Thursday 20 December 2012

I’m sure in previous years December was always a quiet month, but this year it has been anything but, and it is only now that I am feeling it’s time to wind down a little and focus on Christmas and family.

This week started with our council carol service at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Marlborough on Monday evening. It was a lovely service and the children from St. Peter’s Junior School made the evening so enjoyable with their wonderful singing and belleplate ringing. Many of our partners attended and it was good to welcome the lord lieutenant, Sarah Troughton and the new police commissioner, Angus Macpherson. My grateful thanks to Jean Potter for organising the service and the refreshments that followed. It was a very Chrsitmassy evening.

On Tuesday the appointments committee met to discuss the integration of public health and the decision taken by cabinet on 6 November to integrate the roles of the corporate director with statutory responsibility for adult social services and the joint director of public health, to create one corporate director post with joint statutory responsibility for adult social services and public health. The committee agreed to appoint Maggie Rae in the new corporate director post. I would like to extend my personal congratulations to Maggie and it will be good to see her former role as joint director for public health integrated with adult social care services. The staff employment subcommittee also met on Tuesday and agreed to accept Sue Redmond’s application for voluntary redundancy. I am sure I speak on behalf of the organisation in wishing Sue well for the future and thanking her for all her hard work throughout the six years she spent at the council and for her commitment in delivering the innovative help to live at home project that allows older people to stay in their own homes for longer.

Cabinet also met this week and agreed to reduce the number of streets lights at certain times in appropriate locations across the county. The reduction follows a successful trial and will save us around £380,000 each year. Cabinet also approved the new contractor for highways and streetscene; Balfour Beatty Living Places has been awarded one contract to deal with winter weather, drainage and bridges (currently provided by four different organisations). This is a huge contract (worth around £150m) to provide these key front line services for the next five years.

On the same day as this contract was awarded the government announced Wiltshire would receive £3.6m of additional funding for highways maintenance split over the next two years as part of a drive to improve transport infrastructure across England. This is a very welcome Christmas bonus.

And talking of Christmas, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very good break and a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year. Those of you who are having some time off please enjoy a well earned break and to those of you who are keeping the critical front line services running through the holiday period, thank you very much. Your work is really appreciated.

This has been an incredible year which couldn’t have been achieved without your hard work and commitment. I’m almost a little sad to leave 2012 behind, but I’m also excited to move forward into 2013 and to tackle the challenges that the New Year will bring. I’m looking forward to creating a lasting legacy and working with communities to keep the unique energy and drive of this year alive. In January, I will be out in our local market towns talking to people about the council and what they feel we do well but, more importantly, where we can do better and I am looking forward to hearing their views on where we should be spending more money and where we should spend less.

Stay safe, be happy and look forward to seeing you all after the Christmas break.

Jane.

 Ps my next blog will be published on 11 January 2013.

Friday 14 December 2012

I think I may be turning into a mince pie! You know its Christmas when every meeting you attend there are mince pies on offer and you feel it’s rude not to have one, or to offer one to those attending.

This week has been another week of meetings and it started with a press briefing to discuss the items that will be considered by cabinet next week. This included the new highways and street scene contract which will be awarded to a new contractor based on price and quality, a report that proposes reducing the number of street lights that can be turned off at off-peak times to save energy and money and reduce light pollution, and an update of the council’s budget position eight months into the financial year. It’s important we review the budget at each cabinet, as the pressures and demand on some of our services has meant we need to review what we are spending in other areas. The key pressures are in children’s services as there is a national increase, which is reflected in Wiltshire, in the number of children coming into care. The media were interested in why this is the case and whilst we don’t have clear evidence, we believe it is linked to the current economic situation and the impact this is having on many families. Meeting the local media also provided an opportunity to discuss the new Healthwatch Board and our search for a chair and four members to be the champions and voice for users of health and social care services in the county. The board will be the watchdog for these services and is part of the integration of health into the council. The advert for these roles is on the website www.wiltshire.gov.uk/localhealthwatch and we are looking for people with energy, enthusiasm and the ability to speak on behalf of users and to help shape future services.

I attended Calne and Melksham area boards this week and I have been so pleased by the reaction of the area boards that I have attended since September, which is almost all of them. They have all been so positive about the events and impact of this unique year. There is so much enthusiasm to keep the momentum going and to create a lasting legacy for our county. I’m looking forward to working with the communities next year and delivering lots of events and activities. I have to say that Melksham looked wonderful with all their Christmas lights and the board was attended by lots of young people who were recently recognised for the work they do in their local communities, clubs and schools at a special young people’s awards ceremony.

The Wiltshire Assembly was held in Salisbury on Wednesday and the focus was inspiring young people and building on the momentum of 2012 and Jon Hubbard talked about the successful Young People’s Awards that I have just referred to. It would be so good to see if these awards could take place in other areas as we need to recognise and celebrate our wonderful young people.

There was a great range of speakers at the Assembly including Debbie Flood, Olympic silver

medallist and World Championship gold medallist rower who talked about her experience

and drive to reach the top in her chosen sport. We also focused on apprenticeships and

heard from Luke, an engineering apprentice at QinetiQ, and his experience of the workplace

and the support of the company he is training with.

Angus Macpherson, the newly elected Police Crime Commissioner also attended along with many other partners and it was good to see such positive and lively networking. The assembly provides a great opportunity to bring everyone together and to discuss what’s happening in Wiltshire.

Yesterday I met the team at the Chippenham depot and it’s always good to hear how things are for our front line staff and to provide an opportunity for questions. In the evening I was invited to present awards to Wiltshire’s Diving Club in Trowbridge. I was extremely impressed by the skill and dedication of the divers and definitely think we could have a future Tom Daley in Wiltshire.

And finally, as a small thank you, I have arranged for chocolates (not mince pies!) to be delivered to all the hubs, from myself and the leadership team. This year has been exceptional and so have all of you. Thank you for your support and commitment to providing the very best for the people of Wiltshire.

Jane

Friday 7 December 2012

Well it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...seeing the Christmas tree in the atrium at County Hall and singing carols with many of you and members of the public at the first carol service held in this great community space on Wednesday lunchtime reminded me that Christmas is only just over two weeks away!

I’d like to say that things are winding down as we run up to the seasonal break, but it feels like anything but as this week has been another busy one and again so varied.

I started the week talking to new staff at our regular induction sessions. I always enjoy these as they provide a great opportunity to talk to people who have chosen to work for our council and to discuss not just what we do but, how we do things.  These sessions are always uplifting and there were some great questions about working in a council and a political environment. It was also good to see more than 160 of you at the final session, in this autumn round of manager and staff forums, in Devizes. I find the forums provide me with a great insight into how things are for you and how we are doing, and I am always keen to ensure that plenty of time is allocated for questions and comments. We do record all your questions, comments and ideas as these are valuable in helping the organisation to move forward. I understand that these will be published soon and that the corporate leadership team will consider actions and progressing ideas based on your feedback. In my view this is vital to moving the council forward and I hope those of you who attended the forums found them useful and informative. In such a large organisation it is a challenge to keep everyone informed and involved and I welcome your views and ideas on what more we can do.

I am looking forward to seeing the teams at the Chippenham and Salisbury depots in the next two weeks and hearing how things are for them. 

We’re almost at the end of an extraordinary year, which was such a success for our communities and county. I have always said that the focus now has to be creating a lasting legacy that keeps this year’s momentum alive and I am pleased to say that we have had early conversations regarding the possibility of the Tour De France coming to Wiltshire in 2017. This will be a major event and will mean a huge amount of planning and partnership working, but following this year we now have a template to follow and we have built strong relationships with our key partners so we are keen to see if we can make this happen. I will keep you updated on the progress on this...

And talking of building great partnerships; this year has been a good one for working with Salisbury City and I was so pleased to be invited to attend the Mayor’s Christmas reception on Wednesday evening, along with many local business representatives. The reception provided an opportunity for the Mayor to talk about events next year and he highlighted our support for the Big Business event which will host Karen Brady (from The Apprentice) as the key note speaker. We need to keep boosting the local economy and I am delighted that we will partner the City Council on this event.

Yesterday I spent most of the day talking economy and growth as I attended the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) held at Knorr Bremse in Melksham, one of the successful Wiltshire companies providing braking systems for the global rail industry.  I enjoyed a short tour of the building after the meeting; it’s always good to see the economy in action. Later I also attended a reception at Hartham Park to hear about the Bath University’s plans in Corsham. This will be a great boost to the county and will encourage business growth for the future.

I’m also looking forward to the Wiltshire Assembly next week, which is focused on inspiring

young people. We have some great speakers lined up and a full day including our key note

speaker Debbie Flood, Olympic silver medallist and World Championship gold medallist

rower. More about the Assembly in next week’s blog.

Jane.

Friday 30 November 2012

This week has been really busy and highlighted to me the diversity of what we do and what our communities do. I returned from a short family break in France to spend Monday working with the cabinet members and corporate leadership team on next year’s budget. The challenge we face is how we meet the demand for growth in some of our services as well as managing the reduction in funding from central government, whilst also continuing to invest in our front line services. We had a very productive day and agreed a number of actions to look at where savings could be found and where growth and investment will be needed next year.

Monday evening I attended a meeting in Chippenham to discuss a location for a skate park. This is an issue that has been going on for many years and some of you may remember that there used to be a skate park located next to the Olympiad Leisure Centre in Monkton Park, which was removed as a result of noise pollution. It was really good to see lots of young people at the meeting as this is an issue that’s close to their hearts. It was a positive meeting and thoughts and further discussion on a future location will be discussed at the local area board.

First thing on Tuesday morning I chaired the Legacy Steering Board. The meeting was short, focused and really positive. We now have a calendar of events for the next twelve months split into three areas; sports, leisure and health; community events and activities; business and the economy. Working closely with our partners we are delivering a number of events and projects that will create a lasting legacy for Wiltshire. These include hosting a Christmas wealth of Wiltshire market in the atrium at County Hall on Tuesday 11 December. Around twenty stalls will be selling local arts, crafts and produce. This will be a great opportunity to buy some Christmas presents and the traders will be there all day. Other events include meeting the local communities to discuss how we can support them next year with their legacy events and we are organising a large sporting dinner – to be held next May, in the atrium – co-hosted by future Olympians inviting businesses to adopt them ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio.

On Tuesday afternoon, I chaired the shadow health and wellbeing board. A lot of work is underway to integrate public health into the council by next April and to work with the GP’s in Wiltshire. The board discussed and approved the need to advertise and recruit a number of volunteers to sit on a new panel called Health Watch. The panel will be the public watchdog for health matters and concerns raised by local people. We will be looking for a chair and four members to take on these roles ready for April next year.

On Wednesday afternoon I had a regular catch up meeting with Simon Routh-Jones, Wiltshire’s Chief Fire Officer. These meetings are always useful and we discuss what’s happening in our organisations and what we can continue to do to help and support each other. It’s key to the work we are all doing to share information and be aware of each other’s agendas and I’m always keen to progress any opportunities of collaborative working with our partners.

Yesterday morning I was thrilled to welcome visitors from the Central Government Cabinet Office and representatives from around 15 local authorities who were keen to find out more about how we commission our children and adult care services in Wiltshire.  The Cabinet Office approached us to host this visit due to our reputation for innovative commissioning.  I set the scene and gave them a feel for how we do things in Wiltshire and they heard about our Help to Live at Home strategy and our short breaks scheme which was co-produced with parents and carers of disabled children.  Their feedback showed that everyone thought the event was really helpful and thought-provoking, and it is good to get such positive feedback from the Cabinet Office and our peers at other local authorities.

I then did something quite different and took part in opening the exhibition of great bustards in the atrium and unveiled Custard; our newly commissioned bustard, who will have pride of place in County Hall.

I first saw the collection of bustards at the Queens Diamond Jubilee event at Salisbury Cathedral on 1^st May. They were commissioned by a team from the Warminster Arts Society called Go Bustards 2012. More information on Go Bustards, how they were made and decorated and where they are shown, can be seen on their website. I was particularly taken by one of the bustards called Dratsub (that’s bustard backwards if you haven’t worked it out) who was painted like the Wiltshire county flag. I thought it would be a great idea to commission a bustard for our new building from the funding allocated for arts projects as part of the refurbishment, and requested one identical to Dratsub to reflect the Wiltshire flag. We ran a competition asking the under 12’s, who use our library, to name our bustard. The name Custard was suggested by James Cole – 5 years old from North Bradley School and Freya Mitchell – 10 years old from The Mead School in Trowbridge. You can see them in the picture above with the sculptor, Ian Hooper, the artist, Anna-Marie Anderson and Lesley Fudge from the Go Bustards Arts Project. The exhibition of bustards will be on display in the atrium until Friday 7 December and is well worth a look.

In the afternoon it was good to visit the depot in Devizes and catch up with the street scene and waste teams. The sessions were lively and reassuringly direct and it’s always good to hear how things are and to talk through our plans for the next year.  Maggie Rae also attended and talked about the integration of health and what this may mean for the teams. This was extremely helpful as staff handling dangerous materials or substances need inoculations to keep them protected. Maggie shared some ideas with the team on how this could be done in the future.

I then drove to Salisbury to officially opening the first ever Christmas market. The market, located outside the Guildhall, is a real boost to the city and I hope it will bring visitors as well as local people into the centre to shop.   After the success of this year, I am delighted we agreed to support the market and I have no doubt that the 54 traders will have a lucrative few weeks and it really is a truly magical Christmas event and I would recommend taking time to visit the market if you can over the next three weeks.

And, finally today (Friday) will be an emotional but proud day. I’m spending the day at the 3 Yorks homecoming parade where there will be a service and medal presentations in Warminster and afterwards I will be meeting families of fallen soldiers. The battalion will officially receive the Freedom of the Town in recognition of their outstanding work and achievements during their active service in Afghanistan. I will be watching with pride as the regiment marches through Warminster town in a post-deployment parade, before attending a special service at the Minster Church of St Denys.

And, tonight I will be back in Salisbury attending the advent service at Salisbury Cathedral. I always enjoy this service as for me it marks the start of Christmas and is a reminder of what this time of the year and Christmas is really about.

More next week...

Jane

Friday 23 November 2012

What a week of dreadful weather! I hope you’ve all remained safe and dry and haven’t encountered too many floods or fallen trees or difficult journeys around the county. I’d like to thank our highways and emergency planning teams who always pull out all the stops when this sort of challenge comes our way. The local resilience team, which is made up of all the key emergency services, working with our teams, has been meeting and working through the day and night to provide support, advice and information for our communities via the local media, twitter feeds and our website.

I started this week in Stoke on Trent, attending the County Councils Network (CCN) Conference 2012, which was hosted by Staffordshire County Council. It’s always interesting to get together with leaders and chief officers from other authorities and to find out that we’re ahead of the game in a lot of what we do. The main focus was around the financial pressures facing local authorities and it was clear from Eric Pickles, when he spoke, that the pressure is set to continue into the future and that central government views local government as the most efficient sector and that means more reductions are likely! There was also some discussion about Lord Heseltine’s report; No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of Growth and his recommendation that the way forward is unitary councils. Whilst there is clear evidence that merging two-tier government into unitary councils saves money and delivers efficiencies, it is unlikely that this recommendation will be taken forward in the short term.

What is clear is that every authority is tackling rising costs as a result of the growth in older people and the rising number of children needing care and support. It was, however, enlightening to hear about the good practice in other councils and I am extremely keen that we follow up and see what we could learn and maybe adopt in Wiltshire.

The conference was held at the new national football centre and given my passion for football I was really disappointed not to have had the opportunity for a good look around.

I came back from Stoke in time to attend a safeguarding forum. These are always informative and interesting and it’s good to meet our practitioners and managers and to gain a better understanding of the issues they face. So much work is being undertaken to improve safeguarding and the team is working really hard to deliver the action plan following the Ofsted inspection and to be ready for the peer review of this service in January.

I also met the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner, Angus McPherson on Tuesday to talk about his role and how we will continue to work with the Police. I am personally pleased that Angus was elected as I worked with him when he was a member of the Police Authority. He understands our vision and where the council is heading and I’m looking forward to discussing how we can share services and facilities in the future.

I was delighted to see so many of you at the rescheduled staff forum in Chippenham on Wednesday morning. It was one of the longest question and answer sessions we’ve had, but some very relevant and important issues were raised including the new ways of working and the challenges we face of becoming a totally paper less organisation.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in Devizes on 4 December at the Corn Exchange and at the depots on 29 November in Devizes, 13 December in Chippenham, and 20 December in Salisbury.    

In my last blog I mentioned the video from the opening of County Hall. It's now available to view here.

I’m in France for a couple of days with the family helping Ron to recuperate. See you next week.

 Jane.                   

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Can I start by saying well done and thank you to all of you who helped to make sure last week’s Police Crime Commissioner Election went so smoothly, especially as it was a really long day and night!

I visited both Trowbridge and Swindon on Thursday evening and was at the Oasis as the counts came in from the other Wiltshire venues. There was a lot of media interest and we hit the local and national news on Friday morning as we had the first result in the country.

I am meeting Angus (Macpherson) today to talk about his role as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Swindon and Wiltshire and about how we can continue to support and work with the Police. I am sure he will be keen to talk more about how we share facilities and possibly some services, as well as how we work together in local communities. I will update more about this meeting in my Friday blog.

Last week was also full council and the chairman made an announcement about the official opening of County Hall and the honour it was to share this with our Wiltshire Olympians, Torch bearers and Games makers. A short film was shown which highlighted the opening to those who were unable to attend, the film will be uploaded shortly so please look out for this on Friday.

Members also approved the council’s recovery plan, which would be used in the event of a major incident. Hopefully, we won’t need this but it is always the best policy to be prepared and to plan for what could happen so that we can manage and continue to deliver our services in the event of any emergency or major incident.

Council also discussed and approved a local council tax support scheme for Wiltshire. This followed extensive consultation with local tax payers. Their feedback prompted changes - particularly around the amount of savings claimants can have before losing their entitlement.  We also agreed to introduce a discretionary fund to help support those householders who will be most affected by the changes to their council tax benefit.

I also had the great pleasure of attending the Young People’s Awards in Melksham last Wednesday evening and presenting an award. The event which was organised and delivered by the extended services team and Melksham Town Council was fantastic with more than three hundred people attending. Young people were recognised for some of the outstanding work they have been doing and there were more than fifty nominations for 150 young people though their teams, clubs and schools. The categories included outstanding achiever of the year, volunteering award and sporting team award and awards were presented by five-time Paralympic medal winner, Stephanie Milward and local professional boxer, Nick Blackwell. The evening was really well organised and so inspirational. It’s always so good to recognise the positive contribution that young people make in our communities. Well done to all the winners and to extended services team chaired by John Hubbard, Melksham Town Council and the area board members for supporting this excellent event.

And finally, I’m really looking forward to seeing some of you tomorrow at the re-scheduled staff forum in Chippenham.  I understand that there are still some spaces available if you haven’t attended a session yet and that we have also put on an extra session on Tuesday, 4 December in Devizes. I am also really looking forward to visiting the depots over the next few weeks as it’s always good to meet the depot teams and catch up on how things are for them.  As always it’s your views and feedback that makes the sessions so interesting and it provides me with an opportunity to talk about the future and what’s happening.

More from me on Friday,

Jane.

Friday 9 November 2012

It is really good to be back in Wiltshire and to be back in the office. I am pleased to update that Ron is back too and recovering at home and I have spent the week juggling council commitments and business with Ron’s rehabilitation and care and it’s been busy on both counts.

Last week my blog focused on the official opening of County Hall and the visit of Baroness Hanham. The event and her visit brought communities and the public together and she was extremely impressed by our approach to delivering the campus programme and how we are transforming our public buildings. She has publicly praised us in the two articles below, which I thought may be of interest.

http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2012/11/04/wiltshire-council-could-have-85m-in-20-years-through-property-shuffle

http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsstories/newsroom/2248617

I would like to extend my thanks to the team who organised the visit and have worked with the Department of Communities and Local Government on the pathfinder scheme which highlights the innovative work that we are doing to make the best use of our buildings.

This week we had a busy cabinet meeting and we made some key decisions. We considered the integration of health, which will take place on 1 April next year. As part of this we discussed the management of this service area and agreed that the roles of the corporate director with statutory responsibility for adult social services and the joint director of public health are integrated to create one new corporate director post with joint statutory responsibility for adult social services and public health.

The council must have a statutory senior role for public health as part of the integration. The decision means that we will not increase the leadership model to four corporate directors but it will remain as three, reflecting the current leadership model. The process for this restructure will reflect the public health functions transferring into the council on 1 April 2013.

 Our decision took into account the increasing demands on our resources, as well as budget pressures and the opportunities that integrating these services can deliver.  By not increasing to four corporate directors we will save around £170,000 per year, which will be reinvested into key front line services.  

 We also discussed volunteering and how many people currently volunteer in our county. Recent research by the University of Bath, estimates that more than 109,000 people regularly volunteer to support projects and organisations across the county. As you know this is close to my heart; especially after this year when so many people got involved in organising and delivering events and activities in their local communities, including over 1,000 council staff. The challenge now is how we capture this enthusiasm and keep it going. The Legacy Steering Board is up and running and is already taking a number of actions to build on this year’s success.

 We also talked about the improvements to our waste collection services and I am delighted that the changes we implemented earlier this year have had a huge impact on our recycling figures. Currently we are recycling 48% of household waste and we will achieve 50% well ahead of our target date of 2014. We still need to recycle more though and send less to Landfill so that we can avoid paying additional Landfill Tax which is increasing each year.

 This time next week the new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) will have been elected. Our teams, working with Swindon Borough Council will have counted through the night, so that Wiltshire will have an early result, ahead of the rest of the country. Our teams will help with the election, the communications and keeping the roads clear – in the event of any bad weather. It will be interseting to see the turnout figures and level of public interest in this new role.

I understand that two new dates for staff forums have been scheduled in Chippenham and Devizes. I would encourage you to attend if you haven’t already as these forums are a really good opportunity to find out what’s happening in the organisation and to share your views and thoughts, or ask any questions that you may have. It will be good to see you.

And finally, this week I was invited to speak at the launch of an exhibition and book written by local author Richard Broadhead. The book and the exhibition, which is at the Yelde Hall in Chippenham, tell the stories of Chippenham Soldiers in the Great War of 1914-1918 when every Wiltshire Community suffered a catastrophic loss of its young sons. Richard has researched the lives of those who fell in intimate detail, and in this book the family tragedies in those years come alive. Here’s the link to his website for those of you who may be interested www.wiltshiresoldiers.co.uk.  The launch of the book and exhibition is timely as Remembrance Sunday this weekend will remind us of those who sacrificed their lives for us during wars.

Jane