Steven Ford

Employer: Cornwall Council
Qualifications: PhD political science, University of Birmingham

8.00 am

I arrive at my office, greet other colleagues and thank them for the hot coffee on my desk. My team then meets to discuss the previous day’s events and form a strategy for what we want to achieve that day.

8.45 am

I check my e-mails and update the joint services project, which looks at where we can improve our co-operation with the district councils. I’ve had a response from the personnel department that points out several areas where we could gain benefits from joint working, so I will have to relay this to the district councils. Today I have a meeting with the director of environment and heritage regarding the potential for giving councillors greater powers at community level.

11.30 am

I also attend a council meeting to discuss and vote on a paper that I have worked on. It recommends that we look at fundamental reform of government in Cornwall and it gets passed, which is great news. We take a celebratory trip to room 225C – the pub next door – to have lunch, discuss the nature and content of the debate and decide what action needs to be taken hereafter.

2.00 pm

After lunch I return to my desk to make a few phone calls regarding updates on the service mapping project I’m undertaking. I also discuss the result of the vote with the leader of the council. The result of any vote can have a huge effect on the work that officers carry out and in this instance we were given a democratic mandate to push ahead with our work on local government reform in preparation for the forthcoming local government white paper.

5.00 pm

Finally, before I leave for the day I check the local and national newspapers as well as local government websites for updates and opinions on the forthcoming white paper which I can then feed back into the working group on local government reform.