Friday 30 November 2012

This week has been really busy and highlighted to me the diversity of what we do and what our communities do. I returned from a short family break in France to spend Monday working with the cabinet members and corporate leadership team on next year’s budget. The challenge we face is how we meet the demand for growth in some of our services as well as managing the reduction in funding from central government, whilst also continuing to invest in our front line services. We had a very productive day and agreed a number of actions to look at where savings could be found and where growth and investment will be needed next year.

Monday evening I attended a meeting in Chippenham to discuss a location for a skate park. This is an issue that has been going on for many years and some of you may remember that there used to be a skate park located next to the Olympiad Leisure Centre in Monkton Park, which was removed as a result of noise pollution. It was really good to see lots of young people at the meeting as this is an issue that’s close to their hearts. It was a positive meeting and thoughts and further discussion on a future location will be discussed at the local area board.

First thing on Tuesday morning I chaired the Legacy Steering Board. The meeting was short, focused and really positive. We now have a calendar of events for the next twelve months split into three areas; sports, leisure and health; community events and activities; business and the economy. Working closely with our partners we are delivering a number of events and projects that will create a lasting legacy for Wiltshire. These include hosting a Christmas wealth of Wiltshire market in the atrium at County Hall on Tuesday 11 December. Around twenty stalls will be selling local arts, crafts and produce. This will be a great opportunity to buy some Christmas presents and the traders will be there all day. Other events include meeting the local communities to discuss how we can support them next year with their legacy events and we are organising a large sporting dinner – to be held next May, in the atrium – co-hosted by future Olympians inviting businesses to adopt them ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio.

On Tuesday afternoon, I chaired the shadow health and wellbeing board. A lot of work is underway to integrate public health into the council by next April and to work with the GP’s in Wiltshire. The board discussed and approved the need to advertise and recruit a number of volunteers to sit on a new panel called Health Watch. The panel will be the public watchdog for health matters and concerns raised by local people. We will be looking for a chair and four members to take on these roles ready for April next year.

On Wednesday afternoon I had a regular catch up meeting with Simon Routh-Jones, Wiltshire’s Chief Fire Officer. These meetings are always useful and we discuss what’s happening in our organisations and what we can continue to do to help and support each other. It’s key to the work we are all doing to share information and be aware of each other’s agendas and I’m always keen to progress any opportunities of collaborative working with our partners.

Yesterday morning I was thrilled to welcome visitors from the Central Government Cabinet Office and representatives from around 15 local authorities who were keen to find out more about how we commission our children and adult care services in Wiltshire.  The Cabinet Office approached us to host this visit due to our reputation for innovative commissioning.  I set the scene and gave them a feel for how we do things in Wiltshire and they heard about our Help to Live at Home strategy and our short breaks scheme which was co-produced with parents and carers of disabled children.  Their feedback showed that everyone thought the event was really helpful and thought-provoking, and it is good to get such positive feedback from the Cabinet Office and our peers at other local authorities.

I then did something quite different and took part in opening the exhibition of great bustards in the atrium and unveiled Custard; our newly commissioned bustard, who will have pride of place in County Hall.

I first saw the collection of bustards at the Queens Diamond Jubilee event at Salisbury Cathedral on 1^st May. They were commissioned by a team from the Warminster Arts Society called Go Bustards 2012. More information on Go Bustards, how they were made and decorated and where they are shown, can be seen on their website. I was particularly taken by one of the bustards called Dratsub (that’s bustard backwards if you haven’t worked it out) who was painted like the Wiltshire county flag. I thought it would be a great idea to commission a bustard for our new building from the funding allocated for arts projects as part of the refurbishment, and requested one identical to Dratsub to reflect the Wiltshire flag. We ran a competition asking the under 12’s, who use our library, to name our bustard. The name Custard was suggested by James Cole – 5 years old from North Bradley School and Freya Mitchell – 10 years old from The Mead School in Trowbridge. You can see them in the picture above with the sculptor, Ian Hooper, the artist, Anna-Marie Anderson and Lesley Fudge from the Go Bustards Arts Project. The exhibition of bustards will be on display in the atrium until Friday 7 December and is well worth a look.

In the afternoon it was good to visit the depot in Devizes and catch up with the street scene and waste teams. The sessions were lively and reassuringly direct and it’s always good to hear how things are and to talk through our plans for the next year.  Maggie Rae also attended and talked about the integration of health and what this may mean for the teams. This was extremely helpful as staff handling dangerous materials or substances need inoculations to keep them protected. Maggie shared some ideas with the team on how this could be done in the future.

I then drove to Salisbury to officially opening the first ever Christmas market. The market, located outside the Guildhall, is a real boost to the city and I hope it will bring visitors as well as local people into the centre to shop.   After the success of this year, I am delighted we agreed to support the market and I have no doubt that the 54 traders will have a lucrative few weeks and it really is a truly magical Christmas event and I would recommend taking time to visit the market if you can over the next three weeks.

And, finally today (Friday) will be an emotional but proud day. I’m spending the day at the 3 Yorks homecoming parade where there will be a service and medal presentations in Warminster and afterwards I will be meeting families of fallen soldiers. The battalion will officially receive the Freedom of the Town in recognition of their outstanding work and achievements during their active service in Afghanistan. I will be watching with pride as the regiment marches through Warminster town in a post-deployment parade, before attending a special service at the Minster Church of St Denys.

And, tonight I will be back in Salisbury attending the advent service at Salisbury Cathedral. I always enjoy this service as for me it marks the start of Christmas and is a reminder of what this time of the year and Christmas is really about.

More next week...

Jane

Friday 23 November 2012

What a week of dreadful weather! I hope you’ve all remained safe and dry and haven’t encountered too many floods or fallen trees or difficult journeys around the county. I’d like to thank our highways and emergency planning teams who always pull out all the stops when this sort of challenge comes our way. The local resilience team, which is made up of all the key emergency services, working with our teams, has been meeting and working through the day and night to provide support, advice and information for our communities via the local media, twitter feeds and our website.

I started this week in Stoke on Trent, attending the County Councils Network (CCN) Conference 2012, which was hosted by Staffordshire County Council. It’s always interesting to get together with leaders and chief officers from other authorities and to find out that we’re ahead of the game in a lot of what we do. The main focus was around the financial pressures facing local authorities and it was clear from Eric Pickles, when he spoke, that the pressure is set to continue into the future and that central government views local government as the most efficient sector and that means more reductions are likely! There was also some discussion about Lord Heseltine’s report; No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of Growth and his recommendation that the way forward is unitary councils. Whilst there is clear evidence that merging two-tier government into unitary councils saves money and delivers efficiencies, it is unlikely that this recommendation will be taken forward in the short term.

What is clear is that every authority is tackling rising costs as a result of the growth in older people and the rising number of children needing care and support. It was, however, enlightening to hear about the good practice in other councils and I am extremely keen that we follow up and see what we could learn and maybe adopt in Wiltshire.

The conference was held at the new national football centre and given my passion for football I was really disappointed not to have had the opportunity for a good look around.

I came back from Stoke in time to attend a safeguarding forum. These are always informative and interesting and it’s good to meet our practitioners and managers and to gain a better understanding of the issues they face. So much work is being undertaken to improve safeguarding and the team is working really hard to deliver the action plan following the Ofsted inspection and to be ready for the peer review of this service in January.

I also met the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner, Angus McPherson on Tuesday to talk about his role and how we will continue to work with the Police. I am personally pleased that Angus was elected as I worked with him when he was a member of the Police Authority. He understands our vision and where the council is heading and I’m looking forward to discussing how we can share services and facilities in the future.

I was delighted to see so many of you at the rescheduled staff forum in Chippenham on Wednesday morning. It was one of the longest question and answer sessions we’ve had, but some very relevant and important issues were raised including the new ways of working and the challenges we face of becoming a totally paper less organisation.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in Devizes on 4 December at the Corn Exchange and at the depots on 29 November in Devizes, 13 December in Chippenham, and 20 December in Salisbury.    

In my last blog I mentioned the video from the opening of County Hall. It's now available to view here.

I’m in France for a couple of days with the family helping Ron to recuperate. See you next week.

 Jane.                   

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Can I start by saying well done and thank you to all of you who helped to make sure last week’s Police Crime Commissioner Election went so smoothly, especially as it was a really long day and night!

I visited both Trowbridge and Swindon on Thursday evening and was at the Oasis as the counts came in from the other Wiltshire venues. There was a lot of media interest and we hit the local and national news on Friday morning as we had the first result in the country.

I am meeting Angus (Macpherson) today to talk about his role as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Swindon and Wiltshire and about how we can continue to support and work with the Police. I am sure he will be keen to talk more about how we share facilities and possibly some services, as well as how we work together in local communities. I will update more about this meeting in my Friday blog.

Last week was also full council and the chairman made an announcement about the official opening of County Hall and the honour it was to share this with our Wiltshire Olympians, Torch bearers and Games makers. A short film was shown which highlighted the opening to those who were unable to attend, the film will be uploaded shortly so please look out for this on Friday.

Members also approved the council’s recovery plan, which would be used in the event of a major incident. Hopefully, we won’t need this but it is always the best policy to be prepared and to plan for what could happen so that we can manage and continue to deliver our services in the event of any emergency or major incident.

Council also discussed and approved a local council tax support scheme for Wiltshire. This followed extensive consultation with local tax payers. Their feedback prompted changes - particularly around the amount of savings claimants can have before losing their entitlement.  We also agreed to introduce a discretionary fund to help support those householders who will be most affected by the changes to their council tax benefit.

I also had the great pleasure of attending the Young People’s Awards in Melksham last Wednesday evening and presenting an award. The event which was organised and delivered by the extended services team and Melksham Town Council was fantastic with more than three hundred people attending. Young people were recognised for some of the outstanding work they have been doing and there were more than fifty nominations for 150 young people though their teams, clubs and schools. The categories included outstanding achiever of the year, volunteering award and sporting team award and awards were presented by five-time Paralympic medal winner, Stephanie Milward and local professional boxer, Nick Blackwell. The evening was really well organised and so inspirational. It’s always so good to recognise the positive contribution that young people make in our communities. Well done to all the winners and to extended services team chaired by John Hubbard, Melksham Town Council and the area board members for supporting this excellent event.

And finally, I’m really looking forward to seeing some of you tomorrow at the re-scheduled staff forum in Chippenham.  I understand that there are still some spaces available if you haven’t attended a session yet and that we have also put on an extra session on Tuesday, 4 December in Devizes. I am also really looking forward to visiting the depots over the next few weeks as it’s always good to meet the depot teams and catch up on how things are for them.  As always it’s your views and feedback that makes the sessions so interesting and it provides me with an opportunity to talk about the future and what’s happening.

More from me on Friday,

Jane.

Friday 9 November 2012

It is really good to be back in Wiltshire and to be back in the office. I am pleased to update that Ron is back too and recovering at home and I have spent the week juggling council commitments and business with Ron’s rehabilitation and care and it’s been busy on both counts.

Last week my blog focused on the official opening of County Hall and the visit of Baroness Hanham. The event and her visit brought communities and the public together and she was extremely impressed by our approach to delivering the campus programme and how we are transforming our public buildings. She has publicly praised us in the two articles below, which I thought may be of interest.

http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2012/11/04/wiltshire-council-could-have-85m-in-20-years-through-property-shuffle

http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsstories/newsroom/2248617

I would like to extend my thanks to the team who organised the visit and have worked with the Department of Communities and Local Government on the pathfinder scheme which highlights the innovative work that we are doing to make the best use of our buildings.

This week we had a busy cabinet meeting and we made some key decisions. We considered the integration of health, which will take place on 1 April next year. As part of this we discussed the management of this service area and agreed that the roles of the corporate director with statutory responsibility for adult social services and the joint director of public health are integrated to create one new corporate director post with joint statutory responsibility for adult social services and public health.

The council must have a statutory senior role for public health as part of the integration. The decision means that we will not increase the leadership model to four corporate directors but it will remain as three, reflecting the current leadership model. The process for this restructure will reflect the public health functions transferring into the council on 1 April 2013.

 Our decision took into account the increasing demands on our resources, as well as budget pressures and the opportunities that integrating these services can deliver.  By not increasing to four corporate directors we will save around £170,000 per year, which will be reinvested into key front line services.  

 We also discussed volunteering and how many people currently volunteer in our county. Recent research by the University of Bath, estimates that more than 109,000 people regularly volunteer to support projects and organisations across the county. As you know this is close to my heart; especially after this year when so many people got involved in organising and delivering events and activities in their local communities, including over 1,000 council staff. The challenge now is how we capture this enthusiasm and keep it going. The Legacy Steering Board is up and running and is already taking a number of actions to build on this year’s success.

 We also talked about the improvements to our waste collection services and I am delighted that the changes we implemented earlier this year have had a huge impact on our recycling figures. Currently we are recycling 48% of household waste and we will achieve 50% well ahead of our target date of 2014. We still need to recycle more though and send less to Landfill so that we can avoid paying additional Landfill Tax which is increasing each year.

 This time next week the new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) will have been elected. Our teams, working with Swindon Borough Council will have counted through the night, so that Wiltshire will have an early result, ahead of the rest of the country. Our teams will help with the election, the communications and keeping the roads clear – in the event of any bad weather. It will be interseting to see the turnout figures and level of public interest in this new role.

I understand that two new dates for staff forums have been scheduled in Chippenham and Devizes. I would encourage you to attend if you haven’t already as these forums are a really good opportunity to find out what’s happening in the organisation and to share your views and thoughts, or ask any questions that you may have. It will be good to see you.

And finally, this week I was invited to speak at the launch of an exhibition and book written by local author Richard Broadhead. The book and the exhibition, which is at the Yelde Hall in Chippenham, tell the stories of Chippenham Soldiers in the Great War of 1914-1918 when every Wiltshire Community suffered a catastrophic loss of its young sons. Richard has researched the lives of those who fell in intimate detail, and in this book the family tragedies in those years come alive. Here’s the link to his website for those of you who may be interested www.wiltshiresoldiers.co.uk.  The launch of the book and exhibition is timely as Remembrance Sunday this weekend will remind us of those who sacrificed their lives for us during wars.

Jane

Friday 2 November 2012

It was wonderful to be back in Wiltshire yesterday for the official opening of the refurbished County Hall. I was overwhelmed by the number of people who asked me how Ron was and I am pleased to update that he is recovering well and is expected to leave hospital today. Thank you for all your good wishes and I have to say I will be pleased to be back home and back at work and not living out of a suitcase and hotel room.

I have, however, been keeping in touch and I watched Panorama on Monday night and found it very upsetting, as I’m sure many of you did. I would like to reiterate the message that went out following the programme that we take all safeguarding matters extremely seriously and we continually review our procedures. Our priority is to do all we can to protect and support the most vulnerable in our communities.

As I mentioned, I came back to County Hall yesterday (Thursday) for the official opening. Lots of people – around 250 – attended the event, which was held in the atrium, and I hope some of you had the opportunity to see the Olympic and Paralympic medal winners and the future Olympians, who did some fantastic displays including rhythmic gymnastics and judo. It was wonderful to see all the torchbearers who carried the torch through Wiltshire this summer in the atrium, in their distinctive white tracksuits carrying their torches and to welcome all the games makers who assisted at the London 2012 Games. The opening provided us with a great opportunity to say thank you to all our local communities for making this year such an outstanding success. I also thanked all the Wiltshire Olympic and Paralympic athletes and future champions for giving us such a sense of pride in our county and country and giving us the motivation to create a lasting legacy. The event brought our communities together to relive a little of this unique and special year and it was so good to see everyone enjoying the memories.

I was also really pleased to welcome Baroness Hanham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Communities and Local Government, who assisted with the opening as part of her visit to Wiltshire to find out more about how we are transforming our building portfolio, working flexibly and helping communities to drive and design the campus programme. She was very impressed and said we were definitely a trail blazer and an innovative council. She said the newly refurbished County hall building had the “wow” factor and she was very interested in the campus programme and enjoyed her visit to Corsham to hear how their plans are progressing and to the Studio Hall in the Olympiad to see a multi-use space being used for the benefit of adults with learning difficulties and young people. I’d like to thank all those who were involved in making yesterday such a success and for organising the programme and hosting the Baroness.

I hope many of you will take the opportunity to have a look at our first public exhibition in the atrium. As I mentioned last week Salisbury City Council has kindly loaned us their Olympic Torch as the centre piece for the gallery of Wiltshire torchbearers.

Next Tuesday we have a cabinet meeting at Monkton Park. We will be discussing a number of items including the integration of public health, an update on the public health transition, the future of the waste management service and a paper on volunteering in Wiltshire.

Some of you may have seen the publicity on Wednesday about the release of Lord Heseltine’s ‘No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of Growth’ report, which sets out a number of recommendations about how to boost the country’s economy. The report looks at opportunities for economic growth and also highlights the benefits of unitary councils. We are included in the report (pages 51- 52) as a case study which recognises that our radical changes have really benefitted our communities and businesses. Lord Heseltine also states that we are in a much stronger position to support future economic growth in the county. He particularly highlights that the transitional costs of creating Wiltshire Council were £18 million compared to saving £68 million between 2009 and 2013 and that our back office costs are now 9% of our budget, opposed to 19% for the five former councils.

He goes on to talk about how we’ve already delivered procurement savings of £36 million and that our customers find accessing services considerably easier.

I am pleased that we are featured as I have always been a firm believer and advocate for doing what is right for the people of Wiltshire and we knew that creating a unitary council would save money, improve services and provide an opportunity to do things differently. I think Baroness Hanham would agree that we definitely do things differently!

I’m looking forward to being back next week and seeing you all.

Jane