Cllr Madden – Interview

Cllr Madden – the ECC Cabinet Member for Performance, Business Planning and Partnerships shares his thoughts with us on partnership working and his hopes for Essex in 2020.

Why partnerships are important

I have been in politics since 2011, and before that I had been a member of Essex Police for over 40 years and was Chief Executive of a Children’s Charity providing early intervention services for children with behavioural problems. I have also had the pleasure of Chairing a number of strategic partnership boards.

Throughout my time in public service I have not seen the roles I have held as isolated, in fact it is the contrary each role needed to be undertaken as part of a bigger system, embracing public, private and voluntary sector partners.

From these experiences, I truly believe that the only way we can achieve our ambitions for Essex and the welfare of local communities is by working together and trusting each other.

My hopes for partnership working in Essex

Over my many years of working in public service do I believe partnerships have improved? Most definitely, but there is always more we can do. We must be constantly asking ourselves can we do more for the purposes of efficiency, cost effectiveness and better outcomes for residents.

We have seen great strides in the sharing of information, the development of ecda and the use of predictive analytics, but we can continue to push boundaries in this area and drive forward the information sharing agenda.

Equally there are great examples of public sector services working jointly, such as intelligence groups, neighbourhood teams and MDTs. However, are we sharing best practice enough and building on these good examples?

The most important development I think we can make over the next year is the development of a system scorecard to show tangible progress towards the 7 ambitions set out in the Future of Essex.  This will aid open and honest conversations, support the sharing of good practice, and help us better understand where the gaps are and what action we need to collectively take to improve the lives of residents in Essex.