County Councils Network

I have just returned from the County Councils Network (CCN) conference which was held in Oxford this year. This tells you a bit about the organisation which represents all 37 County Councils in England. The event was held at the Oxford Barcelo Hotel at Wolvercote yesterday and today. We covered a broad range of topics not least the credit crunch and the impact of the financial downturn on local authorities. The theme of the conference was 'Counties in a Changing World' which is very apt at the moment considering the elections in the US, the global economy and the pressures on all authorities to continue to deliver high quality services.

The highlight for me was last night's dinner at Somerville College in Oxford, where our guest speaker was neuroscientist Professor Susan Greenfield (now in House of Lords). An excellent speech which highlighted education in our changing world. Briefly, she touched on how our brains react to learning and how more research needs to be done on the effects of children's brains where they are repeatedly exposed to games consoles and television. An interesting topic and one I am sure many of us would like to explore. Ironically, my son chose her book 'Brain Story' when he won a physics prize at school, so now I am keen to read this myself.

Of course, these events are always useful for networking with colleagues and catching up with events elsewhere in the country. I think visitors to the conference have enjoyed their stay in Oxfordshire.