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| The Issue |
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Page 1 of 5 An open letter to Kevin Lavery, the new chief executive of Cornwall Council. Welcome to Cornwall, and to one of the most exciting jobs in Britain’s public service. Ahead of our meeting I thought you might find it helpful to have some thoughts as a basis for what I hope will be a useful discussion. These come from someone who has been a long term supporter (sometimes virtually the only one seemingly) of unitary counties and who has successful experience of setting up a new public body in the teeth of opposition from all the key stakeholders in central and local government. Having come from one of the most admired companies in Britain – I was interested to see that Serco ranked 12th out of 240 in the 2008 Management Today league table of Britain’s Most Admired Companies – you must be wondering why you ever agreed to take on such a huge management challenge, with a rump Council more than half of whose members did not want to see One Cornwall and failed to vote for it. As a result, as you will know, expectations of the new council are very low and the local press is ambivalent – at best.  A mission awaits; Kevin Lavery, chief executive of Cornwall Council. However, my experience in the public and private sectors suggests that this unpromising background represents a major opportunity for you to develop a strategy for the new authority covering every element of organisation effectiveness – ie/ shared values, strategy, structure, systems, skills, style and staffing – communicate it to all key stakeholders (including town and parish councils, who are strong potential supporters – unlike the districts) and to secure some early wins showing that the new council can make a difference. There is plenty of good work and thinking on which to build, including the In Pursuit of Excellence initiative and successive Cornwall Lectures. In any case, the stakes are too high for a resigned cynicism to take hold. Cornwall is heading into the recession with relatively low wages, high seasonal unemployment, pervasive fuel poverty, a massive waiting list for social housing and a local health service under a seemingly permanent cloud. While exciting plans for Falmouth, Hayle and Newlyn are either mired in the bureaucratic wastelands in London (where Cornwall has very few friends) or have fallen victim to the credit crunch. |
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