John is on holiday this week so Jim Cotterrell, Head of Service Delivery, takes the reins on week notes.

This week has been the standard mix of meetings and desk-based work for me.

Having programmes and projects across 15 London boroughs means that our services team is working with Londoners far and wide. I constantly wrestle with trying to manage my diary and workload, and a desire to spend more time with the teams. It’s a work in progress to get the balance right. I have set myself a challenge of getting to our different sites more often this year.

Future plans and projects

This week I had a meeting with the prime contractor of one of our employability programmes. It was pleasing to talk through the improvements we’re making on all elements of the programme. We have been delivering the European Social Fund (ESF) funded programme for the last three years but new referrals stop later this year. I’m waiting to see how the government will support some of our most vulnerable communities in future without EU funding.

I’ve also had several meetings to talk about some of the new work and exciting projects we are exploring for the year ahead. One of those meetings was with Matt from Circle Collective. Having known Matt for over 10 years it’s great to work with him again on a really interesting new project that encompasses the skills, experience and values of both our organisations.

Sustainability and equal opportunities

This week I joined our Sustainability and Equal Opportunities groups for their regular meetings. I am proud to work for an organisation that gives all staff the freedom to work on these initiatives, and I’m even more proud of the colleagues, from all corners of Renaisi, who come together to improve what we do about these issues as an organisation.

Reading, listening and watching

Over the last couple of years, reading while commuting around London has regrettably been replaced by a steady stream of football related podcasts. All of which talk about the same thing in slightly different ways. That said, a win for my beloved Arsenal has been an extremely rare occurrence this season (sadly!), so I’ve hoovered them all up this week.

Jim Cotterrell