We've all had enough doom and gloom to last a professional lifetime. So, while not shying away from the huge challenges faced by all councils, we wanted this year's annual conference to look at practical solutions that are already happening in authorities across the UK.
Glenrothes tonight for Fife Councils annual apprentice awards dinner.
Over in Belfast today to chair the latest meeting of the local government reform joint forum.
Despite having a few challenging issues recently the forum continues to make good progress in negotiating all things human resources related contained within the up and coming local government reorganisation of local authorities in Northern Ireland.
Spoke at an international policy conference on ‘urban crisis’, organised by De Montfort University at Leicester City Football Club this evening.
Only a group of academics would want to have a talk on public policy challenges for their after dinner entertainment. Despite my trepidation at delivering a presentation at 8.30pm, they appeared to lap it up and it ended up quite a lively debate.
It was great to see a real fighting spirit amongst APSE’s membership at the annual conference at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. A number of national organisations and their representatives appear to have recently become drained of spirit about local government’s future role, almost accepting that by 2020 local government will play a minimalistic part in society and the lives of local communities. That's not a view APSE shares and it was a chance to promote our 'Ensuring Council' model.