it — keep doing the exercises).
On Wednesday evening the team and I did a Member development session on flooding and emergency planning (mainly Tim and the team…). It was a mix of training and exercise to ensure that Members knew their roles and responsibilities during incidents. It was also a useful opportunity to share what the team have been doing. The Leader and Portfolio Holder for flooding gave a bit of an introduction and then we launched into the session. It was well attended, and Councillors threw themselves into the exercise.
Thursday and Friday I was co-chairing with Sam Smith from Socitm, the LGPN conference in Heathrow. Genuinely it was an amazing couple of days with some really thought-provoking speakers. Too many to mention but some highlights with apologies to those I forgotten.
There was a good mix of local government and suppliers in the various rooms, and the conversations were engaging and meaningful. There were a number of themes throughout the two days around data, culture strategy and EDI. In my closing remarks I said that we as a sector can be too quick to be critical about ourselves and what isn’t working, the financial pressure we’re in and so on but actually we are very good at innovation, we are very forward thinking, and it is a great sector to be part of.
This week, another hectic one — although four-day week this week and next. Was in Hounslow Monday to Wednesday and stayed over on Monday to help with the commute!
TCE Programme Board on Monday — update and progress on the Community Experience programme — good progress, lots of activities. The new reception desk is being installed next week — which is going to be a very visual change in the way thing are being done — so very much looking forward to that!
Capital Board on Tuesday where all Directors with a capital programme being asked by Board to come in and explain and review the current programme and pipeline of work. With an aim to reduce the programme and save money. I had three lines — one for flood defences in the Borough, one for the Digital Strategy and Infrastructure and final one for the end user device replacement. Some changes and rephasing for all of them but a good session.
Wednesday James took key colleagues from across the organisation through the Death of a National Figure plan — part briefing, part exercise and part reflections and learnings from when the Queen passed. Was a useful session and one that we will aim to repeat on an annual basis.
Thursday had the annual Socitm Alumni Day — a great coming together at the end of the year for those colleagues who have gone through some of the Socitm learning days. As I did last year I hosted with Aiden the quiz — was very educational!
Tune of the week (random but classic) : Mel & Kim — Respectable
