Friday, 20 July 2007

After only a few hours sleep, I was up and back at work a little after 8:00 am this morning, feeling very stiff after yesterday’s exertions. At 9:00 am I left for County Hall in Hertford to meet Frances Coupe and Helen Foye and discuss the Hertfordshire Compact and how to resolve the ongoing difficulties over Home-Start funding. I undertook this visit in my role as co-Chair of Hertfordshire Compact rather than my role as CEO of Watford CVS: an important distinction.

Helen and Frances explained last year’s evaluation of Home-Start’s service. This does indeed seem to have been a textbook joint-review and a paragon of good practice: agreed timetable, agreed process and so on.

However, at the same time, HCC also reviewed how they funded children’s services across the County. They identified some significant variations in funding and adopted a common formula for allocating funds more equitably across the County. Connected to the evaluation only by chronological proximity, this funding decision was taken without the benefit of any consultation. Frances Coupe said that by the time her department learnt of the formula proposal, a decision had already been taken at a higher level and at this stage it would have been pointless to consult as there was no prospect that the decision might be changed.

She also argued that in terms of service delivery, the new formula made good sense and could not easily be challanged on public policy grounds. Of course it is not in my role to judge policy or funding decisions, but it is part of my remit to try and get Compact signatories to reconcile their differences and overcome difficulties.

I think I now understand with some clarity exactly where the difficulties and misunderstandings have arisen in this process. And I think that Frances does too. I suggested it might be helpful for HCC to have a full and frank meeting with Hertfordshire Home-Start groups to clear the air and to start early discussions about what happens at the end of the current three year agreements.

Frances and I then talked through options for the future of the Hertfordshire Compact. Her focus is on improving services for Hertfordshire. And she wants HCC’s Children Schools and Families office to work with other agencies to this end. And she wants the Compact to support and enable this process. And perhaps it ought to. I hope Frances will attend the September Compact meeting and talk about her expectations and hopes for the Compact.

HCC should also have a corporate commitment to the Compact that establishes common standards etc. After Frances and I finished our meeting, I had hoped to meet with Andrew Burt but he was on leave.

I wasn’t sorry. Since leaving home, my head had been pounding with an incipient migraine and I was keen to return home and nurse it. Doubtless this is my body’s revenge for the abuse I’ve heaped on it over the past week: nature’s way of telling me to get a grip. So I returned home to nurse my head. On the way I dropped off at the supermarket. While there, we experienced yet another torrential downpour.

During this downpour, Helen called me from the office to let me know that the WCVS offices were flooding. My instant reaction was a silent groan, but it was soon apparent that Helen was perfectly capable of dealing with the problem, was in fact doing so very well, and that even if I was there I could do nothing to improve things. Helen called back at the end of the day to confirm that everything was fine and under control.

Later still, Jackie and I enjoyed our first full evening together for a week and were rewarded with a new episode of Midsomer Murders. Perfect. Apart from my migraine still gently throbbing.