Setting up 2025


Molehills at petworth park

I’m having a slightly unusual start to the year as my husband and I (along with half of the rest of the country it seems!) have been absolutely wiped out by some kind of bug and we are just about staggering back into the real world. It makes me extra grateful that I have as usual taken the first full working week of January off to do some pottering round, thinking, writing and generally setting myself up for the year.

It my version of ‘wintering’ and something that makes a big difference to me. I use it to tidy things up inside and out and set some intentions for the year – you can find other posts like this here and here if you are interested (not sure why you would be as this is a bit niche!).

This year, alongside the various projects such as utility room sorting, freezer rationalisation, craft projects and reading a stack of books I’m also centering myself for what will I think be some ‘interesting times’ with respect to Local Government Reorganisation and devolution. It feels like a real case of ‘be careful what you wish for’. I believe there are huge opportunities (and necessity) in both devolution and reorganisation but as an organisation we have been through a lot of change this last year and we were set to really enjoy the benefits of that in 2025 rather than navigating yet more change however positive I think it will be in the long term. I want us to have chance to celebrate what we have achieved even as we adapt to what comes next.

For this and other reasons I have to confess I have found the process of centering hard – it’s so far been a very disempowering process so far with district and boroughs not having a proper voice and I struggle with that on many levels. However, there is more than one form of power and using your voice is one of them so here I am.

I’ve found my centre by thinking about the possibilities that this all offers and by doing a bit of dreaming about what this could mean in both the digital and democratic spheres that I am most connected to. I’ve also starting to do some dreaming about the role of design in all this which feels a bit missing right now. I’m hoping the different communities I am part of find something interesting in here – and I hope to have chance to debate and improve all these dreams. On (lots of) reflection perhaps the most important test of all this is the good ancestor test – if we can get out of the now want is the long term change we need to see?

{For those of you who have heard all of this before I’m pleased to say I have Done Something about fantasy system so these are inputs to that – more on that anon.}

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how best to think in public over this period. I always written here very much from my own perspective – certainty not representing my organisation. In many ways its a continuation of the field notes I started for my PhD and its a way of working through things on my mind in public. But, to use the language of social science, I’m not an observer or even participant observer in the changes in local government – I have a role to play in our local system as well as the leader of my own organisation.

The CEX role is one which is ultimately there to support a democratic process and our elected politicians and there is a need to carefully navigate the space between opinion and advice as we work through the next stages of this process. But at the same time I need to help and support my organisation through this process and bridge between them and a process which will be happening around them.

I need to tread a line which allows me to think my thoughts (as that’s important to me) and to be really clear that these are very much personal opinions. Things I write here are often the ideals or perfect ideas that will get changed and adapted as they start to make their way out into the world. Just because I think it doesn’t mean I expect it to happen! I believe thinking out loud and considering ideas in the open is a valuable process – the reality and the opportunity of the change we are now in the middle of will be in the melding and development of our shared thinking.

Ultimately I step into 2025 seeing it as a year of potential and peril – and its the sharing of our thoughts and ideas that will make the most of the opportunity.

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