Friday 5 October 2012

Hello everyone,

One of the many things that I enjoy in my role as council leader is the opportunity I have to meet so many different people and participate in discussions and debates about how we do things even better for the people living and working in Wiltshire, and,  this week was no exception.

On Tuesday morning I had the pleasure of officially opening and attending the South Wiltshire Business Expo organised by Spire FM and Salisbury Journal. The event, which was held at City Hall, gave us a great opportunity to continue the momentum of this year and support the local economy.  Our economy and regeneration team were on hand to provide advice to people who may be considering starting a business, as well as apprenticeship schemes to help people get into the work place, particularly young people, and they also promoted how we are attracting new investment into the county. Before the event, we hosted a business breakfast, in partnership with Salisbury City Council and Lloyds TSB. The co-hosting of the breakfast was a reflection of the strong partnerships that were built this summer and it was really good to see so many businesses networking and sharing ideas about how we can keep the economy invigorated.

On the subject of reinvigorating the economy; this is a focus for the legacy steering board, which has been set up to keep the momentum going following this year’s successful celebration events. I chaired the first board meeting on Wednesday and everyone attending agreed that our key aims, as well as reinvigorating the local economy, will include how we showcase Wiltshire and the wealth of what we can offer, how we continue to encourage and help communities to continue to come together, and how we keep Wiltshire active and healthy including investing in future sporting stars. We are determined to harness the enthusiasm and community spirit shown this year and to assist communities build on what they achieved this summer. This year’s events were never just about 2012, for me it has always been about using this summer to create a real legacy for the future. We know that communities that come together are happier and stronger and able to do more for themselves. This combined with a buoyant economy will make Wiltshire an even better county. The board has agreed to meet monthly and next month we will consider a number of actions to deliver a lasting legacy.

Wednesday was a really busy day. As well as chairing the legacy board, we also held the last managers forum and the first staff forum. There were over 600 staff at these forums in Trowbridge and it is a great opportunity to find out how things are for you and what you think of the direction of the council. Your views and comments are always welcome and it is good to have questions and to hear about any concerns that you have that may be affecting your work or the environment that you work in. I understand that today is the last day to complete the staff survey on line. I would encourage you, if you haven’t already, to please do this, as your feedback really does help shape the culture and the way we work in the future.

 And now for something equally close to my heart: Wiltshire’s excellent volunteers. The voluntary sector helps us support local people in so many ways and there are many things we simply could not do without them. On Wednesday evening it was great to see these hard-working members of the community honoured at the Voluntary Community Sector Awards in Devizes. There were so many interesting examples of how groups and individuals give their time to help communities – I’d like to personally congratulate all the winners and those who were shortlisted – this county is a better place thanks to all their hard work.

I mentioned last week that I had been on a panel interviewing for the new chair of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board. Firstly I would like to say thank you to Pam Robinson for all her hard work as previous chair and to say I am pleased that Cliff Turner has been selected to take on this challenging role of making sure both the council and all the key partners and agencies work effectively to safeguard children.

I attended the Safeguarding Improvement Board this week and was so pleased to see the amount of hard work that is being done to deliver the improvement plan and all the actions. I am working closely with children’s services to make sure that we continue to improve and provide the best possible care and support for some of the most vulnerable young people in our county.

And finally, I attended an event yesterday looking at future health and well being and how things will work in the future. It was a good day and I am extremely pleased that we have already started to integrate public health into a lot of the work we do and I am looking forward to this work being fully integrated in the near future, as we need to continuously look at how we encourage people to keep healthy and keep active.

On that note, having had a terrible cold all week, I hope I’m feeling a bit healthier next week...

Jane