Full Council | Notice of motion on "Rewiring Public Services"

With  cross-party support, this motion was passed unanimously without debate.

Here is what I was going to say:

I welcome the Rewiring Public Services document on many levels…already through our Vanguard transformation process we have been looking at the way the Council interacts with the public and this document serves to enhance that progress  - transforming public services so that we prevent problems rather than just picking up the pieces.

I believe that elected members have already achieved much in making sure that Exeter gets the services it needs…but as the Council is faced with even greater financial pressures from central Government, we need to do more

Rewiring Public Services a fundamental look at what we need to do to change local democracy to meet local needs – where local voices have much more say than Ministers in Whitehall and developers with no democratic mandate.

I’m looking forward to seeing the principles of Rewiring Public Services permeating throughout all levels of the Council not least in my role of Member Champion for Community Engagement where I hope it will help rejuvenate democracy.

Even though we are facing financial challenges – there are other aspects we have at our fingertips – resources, facilities and knowledge

I’ve already been meeting all types of neighbourhoods, community organisations and groups and expect to be able to help them set up exciting new initiatives…

And its not just community groups that will be involved – there’s also the voluntary sector and others such as medical practitioners that can help partner us in the Rewiring of Public Services

So I’m hoping that we can work with them to give people real reasons to participate in civic life and with their help make public services effective, efficient and locally responsive.

The 10 big ideas outlined in Rewiring Public Services are a great start to transforming the way this council works and I hope in this Chamber everyone – elected member and senior office, alike - is gearing up to the challenge presented by Rewiring Public Services to enable this council to reap the potential benefits.