These are extraordinary times.
Live 8. The G8 summit. A tornado in Birmingham – don’t worry – it’s too early to say whether it’s been caused by climate change. Suicide bombings in London. The end of a war in Britain & Ireland.
All in the last 4 weeks. Extraordinary times.
We see, daily, members of our public services racing into areas of danger, for our protection.
Extraordinarily brave.
We are grateful to those working to defend our free society.
In welcoming the IRA statement on Thursday, Tony Blair welcomed ‘politics replacing terror in the island of Ireland’.
A reminder that the hallmark of a free society is that conflict and dispute is resolved through politics.
And what is distinctive about you, here today, is that you have stepped up,
to join in,
in the process of representation, negotiation and consultation,
through Area working.
Bringing a more distinctively local element to the way public resources are used.
Improving the quality of life for our neighbourhoods and communities.
Being ambitious for our neighbourhoods and communities.
Not perhaps the kind of ambition that is equated with selfishness and greed.
But the kind that says “I want to make a difference.”
The City Council is ambitious for this city.
An important symbol of our ambition for the city is the tram, which carried 8.4 million passengers in its first year.
Next is Turning Point, creating a better environment for shoppers and visitors.
Then, we’ll be updating the Old Market Square.
Rebuilding 7 secondary schools.
Bringing all our Council houses up to a decent homes standard.
Doing more for those who need help most – including helping people to live in their own home for longer.
The scale of what we are doing is of a different order from a decade ago.
A range of agencies and organisations are involved in delivering this change.
The City’s Council role is to be the strategic leader.
And the Council is elected by the public.
Run by 55 City Councillors, elected democratically by the public to be their representatives, to decide what the City Council does, and how.
We meet and decide in public.
And if you’ve seen the headlines, maybe that’s something you’d want from our local health services.
The electoral mandate is the key to understanding how change can be effected more quickly.
Simply it says that we have been elected to represent voters, we can most effectively judge from meeting the public what is in their interests; and if the public don’t like what we are doing, they’ll vote for someone else.
And even in a city which generally returns one political party,
that sense of Councillors needing to know if the public will support them does shape the way we think and behave.
The “Respect for Nottingham” campaign was a clear response to the message received on the doorsteps in 2003.
Area Cttees have recently received the report that shows people feeling more confident about life in their neighbourhoods. A step forward, although we’ve a way to go.
So the mandate means you can get quicker and braver decisions.
The size of the City Council means you get bigger decisions.
The extra finance from Gov’t both to the Council and to the One City Partnership, means we get the chance to make a bigger difference,
although it also means we get a very highly directed expectation of what is to be done with both nationally and locally raised money.
In fact, there are expectations of the way we work,
as part of Europe,
as part of Britain,
as part of the East Midlands,
as part of the ‘3 Cities’, our partnership with Leicester and Derby,
as part of the conurbation,
before subsidiarity brings us to more local working
at an area, ward and neighbourhood level.
Because we know the value of local working.
Engagement and intimacy.
Better knowledge of people and places.
A way-in for people.
Today’s event is aimed at helping your engagement and your way-in.
To share knowledge and experience of area working.
To swap ideas.
To get a whole city picture of area working.
To say “Thank you” too.
But I suspect you get more gratification if we can to enable you to make more of a difference.
We have re-emphasized our commitment to neighbourhood and area working in the refresh of our strategic plan.
Some City Council Services now deliver on area basis.
For example the Neighbourhood Wardens and our street scene services.
Feedback from this has been positive.
More local people are getting to know some of the City Council staff who provide these services and this in turn helps service delivery.
Beyond this devolution, each area now has an action plan.
Area Action Planning has had some difficulties. Lessons will be learnt from this and the next process will be less complex.
Learning was one of nine criteria by which the Council gets judged.
And judged quite sternly by an independent public agency.
Now, we are judged on 5 key tests.
These tests may help you in your consideration of how to improve area working.
The 5 tests are – ambition, prioritisation, capacity, performance management, achievements.
I’ll repeat these, but as I do, ask yourself, how would you apply these tests to your area working.
Ambition – are we ambitious enough for the neighbourhoods and communities within our areas?
Prioritisation – are we courageous enough to direct money to projects and services that actually make a difference?
Capacity – with the extra external money available, have we done enough to enable the area working to direct and ensure the good use of the money? Can more people and groups be involved?
Performance management – are the reports of service performance effective enough to allow you to judge the service for yourself and to highlight the potential for improvement?
Achievements – can you recall the differences your area has made?
If ever you’re wondering how to test what you’re being told, why not fall back on these 5 themes?
Plus one other!
Do we present our work in a sufficiently engaging way, such that you don’t feel you have to have a Masters degree to take part?
Sometimes, don’t you just want to scream at Powerpoint presentations!
So often people end up reading from pages and pages of tables of words.
Of course, I’ve written this speech before knowing how engaged you’ll be.
So I better re-state the points I wanted to get across.
These are –
- these are remarkable times; a lot of is going on and we have more money; we have a chance to make a difference;
- there are constraints to area working, and frameworks for our ways of working; working out how to make things happen takes engagement and politics;
- area working is having an impact; today is an ideal opportunity to see how it can be taken further;
Let’s re-state our ambition for area working –
- To regularly bring together councillors, local residents and partner organisations at an area level;
- To state a new vision for the areas;
- To solve problems in the areas;
- To engage and involve more local people and partners in taking areas forward;
- To focus on the delivery of local services and to make recommendations on how improve them.
This desire for local working is not unique to Nottingham.
Across the country, various experiments are taking place on different styles of area and neighbourhood management and accountability.
Our latest development, is the Area Action Plan, coming at the same time as the allocation of Neighbourhood Renewal Funds, from government, via the One City Partnership.
The scope and the scale of Area working is growing.
And today, we look forward to hearing from you on how we can make it better.
Thank you for coming today.
Thanks for all you do.
Enjoy the meeting.
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