Yesterday one of the Council's servers crashed into oblivion and my email account along with those of half the council stopped working. Since early yesterday morning nothing much has reached me. It's a very strange feeling to go from having the Blackberry buzzing frequently through the day to having it absolutely silent except when the reminder for an appointment pops up. More seriously of course it means that messages aren't getting through but people don't know they aren't. There's no end in sight to the problem so anyone wanting to contact me should do it by phone or via the email address on this page.
Perhaps a bigger problem is that the council's services for children are being inspected at the moment by Ofsted, but many of the officers concerned can't be contacted by email, can't change their diaries, can't be part of meeting requests etc. I had a meeting this morning with two of the inspectors and not having been able to go over and refresh my memory on things we'd discussed and decided recently did give me some cause for concern. However, it seemed to go reasonably well and I hope we satisfied them that we were doing what we need to for the children in our care. I don't think anyone in the council is complacent about our services but I think we know where we need to do more, and we are trying to find the resources to do it.
However, we can but wait and see what they say at the end of the fortnight.