Chief Executive's Newsletter

Welcome to the May edition of my Chief Executive’s e-news to staff. Ian Stratford

Election News

Our annual round of elections took place on 1 May and our well oiled election machine ran this process smoothly, as usual. In the final count, the Liberal Democrats hold 49 seats (up three), Labour 29 (down two). Our new councillors received their induction the week following the election. Click here for full results.

We anticipate that there will now be some changes to the Executive portfolios, which I will advise you of once it is confirmed which councillors hold which positions of responsibility.

New faces

We have some new senior members of staff to welcome, firstly David Slater, our new Executive Director of Environment and Regeneration. David will drive forward regeneration to help deliver the council’s vision of a vibrant, safe, sustainable, modern European City and lead the city’s response to climate change. I am also pleased to announce that our new Director of Area Based Regeneration within David’s team will be Philip Joyce. He will join us in a few months' time from Rochdale Development Agency, where he is the Director of Physical Regeneration.

In Children’s Services we welcome John Collings who has been appointed as Director of Delivering Outcomes. John joins us from Hartlepool. Also in Children’s Services, welcome to Martin Surtees our new Director of Performance and Commissioning who comes to us from North Yorkshire.

Adult Services has two new temporary senior appointments. Rachel Baillie has a six month acting up role as Head of Commissioning. Colin Williams is with us for 12 months on secondment from the Care Services Improvement Partnership as our Head of Strategic Projects.

News round up

And now some regeneration news. Our ambitious plans for Britain’s first housing expo and the £450m regeneration of Scotswood are gathering pace with the announcement of a shortlist of three developers. These are Barratt Developments Plc and Artisan H Ltd. (including Keepmoat, Haslam Homes and Yuill Homes), Persimmon Plc and Cheviot Housing Association, and Grainger Plc and Places for People. The chosen three will embark on detailed negotiations with Newcastle City Council, Bringing Newcastle Gateshead and English Partnerships, to produce final tenders. This, the UK’s first housing expo, will create up to 300 new homes of cutting edge design with a further 1,500 to follow. The first homes will be ready for occupancy in 2011. Read more.

It's business as usual for Connexions Newcastle as it became part of the Council on 1 April. The advice and support service for 13 to 19-year-olds, is now part of Children’s Services and will continue to operate from Percy Street. Read more.

Newcastle City Council is calling on local people to make their mark on a child’s future by sending a single text message, at the start of National Fostering Fortnight. By texting “FOSTER” to 80800, people can receive more information on becoming a foster carer, including the package of support and training available and the allowance of up to £400 per child per week. More information, including video advert.

Newcastle is leading the way in championing dignity in adult care, and making sure the city’s senior citizens and other adult care service users are always treated with the respect they deserve. The first Newcastle-wide Dignity for All conference held recently saw 150 representatives of all care services in Newcastle affirm their commitment to zero tolerance of all forms of abuse. Read more.

The email, calendar and archiving system project was formally closed at the beginning of April. The successful project was delivered not only on time, but under budget too. The success of the project is measured by the fact that 7,000 email users across the council went live on the new Outlook system on the same day. Despite the scale and scope of the project the system was implemented with minimum disruption to all staff concerned. This is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the project team, and all the other staff involved with the delivery of the project.

The results of the 2007 staff survey are now available on the Intranet. I’m pleased to report improvements in most areas. 40 of the 75 issues showed an improvement with only three areas having a worse result. The remaining 30 issues showed no significant change. You’ll be working on action plans in your directorates where results show up specific local issues. An overview, the results and the full Staff Survey report for 2007 are available on the intranet.

Two State of the City events were held for representatives of business interests in Newcastle in March to tell them about the challenges ahead for the City. The purpose of the meetings was to involve them in the planning of our City for the next few years. The presentation by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive gave a general review of what’s been achieved in the past year, our current position and what we can look forward to in the future. View the presentations.

A Newcastle Youth Parliament event was also held in March where Newcastle students agreed their three main issues as being transport, leisure and anti-social behaviour. Read more.

And a further stakeholder event, this time for head teachers and chairs of school governors is planned for the beginning of June.

At the end of April, both students and parents at Heaton Manor School learned about the dangers of cyber-bullying in a series of special assemblies and workshops. The assemblies gave children and young people tips on how to stay safe while using the internet and their mobile phones and what to do if they are affected by cyber-bullying.

The executive summary to a Serious Case Review conducted by the Newcastle Safeguarding Children’s Board was published on 18 April. It followed the death of a 16-year-old girl in April 2007 after a party at her mother’s home in Walker and was widely reported at the time. The independent report highlights many examples of good practice by the agencies who had involvement with the girl, known as “R”, with professionals praised for demonstrating "outstanding caring and commitment" to her. Our part in child protection contributes to the very important inter-agency work that goes into safeguarding our young people. Particular praise is given to the Newcastle Youth Offending Team for their continuous efforts to secure accommodation for R, their effective inter-agency work and for their “high standard” assessments of her. Read the Executive Summary and the associated action plan, showing the various agencies’ response to recommendations. This case, as with any such tragedy, serves to reinforce in all our minds the importance of child protection.

As we work with the Government to improve parts of the environment polluted historically in Newcastle’s heavy industrial past, we are advising people to stay away from a stretch of shore next to the River Tyne after the area was declared to be contaminated land. A detailed investigation of the area has shown that the old St. Anthony’s Tar Works site at Walker Riverside is contaminated by industrial chemicals. We are stressing that although direct contact with the contaminants can cause skin irritation there is no immediate risk to health as the mixture of contaminates, including Benzene and Naphthalene, are well below levels that cause acute health effects. Read more.

We have launched a bin hotline as the countdown continues towards the biggest changes in recycling and waste collections in the City for a decade. As the majority of refuse bin collection days across the City will change from the week beginning 19 May the Council has launched a telephone hotline service giving residents a direct line to its Environment and Regeneration Directorate if they have any questions. The hotline number, 0191 278 3022 or 0191 278 3023, is open from 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Residents can also contact the Council on this matter by emailing binhotline@newcastle.gov.uk Many collection days are changing as part of the council's drive to make Newcastle a cleaner, greener city. As part of this, the Council will soon start the distribution of new blue recycling wheelie bins which will allow residents to recycle more.

Our efforts to further improve our communications saw a series of Plain English Workshops for many staff (including directors) in response to feedback from Members on the content and sometimes detailed nature of committee reports. This gives our Directors the opportunity to lead by example in making their written communications succinct and easy to understand.

Achievements to celebrate

Continuing a run of achievements to celebrate, I am delighted to tell you that we have been awarded the “European Transport (Tunnel) Deal of the Year Award 2007” by Infrastructure Journal Project Finance Magazine, for our work on the New Tyne Crossing. The Tyne Tunnel has won a second national award with the Major Projects Development Team winning the award for 'Best UK deal to Sign' in the Public Private Finance awards. The Tyne Tunnel was also Highly Recommended (runner up) for the "Judges Award for Innovation" in the same awards. Working in partnership with the Passenger Transport Authority, our role was identifying and delivering the Prudential Borrowing funding package that was recognised by the award. Read more.

Jane Bell from City Build has won ‘Apprentice of the year’ in the national Heating and Ventilation awards 2008. One judge commented: “She is only 19-years-old and she has achieved in one year what would normally take two!” Another said: “She is a great all rounder.” Last year, she won the council’s Bob Brown Youth Award for most improved young person and won the national APSE Female Apprentice of the Year Award.

Also in Environment and Regeneration, City Build has been short listed for the Outstanding Employer of the Year award in the COLAS awards.

The Newcastle U Decide participatory budgeting project has been nominated in the Innovative Engagement category for the Academy for Sustainable Communities Creating the Future Awards 2008, which recognises outstanding achievement in the development of sustainable communities. Read more.

We have also received national recognition recently from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears MP who set out a new draft strategy for consultation to give people in every local authority a greater say on how public money is spent. We were named as a successful pilot with our work on participatory budgeting.

We have congratulations to two areas of our council who have achieved Investors in People accreditation, which promotes excellence in people management and continuous business improvement. First is City Service who are the first full directorate to achieve the standard, including almost 600 staff. This reflects the hard work of staff in implementing the changes and improvements that City Service has delivered during the Transformation Programme. Second is Technical Services. Their success in meeting the standard is also the result of hard work and commitment from a great number of people within the team.

Another success to report is 26 clerical and admin staff who successfully studied for a Business Improvement Techniques qualification. The qualification aims to help staff to suggest changes to processes, make them more efficient and to improve performance. The staff now have the tools to look at the way they do things and identify areas they can improve on, using a team based approach.

And the North East Excellent Managers Programme aims to help people develop attitudes, behaviours and core skills to achieve organisational transformation. As part of an initiative to build capacity of 3rd and 4th tier Managers, five of our staff have successfully completed the first phase of the programme.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

And finally to remind you that I produce a weekly briefing for council members. This is available on the intranet.