Letter to the Editor: The MJ, 26 April

Reproduced from the letters page of The MJ, 26 March 2020

Much as COVID-19 has no respect for national boundaries, it has crossed organisational boundaries within our local government and healthcare systems, challenging the delivery of public services like nothing seen before. It is impossible not to be inspired by how council teams have responded, with a resolute focus on doing everything possible to support whole communities.

I’ve always felt that local government leaders already have the most difficult job in managing complex systems; layered on this now comes a public health catastrophe, deep economic uncertainty and emergency planning. Despite this reality, however, there is a real and impressive sense of rising to the task.

At IMPOWER, we have continued to work with and alongside our clients. As true partners, as their priorities radically shifted in recent weeks, so have ours. We have been proud to support some with emergency crisis response at the frontline, while also supporting others as they continue to push ahead with the important task of wider transformation that will make councils withstand the crisis in the long term.

The end of this crisis is clearly some way off. But it is not too early to hope that the unprecedented collaboration we are seeing within councils and between different parts of the public sector will continue once this is all over.

Pooven Maduramuthu

CEO, IMPOWER Consulting