Suitable Cases for Treatment

Another rip-roaring Full Council meeting this Wednesday, with some yellow (as well as red) blood spilled this time. I'm sure the full not-so-biased account will be reported somewhere, so I'll save my version.

Thursday night I had to divide between 3 meetings going on at the same time: one at the constituency Labour Party about selection of our parliamentary candidate; the first meeting of the Lewisham School Governors Association (probably the most worthy of attending, but I didn't need the introduction to the Cabinet and what they do); and a demo of candidates for yet another possible incarnation of a Council-operated "Online Members Casework Sysytem".

I'll ask the other 3 councillors who were there for their thoughts, as I only caught the first half-hour of that (so I only saw the first presentation). Being wary of IT vendors getting huffy (or litigious) about me publishing any honest thoughts about their products or services, I'll say only that I think the Council officers putting together the requirements for this have a perfectly good case for a corporate complaints-handling system (which may stop some people getting so frustrated that they resort to seeking help from councillors - although perhaps we do actually want to hear about how services fail people). But I don't think they really understand the nature of what councillors do (or should do?) about handling casework, and how we use it to influence scrutiny, campaigning, or recognising wider issues (that surface as personal cases) that need some political input. And many of the things people contact local councillors about aren't run by the Council - they're transport services, or health services, or roads looked-after by TfL, or things that should be referred to the right MP.

I'm sure that sounds much too cynical, but I've watched them misunderstand casework for about 13 years so far... so I suppose I am.