Welcome

I’d like to offer you a warm welcome and my thanks for taking the time to discover if Norwich City Council could be the right fit for you.

Since becoming chief executive I’ve been on a journey to establish a brand-new leadership team with the right skills and attributes to help us shape the future for our residents and communities.

Norwich is a brilliant blend of the historic and modern, consistently ranking in the top ten UK cities for offering a great work-life balance. We are hugely proud of our reputation for arts and culture and I’m certain that at work or rest here you would never find yourself bored.

We are currently in the minority of councils not only balancing the books but continuing to deliver on investment promises. In 2023/24 we successfully met a funding shortfall of £6.2 million, and for 2024/25 will close a gap of £3.7 million whilst continuing to avoid the use of reserve funds.

We are also in an excellent position to understand the outcomes we need to achieve for the city after carrying out our most comprehensive consultation ever on our latest corporate plan for 2024-29. The plan ‘We are Norwich’ was developed after having more than 900 conversations with colleagues, partners, residents, tenants, councillors, businesses, and our volunteer and creative sectors.

Through this process we’ve identified a shared vision for Norwich to be a fair and thriving city, full of ambition and five priorities we will work towards together:

• A prosperous Norwich

• A fairer Norwich

• A climate responsive Norwich

• A future proof Norwich

• An open and modern council

The approach to delivering it is also intentionally different, taking collaboration to the next level we will be working together as a city, identifying our challenges and aspirations, and co-designing solutions with our local communities and partners, focussing on shared goals rather than individual outputs.

Our priority of being ‘An open and modern council’ means we are looking for leaders who will create the right strategies and environment to provide truly 21st century services for Norwich. We care about our colleagues and want our leaders to be the type of people who inspire them to feel empowered. We are determined that our Council should reflect our city’s increasing diversity, particularly in leadership roles.

When we look back on our time together as a leadership team, I want us to be able to say that we built a Council that truly reflected the aspirations and expectations of our communities, and we delivered on their behalf.

I want us to know that we helped Norwich grow and reach its potential, and I want us to have done this together, both with our colleagues and the people of Norwich, in a spirit of kindness and collaboration.

In return, I promise that you might just fall in love with this most amazing of cities and never leave!