It was great to see fellow senior leaders at the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives Summit in Manchester. It’s important for us as officers to spend a little time out of our busy schedules to reflect on what is great about local government. I can confirm we all believe there is a future for local government, despite reducing budgets, increasing complexity and instability.

I suppose my own reflections, having met with colleagues, is that we are all struggling to prioritise complex agendas and none of us have single answers to solve our issues. Creating partnerships and doing things together for better citizen outcomes continues to be a key enabler but this relies on having capacity to create the conditions for integrating services.