There are some very hard decisions ahead for all of us with a very significant budget challenge on top of the situation we are currently facing....

Senior Government officials are talking about ‘savage and horrendous cuts’ to all our budgets to balance the budget deficit we currently face. We clearly need to work smarter, better, more closely and be more efficient and effective in everything we do. We all know that public services can and must deliver excellent, outstanding and brilliant services to the children, young people, families, citizens and communities we all serve. We need to think differently, think creatively and imaginatively and connect and use all our resources better. We need to look at how we can develop trust and empower communities and think family. We need to encourage and support more social enterprise, more use of the third sector, more use of public companies and more focus on shared responsibilities and community engagement and volunteering.

We must all ask ourselves what a modern highly effective and highly efficient local authority looks like… what it must do?... what it should do?... and what it can do?
Chris