Helen Burkhalter

Friday 27th March: Carbon Reduction- A Future Business Change Model?

Well I tell ya, it’s all been go since I last wrote! I’m absolutely loving this placement and I think I’ve found an area that I would be really happy to continue in.

The initial idea of a project management approach to carbon reduction has developed greatly this month, with it developing into a portfolio of programmes under which individual projects are delivered. The target remains the same - 32% reduction of carbon emissions by 2020 - and the underlying principle of ‘lean-mean-green’ being integrated into all we plan and do. However, the commitment required to achieve this target is Council wide and impacts on how every service area runs. As such the Carbon Reduction Portfolio has developed into a potential business change model for the Council - exciting stuff!

The Carbon Reduction Portfolio briefing document is taking firm shape now, and my line manager and I hope to present it to CET (chief executive team=directors, chief exec and the like) and Cabinet (=all the Councils lead members [councillors] and the political Leader) at the end of April. And hopefully it will get accepted! The potential financial implications of not reducing our Carbon emissions are huge so I think it stands a good chance. Plus, the wider issue of climate change and resource sustainability means that such a business model just makes plain sense! But I wrote the brief so I guess I would say that eh!

The portfolio has also adopted a personality of its own now with me giving it the name ‘Project Gaia’. It’s a marketing tool really as it gives the portfolio an interesting hook instead of the long boring title “Denbighshire County Council’s Carbon Reduction Portfolio 2009”. ‘Gaia’ means ‘living earth’ and refers to the fact that the earth is made up of interdependent living forms which work in symbiosis to make our planet habitable, regulating the atmosphere, the oceans, and the climate (goodness I sound like a textbook!). So it relates to the climate change theme, plus I think it’s a bit quirky and memorable- useful for when we communicate the portfolio to staff and need their by-in to change working practices and such like.

So yeah big things this month, and it’s a definite ‘watch this space’ moment to see what the outcome will be of meeting with the powers that be (aka CET and Cabinet)…fingers crossed!

I’m off Thursday and Friday this week to write my essay for the Civil Renewal module. Thank goodness for the 2 day study leave we’re allowed per essay!

Well, I best get back to being a ‘Green’ maverick…well, revising the edits on the briefing document at least!

See you next month…

Ooh p.s. the Carbon Information Management System is on its way…we’re spec’ing it out (i.e. what we need/want it to do) this month and software development is scheduled to start in July. Our in house ICT guys/gals are developing it for us so we’re not having to fork out any money, plus we’re keeping it local which will make it easier/cheaper to maintain in the future as it will have been developed by the Council for the Council. Our systems development people are really good so if you’ve got the skills within the Council already then I say use them!

27th February 2009

Carbon Management: “Lean, Mean, Green”

Well the month kicked off with my leaving ‘do’ from my placement with the Strategic Policy Unit. It was a really lovely evening full of plenty of giggles and yummy food. Here’s a pic of us at the oldy-worldy pub we went to.

I have had some more training days this month which were Finance for Budget Holders, training-topical for this time of year- and the first session of four in completing Denbighshire County Council’s (DCC) Self Development Programme. This session was all about finding out how you learn and the influence of your beliefs and perceptions. All a bit psychological but actually really relevant and helpful in the work based environment. Plus I discovered I’m quite balanced in my use of the left and right side of my brain….apparently!?

So it was in at the deep end and onto my new placement with the Project Management Team. After 6 months with the Policy Unit it was strange to be really nervous again going into work on the Monday morning. But the team were really welcoming and they had organised a team meeting early that week so I was introduced to all the projects the team were working on and what project management actually involved day-to-day which was mightily useful!

So I’m now working on developing a programme management framework for the Council to meet the targets in our Carbon Reduction Strategy. Namely: 30% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 and 60% by 2050. So my first week really was full of reading and research, getting myself really immersed in the topic, what DCC had been doing so far, what other authorities were doing, what are the recent debates surrounding carbon management, how a project/programme management approach could help in these debates etc etc….I had square eyes by the end of the week I can tell ya!

And so you can see above my proposed skeleton of what the carbon management programme will involve. It’ll have 5 arms to it and under each will be a portfolio of projects based on sound business cases with clear outcomes that will contribute to the overall aim of 30% reduction by 2020 and 60% by 2050. We’re aiming to instil the hierarchal approach of ‘lean, mean, green’ in each of the operation areas. It’s still pretty organic at the minute but we’re focussing on the Asset Management arm just now. So following the hierarchy, we’re first looking into how to make our buildings more energy efficient. Then we’ll consider some ‘meaner’ changes-e.g. changing energy suppliers, disposing some of our most inefficient buildings etc. These two levels are where we envisage our biggest emissions reductions will be. And then, almost the cherry on top, will be provided by considering ‘green’ energy- e.g. installing wind turbines, solar panels and such like.

So focussing on the lean side of things, this month I’ve been working on the development of an information management system for the energy data we collect on our buildings each month. This will ultimately report on consumption, cost and carbon emissions, plus efficiency when comparing consumption to building size and occupancy. The performance management framework which will fit with this will then monitor progress each month against our target figures, and hopefully together will mean we’ll have the information we need to make the right management decisions on energy efficiency/carbon reduction projects.

Yes yes yes, but what does this mean day to day I hear you cry! So I’m working with excel a lot and creating process maps to investigate how such a system could operate. Denbighshire’s own ‘IT’ crowd have been a useful point of contact on this! I’ve been working with Ewan from the Policy Unit too; to make sure the performance side of things is covered. And I’ve also been in regular contact with our Property Services team who will ultimately be the ones who will use the system day to day. Plus keeping my finger on the pulse with what’s new surrounding carbon management through interweb and publication research. Busy times!

Last but by no means least I had a session at Warwick for the module ‘Local Government and Civil Renewal’. It was really good catching up with everyone again and as it was an elective module there was a mix of people from the two groups in cohort 9. Meeting new people is always a good laugh. I also caught up in person with my dissertation supervisor and I’m getting on my way with planning my research. Juggling uni work and a full time job is going to be interesting over the next 4 months but the supports there, which will definitely help. Hark the challenge of the professional student continues…at least I’ve still got the perk of NUS discount at Topshop eh!

See you next month…

30th January 2009

A New Year Ahead

So this is the second year I’ve seen in the New Year as a fully fledged member of the working population- scary thought! After a great Christmas Work ‘Do’ I had near enough two weeks off over Christmas and New Year which was fantastic.

I kicked off the year by attended the Graduate SOLACE Conference in London, where we had a good range of speakers talking about various things ranging from the credit crunch to Local Governments increasing commissioning role. Plus it was a great chance to meet up with the other NMT’s again before our next Warwick study week and meet the ‘newbies’ in cohort 10.

I also had a couple more training days this month in Advanced Microsoft Word and in Managing Sickness Absence, which both proved handy! I continue to monitor the Modern Apprentices sickness absence and I carried out the last of my review meetings with them today. They are a really good bunch so fingers crossed we’ll be able to keep hold of them once they’ve finished their two year scheme.

2009 is going to be a busy time with us cohort 9’ers completing our final assignments for the Post Grad Diploma. I’ve got two essays and a dissertation to write before 30th June - argh! So this month I’ve been looking into developing my dissertation and creating some kind of timeline in which to complete it. Warwick Uni have been really supportive and my dissertation supervisor has been quick to respond to my email queries and panics, so I’m feeling much more positive about it! Its only 8000 words so its not too bad…I’ve just got to make sure I don’t get too carried away with my research!

The Strategic Policy Unit have been all systems go this month in producing 6 Area Profiles for our county. The Area Profiles aim to help us understand the social, demographic, environmental and economic context of the locality we operate in and help us move forward the Councils and its partners community leadership role. They’ve been built up using information from a variety of sources including census data, internal statistics, partners, members, staff and the local community. The information Eva and I received from our on-the-street surveys before Christmas has been added to the pool of intelligence which has informed these Profiles. The graphic opposite shows the 6 different areas Denbighshire has been split up into…it’s like Wales’ very own Great Britain!

This last week of January I’ve been working on Denbighshire Citizens’ Panel first survey. Our SNAP guru Stephen has created the online survey and the survey has been sent out to our 257 members. I’ve had to hand over what has become ‘my baby’ to my colleague Katie to continue managing the panel once I’ve moved onto my next placement. I’m happy that everything’s in place for the Panel to grow during 2009 and I’ve ask Katie to keep my informed with any developments!

And alas, today is my last day with the Strategic Policy Unit. I’m sad to leave everyone as I’ve made some close friends in the team, but excited at the same time to be moving onto the new challenges my final placement will bring. Plus I’m going to be in the same building still so I’m sure there will be opportunities to pop in to see everyone for a quick cuppa and a chinwag! My next placement starts on Monday and I will be spending 6 months with the Project Management team developing a Programme Management framework for delivering our Carbon Reduction Strategy. My new manager has given me some ‘bed time reading’ to swot up on the methodology before I arrive, but I’m prepared to be on a steep learning curve for the first couple of weeks. Best go get my running shoes on in preparation for hitting the ground on Monday…wish me luck!

19th December 2008

Out on Location: Taking the Council to the Public

This month’s buzz word has been ‘community’ with my colleague, Eva, and I working on the development of the new Community Strategy. This strategy is produced with our partners who make up our Local Service Board and is a Welsh Assembly requirement. It aims to address the needs and wants of our communities over the next 10 years. We held a series of Community Forum meetings across the county at the end of November to consult local people on how they would like their communities to look in the future. However we didn’t get a very good turn out, and thus we decided to go out into the towns to actively seek our residents opinions, issues and needs for the future instead of expect them to come to us. And so began a promotion styley couple of weeks, with me and Eva visiting all the major towns in the county to hit the streets and survey the public for the Community Strategy and promote the Denbighshire Citizens’ Panel in the process. One word - freezing! Although I was dressed up like the Michelin man with multiple layers, the cold still infiltrated! But it was a really worth while exercise, and we got tons of feedback and information which we can use to develop the new strategy. We also gained a lot of brownie points with the public as they saw the Council being assertively pro-active and I actually meet a lot of really lovely people so good news all round!

This month also saw me utilise my Geography degree knowledge. I put on my Environment hat and went out to the local school, Ysgol Brynhyfryd, with our Sustainable Development Officer, Ewan, to deliver a lesson on Local Government’s role in tackling Climate Change. After having a few ‘oh-my-goodness-they-are-going-to-eat-us-alive’ moments, me and Ewan successfully became teachers for the afternoon! It went down really well and the pupils were actually really vocal in the lesson which was brilliant to see - to dispel all those negative stories you see in the press about disengaged youth. So fingers crossed we will have provided them with a local case study to use in their Geography AS exam in January. Their teacher is going to let us know how they get on so watch this space!

The ngdp provides all National Management Trainees (NMT’s) with a Capability Framework which aims to help us manage our personal development, making sure we get involved in relevant experiences over the two year programme and maximise the benefit from the scheme. Capability zones include things such as project, political and strategic management and the idea is for you to look at the different zones regularly and make sure you're developing skills in all the capability areas. I’ve been on the programme for over a year now and have developed skills in most of the zones during my placements which is really positive. However, I noticed that my experience in the ‘People Management’ zone is lacking some what, which is always a tough one to cover as NMT’s we tend to be a) new to local government and b) never really managed anyone before. So I met up with my placement coordinator this month to talk about my concerns and after a bit of brainstorming I am now part managing the Corporate Modern Apprentices (MODAP’s) in the Council. So we’ve got 16 MODAP’s in the Council and my role is to be a point of contact and mentor for them over their 2 years and also manage their sickness absence. This month I’ve got in contact with all of them to introduce myself, and have met up with those who have poor sickness absence to create action plans with them to improve their record. The first absence meeting was pretty nerve racking but I soon got into the swing of it and I feel pretty confident that I’ve put performance targets in place to improve their records over the next couple of months.

And of course it’s December so that means its Christmas! I am a complete Christmas Fairy so enjoyed covering the office in tinsel this month! Also I got involved with the Council’s Christmas Carol Concert which was held in the beautiful St Asaph Cathedral. I was one of the readers for the concert and it was a really lovely evening. Although I found myself having to hum along to half of the carols as the concert was half in Welsh and half in English! Just another funny anecdote to add to many others I’m collecting from working in a bi-lingual Council I can tell ya! But at least I can never complain about it being boring!

Citizen’s Panel update - I’ve closed the first phase of recruitment today and have sent out a welcome letter to the 236 members who make up the first intake to the Citizens’ Panel. Recruitment is now going to be on a rolling basis until the 500 target is reached and we continue to get applicants weekly. It’s going to be a slow and steady process and I continue to badger the Local Newspapers with press releases! The first survey is going to be sent out at the end of January with the inaugural meeting soon after so I’ll let you know how that goes.

Well I think I’ve rabbitted on enough for this month, plus Wham has just come on on the Christmas CD so best get back to spreading office Christmas cheer…!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Everyone.

7th November 2008

The Wisdom of Crowds: The Many are Smarter than the Few

This month has been all about staff engagement and communication with our unit, organising a series of Resource Directorate Away Days and Management Conferences.

The Away Days were first, which were a half day affair with Q&A sessions with the Leader and Chief Exec, talks on Personnel issues and workshops on Council Priorities and how the varying Services can contribute in their achievement. Feedback from staff was that it was a really positive event especially the Q&A session with the Senior Management Team who sometimes seem a distant group based up in an Ivory Tower! The workshop was great as we heard the views and ideas from staff in multiple services at varying levels-frontline to management. And you know what they say- wisdom of crowds…many brains are better than one! The requirement to innovate is becoming an ever present demand in Local Government as we’re expected to deliver more with less and the staff are the Councils most valuable asset. I really believe we have the ideas and expertise there in our staff and these events I think are one way to tease them out.

Then I had two Manager Conferences to organise which followed along the same lines as the Away Days. However, these were for managers across the Council so mixed together managers not only from different services but from the different Directorates too. Managers always say that these events are a really useful networking tool, where information and best practice can be shared and potential collaborative working between services highlighted. The only negative feedback about the event was that we tried to cover too much in half a day so we’re going to look into making it a whole day event next year.

I also went on a Project Management two day course this month. It was run by our Senior Project Management Officer and taught me all about our Corporate Project Management Methodology which is based on ‘Prince 2’- the standard methodology being widely deployed by UK Government. Synopsis in one sentence: Identify benefits of the project clearly at the start, plan plan and plan some more, be realistic with time scales and costs, evaluate progress throughout as well as at the end to ensure benefits will be realised. So I’ve got the knowledge now, just gotta make sure I put it into practice!

Citizens’ Panel update: We’ve had 170 people applying for the Panel. Not on target so I’ve been increasing the PR for the Panel- newspapers, radio, posters, word of mouth, letters to clubs, societies and community groups. Also the lead member for Communities (Sharon Frobisher) and I are keen to increase the representation from the younger age groups. So I’ve been ringing around all the youth organisations in the County this week to try and partner up to publicise the Panel among their contacts and look to work together to achieve better engagement with young people. Watch this space but I fear consultation fatigue bears heavy on our residents!

Arghh, 3 weeks till next essay deadline for my Post Grad Diploma in Local Government Management! This one is on Public Sector Financial Management- sounds dry but actually really interesting especially in the current financial climate. Better get on and do some reading…wish me luck!

13th October 2008

Consultation NOT for Consultation Sake

So apparently my first blog wasn’t completely useless(!) and I’ve been asked to update you monthly on my goings on in the world of Local Government, so here’s October’s entry….

So this month I’ve been plugging away at setting up a Citizens’ Panel in Denbighshire. Working with my ‘tech-ie’ colleague Stephen, we have produced a survey using ‘SNAP’ software which residents, who want to become members, can fill in on-line. On-line surveys are excellent as not only are they a bit ‘flash’ but they save loads of work compared to paper surveys as you’re not left manually inputting the responses. However, whenever IT forms a solution you have to make sure you’re not excluding people who may not have access to computers or the internet. So I made sure paper copies of the survey were available across the county in libraries and one stop shops, or sent to those interested via the old reliable snail mail, for people to fill in by hand.

As you can see our Citizens’ Panel has a logo - lovely stuff! If you’re wondering what the devil the top two sentences say on the logo, that’s ‘Denbighshire Citizens’ Panel’ in Welsh. In Wales everything that goes out to the public from the Council has to be bi-lingual. Fun and games I can tell you, especially as I am not a Welsh speaker!

Residents can apply for the panel up till December and I’ve been working with local press to publicise the panel in their papers and on-line. There’s always a worry that only certain sectors of society will get involved with things like this so I’ve been keen to work with our Children and Young People Partnership to advertise the panel in their Youth Forums. So fingers crossed we’ll get a good mix of applicants from all ages…watch this space!

I think the most important thing to remember when doing anything involving consultation with the public is to make sure you have a proper reason for doing it, i.e. you’re not consulting just for consultation sake! If you’re asking the opinions of your local residents then they deserve the right to know the results from the consultation and what the Council aims to do in response to their comments. Okay okay, soap box moment over! So what I’m planning to do is produce a newsletter after each consultation exercise we do, including an analysis of survey responses, a short sharp summary and a ‘what we’re going to do about it’ section. I’m thinking I’ll be getting to know the ins and outs of Microsoft Publisher come newsletter time…best get myself on a training course!

See you next month!

1st September 2008

Hey!

Well I never though I’d ever be a ‘blogger’ but here I am! I hope that what I write won’t be all chat and no substance and will actually be a helpful insight to what the ngdp scheme is all about.

Well let’s start with chat and get onto substance later! My name is Helen Burkhalter. I studied Geography (BA) at Durham and graduated in 2007. I started the scheme in October 2007 and so you find me one year on….and don’t worry I’m still loving it! I remain enthusiastic about the purpose of Local Government and yes it’s bureaucratic, and sometimes frustratingly so, but seeing positive action directly from your work keeps you enjoying your job…plus the flexi time helps! Ooh I’ve been asked to keep jargon free so ‘flexi-time’= all the time you work over your normal working hours is totalled up and you can take this as holiday, which is BRILLIANT! Joking aside Local Government is an employer who put its employees first, and the flexi scheme is just one way in which they show you’re being valued.

So let’s get to the substance. People reading this now are probably considering whether to apply for the scheme so let me give you an insight on my experience of the recruitment process. It’s pretty long, starting in January and ending in May. I applied when I was in my final year at uni and the fact that it was quite spread out meant that it didn’t impact on my studies that much which was great. If your having a gap year and on your travels, the recruitment team are really good at accommodating any special/unusual circumstances. For example one girl from my cohort was travelling over the year recruitment process and she had her telephone interview in an internet café on the opposite side of the world! The recruitment process is set up to try to give you the best possible chance to shine so best piece of advice is to prepare the best you can for each stage, don’t panic and be yourself.

So after submitting my application in November 2006, I successfully came out of the final local authority interviews with an offer from Denbighshire County Council, North Wales, to start in October 2007. I’m originally from Plymouth in Devon so for me it meant not only starting full time work for the first time but also a big move to the North too. Daunting but as you can see I survived and my local authority were brilliant in offering support and guidance when I was sorting out relocating to the area. Plus I was given a relocation allowance to help which came in very handy having just been in uni for 3 years!

My first placement was in Corporate Personnel (HR) where I worked on implementing Workforce Planning into the Council over a 5 months period. Workforce Planning is basically a way of making sure you have the right staff, with the right skills now and for the future. It involved meeting with all the Heads of Service and talking though their specific workforce requirements and then producing a Workforce Plan for their Service. I then collated all the info from these plans (26 of them!) and then produced a Corporate Workforce Plan for the whole council. I really enjoyed this placement as I was lucky enough to see the project from start to end. I was given quite a lot of responsibility early on which was scary but brilliant all the same as you felt that you were a valued member of the team.

My second placement was just for 4 months and I was based in the Finance and Performance Service. I was a member of the WorkSMART project team trying to implement new more efficient ways of working into the Environment Directorate. This placement meant I changed office locations so it was a different commute to work, a new town to explore and new people to get to know. Luckily the people in my office were lovely and it wasn’t difficult settling in. That’s one thing I was worried about in the scheme that because you move around every 4 to 6 months you don’t really settle anywhere. However, the support mechanisms around you both within your council, via your placement coordinator, and outside, via the other NMT’s on the scheme in other councils, means you always have someone to turn to if your feeling a bit bewildered! Plus it’s great as you build up a huge contact list of people in your council so you get to know who to ask for information on a certain thing, and can rally in favours if you need to. Plus I’ve been able to build up friendships in each of my placements and I keep in touch with old work colleagues so that’s fab.

Goodness this blog is HUGE, I apologise! I’ll just quickly tell you about the placement I’m in now and then I can keep you up to date (briefly I promise!) with any exciting developments in future blogs. Right, I am now based in the Strategic Policy Unit for 6 months basically acting as a Corporate Policy Officer. Day to day this involves researching various areas, writing reports on this research which can then support various policy initiatives that the council wants to pursue. I’m also the lead officer for setting up a Citizens Panel in Denbighshire which will be a forum to hear the views of the local population and gain feedback on council services. But more about that in later blogs! For now I will sign off and allow you to rest your eyes after reading this mammoth entry.

Good luck to all who are considering applying for the next ngdp intake!