Chief Executive Blog - March 2013
Dear Colleagues,
Hello again – it is hard to believe that we are now well into March with February going by very quickly and although we have had some spring like weather recently, it did not continue for long!
Predictably my main focus has continued to be the financial planning for the next 4 years and the area based reviews for the next 10 years with work ongoing in these areas. However one of the more exciting developments has been with ‘Transform’ which is a project that will help manage the Council’s changing workforce over the next 4 years. Rather than the traditional method of redeployment and redundancy that Councils typically use for managing changes to staffing levels, ‘Transform’ looks at what people are likely to be good at doing and helps them to consider roles that are sometimes significantly different to their current and past jobs, providing training and guidance to support their transition. ‘Transform’ has been approved by the Council as a worthwhile approach to the management of staffing changes with a strong commitment to try to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible. I anticipate the Transform approach will be in place by early summer. I will keep you updated of progress.
Outwith the Council I have attended a couple of local events in the past month; a working dinner hosted by the Moray Economic Partnership in Forres, to continue to build relationships with private businesses, as we seek to grow and diversify the Moray economy; and I also attended a meeting with the Forres Area Forum to discuss how the Council can better engage with the community.
Further afield I continue to attend along with the Council Leader, monthly meetings in Edinburgh of CoSLA and a video conference joint meeting between myself, Council CMT and NHS Grampian’s Chief Executive and his management team.
In terms of highlights, there have been a couple for me over the past month. One was the Service Learning Visit to the Buckie Access Point where I, along with Councillor Tuke met a number of different groups of staff. We were particularly impressed with high level of effective co-working taking place between the different staff groups and the obvious dedication and commitment of all the staff. This is a prime example of co-location working at its best and can be held up as a model for others to emulate. The second highlight was the ‘Early Years’ event which again saw a similar high level of working across services and departments to plan how we in Moray can do the very best for young people to ensure they get the very best start in life.
Looking forward to the challenges of the next few weeks, I am awaiting official details of how many more Army Engineers will be moving to Kinloss Barracks.
I am also looking forward to the CoSLA Annual Conference and Convention, both of which take place in March. I will also be attending the closing ceremony of the Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and the event to mark the end of Grampian Police as both organisations move to the single force model – an indication of how times are also changing for other large public sector organisations. I will also be at the Convention of Highlands and Islands in Shetland towards the end of March.
Well, that’s almost it for this month – apart from a wee update on my training for the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow later this year – I’ve started researching possible training plans. In the meantime if you haven’t already done it I would encourage anyone to participate in the ‘Marafun’ which will be held in Elgin in June. It’s a fabulous combination of a running event and a day out for all the family. It also raises substantial sums of money for local charities. I have participated many times in the past so it’s over to the next generation!