Celebrating success

It’s very rare when a week goes by where I don’t have a rewarding experience of representing Wiltshire Council.

Sometimes it can be something as simple as receiving positive feedback about one of our many services, or hearing that an employee has gone above and beyond – which I’m very pleased to say happens a lot.

Just lately we seem to be receiving high praise and celebrating a lot of success.
Last week, I was extremely proud to accept an award on behalf of our Health & Wellbeing Board which won ‘effective health and wellbeing board’ at the annual Local Government Chronicle Awards. To get an award, particularly one as prestigious as this one from the LGC, really highlights the great work that we are doing on the national stage.

As chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board it was extremely gratifying to win because, to put it simply, it means the work we’re doing is of a high standard and it’s making a difference. As chair it is my job to steer the ship and that task is made much easier thanks to the support from people working in the various organisations that make up the board. Everyone involved has a vital role and I know that they are all as delighted as I am that their peers hold all of us in such high esteem.

Our task now is to maintain and, if we can, exceed the high standards we have set ourselves. The true mark of quality is consistently delivering and achieving success over a long period of time, and we are all working hard so that this award isn’t just a one-off, but marks the start of the next round of improvements and delivery.

Achieving success over a long period of time is also a sentiment that many enduring sportspeople will recognise. We are extremely fortunate in our county to have a talented group of athletes looking to succeed. We have seen the benefit that sporting success can bring to the county and the impact it has on our communities. That’s why over a number of years we have done everything we can to show our support and help our athletes on their way to becoming future Olympians and Paralympians.

We recently hosted our annual Business and Sports Gala Dinner with local businesses coming together to raise as much money as possible for our local sporting stars. The businesses excelled themselves once again raising £38,000. This money will help top athletes by providing funding for equipment, transport costs and competition fees. It was so rewarding handing out the grants to people enthusiastically and proudly representing such a diverse range of sports. You name a sport, and we’re supporting it - from swimming to sprint canoeing and boccia to skateboarding. I regularly talk about the importance of communities and in this instance our local business community has once again really stepped up and the support it has shown is truly inspiring.

We will continue to work closely with both our businesses and sporting communities as we go through this Olympic year and, I have to mention; has it really been nearly four years since London 2012 and since we hosted the Olympic Torch in our county? How the four years have flown and what a legacy we have delivered.

Focusing on success, I was thrilled that six of our apprentices have won the South West Apprenticeship Business Challenge 2016. Here at the council we are huge supporters of apprentices and know from experience how rewarding it is to ‘grow your own’ and to see them flourish not only here, but at other local businesses too. I’d like to congratulate Kieran Jenkins, Katy Harrington, Christa Harrington, Claire Ashton, Damion Godwin and Megan Mounty on their success.  I will certainly be taking a keen interest in their future endeavours as I have a feeling it won’t be the last we hear of them.

It’s nice to be able to reflect on a rewarding time and I hope so far this year you too have had positive experiences at work that have made you feel proud. Those moments, big or small, help to keep us energised and motivated, and that can only be a good thing for the council, our residents and each of us.

Finally, I just wanted to wish you all a happy Easter break and thank you for all your hard work and support during this first quarter of the year – which has been particularly busy. Also, a big thanks to all those who are working or on call over the break, it really is appreciated.

The year of delivery

It’s already March!

I don’t know about you but I can’t believe how fast this year is going…

The last few weeks we’ve been focused on setting the council’s budget for 2016/17 and the enormity of this task can’t be underestimated. As one of the largest organisations in the county – delivering more than 350 diverse services and spending around £900m each year – we have a lot to consider when deciding how the money is best allocated. It’s a huge responsibility and one that quite rightly needs to be carried out openly so that our local residents are able to give their views on what we decide.

The budget was agreed on 23 February at full council and some of you may have viewed the discussion and debate on the webcast. How we allocate spending is always one of the most debated topics and this year was no different. I believe we put forward a fair and considered budget that allows us to continue to prioritise frontline services and to deliver our priorities.

As I’ve discussed in previous blogs, we need to deliver £25 million of savings this year and we know that we will be expected to make further savings in the future.  Whilst this won’t be easy - it is the reality – and, it will mean we need to continue to look at how we work; what we can do differently and how we can encourage communities to do more.

Unlike other local authorities we have not had to make widespread ‘cuts’ and as I’ve said before, our focus is less on cuts and more on realigning resource to support our top priorities and delivering things differently.

For the first time in six years we had to increase the council tax by 1.99 percent and have also added a social care levy of two per cent. This has helped us to meet the growing demands; particularly in adult social care, children’s services, highways and waste collection.

So, with the budget approved, what’s our focus now?

It’s delivering what we said we would - this year is a year of delivery. The new health and wellbeing centres are moving at a pace, and two more centres; in Salisbury and Tisbury and at least two community hubs will be fully open this year. Working with the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, we will deliver a number of projects to help boost the economy, and we continue to invest significantly in improving highways, which remains the top priority with local residents and businesses.

We want to encourage local communities to do more and we will encourage their involvement with events, activities and projects; such as ‘Clean for the Queen’ which has seen more than 1500 local volunteers at litter pick events over the past weekend. This campaign is inspiring hundreds of volunteers in communities to clean up litter “hot spots” in readiness for Her Majesty’s 90^th birthday celebrations in June. The first litter pick event in Chippenham saw more than 40 large bin bags being collected - I’m sure Wiltshire will look even better with the help of our communities and we will be ready to celebrate with street parties and other events.

I was also so pleased to hear the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions thank Wiltshire Council for the work to support Syrian refugees. When I recently met with some of the families who we have welcomed to the county I was overwhelmed by how well everyone was and the progress they had made. The families were beaming from ear to ear and were so thankful for the support they’ve had and how welcome they’ve been made to feel in our communities. It was truly inspiring and seeing the families settled, happy and safe is tantamount to the hard work of all, including the wonderful volunteers who helped to make this happen.

This week we will be hosting the third business and sports dinner to raise funds to support Wiltshire’s future Olympians and Paralympians and with this being an Olympic year it will be a special event.

I started by saying this year is going by so quickly but, was it really four years ago, that London hosted the Olympic Games and Wiltshire hosted the Olympic torch? It’s been a busy four years and we’ve achieved so much – in my view we deserve a gold medal or two...