Chief Executive Blog - June 2014
Hello again,
It’s all about change this time - last month I talked about two key appointments that we were hoping to make within the senior management team. Richard Anderson was subsequently appointed as Head of Housing & Property and my congratulations go to him as he now embarks on another stage of his career with us as part of our senior management team.
We are now hoping to recruit a replacement for Jill Stewart, Acting Director of Environmental Services, towards the end of the summer period. There are other senior management changes also afoot - you will possibly all have heard that Sandy Riddell, Director of Education and Social Care, is moving on to pastures new at Fife Council.
Some of you may also have heard that Jill has received an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List which is fantastic news and a well deserved commendation for someone who has dedicated many years of public service to the improvement of social housing both in Highland and Moray. Congratulations also to twins Billy and John Grant who were awarded the British Empire Medal and who have now each completed 51 years of service with the council as road workers based at the Dava depot.
I also had the privilege of attending a long-service ceremony to recognise the sterling efforts of some of our most dedicated foster carers. Two of the couples who received awards have been fostering for 20 years.
Moving on to more sombre matters, with the reallocation of funding from the Scottish Government it looks as if we may have met our targets for the financial year 2015/16. However after that the austerity measures are set to continue so while we might feel that the pressure to make savings is off, this is only temporary. We will use that time to continue taking a longer term view and working on the 10 year plan to identify priorities which will determine the direction we are going in as an organisation.
Something else I just wanted to touch on this month was bullying and harassment. Having been highlighted as an issue, my fellow Directors and I feel very strongly that this is an opportunity to take active steps to begin to change the culture by promoting positive behaviours in the workplace and to build a culture of trust and respect between colleagues. Information on current support and arrangements is being highlighted through numerous channels such as information on the HR pages of the intranet, posters and an employee briefing note.
Change was also a theme of some of the various meetings I have attended recently, in particular the May meeting of the Community Planning Partnership Board saw discussion on the governance and shadow governance arrangements for the Integration of Moray Health and Social Care Services.
Finally, I can report that I have undertaken my latest healthy challenge – as one of a team of ten members we walked, jogged and ran in relay around Moray taking in the Dava Way, the Speyside Way and the Moray Coastal Trail in a 95 mile round trip in total. This was part of the Moray Way Relay that The Walk Jog Run Moray Partnership organised as part of its programme of events leading up to Glasgow 2014. Photos of the team with commemorative T-shirts and medals will be in the next Connect.