Wednesday 31 October 2018

Caring for our care leavers


This week I’d like to recognise and commend a very special group of young men and women.

They are our care leavers who recently visited County Hall to discuss and find out more about a new package of support that has been designed to meet their needs.

All of us who are parents know that when children grow into maturity and adulthood it can often be a challenging and tough time. It’s a time of uncertainty when young people are still finding their feet, making their way in the world, and starting to test their independence for the first time.

It usually means a new job, new life and new challenges.

It is a hard enough time for young adults who have a family support network to fall back on. 

Consider then what it must be like for those who have spent their early years in care, and are venturing into the adult world without that wrap around family to fall back on.

They deserve and need all the support that we - as their corporate parent - can provide.

That is why I am so pleased that the new Care Leaver Promise is now in place. It offers all our care leavers a personal advisor to assist with all those practical matters including help with their finances, the benefits that they are entitled to, where they will live and where they will work, including apprenticeships and job opportunities.

Our care leavers are an inspiration to us all and a reminder of how determined young people are, and while we can’t take the place of a family, we can offer the care and support that they need and give them the best start into adulthood and beyond.

No care leaver should ever feel abandoned, forgotten or neglected.

That’s our Promise, and it’s one that I’m so proud to support and uphold.

Thursday 25 October 2018

A living memorial to remember them…

Inscribed on war memorials across Wiltshire are the names of the fallen from WW1.

For each of those names there were families, just like our own, who were stricken with grief.
You only have to reflect on the same suffering in every village and town across Wiltshire to understand why the memory of 1914-18 still provokes so many emotions of sadness, regret and respect.

This week, Wiltshire Council once again displayed the giant poppy at the front of County Hall, and additionally to mark the centenary, four haunting Tommy Silhouettes were unveiled and stand proud at the entrance to the building.
It’s important that all of us commemorate and remember the centenary of the Armistice.

I was invited to Tidworth Garrison last week to plant a beech tree to mark the start of a countywide community project that will see 10,000 trees planted as a dedication to honour those who sacrificed their lives in WW1.

Like the 10,000 crosses that form the Wall of Remembrance, created by Wiltshire school children in 2014, each tree represents a native of Wiltshire who set out for France, Flanders or further afield to serve their country, and never returned.

Through our communities their legacy will live on and we will remember them.


Wednesday 17 October 2018

Rapid response offers hope

In my view the last week has seen the best of our council at work, and it came in response to some upsetting news for Melksham.

Last Wednesday the shock announcement that 300 people at Cooper Tire in Melksham were at risk of redundancy sent ripples of uncertainty and fear through the local community.
After all, this business in its various guises has been at the centre of the town’s economy for more than a century.

Generations of men and women have known ‘the Avon’ as a source of employment and also a place of companionship and community. It was and is part of the fabric of Melksham.
Geographically and culturally it is at the heart of the town.

No wonder that the announcement cast a shadow over the whole of the Melksham area.
At least there was a silver lining to the grey clouds. Cooper Tire announced its future remained in the area and it gave a fresh commitment to keep its European base in the town, and some specialist manufacturing will carry on here.

We are working closely with Cooper Tire to guarantee its future in the area. We were already talking with them about lots of practical ways to work together as partners, for the benefit of the business, the town, and the whole of Wiltshire and those conversations and efforts will continue.

But what made me really proud was how we responded to this announcement.

Within an hour of the first whisper of potential redundancies, our tried-and-tested economic taskforce was meeting to discuss how the affected employees could be supported.

In cases like this one, we pull together a rapid response group with colleagues from the Department for Work and Pensions, the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Wiltshire College, the National Careers Service and more. 

It has the expertise to work with the company, offering help with training for new careers, and advice across a whole range of employment issues.

We also have close links with all the county’s big employers, and can put staff in touch straight away with local firms that need their services.

Though this action, we soften what might have felt like a hammer-blow.

For that reason it was especially pleasing to see that the ITV local evening news led its bulletin not with tales of doom and gloom about Melksham’s future, but on the positive steps that we, Wiltshire Council, are taking to help our people when they need it most. We shared a message of hope, help and real optimism to dispel some of the anxiety.

Our response at troubled times such as this is simple.

We abandon nobody.

We forget nobody.

Everybody really does matter.

An early present from me to you!

In recognition of everyone’s hard work in 2018, it is my pleasure to declare that Christmas 
Eve will be an extra day of leave for all employees.  

Well earned by all!

Wednesday 10 October 2018

Fair’s fair for disabled jobseekers


When we say that Wiltshire is a county where everybody matters, it’s more than just words.
Last week’s EmployAbility Fair held in the Atrium at County Hall was a good example of this.
The event puts disabled jobseekers in touch with recruiters searching for staff, and the results it delivers for individuals, for businesses and for our economy is truly heart-warming.

The first fair was held last year and was such a success, it returned last week. It was clear from the numbers crowding the Atrium that it has already become a popular fixture in the recruitment calendar.

It was wonderful to see so many people – many of whom had been on the jobs market for a long time – talking to employers, chatting about opportunities, and accepting offers of work right there on the spot. It showed what we are about – creating chances for people to thrive, prosper and build a future in our county – especially residents who may have been excluded from opportunities in the past.

From a personal point of view I understand just how much getting a break into work can mean. As some of you may know my own daughter is disabled. She has always worked and strived for the independence that working and earning brings. But as we all know, the early days in a new job aren’t always that easy. There are often issues to overcome. For some people these include accessibility.  What matters is that employers see beyond the disability, and are ready to welcome new recruits regardless of any stigma which in the past might have been attached to disability.

It was good to talk to so many visitors on the day as well as guests including Dr Andrew Murrison MP, and a couple of comments really made me think.

The first was by Maurice Menghini from our co-hosts JobCentre Plus.

“There is a job out there for everyone,” he said.

And in Wiltshire, where we are blessed with largely full employment and employers urgently seeking staff – that is true.

The second was by Wendy Wood, from The Order of St John Care Trust, who was seeking staff for 19 residential homes all over Wiltshire.

“Good employers need good employees and disability doesn’t affect that,” she said.

It summed up a brilliant day which made a huge difference to many people’s lives.

My thanks go to everyone who worked so hard to stage one of the most important, most effective, and most beneficial dates in our council calendar.

I’m looking forward to next year’s event already and to hearing how successful the new recruits have been…

Jane