In April 2009 One Cornwall became a reality as a unitary authority in the shape of Cornwall Council .The very best elements of the former County Council and the six former District Councils of Carrick, Kerrier, Restormel, Caradon, Penwith and North Cornwall were combined with a view to integrate and streamline to create a more efficient, effective and dynamic Cornwall Council. One year on and what has been achieved?

In short, an incredible amount has been achieved by the new Cornwall Council and it is important to consider the sheer enormity of the task. Cornwall is a diverse and large county, over 100 miles long, and almost that wide in places; there were over 21,000 staff in the new organisation based in over x 70 locations and whose work touches the lives of every single person in Cornwall.
Not only was there an incredibly challenging merger to contend with - x 7 separate organisations and their associated cultures and operating practices; some inherited areas of poor performance; some job losses and all the uncertainty that accompanies such wide spread change but this was also the year of the Swine Flu pandemic threat. Considerable planning and forecasting was happening nationally but in Cornwall the planning also had to factor in the dimension of the anticipated summer visitors that can swell the county from the normal 500,000 inhabitants to several millions. Fortunately the pandemic never fully materialised in the South West but this was another burden during an already demanding period of change.

In terms of the People and Organisation Development Programme that Sarah Goodwin was Programme Director for from July 2009 to March 2010 significant progress was made to help establish firm foundations upon which the Authority can continue to build with confidence. Sarah explains, "I was fortunate to be recruited by Jo Ridgway and was appointed into this role by Corporate Director Peter Lewis. Both had played significant part in identifying the need for, and establishing the initial, 'Confident Cornwall' organisation development programme: this was the absolute cornerstone of establishing transformational OD for the Council. I built on the vision and requirements established by Jo and her early team and was fortunate to work with a great team of interim professionals, including Anne-Marie Rowson, Ian Carlton and Christine Lord to deliver a raft of requirements."

This demanding and complex programme was delieverd during a period of considerable unrest, instability and change, compounded by adverse Audit Commission and OfSTED inspections. Sarah led the work to define the Council’s vision and values - now published in their Corporate Business plan and ensured that they formed the firm foundations upon which the new Performance Management and Development System (PMDS) that was refined and finalised by Christine was based.

A small but perfectly formed centralised corporate Learning and Development function was established under the head of Anne-Marie, whilst Sarah secured commitment for £1-2m external funding for ongoing Leadership & Management development for the public sector in Cornwall. Relationships were built and a collaborative partnership with Health colleagues from the CIOSPCT, RCHT and Cornwall Partnership Trust for joint bidding and combined talent development was established.

The achievements delivered indicate the CAA and the Audit Commission UoR assessment for 2010 will be significantly improved and real progress towards retaining IiP recognition has been made.

Culture Change initiatives delivered included the new Healthy Lifestyles programme; Dragons Dare – a new staff suggestion scheme designed to improve staff engagement levels was successfully launched by Ian, who also developed and delivered the first ever Graduate Management Development Programme for Cornwall and engaged Unlocking Cornish Potential as a partner and advocate organisation.