Friday 28 September 2012

Hello everyone,

It’s been an incredibly busy and uplifting week this week. The first two manager forums were held in Chippenham and Salisbury and both were really well attended.  The forums take a look back at many achievements that we have delivered this year and a look forward at what we will face, and, I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to hear that there are some challenges ahead. The forums bring a lot of what we are doing to life through the use of some great film footage, which acts as a reminder that whilst we continually work in a challenging and often tough environment, we can, and do, deliver outstanding work that is improving the quality of life for our Wiltshire residents and communities.

Talking of communities, this week I’ve also been continuing my presentations to area boards on the 2012 legacy. The enthusiasm and positive feedback from all those attending reaffirms the need to continue to work with our communities to keep the spirit and momentum that was so palpable this summer alive. All the communities have expressed an interest in keeping the legacy going, so I am looking forward to discussing how we can do this at the first Legacy Steering Board meeting next week.

I’m thrilled that our new customer centre in Snuff Street, Devizes opened this week and I’d like to personally thank all the teams involved in the smooth running of yet another part of the transformation programme.

As you may be aware we are undertaking a huge amount of work to address the concerns raised by Ofsted in relation to safeguarding children.  On Tuesday I interviewed for a new chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board. The Board’s role in a nutshell is to make sure that all the key agencies work together to keep children safe and promote their welfare. The chair’s role is vital in ensuring that this work is coordinated. Hopefully I’ll be able to update you on the appointment in next week’s blog.

Last night (Thursday) I spoke at the Wessex Chamber of Commerce AGM about Wiltshire’s economy and the many things we are doing to help reinvigorate this in the current climate. I focused on the Wiltshire Apprenticeships Campaign, to help local businesses understand the benefits of apprenticeships; the support we continue to give to improving Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury as part of delivering a vision for these towns and city, as well as the support our economic development team provides for small and local businesses. I also mentioned all the work we do with the newly established Local Enterprise Partnership and the Action for Wiltshire (A4W) programme, which has already supported businesses and communities in the recession with programmes to assist with re-skilling, long term unemployment, loans to businesses, personal debt and help and advice for those experiencing difficulty.

And, finally this morning (Friday) I was asked to be on a panel for a question time style business breakfast where I was put under the spotlight responding to questions from business representatives – more on my experience of this next week...

Look forward to seeing some of you at next week’s forums,

Jane

Friday 21 September 2012

Last night I attended the 2012 Wiltshire and Swindon Sports awards at the Steam Museum in Swindon and was delighted to be asked to speak on behalf of Wiltshire Council. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on the outstanding work of Team Wiltshire this year and the impact of their work. The Team focused on sport, activity, heritage and art and they delivered a wide ranging programme of inspiring events that engaged hundreds of young people and our communities. I made it clear that this year was just the start - now we need to create a lasting legacy that captures the wealth of enthusiasm and that unique community spirit that many of us experienced this year. The evening was hosted by ex-England rugby captain Phil de Glanville and Shelley Rudman was the special guest speaker, which some of you may recall, she was the skeleton bob silver medallist at the 2006 winter Olympic Games. As a local Pewsey girl she spoke with passion about being part of her community and thanked them for their support and encouragement.

It was a really good event that incorporated gymnastic performances and fencing displays as part of the award ceremony.  I was both inspired and overwhelmed at the dedication and self sacrifice made by those shortlisted for the awards, and would like to extend my congratulations to John Bedbrook, Pat Harris, Malcolm Miles, Geoffrey Russell and Ian Wheeler who were the winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Sport in Wiltshire awards.

This year has seen a renewed enthusiasm to take up a sport or activity, especially in many young people, which is just great. We cannot underestimate the affect and impact that the Olympics and the Paralympics Games has had on the whole country and on our county.

It wasn’t just about taking up a sport or being inspired to be more active, and it wasn’t all about winning medals – although we did do really well in Wiltshire with a number of medals won by our local Olympians with Ed McKeever, Heather Stanning, Aaron Moores and Stephanie Millward – it was also about the spirit of the Games and what this spirit did for our local communities.

Our challenge is how we keep this spirit and renewed enthusiasm alive into 2013 and beyond. In my blog last week, I mentioned setting up a Legacy Steering Board to ensure that we do keep the momentum and energy of this year going. The board will have its first meeting soon and I am really looking forward to discussing this further and exploring how we can do this. In the meantime, I am attending most of the area boards to reflect on this summer’s unique events, the impact they had on our county, and to promote and hopefully inspire our local communities to consider what they can do to keep the spirit alive. The feedback, so far, has been encouraging and it is clear that those communities that came together this year want to continue coming together. As I always say a strong community is a thriving community that will do more for themselves.

Which reminds me, yesterday morning I chaired the Action for Wiltshire board which was established to help reinvigorate the local economy and support those affected by the recession. The board has a number of projects and its success has been down to strong partnership working. One of the projects is looking at how we work with local businesses and colleges to create jobs for young people through apprenticeships, graduate schemes or trainee roles.

We also discussed the forthcoming Welfare Reform and how critical it is to raise awareness with those who will be directly affected and to ensure that we can provide the support that will be needed to help these people.

Following this board meeting, I chaired the Military Civil Integration partnership board meeting where we heard about the Army’s new structure, following the announcement of the national defence cuts, and, how this will affect Wiltshire. Given that we are a unique county with the largest military population, which is set to grow with the implementation of a Super Garrison at Tidworth, it is important that we continue to work closely with the Army to assist and support their continued integration in our communities.

Finally, the manager and staff forums start next week. These will take a look back at what we’ve achieved over the last few months and a look forward to what’s coming up; the challenges and opportunities we face. As always, there will be plenty of time to ask questions and to find out more about what’s happening in the council and I am really looking forward to seeing you all.

Jane.

Friday 14 September 2012

Hello everyone,

The last time I spoke to you it was at the end of a fantastic and extremely busy time for Wiltshire. Hopefully, you’ve all recovered from the excitement of this summer; the Olympics and Paralympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the events that we delivered here in Wiltshire to celebrate the Torch relay and the Jubilee.  We always said that this year would provide the opportunity to create a legacy and at Cabinet on Monday, we agreed that to keep the momentum of 2012 going, with a key focus on boosting the economy, encouraging healthy lifestyles, working with our local communities and continuing to build on the great relationships that were established this year both within teams here and with our partners. We agreed to establish a Legacy Steering Board. The Board will deliver a programme of events, activities and support to ensure a tangible legacy is delivered for future generations to come in Wiltshire.

Well we’ve now moved into the newly refurbished County Hall and more of you are set to move in throughout autumn. It’s been amazing to see it take shape and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s looking really impressive and definitely has the wow factor. I’m confident that all of you who have the opportunity to work in the new offices will enjoy the new environment – feedback so far has been excellent. It’s a modern office that promotes flexible working and an open and far more communicative environment. I see more of you now and so do my cabinet members and it’s great to catch up and find out what’s happening without having to arrange meetings. It really is a different atmosphere and way of working.

As part of transforming County Hall, we officially opened the brand new Trowbridge library this week. The new library, which is located adjacent to the bright, airy atrium and great cafe, provides thousands of new books, computers for people to use, new DVDs and a fun children’s section. I think it’s a real achievement that not only have we managed to keep all Wiltshire’s libraries open but we’re also opening new state-of-the art libraries, and I would encourage all of you to visit the library and see what it has on offer. Customers visiting this week were so positive and I think it will be a really busy library and my thanks go to the libraries’ team for all their hard work to make this new facility so welcoming and exciting.

I know it’s too early to focus on Christmas, especially as we’ve only just got over a busy summer, but would you believe there’s 15 weeks to go!   The reason I mention Christmas is that as a thank you to all of you, for your continued hard work, particularly throughout this year, when many of you took on other roles to support the events, or to keep services running in the offices, Christmas Eve will be an additional day of annual leave. I thought it would be useful to give you advanced warning, as I know many of you will already be thinking that far ahead already and will be planning  holidays and emergency cover for our front line services.

I still can’t quite believe this summer is over and so are the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our athletes have made us so proud and it’s great our own Wiltshire-based athletes have excelled. We've had confirmation already that Stephanie Millward, Paralympic five medal winning swimmer from Corsham, will be attending the official opening of County Hall on 1 November, along with Torch bearers who carried the torch through sixteen of our towns this summer. We are really hopeful, and are awaiting confirmation, that three other Olympic/Paralympic athlethes will be coming too. I will keep you all updated on what’s happening as this will be our next milestone in our major programme to transform the council and it will be a big event.

Jane