Services started to move in from January and by April the building was fully operational. The ground floor includes classrooms for DACES (Derbyshire Adult Community Education Services), a dedicated area for the No Limits adult day care service and meeting/training rooms which can be used by colleagues who need to engage with the public.
Over the first and second floor, there are 297 desks for Children’s Services, Adult Social Care and property services teams plus touchdown, collaboration, breakout areas and meeting rooms for colleagues’ use.
For those colleagues who haven’t had the opportunity to visit, the improvement in facilities is phenomenal – many of our services based in Chesterfield have been working from buildings which are past their best and the Quad, in contrast, provides a thoroughly modern and flexible working environment.
It is a truly transformational project which has enabled better collaboration with and between teams, reduced costs and improved facilities. So far, we have disposed of 5 of the 10 buildings previously occupied raising £2.28m in capital receipts and we are also making significant savings in running costs.
For me, ensuring we have good quality work environments for all our colleagues is vital and I’m sad to say that many of our workplaces do not yet meet the required standard. Work continues to invest in and improve our depots, service and office localities, so we can be as proud of our buildings and facilities as we are of the teams that work in them.
Whilst being shown around the Quad, I had the chance to speak to a range of colleagues working there, all of whom felt the Quad was a significant improvement from their previous offices, with the only real concern being about the availability of car parking.
Property colleagues are working hard with the sustainable travel team to enable initiatives such as car sharing, cycling and public transport to minimise the use of cars. This will reduce the carbon impact of travel to the office, and free up vital spaces for those who rely on cars to carry out their roles, such as children’s and adult social care social workers and social care practitioners.
Massive thanks to colleagues in asset management, estates and facilities management who have led this project and whose passion and commitment to deliver such an outstanding achievement shines through.
Last month I was involved in our Children’s Services Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review. Colleagues will recall that last year we had our children’s social care inspection, and we were delighted to achieve a ‘Good’ outcome which was a significant improvement from the previous graded inspection in 2019 when we received a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’.
The LGA Peer Review is a voluntary review and as it says in the name, the review is undertaken by peers from other councils and is a positive and constructive opportunity to find out how we match up against the sector and enables us to receive independent feedback about our strengths and development areas.
We chose to do this review because of the significant demand and cost pressures on children’s placement budgets and we wanted to find out if what we are doing to support vulnerable children and young people whilst managing and reducing these costs is in line with that of other councils and whether there are any other ideas we can implement to support this work.In the initial feedback, one aspect that came out strongly from the peer review team was how impressed they were with our colleagues delivering children’s social care services saying how they are passionate and a credit to Derbyshire.
We have a great children’s social care team and it’s great to hear such positive feedback from those outside our organisation. I’ll update further on the outcomes from the review once we have received the detailed findings and recommendations.
These last few weeks have been big for those of us who are football fans. The England men’s team sadly didn’t win on Sunday, but it was an excellent performance against an outstanding Spanish side. The England team’s track record over the last few major tournaments has seen one semi-final and 2 finals – an achievement which we could only have dreamt about a few years ago.This success follows on from the remarkable achievements of the England Women’s Team – the Lionesses – winning the Euros in 2022 and reaching the World Cup Final last year. Millie Bright, born and bred in Derbyshire, played in both teams and captained the World Cup Final Team – a fact which the county council was keen to recognise and celebrate.
As a result, on Thursday Millie will be coming to County Hall to receive the honour of Freewoman of the County. This honour is enshrined in legislation and conferred on those who are deemed to be “persons of distinction” and “persons who have, in the opinion of the authority, rendered eminent services to that place or area.”
I am delighted that we can bestow this honour on Millie which recognises her outstanding achievements – and it is truly significant as it is the first time the county council has bestowed this honour. I hope that as well as celebrating Millie’s outstanding achievements, it will further raise the profile of women’s sport and the engagement of girls and women to aspire, not only in football but in whatever is their chosen interest.
And finally, as we move towards the holiday period, may I wish you a lovely summer and trust that you are looking forward to some time off with well-deserved rest and relaxation. We might even get some summer sun – here’s hoping!