Regular readers of my blog will know I went along to the UK Leadership of Pensions Summit in London last week. Hot off the press, consensus from the expert speakers there was that the recommendations from the pensions review is likely to be a continuing final salary or career average scheme for the lower paid with a defined contribution ‘top up’ for higher earners. I know this will impact on many of us so as soon as I know any more; I will of course keep you updated.
The first Your Voice session was held on Monday in Stafford. I think it went well.
Feedback was that it was useful and helped to fill the gaps for those who attended. From my viewpoint, it’s crucial for me and my colleagues in SLT to get to meet as many of you face to face as I can. You are the people doing the job and who know far better than me what works. So I’m asking all attendees (and that invite extends to you all) to let me know their ideas, issues, concerns, views and how we can do things differently.
It’s crucial that we all pull together and take action to make our new way of working a success – we can’t do it without you. So if you haven’t booked on a session yet, then please do so. We’re adding more sessions in November so that more people have the option to come along.
We’re looking to work more closely with our partners and the local community to see where we can take advantage of opportunities in the current climate. On Sunday I met with the new Bishop of Stafford. I’m hoping we can now take forward further discussions around how the Church of England can help with some of the community based outcomes (by outcomes I mean results that make a real difference to people and where they live) we are trying to achieve.
Aligned to this, last week we had the first Staffordshire Hundred event. This is where a large group of the key players in Staffordshire come together to look at how we can work together to improve the county. It was really positive – the athlete and OBE David Moorcroft was a keynote speaker and I thought he was really inspirational. We’ve now got general agreement on a set of key priorities to work on.
Yesterday I was at a West Midlands Council meeting with the leader Philip Atkins where we looked at key priorities shared by councils across the region and the ongoing support for them. Key topics included our approach to Local Enterprise Partnerships (you’ll have heard me talk about those before) and the impact on councils of the proposed changes to the NHS. The latter in particular will have a huge impact on us and I’ll keep you up to date with developments.
On a personal front I’ll be joining Ian Dudson, High Sheriff of Staffordshire, on one of his canal walks later this week. He aims to walk every mile of the canal system to raise money for charity & increase the profile of the role of the High Sheriff. He will cover over 150 miles in total, but fortunately for my feet I’m only joining him for around 10 miles of it. Just my luck that the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse again…
Bye for now
Nick