I have to start by saying it’s good to be back! I thoroughly enjoyed my family break on the Devon coast, which was hotter than abroad, and it was nice to spend time with my grandchildren and to be away from the office. Saying that, I was pleased to be back, to what has been a really busy week.
On Monday we hosted the Wiltshire Assembly in the atrium and it was a great event that focused on Wiltshire’s next generation and we discussed the opportunities for education, training or work. It was really good to see lots of young people attending and hear them talk about their experiences and what it has meant to have the opportunity to have apprenticeships and other initiatives to get into the work place. The feedback so far has been excellent and our partners and the businesses that attended were asked to pledge their commitment to what they can do to help young people.
On Tuesday my cabinet met and discussed a number of important items including our draft business plan for 2013-17. The plan had been considered by Overview and Scrutiny and its Select Committees, and the chairs of these committees provided us with some valuable feedback at the meeting, most of which we have agreed to incorporate. The revised draft incorporating this feedback is available on our website. This new business plan is vital as it sets out our priorities, vision and direction for the next four years and how we will manage the challenges of the significant reduction in central Government funding - which we know will be at least £120 million – and the increasing demand for many of our key services. We will have to do things differently and adopt an innovative and can-do approach to everything we do. We will continue to be flexible to adapt to an ever changing national picture. Along with the draft business plan we also discussed and agreed that the three corporate directors will review the senior management structure to reflect the new plan. The draft business plan will be discussed and agreed at full council on 3 September and will then be designed to ensure it’s easy to read and understand.
We also discussed a paper on our developing partnership with Wiltshire Police. The partnership will provide value for money as a result of us sharing resources and buildings and it will help us to cut out duplication and share vital information quickly and efficiently. Working together makes sense and the results so far have been really positive. The next stage will see us looking to merge support services which may include IT, HR, fleet, finance, payroll, property and estates, legal and communications. This approach is unique and ground breaking and we will be a model that others will be watching to see the outcomes we achieve. I think this is a great example of being innovative and doing things differently so that we can protect vital front line public services.
Our future waste service was also an agenda item and we agreed that officers should now test the market. Currently the service we provide is a mix of in-house and outsourced and we need to look at the best option for the future. We recognise that this is the one service that every household uses and is probably the service that most people associate with the council and what they pay council tax for. It’s important that we get this one right for the future; particularly as most people have very high satisfaction with the existing service.
On Wednesday I chaired the Legacy Steering Board and as ever was quite overwhelmed by the volume of activity and events that we and our communities have delivered, and what is planned to be delivered, since we formed the legacy board following last year’s events. It doesn’t seem like a year ago this week that we were watching the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games and that this would be the start of more people being inspired to get more active and take up sport and activities; an additional 6,000 people in Wiltshire have signed up to participate in sport and activities and the local economy continues to be boosted as a result of the wealth of Wiltshire markets and the recent Big Business and EXPO events.
I also attended a meeting with the military to discuss the future and the additional military personnel that be based in Wiltshire. By 2020 there will be 14,800 personnel based around Salisbury Plain, which is 25 percent of the British Army, making our county the largest settlement area for military personnel in the country. Discussions are focused on what will be needed to best manage this growth.
This week, I have had a further meeting with our health partners to discuss how we can deliver a joined up service for health and social care. This matter continues to be discussed nationally as the growth in the number of older people is a huge challenge across the whole country. More on this subject in the future.
In the meantime, for those of you just off on your annual break have a wonderful time and come back refreshed and raring to go!
Jane.
On Monday we hosted the Wiltshire Assembly in the atrium and it was a great event that focused on Wiltshire’s next generation and we discussed the opportunities for education, training or work. It was really good to see lots of young people attending and hear them talk about their experiences and what it has meant to have the opportunity to have apprenticeships and other initiatives to get into the work place. The feedback so far has been excellent and our partners and the businesses that attended were asked to pledge their commitment to what they can do to help young people.
On Tuesday my cabinet met and discussed a number of important items including our draft business plan for 2013-17. The plan had been considered by Overview and Scrutiny and its Select Committees, and the chairs of these committees provided us with some valuable feedback at the meeting, most of which we have agreed to incorporate. The revised draft incorporating this feedback is available on our website. This new business plan is vital as it sets out our priorities, vision and direction for the next four years and how we will manage the challenges of the significant reduction in central Government funding - which we know will be at least £120 million – and the increasing demand for many of our key services. We will have to do things differently and adopt an innovative and can-do approach to everything we do. We will continue to be flexible to adapt to an ever changing national picture. Along with the draft business plan we also discussed and agreed that the three corporate directors will review the senior management structure to reflect the new plan. The draft business plan will be discussed and agreed at full council on 3 September and will then be designed to ensure it’s easy to read and understand.
We also discussed a paper on our developing partnership with Wiltshire Police. The partnership will provide value for money as a result of us sharing resources and buildings and it will help us to cut out duplication and share vital information quickly and efficiently. Working together makes sense and the results so far have been really positive. The next stage will see us looking to merge support services which may include IT, HR, fleet, finance, payroll, property and estates, legal and communications. This approach is unique and ground breaking and we will be a model that others will be watching to see the outcomes we achieve. I think this is a great example of being innovative and doing things differently so that we can protect vital front line public services.
Our future waste service was also an agenda item and we agreed that officers should now test the market. Currently the service we provide is a mix of in-house and outsourced and we need to look at the best option for the future. We recognise that this is the one service that every household uses and is probably the service that most people associate with the council and what they pay council tax for. It’s important that we get this one right for the future; particularly as most people have very high satisfaction with the existing service.
On Wednesday I chaired the Legacy Steering Board and as ever was quite overwhelmed by the volume of activity and events that we and our communities have delivered, and what is planned to be delivered, since we formed the legacy board following last year’s events. It doesn’t seem like a year ago this week that we were watching the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games and that this would be the start of more people being inspired to get more active and take up sport and activities; an additional 6,000 people in Wiltshire have signed up to participate in sport and activities and the local economy continues to be boosted as a result of the wealth of Wiltshire markets and the recent Big Business and EXPO events.
I also attended a meeting with the military to discuss the future and the additional military personnel that be based in Wiltshire. By 2020 there will be 14,800 personnel based around Salisbury Plain, which is 25 percent of the British Army, making our county the largest settlement area for military personnel in the country. Discussions are focused on what will be needed to best manage this growth.
This week, I have had a further meeting with our health partners to discuss how we can deliver a joined up service for health and social care. This matter continues to be discussed nationally as the growth in the number of older people is a huge challenge across the whole country. More on this subject in the future.
In the meantime, for those of you just off on your annual break have a wonderful time and come back refreshed and raring to go!
Jane.
