12 January 2024

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had a good festive break.

First thing on Monday morning I had a briefing with our Head of Democratic Services, Jonathan Nertney, ahead of the TVCA and PCC elections this May. Running an election is a huge undertaking and takes months of work and planning.

Later I had a briefing with our Director of Finance, Transformation and Performance, Garry Cummings, and his senior management team. We discussed lots of things related to finance, including the ongoing migration to Universal Credit.

In the evening I attended a Cabinet pre-agenda meeting ahead of a full Cabinet meeting next week.

Mid-week I attended a launch event for a new Local Government Authority (LGA) recruitment campaign which aims to encourage people to work for local authorities. We're helping to support the campaign, and we think working for a Council can be incredibly rewarding. There's a  huge variety of roles available, many of which offer flexible working and lots of other benefits.

I used the rest of the week to catch up on important paperwork and emails to get back into the swing of things for 2024.

This weekend I look forward to relaxing with my family. Middlesbrough's mid-week win against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final was a fantastic spectacle, and we travel to Stamford Bridge with a 1 goal advantage. On Saturday we make the long journey to Millwall to try to keep ourselves in the top half of the Championship. It's a tough ground to play at, and I hope we can take at least 1 point away from the encounter.