A Year in the Chair

In July 2009 Councillor Michael Edmonds completed his year as Chairman of the Joint Improvement Board (JIB). 

The JIB is responsible for ensuring that the Pathfinder Agreement is delivered to the time, cost and quality agreed by the councils through the Leaders' Group.  It will control and oversee the implementation of the programme of work to deliver the benefits of enhanced two tier working.

The JIB is made up of member representatives from each council and meets every two months. There are five county councillors and a councillor from each of the four district councils. The council Chief Executives also attend as advisors. 

In this period Pathfinder has seen steady progress in several workstreams, in particular Shared Services, Community Engagement and Waste.  At the JIB meeting in July it was agreed that the Board would focus on Implementation rather than Improvement, and is now known as the Joint Implementation Board.

Chairmanship of the JIB is rotated between the county and district councils on an annual basis. Councillor Edmonds handed over to the new Chairman, Councillor Frank Downes from Buckinghamshire County Council.

We caught up with Councillor Edmonds to talk about Pathfinder, the JIB and other changes to Local Government.

On his Chairmanship of the JIB...

Chairing the JIB has been a very interesting experience.  Trying to pull people together and be as transparent as possible is important because networking between local authorities improves relationships and trust especially when, at the start of Pathfinder there was some suspicion between the different bodies.  Part of the Chairman's job is to forge a consensus and this is something I've noticed developing over the course of my chairmanship.  I've also cut down the length of meetings.  With too much discussion for discussion's sake, it's not uncommon for these meetings to drag on, but my record is 12 minutes, people were still turning up when we'd finished!

On Members' role in Pathfinder...

That local Government is in need of re-organisation is a fair comment.  The distinction between town, district and county councils isn't clear to the man on the street.

If you were to start with a blank sheet of paper and lay out a system of local government, you wouldn't begin with a two tier system in a million years.

Everyone involved in local government; Members and Officers recognise the need to make savings. In Buckinghamshire we suffer because central Government looks at the Shire counties as affluent and isn't very generous with its grants to Local authorities

For Pathfinder to be successful Members need to be strong and use their connection with the public to drive them to make the tough decisions.

On the JIB focusing on Implementation over improvement...

The leaders now establish the principal ideas for joint working opportunities and the JIB then develop those ideas into detailed workable plans.  This saves duplication of work and means that the JIB can focus on joint working ideas that have legs.

On the messages for staff... 

Local Government is inefficient, we have to examine ourselves to see where the inefficiencies lay, be open and transparent, flexible to the needs of the Authority, flexible to the needs of the economy, and to remember that Pathfinder brings its own opportunities that wouldn't be available without joint working.

On advice for his successor Frank Downes...

 I'd be the last person to advise someone as experienced as Frank Downes, his area of expertise is financial, very different to mine, the main thing is to be open and encourage closer working, which I'm sure Frank will do.  Joint working is a part of the culture in Buckinghamshire now, it's second nature, when looking at the way something in local government functions, to consider whether joint working could improve efficiency.  I'm sure the JIB can continue to build on this.