Monday, May 24, 2010

Chair of the Labour Group of Councillors, Liverpool City Council

We had our AGM tonight to agree positions for Liverpool City Council in the next year, now that we have taken power.

Some of that content must remain confidential until it is officially announced at the first council meeting tomorrow night and some will remain so until the appropriate meeting takes place (Neighbourhood arrangements for instance), but what I can tell you is that I have been appointed as the new Chair of the Labour Group - the group that is made up of the 48 Labour Councillors within Liverpool City Council. It will be my job to ensure that such a large group stays unified and successful and focussed and that every voice is heard and every opinion valued, every good idea taken forward and every criticism understood and actioned.

I will ensure that the mentoring scheme we have set up within the group to support our 9 new Labour Councillors works effectively and that we carry out a proper skills and experience audit that identifies any specialist talents and areas of expertise within the group that others can draw from.

I was delighted to announce tonight that our group is 50:50 men and women and that the posts that will be announced tomorrow night are also 50:50 men and women (actually I think the women just shade it, but don't tell the Chief Whip!)

It was a good meeting, all the Labour councillors are raring to go.

4 comments:

Suzanne said...

Congratulations Louise thats great news.

And WOW on the 50:50 split.

Come and teach us how you do it in Manchester please :)

scouseboy said...

Congratulations on becoming the Labour Group Chair. It is a very select membership, indeed I am a member myself x

Paula Keaveney said...

As you have probably gathered, I am also a great supporter of getting more women into politics and into particular roles. But seriously, if there are more than 50% women in the Labour group where are they? At environment committee Labours reps (I am talking about committee now not cabinet members - if I add them in the balance gets worse) were all men. Regen was a little better with one woman (admittedly the chair) and four men. Education was more mixed but even there I think the men were in the majority.

It may be of course that actually there are committees where the balance is the other way, but colleagues also report what looks like an imbalance. I imagine some people would say that this really doesn't matter, but if we are talking about potential candidates thinking about whether this is for them, a young woman seeing a room of older men may hesitate.

On a related point, I have often thought that women in politics won't actually achieve perceived equality until they are routinely doing the "boys" jobs. In national government I would have said these jobs were defence and home secretary (so half done then). At the City Council it's harder to say what the jobs perceived as "boys" ones are!

Louise Baldock said...

Thanks Paula, I have gone through the list of women and recreate below what positions each currently hold. Forgive the shorthand. I think it shows the women are more than pulling their weight.

ANDERSON Joanne
Member of Adult Care Select Committee

ASHTON-ARMSTRONG Louise
Member of Education Select and Employment Select

BAILEY Rose
Member of Comm Safety Select and Culture Select and member of Police Authority

BALDOCK Louise
Member of N'hoods Select and Assistant Cabinet Member for Community Safety and for Finance and Resources. Chair of District (democracy permitting at our next meeting)

BANKS Christine
Member of Comm Safety Select and Culture Select(Dep Chair) and Chair of licensing

BEBB Vi
Member of Culture Select and Comm Safety Select

CORBETT Jane Cabinet Member
FRAENKEL Beatrice
Chair of Regen Select, Member of Employ Select and O & S Select

GLADDEN Roz, Cabinet Member

KENT Janet
Chair - Adult Care Select, member of O & S Select

KNIGHT Doreen
Member of Adult Care Select and Environ Select

McEVOY Maria
Assistant Cabinet Member for Adult Care

MURRAY Barbara Assistant Cabinet Member for Housing and on Fire Authority

NASUH Jacqui
Member of Education Select

O'BYRNE Ann Cabinet Member

RAINEY Irene
Assistant Cabinet Member - Community Safety Select and member of Education Select

RASMUSSEN Mary
Assistant Cabinet Member for Employment, member of Finance Select, member of MerseyTravel

ROTHERY Anna
Chair of Culture Select Committee, member of Education Select Committee

SIMON Wendy Cabinet Member

THOMAS Pam
Member of Finance Select Committee
SULLIVAN Sharon
Assistant Cabinet Member - Regeneration, member of Education Select, member of Fire Authority

WALTON Pauline
Member of Comm Safety select committee and N'hoods select committee

WILNER Claire
Assistant Cabinet Member for Culture and member of Adult Care select committee

I have not bothered to check planning, licensing, street trading, audit, appointments, environmental regs etc. but am sure they will also have women members sitting on them.