Field Notes

The why I still blog blog…..

The why I still blog blog…..

I’ve been really touched by the comments I’ve had on LinkedIn about as well as the notes and messages from my staff I’ve been sent the result of announcing that I’ll be leaving Adur and Worthing in July to take up the post of Chief Executive of Dorset Council in August. Thank you. As I

CFGS:  Opportunity Knocks

CFGS: Opportunity Knocks

This is an overview of the keynote speech that I gave at the CFGS conference. Clearly I am biased as the chair but I thought it was a brilliant conference, really carefully curated and hosted and with a real buzz about it as people came together to talk about the role of governance and scrutiny


Devolution by design

Devolution by design

Speaking very personally, I’m living with the tension between being passionately up for both local government reorganisation and devolution and my equally strongly held belief that how you do something really has an impact on the outcome you are creating. This was always going to be a messy process and the balance between figure it

Digital dreams

Digital dreams

In my other start of the year post I talked about some of my democratic and design dreams for the year – in this one I want to share my digital dreams. Stepping back from devolution question and into the reorganisation one, the opportunity for modernisation which comes with the creation dozens of new organisations


Setting up 2025

Setting up 2025

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

Week (ish) notes

Week (ish) notes

I’ve been on holiday* and have used some of the time to catch up on things I wanted to capture here and perhaps come back to: I have am still getting responses to my piece on buying better stuff (thank you!) and I am going to invite people who are interested to a virtual workshop


Setting up for 2024

Setting up for 2024

Given I only managed to post my 2023 intentions in August it feels a bit soon to be posting again – but here we are with some intentions for 2024 – all written alongside the annual sorting week. Part of my sorting this year is to get a proper AI reading and thinking approach together