Thursday 18 June 2015

Stepping down - special blog


I am stepping down from the role of CEO of Brighton & Hove City Council. It has not been an easy decision. I don’t think my work is finished; but I do think it’s for the best. We have a new Labour Administration in the council. The Council wants to appoint a new CEO. I leave a strong, competent, highly motivated Executive Leadership Team and I hope that they can continue to deliver on the council’s ambitious and tough agenda.

I am pleased that the Administration recognises my huge contribution to the council and city over the past two and a half years. I am certainly proud of our Corporate Plan and Budget delivery and a number of key achievements besides.

Firstly, I leave an organisation with a culture underpinned by sound values and focussed on high performance in the interests of all citizens and the city. It is a far happier, more open, empowered organisation than the one I joined in November 2012. Our recent silver award of Investors in People is testimony to that. I hope the council keeps going with the culture change and performance with consequence agenda that we have embarked upon. It is essential underpinning for a Modernising, co-operative council facing huge financial challenges.

Secondly, I leave an organisation which wants the same thing as its partners, private, public and voluntary. This is a shared commitment to a vibrant economy benefitting everyone (housing and jobs being key ambitions); a good life (irrespective of age); a well- run city (safe, clean and moving) and a modern council – all combining to keep Brighton & Hove as a fantastic city to live, work and visit. And there is evidence of progress. On top of our Greater Brighton City Deal in 2014, we won the Local Government Chronicle Growth Award for 2015; being among the top performing Key City regions with a developing digital economy, a vibrant and renowned cultural offer, and falling numbers of unemployed. We have a number of exciting developments in the pipeline, among them the i360, King Alfred and Waterfront developments. Of course there remain challenges: the reducing budget; rising needs; and insufficient housing supply are just some of them. However, over the next few years, the council will be associated with keeping the city changing and developing.

Thirdly, I am proud that we are prioritising fairness for our most vulnerable citizens. Equality is the theme of our energetic and creative director of Public Health’s Annual report this year. Under the leadership of our executive director of Children’s Services we are properly attending to the experience of children at risk, children in care, children in education and those with a disability. The forthcoming Ofsted report will provide evidence of a journey well underway … not finished. Our health and wellbeing partnership between the council and health is tackling the challenges of an ageing population and high numbers of citizens with significant mental health needs or managing the ravages of drugs and alcohol. I am pleased that we have developed a profound understanding of the seamlessness required between health and social care and between prevention, primary, secondary and tertiary services. My role has been one of championing system leadership between the council and the health service and I do hope that this agenda continues to be prioritised and to flourish.

Fourthly, I personally led negotiations to resolve a long-standing equal pay issue for the council. Painful though those negotiations were, the resolution of this significant issue has enabled the council to undertake a forward looking agenda of redesign and renewal of our refuse recycling and parks services. These services in neighbourhoods are so visible and valued by citizens.  

Finally, I have sought to ensure that the council pursues equality for all including those quieter voices. As equalities champion I have modelled our values and pursued an approach which supports all protected groups to be heard and the development of the ‘One Voice’ group stands as testimony to that.  

I came into the role of chief executive clear that I would only take up the post if I were the first choice of all three leaders on the council. I have greatly relished the opportunity to work for those leaders and indeed for all 54 councillors. I am a longstanding and committed public servant who completes 40 years of public service this summer.

I will miss all the people I have worked with in the council, the city and beyond and I trust that they will continue to do a great job for this fantastic city. I want to pay special tribute to my fellow senior managers in the City Management Board, and to my own Executive Leadership team, whose support and challenge I have always valued.  

Let me end, sure in the certain knowledge that I leave behind an organisation in better shape than the one I joined. I have worked unstintingly during my time as Chief Executive of BHCC to be an #openCEO, setting a learning culture and modelling accountable managerial leadership.  

I have appreciated the fellowship of so many who have signed up to our learning and improvement journey. I hope that many of those friendships will be sustained into whatever comes next.

Penny

Friday 12 June 2015

Working with our partners in the city

Hello everybody

Safeguarding children

For me, this week has been all about partnership and working together. After my regular Monday morning “week ahead” meeting with the Leader of the Council to compare and plan diaries, I had my regular accountability meeting with Graham Bartlett, the Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board. He is accountable to me as the chief executive, which is important to ensure that any concerns regarding safeguarding can be raised. I am pleased to say that not only did Graham not have concerns to raise, he also went to some lengths to praise the work of Pinaki and his team. He recognised the leadership that Pinaki demonstrated during the recent Ofsted review period, whose resulting report we will see before the end of the month.



Getting out of the office

Another example of working together came on Wednesday when the Executive Leadership Team and I met for an awayday to plan for the future and ensure that we are sustaining momentum with delivering on our plans, whilst at the same time forging new relationships with the new council. I also noticed that the poppies on the way were glorious, and the seafront at our lunch time break was beautiful. On the way I spotted our seafront lifeguard service, which is so valued by residents and visitors and works tirelessly together to keep us all and our beaches safe.

Poppies on Hove seafront
Paula Murray and Rachel Musson on the beach during our lunch break
Our seafront lifeguards

A landmark day for the i360

Thursday was a landmark day. The barge bringing in the 13 “cans” which will make up the i360 and the jacking tower (which will become the holder to assemble the tower) arrived by barge. It was a privilege to be amongst a number of invited guests who have had involvement with the i360 and to enjoy the glorious sunshine. It was also fascinating to hear the Chairman of the i360 company, David Marks, who is also one half of Marks Barfield, its architects, describe to us how they are building the vertical cable car. The 200 tonne crane known as T-Rex is now busily unloading the cargo. But as well as machinery the i360 project is hugely reliant on collaboration and co-operation and this was something David spoke of in his introduction. Eleanor Harris, Chief Executive of the i360, supported by her small, hard working team outlined some of the benefits that will come from the project; 200 jobs on site and 450 jobs through the supply chain is not to be sniffed at. The impact on the economy of the city will be palpable. The signs are good and the tourist trade is enthusiastically working on schemes to incorporate this new business. Finally, we were treated to a showing of the marketing film from the i360, something that is entirely put together by local volunteers. Why not have a look at the promo video for yourself - it’s fab.

Some of the 'cans' arriving at the i360
Julia Barfield and David Marks, architects of the i360
Finding out more about the i360

Our first new Policy & Resources Committee

This week has seen the first Policy & Resources Committee of the new municipal year. Although not a long agenda, two vital items were discussed. Firstly the draft out-turn report for the budget which I am pleased to say shows a break even position thanks to an enormous amount of hard work from officers across the council. There were challenges in the report, not the least of which are the pressures building in Adult Social Care through volume and cost of placements. The other significant item was the report to give outline agreement to the establishment of a Fairness Commission which will be discussed at the new Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities committee in a couple of weeks time and which it is hoped will start its work through the summer. The commission has support from all quarters and is hoped will be another example of partnership and learning, producing something valuable to help with planning fairness improvements for citizens whilst at the same time addressing significant financial challenge.

Our first Policy & Resources Committee at the Brighthelm Centre 

Our partnerships in action

And so partnership and accountability have remained themes right to the end of the week. This morning Paula Murray, Assistant Chief Executive, and I hosted a debriefing and learning session with a wide range of staff who had worked on the election to try and distil learning points for future improvement.

Election debriefing session led by Paula Murray, Assistant Chief Executive

We then went on to the Brighthelm Centre where I hosted a Members partnership induction session so they could understand our partnership arrangements and the value of them. I was deeply grateful to all our busy colleagues from health, police, business, CVS, probation and Brighton Dome and Festival who not only gave up time to contribute to the event but also were happy to spontaneously address the gathering with insights into their work in partnership and also prepared to stay for many enthusiastic and informative informal conversations. The session was an authentic representation of partnership in action.

Partnership induction session for Members
Mark  Streeter, CEO of the Police & Crime Commissioners Office, talking about our Safe in the City Partnership

Let’s hope the sun shines this weekend.

Best wishes
Penny

Friday 5 June 2015

Managing our performance and celebrating our volunteers

Hello everybody

Our Performance Management Framework

I know you might think I am rather sad, but I was really excited this week to read my papers for the Executive Leadership Team for Wednesday and to see our Performance Management Framework set out diagrammatically, as the context for our performance report. This week has seen me in meetings and discussions on most of the eight aspects of our framework.

Our Performance Management Framework diagram

Business planning and risk management

On Monday, after diary planning with the leader, Councillor Warren Morgan, I met with the City Management Board finance leads from our public service partners in the city (universities, fire, police, health) and we continued on our quest to develop more ways of working together, producing better value for public money and improving services. This virtuous and challenging ambition is one that is already bearing fruit whether you look at the multi-agency safeguarding hub for children (MASH) developed jointly with the police, or our joint commissioning with health, or innumerable other examples. The risk management aspect of the framework was considered by the Leader's Group on Monday afternoon and they were properly seeking assurance that risk management is a living activity and not just a bureaucratic process. Indeed, that is the case; it is living and it’s action orientated.

That evening the leaving do for one of our long standing and well respected colleagues, Martin Randall, who has headed up planning for many years in the city was a valuing and celebratory affair and we wish Martin well.

Health & safety performance

Tuesday morning saw the health & safety aspect of our Performance Management Framework in action when I chaired the quarterly Corporate Health & Safety Board. Again we were reviewing performance over the year and noting that while the number of health & safety incidents has remained quite stable and the causes consistent (slips, trips and falls being the biggest cause) the number of days lost in sickness has dramatically increased. We agreed a number of actions to both investigate and seek to change this.

Performance and modernisation

My meeting with Rima Desai to consider performance and modernisation was an uplifting and reassuring session. The work that Rima has been leading on was considered in full and detail by the Executive Leadership Team and the Corporate Modernisation Board on Wednesday. We will be reporting to Policy & Resources on performance on 9 July.

Meeting with Rima Desai, Head of Performance Improvement and Programmes
A performance indicator for parenting was achieved by me this week when out of the blue I received a bunch of flowers through the post from my daughter who has recently started in full time work. How delightful and thoughtful.

Thoughtful flowers from my daughter
You may think that performance management is a crusty subject and you will now know that I don’t.

Celebrating our volunteers

On Wednesday evening at Brighton Museum it was a privilege to meet the many volunteers who carry out all sorts of functions for the city, and to celebrate their contribution. Last year, over 500 volunteers contributed 20,000 hours work with a value of £151,000. They volunteer in the Royal Pavilion and museums, our library service, healthwalks, City Parks, the Volks Railway and as City Greeters. More than 150 of them came to the celebration at Brighton Museum and I had the opportunity to meet a few of them.

Staff and volunteers at Brighton Museum
Claire Morgan, Parks Project Officer, who both volunteers, and works with Volunteers at The Level
I also met Peter Craske, Park Ranger with his stand showing conservation, planting and downland volunteer opportunities. I also heard a new word, “lookerers”. Lookerers are volunteer shepherds who walk around our conservation grazing flock.

Peter Craske, Park Ranger with his stand showing conservation, planting and  down land volunteer opportunities 
Councillor Gill Mitchell, Deputy Leader of the Council, joined me and Nicholas Owen in saying a few words of thanks to more than 150 volunteers gathered in the museum. We stood in front of a Wesley Emmett machine; he was the creative mind behind Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and his magical machines are being shown at our museums across the city.

With Councillor Gill Mitchell and Nicholas Owen next to one of Wesley Emmett's machine
Nicholas Owen is a great friend to the museum and the city, and is himself a volunteer for the Volks Railway. It was a delight to meet Nicholas and to hear from Stuart Strong, who manages the Volks Railway, what an important contribution volunteers make.

Nicholas Owen and Stuart Strong
During my visit I also met Jools Stone who is blogger in residence at the Royal Pavilion and museums. I have no doubt that he will be penning a few words on the event and we gained some positive and welcome publicity.

Jools Stone, blogger in residence at the Royal Pavilion
More volunteers will be helping out and providing sports and activities during our two-week TAKEPART festival at the end of June. Have a look at our website to find out more.

Active citizenship is already important in the city and will play a key role in the future as resources become ever more constrained, while needs and expectations increase. We know that volunteering is good for people as well as providing a wonderful public services. Don’t forget what Dr Tom Scanlon tells us about health and happiness coming from CLANG (being connected, learning, being active, noticing and giving) - volunteering ticks just about all of those boxes.

Delivering in our new administration

And so to delivery of our corporate plan and budget under the new administration. At Thursday’s six monthly Senior Managers Forum the top 200 or so managers in the authority had the opportunity to hear Councillor Warren Morgan, Leader of the Council, address them and answer questions on the new administration and its plans for Brighton & Hove.

At the Senior Managers Forum
Councillor Warren Morgan began by thanking everybody for the work that they do and acknowledging the challenges of the financial situation. His key message was that this authority will seek to learn from the good practice of co-operative councils and to draw on the good thinking of staff and managers in addressing the challenges of doing better with less. He gave particular emphasis to the failures of “trickle down” and the importance of tackling poverty, reminding us that one in six children in the city live in poverty, and one in three in his own ward. So tackling inequality and promoting fairness will be the watch words of this administration, and Warren went on to give examples of how this will be approached, particularly with the advent of the new Neighbourhood, Communities & Equalities Committee and the advent of the Fairness Commission.

Councillor Warren Morgan, Leader of the Council speaking at the Senior Managers Forum
Despite the challenging agenda we all face I was struck, as ever, by the positive engagement from managers and their preparedness to work together to continue to deliver on our purpose to provide civic leadership to the wellbeing and aspiration of our city and to gauge our progress by ensuring; a good life, a well run city, a modern council and a vibrant economy that everyone can benefit from.

Sunny weekend ahead

So the week ends with brighter skies than at its beginning and with a great deal of work to do but a spirit of endeavour and learning. Have a replenishing weekend.

Sunny Friday sky


Best wishes
Penny

Friday 29 May 2015

Bright lights in the city

Hello everybody

A bright end to the festival
Last Sunday saw the end of the Brighton Festival (sob). The finale was a free event on the seafront between the piers entitled 'Fleeting'. With lights and birds and fireworks, a crackling end was brought to the Festival. The Fringe continues this weekend.

Lanterns on the beach as part of 'Fleeting'
Brighton Festival finale fireworks

Thank you to Ali Smith, guest director, and Andrew Comben and the festival team for another fabulous May of culture. However in my view, the Sunday sky was also incredibly beautiful and impactful. You can compare the photos and make up your own mind as to which was the more fitting end.

Sunday's sunset sky

Bank Holiday
Bank Holiday Monday was better than forecast and up on the Downs hang gliders soared like enormous birds against a wonderful bright blue sky and puffy clouds. These machines are really quite magnificent and the take off is terrifyingly awesome.

Hang gliders taking off on the Downs
Hang glinders

Back to our new administration
So the start of the week was delayed by a day and on Tuesday we got down to work with the new administration. Foremost amongst their priority developments is the establishment of a Fairness Commission. Colleagues assisted in producing an early report which will go to Policy & Resources Committee in June to establish the commission and work up both its membership and terms of reference, led by the new Neighbourhood, Communities and Equalities Committee. On Wednesday, at our regular meeting of the Corporate Management Team, we reviewed the progress that our executive directors and assistant directors are making in establishing their working relationships with new chairs and committee members. It was encouraging to hear about the progress being made. The first new policy committee meeting of the new administration will be the Children’s Committee next week. I wish them well. You can have a look at the full list of committees and members on our website.

Stop Start Change
This week saw the publication on our intranet of some feedback for staff coming from their contributions to our 'Stop Start Change' initiative. Here we have asked staff to contribute ideas for activities we could stop, start or change that could have a positive impact on helping us reduce the budget, modernise the council, and deliver our Corporate Plan and the administration’s priorities.

An afternoon at The Grand
On Thursday I was pleased to have a constructive and fascinating meeting with Andrew Mosley, the General Manager at The Grand. The visit was an opportunity to hear the ambitious plans that Andrew and his team have for The Grand. It was also a chance to receive a ringing endorsement for the city’s ambitious economic agenda where priority is being given to ensure that the city remains one that visitors will want to come to in increasing numbers and local residents enjoy living and working in. Andrew is a member of the Economic Partnership within Brighton & Hove Connected and will continue to lend his weight to any initiatives which will help us to develop a sustainable seafront strategy, as well as capitalising on the planned developments of the i360 and the rest of the seafront. The fact that The Grand and other hotels in the city are flourishing and are ambitious to continue to renew themselves has got to be good for our economy and jobs.

With Andrew Mosley, General Manager at The Grand

Shaping our city
When I came into work today I was alerted to a feature in the Brighton & Hove Independent about the top 100 influential people in the city. Given the involvement of council members, local MPs, many of our key partners in all sectors and indeed a good number of my own team and their staff, I thought you might be interested in having a look.

Enjoy a good weekend – I leave you with the peace statue.

Penny

The peace statue

Friday 22 May 2015

A new council

Hello everybody

If this week’s blog is rather full of flowers, fauna, seascapes and references to the Festival, don’t be under any illusion, I have been at work! However, much of my working time has been taken up in confidential meetings with politicians and senior officers.
There is nothing unusual in this. With a new incoming Administration there is a great deal of handover discussion to take place, and that’s what has been happening. Now that we have had Annual Council and positions have been formally approved I will be able to talk more about business again.

I’d like to start by congratulating Councillor Warren Morgan on being leader of the council. I also want to welcome all of the Chairs and Members of Committees into their roles and reiterate my complete commitment to the provision of good support and advice from officers for all 54 councillors and each of the three Leaders of the political groups on the council.

Flowers and festivals

Sunday seems a long time ago, but it was a lovely day and my partner and I discovered the beautiful gardens of Highdown in Worthing, kept up by Worthing Borough Council. What a delight!

Visiting Highdown gardens before a busy week of meetings 

Beautiful flowers at Highdown - well worth a visit!

In the evening I had the pleasure of attending a Festival event at All Saints, Hove where we heard the “BBC’s Ten Pieces” played by Brighton & Hackney youth orchestras.  What a glorious event that was. 
The glorious Brighton & Hackney youth orchestras
After that and in some contrast we were able to hear a Brighton Fringe event which was the wonderful Edana Minghella, a Brighton resident and jazz singer, giving us her rendition of many Billie Holliday songs and telling the story of Billie Holiday, that fantastic American jazz singer. 

The wonderful Edana Mingella


Appreciating our seafront

Many of my meetings this week have been in Kings House and have concentrated on the establishment of the new administration. We won’t be based here forever. The refurbishment of Hove Town Hall will allow us to downsize council offices, sell Kings House and reduce running costs.
Kings House
So those of us who work at Kings House must continue to appreciate the seafront location while we have it. After long and concentrated discussions it was a delight on Wednesday evening to enjoy a walk at low tide and to even see sand!

An evening stroll on the seafront after work

One voice

Just before Annual Council I was proud to attend the One Voice event down at the Open Market. One Voice is a group of citizens of all faiths united in their determination to prevent radicalisation taking a hold, particularly of their young people and I was proud that as a council we have played our part in facilitating the development of this communities group.

With Asmat Roe at the One Voice event
One Voice promoting the work of an orphanage in Sierra Leone
Speakers at One Voice alongside Dr Tom Scanlon
As Asmat, from the Brighton & Hove Womens Muslim Forum said “One Voice is everybody feeling happy and valued; we are all humans; we must value everyone in the community; and the most important thing is love for everyone”. The event was addressed by leaders of all three political groups on the council who fully endorsed the aspirations of One Voice.

Annual Council

From One Voice in the Open Market, I dashed to Annual Council where, by acclamation, the new Civic Mayor, Lynda Hyde was sworn in.

Lynda Hyde sworn in as Mayor
Pinaki, Paula, Geoff, Denise and Rachel from ELT at the Annual Council 
The outgoing Mayor, Brian Fitch was thanked for his service over the year and for almost 40 years in the council. There was an air of civic pride and celebration to the proceedings in the chamber and the reception at the Royal Pavilion afterwards.

Procession of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor

Katherine’s positive personal impact

On my walk into work this morning I was caught up and stopped by Katherine Eastland who works in our schools data team. She ensures that our information on children and their performance is accurate and complete. She is part of Hilary Ferris’s performance unit and a proud and committed member of Children’s Services.

Her enthusiasm, knowledge and positive personal impact glowed as she told me about her work, her colleagues and their passion for what they do. This is public service at its best; often unseen and undervalued. Thank you Katherine and all those others I don’t see on the way into work!

Katherine Eastland from Children's Services

A fantastic place to live, work and visit

So let me end by saying that now we have a new council for four years with a very challenging set of circumstances in which to play out their ambitious agenda. The administration’s aim is to tackle inequality and unfairness, grow the economy and make real our core purpose of improving wellbeing and aspiration. This will ensure that Brighton & Hove remains a fantastic place to live, work and visit.

As ever we will all continue to work hard, living our values every day and working with partners across sectors, to achieve excellent outcomes for everyone.


Thank you and enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.

Friday 15 May 2015

Future planning

Thanks again
Just in case the message hasn't got through, I would like to give my profound thanks to everyone who worked on the election. In particular, can I thank, Claire Wardle (Elections Manager) the 'controlling mind'. I'm also grateful to my senior team and the Communications team who gave such energetic and sterling support.

At the local election count on Saturday

Welcoming the new councillors
After a one day weekend on Sunday it was back to work on Monday to meet the newly elected councillors. As you will know, 23 Labour councillors were elected, 20 Conservatives and 11 for the Green party. We held a welcome and induction meeting on Monday morning and by the end of the day I am pleased to say that 53 of the 54 councillors had signed up for their office - the 54th was unavoidably detained by the birth of a healthy and welcome grandson. She signs up today.

Today continues with the induction programme for Members where I, and the Executive Leadership Team, will be running sessions this morning and this afternoon.

Geoff Raw and Rachel Musson with some of the new councillors
Pinaki Ghoshal meeting our new councillors
Happily the sun is shining this morning and this is welcome after a rather tumultuous week of weather.

Sunny Hove
King's Esplanade
Much of the week has been taken up with the necessary discussions with Group Leaders to agree the formation of the Administration of the council, and arrangements for places and chairs of committees which will be confirmed at Annual Council on Thursday 21 May. The transitional period that we’re in now is one that we have planned for and is an important time, particularly for a council with no overall control, which is something that we have good experience of.

An ambassador for social work
I have found time this week to do some other things though and one of those was meeting with Kate Metcalf on Tuesday. Kate is a senior social worker with adults, who recently completed a secondment with the College of Social Work. While there Kate was working on the development of a curriculum guide for working with people with autism, and practice guides for social workers working with people with autism and dementia and their carers. Kate’s enthusiasm for undertaking work with academics and practitioners across the country to improve the quality of learning and practice for people with autism and dementia is fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together and was struck by Kate’s appreciation of the opportunity she has been given. Her determination to bring back valuable experience and practical guidance for Brighton & Hove is great. I am always heartened to meet our practitioners and managers and to hear about their 'lived' experience in work. And Kate is both a fantastic ambassador for social work, for Brighton & Hove and, indeed now, for the College of Social Work.



Senior Social Worker Kate Metcalf
International Hummus Day
To lighten the week with its important discussions I learnt on Wednesday that it was “International Hummus Day”. Yes, I am sure you think I’m making it up, but just look it up on the web if you don’t believe me! As some of you know I tend to have hummus for my lunch anyway, and Wednesday was no exception. A working lunch with Paula Murray, Assistant Chief Executive, on International Hummus Day was captured for posterity.

Paula Murray and I on International Hummus Day
Doctors in the house
In a week focused on future planning, it was encouraging and a real pleasure to meet our two new doctors in the house. They are Doctor Katie Cuming and Doctor Emma Robinson. They are sharing the consultant in Public Health role with a particular emphasis on health improvement, health protection and managing public health services commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Group. They join a strong and enthusiastic team led by Doctor Tom Scanlon, our Director of Public Health. They are already meeting colleagues and looking to develop their contribution to delivering our plans for this council to provide great civic leadership for wellbeing and aspiration in the city, and to build on the positive public health work already under way.


Dr Katie Cuming and Dr Emma Robinson
Communications changes
As well as welcoming new councillors and new senior staff I have also had the job of making a leaving speech this week for Corinna Allen who has left the authority as Head of Communications. Corinna has moved on to a fantastic new role in Southern Water as Head of Communications and Engagement and we wish her all the best for a glittering future. Corinna has made a real difference to the work and reputation of the council and I am really grateful for that. I am delighted to welcome Ali Rigby into the position of Acting Head of Communications, and know that we will build on our excellent working relationship and that she will continue the active leadership that Corinna has given.

In the festival spirit
Finally, just a reminder to everybody that the Brighton Festival is in full swing, as is the Brighton Fringe. There are wonderful productions, readings and events on every day and although I have only been able to attend a few I can thoroughly recommend having a look at the programme and taking advantage of the marvellous cultural events on offer to us all.

All the best
Penny

PS And a final final reminder that the 64 Million Artists initiative to help with everyone's wellbeing at the council. Links with Brighton Festival now kicked in so there are some great offers for staff taking part. Have a look at it on the Wave.