Peterborough Council Management Numbers Rise as Worker Numbers Fall

Here’s the text: “Peterborough is growing fast. The vibrant city centre is bustling with shops and restaurants and the city is surrounded by green open spaces and sites of archaeological interest. With thousands of new homes being built, the plans for the future are exciting and dynamic. Peterborough City Council’s new Strategic Client Service is the council’s front line for dealing with companies responsible for delivering key services to our communities. Services such as refuse collection, culture and leisure and back office functions such as IT, finance and HR. We’re looking for four exceptional people who are not daunted by change and pace; who are happy liaising with local service managers and senior directors at a national level. You will also look after pivotal projects such as Waste 2020 and Superfast Broadband. Working together with partners such as Serco, Vivacity and Enterprise – these are local roles working with national companies.”
Advertised here.

Peterborough Council has outsourced almost all of its functions without reducing the number of head honchos running the departments. Now it seems they need another four people at £50K each to do business with the companies they sold off the functions to.

They are obsessed with aggrandisement, puffing up like turkey cocks.

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Growth Cities Network

If, like many of us you don’t read the Financial Times behind its paywall, you will have missed an item entitled UK Cities Seek Powers to Boost Growth.

This tells us that group of smaller towns and cities seek additional powers and money from central government to “help the economic performance of the entire country.”

 

Continue reading “Growth Cities Network”

A Fair Spot and Goodly – Local Impressions of Peterborough

07:20 Thursday 17th May 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

“They’re always in groups, and when you’re walking down here late at night, you’re very scared. The amount of cars that have pulled up to me personally, it’s horrible. Would you like to get into my car? How much? It’s a very scary place to live. Very scary.”
Continue reading “A Fair Spot and Goodly – Local Impressions of Peterborough”

Peterborough Studios Home to BBC Cambridgeshire Breakfast Show

17:23 Wednesday 16th May 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Following the BBC Trust’s local radio licence review, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire is to keep its Peterborough studios. Paul Stainton will broadcast a new county-wide breakfast programme from the city from August. The remainder of the station’s output will continue to come from Cambridge. The station’s editor, David Harvey, said the new programme would maintain quality journalism that would appeal to the whole county. He joined me a short time ago with more details of why this has all been necessary. (TAPE)

DAVID HARVEY: Well two things have come together Chris at the same time. The BBC Trust have reviewed what local radio does, why we exist, and what people want from their local BBC. That’s a process that takes place every five years. And it received some 14,000 responses in various forms. And at the same time, as we’ve been talking about for some time now, Delivery Quality First has been taking place, which is a review of how we spend our money, effectively, on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, or your money, the licence fee payers’ money. In the last settlement that the BBC did around the licence fee with the Government, the licence fee was fixed until 2017, and then there were some additional costs that were taken on board. The BBC have to fund the World Service and the BBC Monitoring, and also fund a partnership with Welsh Channel 4, and support the set-up of new local TV services, and the potential roll-out of high-speed broadband. So all that coming together, as well as obviously the recession, and the general squeeze on public service bodies, has meant we have less money to play with, here at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

CHRIS MANN: And BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, let’s point out, is quite unusual. It’s got two centres, both Cambridge and Peterborough, which is quite rare in the UK. Now are they going to continue? Continue reading “Peterborough Studios Home to BBC Cambridgeshire Breakfast Show”

On the Value of Pledges and Promises

Peterborough’s children’s services cabinet member Sheila Scott has said it became apparent a few weeks after the death of Tyler Whelan that there had been failures in the department charged with looking after vulnerable children in the city.
A Serious Case Review by the Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board has highlighted a series of failures in Peterborough City Council’s children’s services department in the handling of the Tyler case. Interim children’s services director Malcolm Newsam said on Monday that there were two opportunities where more action could have been taken prior to Tyler’s death in March 2011”

Peterborough Evening Telegraph

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The Cabinet Member for Childrens Services Sheila Scott is currently unavailable for comment, so here is a BBC interview she attended after an unsatisfactory Ofsted report in May 2010, alongside her then Director, John Richards, subsequently himself sacked after a further damning Ofsted report in September 2011.

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08:35 Monday 24th May 2010
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Parts of Peterborough’s services for children in care have been labelled as inadequate by the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted. The service was voted as good in 21 categories, 9 were judged as adequate, and 3 categories were deemed as inadequate Joining us now is John Richards, Peterborough City Council’s Director of Children’s Services, and Councillor Sheila Scott is the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services at the Council. So guys, who’s fault is this? Who shall I start with? Shall I start with you John? Is it your fault? Continue reading “On the Value of Pledges and Promises”

On the Value of Testimonials and Case Studies

“Blue Marble have been instrumental in driving the transformation programme forward and in supporting our journey to excellence. They have helped us to turn our strategic vision into operational reality providing programme management support with enthusiasm, clarity and an approach totally suited to our needs. I have no hesitation in recommending them to other public sector organisations.”

John Richards, Director of Children’s Services Peterborough City Council
Blue Marble

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“Peterborough city councillors met last night to discuss a thirty three point action plan designed to rescue their ailing Children’s Services department. Last week a report from OFSTED said the Department was performing poorly. It follows another critical report in September which led to the resignation of the Department’s Director John Richards.”

Peterborough Children’s Services – A Long Way to Go.

08:23 Tuesday 15th November 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
Continue reading “On the Value of Testimonials and Case Studies”

A Pinch of Snuff

17:50 Friday 11th May 2012
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: Rupert Murdoch’s protege Rebekah Brooks has been giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards. The former editor of the Sun and News of the World was pressed on whether she and her newspapers have been able to influence politicians. Mrs Brooks confirmed that she had regular contact with the Prime Ministers over the years, and even received sympathetic text messages from them when she was forced to quit following the phone hacking scandal. (TAPE)
REBEKAH BROOKS: I received some indirect messages from Number 10, Number 11, the Home Office, Foreign Office. Continue reading “A Pinch of Snuff”

Police Appetite for a Strike

08:15 Thursday 10th May 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: It seems it’s going to be a day of discontent everywhere, because off-duty police staff are also protesting today. Around 20,000 rank and file officers expected to be taking part in a march in London at lunchtime. And according to the Police Federation, that march also includes 150 off-duty police officers from Cambridgeshire. And I can now speak to Oz Merrygold from Peterborough, who’s on a coach heading for the capital. Morning Oz.
OZ MERRYGOLD: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Whereabouts are you?
OZ MERRYGOLD: We’re just in Cambridge at the moment. We’re doing our second pickup at Trumpington Coach Park.
PAUL STAINTON: Obviously police officers not allowed to go on strike,. but you’re all going to be showing your displeasure in a different way today. Continue reading “Police Appetite for a Strike”