CCIN Chair 2023-25 – Candidates

Personal Statement Chair CCIN

Louise Gittins: Leader Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC)

In 2019 I became the leader of CWaC, one of my first objectives was for the Council to join CCIN and become a Co-operative Council. The values of CCIN closely aligned to both our values as a Council and my own personal mission to build a stronger, fairer, greener, future for and with our Communities. Since joining the network I have encouraged our Council to take part in policy labs: we led on the Digital Divide and have regularly contributed to the Annual Case Studies of good practice. Embedding Co-operative Values and Principles into our work in Cheshire west has enabled us to make great strides towards empowering our communities, strengthening partnerships and growing our local economy.

I have been a member of the EOC since 2020 and feel my next step within the network would be to take on the role of Chair. I am an experienced, competent, and inclusive Chair with a wealth of experience in chairing external ‘boards’ with multiple partnerships and cross-party members. I was the Interim Chair of Transport for the North last year (2021) whilst we recruited an Independent Chair, and now I am one of the two political Vice Chairs; this is an elected position. I am currently Chair of the LGA Children and Young People’s board and Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside Health Care Partnership, as well as our local Health and Wellbeing board. As Chair of the CCIN I will bring passion, enthusiasm, and a drive to spread the Co-operative word and increase our network across the country. I am totally committed to our role as a ‘non-party-political hub for Co-operative policy development and advocacy’. As chair I will ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and that all members, associates, and affiliates from across the network, can participate in a meaningful way, share good practice, and develop innovative ideas.

I am an active participant on social media (@weezegee) and will use this medium alongside my wider networks, to encourage more Councils to sign up to be full and Associate members. I believe I can influence, using Co-operative values, across wider partners e.g. the NHS and other public sector bodies, particularly in my Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Health Care role. I would welcome the opportunity to explore expanding our affiliate network to include this wider public sector family.

Today, in the face of the cost of living crisis and the financial challenges facing the public sector, our collective work is crucial, and together we need to continue ‘reclaiming the traditions of community action, community engagement, and civic empowerment that can transform communities’*. I will ensure this work progresses and develops across our network and at pace. At a local level in Cheshire west, I will continue to lead by example, driving forward our Co-operative agenda and the #CooperativeDifference. It would be an honour and a privilege to serve you as your Chair.

Personal Statement Chair CCIN

Graeme Miller: Leader Sunderland City Council

Fellow co-operator’s,

I would like to be considered for the position of Chairperson of the CCIN.

As co-operator’s our strength is in unity, we achieve more together, through pursuing our values and principles and putting them into practice. I have therefore been proud since I became Leader of Sunderland Co-operative Council in 2018 to act on these convictions.

In 2018 we began working with the Centre for Local Economic Studies (CLES) to develop our municipal socialist programme through a distinctive community wealth building project, receiving national recognition as being unique in developing a community wealth plan in terms of social outcomes as well as economic.

We have looked to achieve this through; –

• Being at the forefront of using Social Value legislation to ensure we get the most out of commissioning arrangements and that contractors actively recruit locally, with employees paid a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
• We have worked with anchor institutions to launch a Community Wealth Charter, which focuses on much more than just procurement, including strengthening resident financial resilience, the real living wage, low carbon practices, fair tax commitments, as well as the health and wellbeing of workers through incorporating the TUC great jobs agenda.
• Sunderland has ensured that a VCS Alliance has been established, working with the council and partners to ensure they commission the VCS to support neighbourhood delivery of services. We will commit to increase social value through procurement and wider activity, ensuring a systematic approach for awarded contracts to link with local VCS partners.
• We have ensured that Sunderland has paid the REAL living wage to its workers since 2014 and became in 2020 the first council accredited with the Living Wage Foundation in the North-East of England.

While proud of what has been achieved here in Sunderland we could not have done this without the support of CCIN members, which is why if members are good enough to support me then I would see my role as supporting the organisation and giving the commitment needed, both to strengthen our existing ties with each other and look to widening our membership to embrace areas across the UK that are still largely unaware of the CCIN and how it can make a difference.

Our CCIN Strategic Plan consists of sharing best practice, network engagement, national influencing and training for existing and new members – these are all part of the “We” that makes us the most forward-thinking Local Government grouping in the country.

If elected I will strengthen the political networking within CCIN to include our cabinet political leads to further push the boundaries of their areas of responsibility to see what can be achieved given the combined will of our members. I am keen to see how far we can progress our core values such as co-production within our communities through to stretching the limits of democratic engagement.

Finally, I will work tirelessly on your behalf to achieve our shared endeavours.

Warmest regards

Graeme Miller

Leader

Sunderland city council

0776 988 6932

Cllr.graeme.miller@sunderland.gov.uk

Facebook Councillor Graeme Miller for Washington South

Twitter @graememiller19

Personal Statement Chair CCIN

Anthony Okereke: Leader of Greenwich Council

I am currently the Leader of Greenwich Council and have been serving as a Labour and Cooperative Councillor since 2018. I am passionate about how we can use our cooperative values to progress solutions to deal with some of the very real challenges posed by austerity, Brexit, Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency. However we must be ambitious as our residents look to us as leaders who can improve our communities.

I’m standing as Chair of the Co-operative Councils’ Innovation Network Executive Oversight Committee because I want to help progress co-operative values and policies to help make sure local authorities embed these principles at the heart of service delivery.

I have a track record of delivering cooperative solutions in local government, I have established Greenwich’s first Community Led Housing Trust helping to unlock affordable housing. I am currently working with our officers to establish cooperative solutions to delivering adult social care.

I want to take this work forward as Chair of the Executive Oversight Committee. There are tough times ahead and I want to use our collective experience to:

• Support local authorities to build an inclusive economy
• Enable innovation for service delivery
• Sign up more local authorities to the network
• Work closely with committee members

Twitter: MrOkereke

Email: anthony.okereke@royalgreenwich.go.uk