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

Friday 26 October 2012

In contrast to last week’s blog, where every day I updated on one or more events and activities that we were involved in across the county, this week I have spent most of the week in London, due to personal reasons. I am writing this blog from a hotel room before I visit my husband, Ron who underwent a major operation yesterday. I am pleased to say that the op went well and I hope that we will both be back in Wiltshire soon.

I have been keeping in touch and was delighted to hear that cabinet approved the funding for four more campuses in Calne, Cricklade, Pewsey and Tisbury. This innovative way of delivering local services, led by communities, providing the services they need is getting a lot of interest from central government. Next week Baroness Hanham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government is visiting Wiltshire to have a look at the Corsham campus and the multi-use facility at the Olympiad leisure centre in Chippenham. She wants to find out more about our approach and delivery of this major programme and is also interested in seeing how we are transforming our buildings to provide better facilities and a more modern fit for purpose approach to how we work.

During her visit, the Baroness will join me and some of the Wiltshire Olympic and Paralymics medallists to officially open the refurbished County Hall. The opening, which will take place in the atrium, will be a big event celebrating both our programme of transformation and the events of this year. Over 300 people have been invited, including all the Wiltshire Torchbearers and Games Makers and many community representatives who helped to make 2012 such a success for our county. Local gymnasts and dancers will be performing and Salisbury City Council has kindly agreed to lend us their Olympic Torch as the centre piece for our first public exhibition – the gallery of Wiltshire Torchbearers – which will also be officially opened next Thursday (1 November).

I hope the focus on Olympic and Paralympic success will inspire our communities to keep active as there has more people are now participating in sport and activities and we need to keep this going.

The integration of public health into the council is a real opportunity to combine the impact of this year with the great work that this team does to keep people healthy and well. Cabinet discussed the Wiltshire Annual Public Health report last week as this will now be our responsibility. I’m looking forward to discussing plans for how we can continue to improve health and well being in Wiltshire.

On a separate note, I am really sorry that we had to postpone the staff forums due to take place in Chippenham this week. I understand that these are being rescheduled and I look forward to seeing all of you who were due to attend soon.

And, I look forward to seeing many of you at next week’s opening event.

Jane

Friday 19 October 2012

I have so much to write about this week…

On Tuesday morning I attended the grand opening and blessing of the new Diocesan Education Centre at Wilton.  This centre provides an important service for the church schools in Wiltshire and I was very pleased to be invited to the opening.

In the afternoon, I met with the local media to brief them on what we will be discussing at cabinet next week. I hold these meetings ahead of every cabinet and they are extremely useful providing an opportunity for the media to gain a better understanding of the reports on the agenda and to ask me or other cabinet members any questions. This briefing focused a lot on the campus programme as next week we will be considering the business case for progressing campuses in Calne, Cricklade, Pewsey and Tisbury and some of you may have heard the positive coverage of the Tisbury campus proposals on BBC Wiltshire radio yesterday.

The media were also interested in the new public health arrangements for Wiltshire which go live from April 2013. Firstly, we have a new legal duty to set up a local Healthwatch from April. This will be a group that’s independent of the council and will represent all our residents in the improvement of health and social care services. They will also help point people in the right direction who wish to make a complaint about NHS services.

Secondly, the Wiltshire Annual Public Health report will now come to cabinet and I’m looking forward to discussing and hearing about the work of the public health team and its partners over the past year to improve health in Wiltshire.

On Wednesday I was very proud to officially open our new customer service centre at Snuff Street, right in the heart of Devizes. Most of you will be aware that one of our key goals is to make better use of our buildings and rationalise these wherever possible. I have always wanted to create welcoming, multi-purpose and practical space that can be used by the community, our staff and partners and I’m so pleased that we managed to secure these premises as they are easy to access and close to the town centre and shops. I hope that the location of the centre will help to boost the economy bringing more customers and staff into the town.

 All our services can be accessed either face to face or by appointment including the registration service and the first wedding took place on Monday. Snuff Street is currently the only location where all council services can be accessed in one place right in the heart of the community.

Talking of communities, this week I started work on the outline programme for the next Wiltshire Assembly, which takes place on 12 December. The focus will be  inspiring a generation with the focus on young people. We need to start by looking at the Joint Strategic Assessment (JSA) evidence and the facts about young people in the county. The JSA for Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Intelligence Network website. This evidence, combined with the impact of young people’s participation and involvement in this year’s events, will provide the starting point for the assembly to discuss how young people can be inspired and reach their potential whether that’s in sport, activities, work and their community. I’m really passionate that we do as much as possible to maximise the opportunities and momentum that this year created for young people and how with young people, businesses, our partners and the communities we can do this.

I am continuing to attend the area boards to present the impact of this year’s events and at the South West area board in Tisbury on Wednesday evening there was a really positive response and a commitment from those attending to creating an ongoing legacy and there is already a lot being planned for next year including an inter schools sports tournament, which will be based on the excellent event this year run by Matt Mullins, the Tisbury leisure centre duty supervisor. His work led to one of only seven Olympic Inspire Accreditations awarded to Wiltshire and set a benchmark for future legacy events.

Yesterday it was really good to see so many of you at the staff forums in Salisbury. I really enjoy the forums as they are an opportunity to hear how you view things and to update on what’s happening in the council. As always there were some challenging and interesting questions and it’s clear that we are continuing to deliver a huge amount of work.

 Last night I attended Westbury area board, which was really well attended and again it was great to have the opportunity to talk about this year and how we keep the momentum and community spirit alive.

And finally, in a week which started with the exciting scientific news about Felix Baumgartner setting the world record for skydiving, we have just heard that the government has announced that Wiltshire has been awarded a grant of £10 million to deliver a new state of the art science park at Porton near Salisbury. This is fantastic news for the county as it will create 2,000 jobs, over the next 10 years, and will put Wiltshire right at the forefront of the science and technology industries and be a huge boost to the local economy.

Have a good weekend everyone,

Jane

Friday 12 October 2012

It’s now well into October and it’s definitely really autumnal. This year has been exceptionally busy and there continues to be a lot of activity and it’s always good to hear about achievements from our services. I’d like to personally congratulate the Salisbury Shopmobility scheme, which has beaten more than 300 other outlets to be announced best in the UK for customer service. The staff and volunteers will be presented with their award on Monday in recognition of their excellent service following positive customer feedback – well done to the team.

Early this week, I spent a couple of days in Birmingham at the Conservative party conference. One of the announcements made at the conference, was that the government is supporting the council tax freeze for another year. For us this means we will receive approximately £2.4 million in additional funding, which will go some way towards helping with the budget pressures we face next year.

It was interesting to hear all the speakers at the conference focusing on how important this year has been to the country and there was a lot of talk about a legacy. I was really pleased that Wiltshire is already on the case of creating a legacy and we are working with communities and partners to take action. David Cameron’s closing speech included a poignant and emotional piece about his late son Ivan. He said that before this year people would look at the wheelchair and not the boy. After the events of 2012 people would now see the boy. This year has achieved so much in changing people’s attitudes about disability and our legacy work must focus on how we can maintain this shift in attitude.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll remember I spoke a couple of weeks ago about the new apprenticeship scheme. The launch of this scheme took place in Salisbury on Tuesday and Lackham College last night (Thursday). I attended the launch last night and as you may be aware I am totally in support of the apprenticeship scheme and passionate that through our work with local businesses we can support young people to develop their skills, learn a new trade and get into the employment market.

I have also been discussing the plans for the official opening of new County Hall on 1 November. It looks as though more than 300 people will be invited to attend. The opening will include our first exhibition, which will be located in the atrium adjacent to the entrance to the library. The first exhibition, which will run for four weeks, will be the gallery of all Olympic Torchbearers who ran in Wiltshire this summer. Salisbury City Council has kindly agreed to lend us their Olympic Torch to showcase for this period, and people will be provided with an opportunity to have their photograph taken with the Torch during lunchtimes throughout the exhibition period. On the 1 November a video booth will also be installed to capture people’s experiences and views of this year and what it has meant to them and/or their community. This will provide an historical record of this amazing year.

I’ve also attended parish council meetings in Hullavington and Nettleton this week. I particularly enjoy these meetings as it allows me to hear their views and to discuss local issues and matters.

Next week I’m really looking forward to officially opening our new customer centre at Snuff Street in Devizes. The first wedding takes place in this new facility on Monday afternoon and although it’s early days for statistics on the numbers of visitors, I understand it’s been really busy with lots of interest in particular from local businesses.

Also, next week will be the staff forums in Salisbury and I look forward to seeing some of you there and hearing your views and thoughts on how we’re doing.

Jane.

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

Friday 28 September 2012

Hello everyone,

It’s been an incredibly busy and uplifting week this week. The first two manager forums were held in Chippenham and Salisbury and both were really well attended.  The forums take a look back at many achievements that we have delivered this year and a look forward at what we will face, and, I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to hear that there are some challenges ahead. The forums bring a lot of what we are doing to life through the use of some great film footage, which acts as a reminder that whilst we continually work in a challenging and often tough environment, we can, and do, deliver outstanding work that is improving the quality of life for our Wiltshire residents and communities.

Talking of communities, this week I’ve also been continuing my presentations to area boards on the 2012 legacy. The enthusiasm and positive feedback from all those attending reaffirms the need to continue to work with our communities to keep the spirit and momentum that was so palpable this summer alive. All the communities have expressed an interest in keeping the legacy going, so I am looking forward to discussing how we can do this at the first Legacy Steering Board meeting next week.

I’m thrilled that our new customer centre in Snuff Street, Devizes opened this week and I’d like to personally thank all the teams involved in the smooth running of yet another part of the transformation programme.

As you may be aware we are undertaking a huge amount of work to address the concerns raised by Ofsted in relation to safeguarding children.  On Tuesday I interviewed for a new chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board. The Board’s role in a nutshell is to make sure that all the key agencies work together to keep children safe and promote their welfare. The chair’s role is vital in ensuring that this work is coordinated. Hopefully I’ll be able to update you on the appointment in next week’s blog.

Last night (Thursday) I spoke at the Wessex Chamber of Commerce AGM about Wiltshire’s economy and the many things we are doing to help reinvigorate this in the current climate. I focused on the Wiltshire Apprenticeships Campaign, to help local businesses understand the benefits of apprenticeships; the support we continue to give to improving Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury as part of delivering a vision for these towns and city, as well as the support our economic development team provides for small and local businesses. I also mentioned all the work we do with the newly established Local Enterprise Partnership and the Action for Wiltshire (A4W) programme, which has already supported businesses and communities in the recession with programmes to assist with re-skilling, long term unemployment, loans to businesses, personal debt and help and advice for those experiencing difficulty.

And, finally this morning (Friday) I was asked to be on a panel for a question time style business breakfast where I was put under the spotlight responding to questions from business representatives – more on my experience of this next week...

Look forward to seeing some of you at next week’s forums,

Jane

Friday 21 September 2012

Last night I attended the 2012 Wiltshire and Swindon Sports awards at the Steam Museum in Swindon and was delighted to be asked to speak on behalf of Wiltshire Council. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on the outstanding work of Team Wiltshire this year and the impact of their work. The Team focused on sport, activity, heritage and art and they delivered a wide ranging programme of inspiring events that engaged hundreds of young people and our communities. I made it clear that this year was just the start - now we need to create a lasting legacy that captures the wealth of enthusiasm and that unique community spirit that many of us experienced this year. The evening was hosted by ex-England rugby captain Phil de Glanville and Shelley Rudman was the special guest speaker, which some of you may recall, she was the skeleton bob silver medallist at the 2006 winter Olympic Games. As a local Pewsey girl she spoke with passion about being part of her community and thanked them for their support and encouragement.

It was a really good event that incorporated gymnastic performances and fencing displays as part of the award ceremony.  I was both inspired and overwhelmed at the dedication and self sacrifice made by those shortlisted for the awards, and would like to extend my congratulations to John Bedbrook, Pat Harris, Malcolm Miles, Geoffrey Russell and Ian Wheeler who were the winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Sport in Wiltshire awards.

This year has seen a renewed enthusiasm to take up a sport or activity, especially in many young people, which is just great. We cannot underestimate the affect and impact that the Olympics and the Paralympics Games has had on the whole country and on our county.

It wasn’t just about taking up a sport or being inspired to be more active, and it wasn’t all about winning medals – although we did do really well in Wiltshire with a number of medals won by our local Olympians with Ed McKeever, Heather Stanning, Aaron Moores and Stephanie Millward – it was also about the spirit of the Games and what this spirit did for our local communities.

Our challenge is how we keep this spirit and renewed enthusiasm alive into 2013 and beyond. In my blog last week, I mentioned setting up a Legacy Steering Board to ensure that we do keep the momentum and energy of this year going. The board will have its first meeting soon and I am really looking forward to discussing this further and exploring how we can do this. In the meantime, I am attending most of the area boards to reflect on this summer’s unique events, the impact they had on our county, and to promote and hopefully inspire our local communities to consider what they can do to keep the spirit alive. The feedback, so far, has been encouraging and it is clear that those communities that came together this year want to continue coming together. As I always say a strong community is a thriving community that will do more for themselves.

Which reminds me, yesterday morning I chaired the Action for Wiltshire board which was established to help reinvigorate the local economy and support those affected by the recession. The board has a number of projects and its success has been down to strong partnership working. One of the projects is looking at how we work with local businesses and colleges to create jobs for young people through apprenticeships, graduate schemes or trainee roles.

We also discussed the forthcoming Welfare Reform and how critical it is to raise awareness with those who will be directly affected and to ensure that we can provide the support that will be needed to help these people.

Following this board meeting, I chaired the Military Civil Integration partnership board meeting where we heard about the Army’s new structure, following the announcement of the national defence cuts, and, how this will affect Wiltshire. Given that we are a unique county with the largest military population, which is set to grow with the implementation of a Super Garrison at Tidworth, it is important that we continue to work closely with the Army to assist and support their continued integration in our communities.

Finally, the manager and staff forums start next week. These will take a look back at what we’ve achieved over the last few months and a look forward to what’s coming up; the challenges and opportunities we face. As always, there will be plenty of time to ask questions and to find out more about what’s happening in the council and I am really looking forward to seeing you all.

Jane.