Copeland Council bosses go back to the floor
Last updated at 11:57, Thursday, 17 May 2012
COPELAND’S chief executive, Paul Walker, hit the streets with the council’s waste collection team on its rounds yesterday as part of a ‘back-to-the-floor’ exercise.
Councillors, including leader Elaine Woodburn, and senior managers also spent half a day undertaking a different role within the council.
The work involved beach cleaning to enforcement, being a visitor host at The Beacon to shadowing an environmental health officer.
Following on from these sessions, Copeland is asking all of its councillors to accompany the waste and recycling collection teams on rounds within their ward to understand how the service operates.
The ‘back-to-the-floor’ scheme has been designed to ensure that both senior managers and councillors have a full understanding of the services the council provides, as well as the day to day work of its employees – right across the organisation.
Coun Woodburn, who was serving on Copeland Council’s reception desk, said: “As a local authority, we provide over 50 different services to the people of Copeland. It’s important that we fully understand how these services operate so that we can deliver the very best service we can to our residents.
“Whilst this is the first time in many years we have done this back-to-the-floor work, we plan to continue it so that our managers and executive councillors have as full a knowledge of all our services as possible.
“This is especially important in light of the difficult funding restraints we have been put under by central government, knowing we will have to change the way we provide services in the future.”
The sessions are part of Adult Learners’ Week (May 13-18) and also coincide with Copeland Council’s Learning at Work day. Future sessions will cover all aspects of the council’s work.
First published at 11:12, Thursday, 17 May 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk
You know what some of the people who comment on these articles make me laugh. You moan if things don't go ahead, then moan when they are actually trying to make a difference. (I notice nearly the same people every time!)Like Ian says they are saying that they are planning to do more days like this, at least they are finding out what problems occur with the jobs and will probably use this experience in helping with the problems in the near future. Hats off to Copeland Council least they are getting on the streets seeing what the kind of jobs we do are like!
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Well said Observer
Posted by Mike on 24 May 2012 at 08:30