Election planning in full swing and a visit from Pudsey

Election means a busy build up to Christmas

We all knew it was going to happen sooner rather than later and indeed, the starting gun for the general election was formally fired, and that sound you heard a week or so ago was hundreds of election teams across the country springing into action.

Since September we have been seriously discussing planning for a possible election, but we were only able to do so much when we didn’t have (the little matter of) the confirmed date. Logistically speaking, holding an election of this scale in December is far from ideal but our team is working round the clock to get everything in place. This means arranging polling station venues, sending out more than 360,000 ballot cards, promoting the election and key dates, arranging postal and proxy votes and ensuring we have enough staff covering the many jobs on the day itself. It’s a mammoth task but actually enjoyable at the same time as it creates a great team spirit with everyone in it together.

As election planning involves a lot of people from across the organisation we’re working hard to ensure business as usual isn’t affected too much. As you will know by now, we thought it sensible to postpone the staff forums and we’re looking forward to them taking place in the new year. The council certainly won’t be easing into the Christmas break this year, but we are really grateful for everyone’s support during this very busy time. If you want to help at the count or at a polling station please email your interest to elections@wiltshire.gov.uk. You will be paid for your time.

Massive milestone for Melksham

The Melksham Community Campus project has had a few ups and downs over the years but this week it was unanimously granted formal planning approval, and construction is set to get underway next year. This is positive news for the town and surrounding area as the campus will be providing a variety of leisure and community facilities.

The team behind the scenes has worked tirelessly to get to this stage and they are now looking to secure a lead contractor. Progress on this project has really ramped up over the last year or so and to see the council’s long-held vision become a reality will be testament to the perseverance and commitment of everyone involved - all to the benefit of residents.

Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference

This week our young people took centre stage at a conference to address mental health and wellbeing issues. We had professionals and young people talking about the help available and how we can work closer together in the future.  This was a great event and it was also very timely as it was held during Anti Bullying Week which this year has the theme #ChangeStartsWithUs.

Managers challenging themselves and working on the budget 

We had a good Managers’ Forum session earlier this week. Simon Tyler, a business coach and public speaker, joined us for the session too. At a previous session he asked everyone to commit to making one change and it was insightful to hear the progress that had been made by many.

We also held a directors budget planning day. The budget is planned and discussed all year round but comes into particular sharp focus at this time of year.. It was a positive session and vital as we look to address the budget challenges. 

Stuffing the Bustard for Children in Need

For those who are regular visitors to County Hall you will have likely noticed we have a couple of bustards proudly on display in the building. On Monday another version of this icon of Wiltshire visited County Hall – this time in the form of a giant inflatable. As strange as that may sound it was all for a great cause, in aid of BBC Wiltshire’s efforts to raise money for Children in Need. They are pushing it on a trailer throughout the county and people are being invited to ‘Stuff the Bustard’ with money. We popped down to see the team on Monday at the start of their journey still looking relatively fresh faced – probably not quite the case now though. Pudsey himself also made an appearance. 

We are once again supporting Children in Need with a dress down day and the charity helps fund lots of projects in Wiltshire so please donate what you can.  Thanks for your support.

Alistair, Carlton, and Terence.

Council staff fend off the competition, and Cabinet drive forward key projects

Celebrating our successful six 

 Jenine, Lynn, Doug, Claire, Vicky and Sean with the Executive Directors

Many congratulations to six members of staff for winning the highly competitive SW Challenge 2019. This event saw 19 teams from different authorities become the senior leadership team of a fictitious council with the overall aim of turning its fortunes around while navigating their way through a whole heap of issues, such as changing priorities, potential political scandals, and left-field crisis’.

This year’s Wiltshire Council team members were Vicky Bodman, Jenine Brister, Sean Chacksfield, Doug Coombs, Claire Lovelock and their Chief Executive Lynn Trigwell. The team are the first from the council to be victorious and they managed to identify more than £60m of savings – not bad for a day’s work!

Not only is it great for their own individual development, but it’s a feather in the cap for us at the council and we’re all delighted for their success. We will undoubtedly be sending a team next year to defend the trophy and if the opportunity presents itself for you to be involved, then we’d certainly recommend you put yourself forward.

Cabinet moves key projects forward

Cabinet took place this week and there was a host of big items on the agenda. Among the items saw agreement for the council to act as developer for new offices for Good Energy in Chippenham, and a new public car park. If all goes ahead, this will be great for the economy and the Chippenham area.

Another significant regeneration item saw Cabinet formally recommend to Council to invest capital funding to acquire third party interests in land and property and fund further development in the Maltings area in Salisbury.

Local housing received a big boost as Cabinet agreed to build 1,000 more council homes in the third phase of our building programme. The programme will ensure that as many of these new homes as possible will be rented out at social rents, to ensure affordable housing for the most vulnerable in the county.

They also agreed to invest more than £5m in our buildings to install technology that will make them as energy efficient as possible. This should save around £500k a year in savings and is a real statement of intent of our ongoing response to the global climate crisis. On that note, we were delighted Wiltshire was recently named the most climate-friendly area in Britain and Wales by Friends of the Earth. We will be doing everything we can to build on that recognition and have many more plans in the pipeline to ensure we are leading from the front locally.

On a related note, Cabinet also approved the Council’s draft Air Quality Strategy, which will now go forward to Full Council.

As you can see, lots of big council projects took significant steps forward and it was extremely productive.

Great to hydrate

County Hall was extremely hydrated on Wednesday with the launch of the first water refill station being installed at one of our hubs, provided and paid for by Wessex Water. We are one of the early adopters of this scheme which provides free water to visitors of the building which will not only have health benefits, but hopefully reduce the amount of single-use plastic bottles. The late Cabinet Member Jerry Wickham first suggested this and we’re pleased it’s now a reality for all to use. It’s a simple idea, and one which we hope to roll out at many more buildings.

100 reasons to visit our libraries 

Wilton Mobile Library in 1954

This week is Libraries Week and those of you who follow the @WiltsCouncil Twitter feed will have seen lots of great stuff to celebrate, including classic pictures of Wiltshire libraries of days gone by. It’s also 100 years since the first library opened in Wiltshire and during that time the service continues to evolve and truly be at the heart of our communities. Gone are the days when you go there to just pick up a book; they are now places for people to sing with their children, meet like-minded people, to hear from revered authors and generally just a place to be around friendly faces. More than 140,000 items are issued by our libraries each month and we thank all the staff and volunteers for continuing to make them special places for people to visit. Here’s to the next 100 years.

On 1 August 1919 Wiltshire became one of the first counties to have a public library service

Blog back from its summer break

Our blog is now back from its summer break. We hope as many of you as possible had a bit of time off to recharge your batteries.  Summer already feels like a distant memory but we’re looking forward to the rest of this year, which traditionally is the busiest and most challenging time for many of our services.

Planning at an uncertain time

Over the last few weeks we, just like millions across the country, have been keeping a very close eye on proceedings in Parliament. As a council we have a responsibility to plan and prepare to ensure Wiltshire is ready should the U.K exits the EU. At this stage we have to assume that’s going to be on 31 October but we are aware this is not a certainty, and are planning accordingly.
On top of that, we also have the possibility of a General Election and all that entails. We’ve begun to plan the logistics of organising the likely election but without a confirmed date there’s only so much preparation we can do. Clearly, it’s an uncertain time but that’s par for the course when working in local government and something we’re accustomed to. We’re staying focussed on our priorities and when the important decisions are made in London and Brussels, we’ll be ready.

Figuring out the forums

We’ve had initial planning meetings about our annual staff forums which get underway in a couple of months. We’ll be confirming all the dates very soon and they will be shared with you as soon as possible As usual, we will be making changes to the format of the sessions this year, we do this to ensure you are engaged in, are able to participate in the forums, and get the most out of the sessions. We’re very aware time is a precious commodity when everyone is so busy so we want people to come away feeling positive having taken a couple of hours out of their day to attend. Watch this space.

Cabinet, coaching and catching-up with peers

Speaking of time well spent, we’ve had some productive meetings ourselves this week. It was good to bring managers together for our regular forum which included a fascinating coaching-type session from a previous EPIC Talk presenter, Simon Tyler. Later in the week we also brought together senior officers to a business planning workshop to look ahead and focus on our future priorities.

The first cabinet of ‘the new term’ took place this week which included an interesting discussion on the council’s carbon neutral work as well as an update on the positive progress made on the future of outdoor education.

The South West Association of Directors of Children’s Services is also taking place this week and some shared discussions among our local authority peers is always welcome. 

Cycling for Jerry

Finally, we’re all looking forward to taking to our bikes next week for the second annual Bustard ride. It’s all in aid of raising money in memory of the late cabinet member Jerry Wickham and we’re privileged to be taking part.

Jerry was an avid cyclist himself so we can’t think of a better way to raise money for charities that were close to his heart; the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and Dorothy House Hospice. Jerry’s son Ollie will also be joining us alongside representatives from Wiltshire Police and we’re expecting it be a poignant occasion, and as was always the case when Jerry was involved, with lots of laughter too. Staff will also be raising money on static bikes at County Hall and not that we’re bitter or competitive at all, but they will have it A LOT easier than us. If you can donate any money we’d really appreciate it, you can do so via the Just Giving page.

Paying respects to a great cabinet member to serve under

A sad goodbye to a great man

Jerry Wickham, who sadly passed away on 23 July

We were extremely saddened to hear that former cabinet member Jerry Wickham passed away this week.

Jerry was very open about his diagnosis of prostate cancer, but he did not let this illness define him.  He was defined by his integrity, values and his skill as a cabinet member. He was a brilliant councillor to serve under and will be terribly missed by all who knew him.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men and robs so many people of their loved ones. Jerry was always so keen to raise awareness and prevent other people having to go through what he had, so if you need any advice and support please visit the Prostate Cancer UK website.

Our thoughts are with Jerry’s wife Suzanne, their sons, and his family and friends at this very sad time.


‘Good’ rating is GREAT news for our children’s services

The children's services team celebrate their success

Following years of commitment and hard work from our staff, we were delighted to get confirmation that our children’s social care services are rated ‘Good’ in all areas by Ofsted – the first authority in the South West to achieve this. It can’t be understated how hard the team has worked to make improvements to the service and get this fantastic recognition. We are outstanding in places, and where we need to improve we have already made steps to achieving that goal. 

Among the many highlights, the report notes:

• Senior leaders and frontline practitioners are driven by a determination to improve the life chances of children in Wiltshire
• Children in care and care leavers receive a good service in Wiltshire
• Responses to children from domestic abuse are effective and decisive action taken by social workers to protect children when required
• Social workers have manageable workloads following significant investment to increase numbers 
• Social workers are given the time they need to work purposefully with families and children
• The arrangements for finding children adoptive parents is a strength and children in Wiltshire are waiting less time than ever to move in with their adoptive family

Getting the basics right is fundamental and provides a solid platform for our work, the investment we have made in good practice and social work values has led to better lives for children and families across Wiltshire. We couldn’t be prouder of this achievement.

We gathered as many members of the children’s services team together on Monday as we could to tell them the good news and the atmosphere was fantastic. You can read the full report on the Ofsted website and it makes for great reading.

The staff we have are the key to this success and our aim now is to continue to be a progressive, supportive and learning organisation. Thanks so much to everyone involved.


Big step forward for our digital programme 

Cutting the ribbon on Val

It’s been a busy week for our digital programme team with the launch of our first virtual assistant, Val, within the payroll team.

Val went live on Wednesday 17 July and has automated the distribution of payroll output reports – effectively running a series of six reports for each of our 43 payrolls.

This used to require a significant amount of repetitive keying for staff, taking up one-two days per month and creating bottlenecks in a time-critical process. Now, with Val on board, this takes just over an hour, not only freeing up staff time, but also reducing pressure and giving us capacity and confidence to take on more payrolls, which supports our commercial agenda.

Virtual assistants represent a significant step forward in our digital transformation. They are changing the way we work, both at an individual and organisational level, making it simpler, quicker and easier for our customers and staff to access our services.

As this is a new technology we have been learning as we go, and it has not been as smooth or easy as we initially thought. However, the teams involved have worked tirelessly to get to this point.

We would like to thank all the teams involved, both from the digital programme itself, the Payroll team and all the other teams that are working with the digital programme to identify opportunities and help us achieve our vision.

To find out more about our first virtual assistant, please watch this video. 

We have seven other processes currently in build phase (six in HR&OD and one in planning) and these will be released over the coming months. Discussions are ongoing with other services; if you think your service has a suitable process that could be automated, which is high volume, rule-based and repetitive, please contact digitalprogramme@wiltshire.gov.uk.


Council and Police IT to go separate ways

Cabinet took place this week, the first chaired by new leader Philip Whitehead. It was a busy agenda and one of the items was the decision for ourselves and Wiltshire Police to separate our IT infrastructure. This joint decision by both organisations, will allow the police to align with the Police Vision 2025 digital programme, which requires nationally consistent IT systems for the police service, and will enable them to have better access to national police IT infrastructure programmes.

We will work together over the next year to manage this transition carefully and ensure there is minimal disruption to both organisations. Wiltshire Police is one our major partners and although our IT services are separating, we will continue to have a strong partnership with them going forward.

You can catch up with the cabinet webcast online.

School’s out for summer

This academic year seems to have flown by and the school holidays are now here. As a council we put on a host of activities throughout the break to keep the kids entertained. Among others, our leisure services and libraries team have lots planned including the Get Active programme and this year’s space-themed Summer Reading Challenge. We know it can be a tricky time of year to think of things to do so please keep an eye on the Wiltshire Council website for some great ideas.

It's been a particularly busy first half of the year, so for those of you having some time off over the coming month or so, we hope you get a chance to recharge the batteries and this week’s warm weather sticks around a little longer.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Armed Forces celebrations a huge success

Sorry for the lack of blogs recently. It’s been a particularly busy month, but now we’re out the other side and have come up for a bit of air, it’s nice to able to reflect on, and share with you, what we’ve been up to.

Months of planning comes to a hugely successful conclusion

After all the preparation and build up, the Armed Forces Day National Event happened last weekend. The event was a great success and the feedback received so far has been overwhelmingly positive; it was great to see so many people enjoying the weekend with their family and friends. We were keeping our fingers crossed for nice weather but perhaps we did it a little too tightly as there was heatwave temperatures on-site. It didn’t spoil anyone’s fun but certainly wasn’t easy for everyone working there.  

The reason for the weekend was of course the Armed Forces, and it was a sight to behold to see all the different military services come together and show people what they’re all about. It was an absolute privilege to host the parade in Salisbury and, all that took part got a brilliant reception, both from the thousands in the crowd, and HRH The Princess Royal.

At Hudson’s Field, the performances of bands like the Kaiser Chiefs and The Feeling, together with local homegrown talent, really went down well and the atmosphere was electrifying.

We can’t understate what a monumental team effort it was from everyone involved before and during the event. Lots of our staff have worked round the clock in its planning, working with our partners day in and day out making sure every detail was covered and more importantly than anything, ensuring everyone attending was safe. We’ve taken away so much learning and forged many new working relationships and friendships among partners and colleagues throughout this time.

We would like to thank everyone involved for their help ensuring the success of this event. It’s Scarborough’s turn next year, and we wish them all the very best, but, and we say this in the nicest possible way, we think they’ve got their work cut out to match what we achieved.

Ofsted inspection comes to an end

Our children’s services teams have been through an extremely intense time with the Ofsted inspection recently taking place. A couple of weeks ago you may have heard a collective sigh of relief from where you were working when the inspectors left the site and the main part of inspection came to an end.  

Our teams worked tremendously hard to ensure the inspectors got a complete picture of how our services work in Wiltshire. The inspectors reviewed the entirety of children’s services, from the initial referrals coming into the MASH team, through to Children in Care, Care Leavers and Adoption.  All of the teams pulled together to work exceptionally hard to showcase the excellent work that is undertaken on a daily basis and we are positive that the inspectors were shown just how hard we all work to ensure the most vulnerable children in our society are at the centre of all we do. 

We are now in the period of waiting to receive the final report that will tell us our result.  There will be opportunity for us to ensure the report is factually accurate before it is published.  We will be sure to share the results with you as soon as we are able.   

Thank you to everyone for their hard work and commitment during this time, it’s been a real team effort – which is something of a theme of this week’s blog.

MASH makes its mark

On Monday 17 June, we officially launched our Adult Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) alongside key partners. Modelled on our highly successful children’s MASH, the team is made up of a number of professionals led by ourselves, Wiltshire Police and NHS Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group. The aim of the Adult MASH is to safeguard adults in a joined-up way and ensure those in need get the right support as quickly and effectively as possible.

The service got underway last year and in that time the team has received more than 4,000 concerns and more than 1,200 investigations have been carried out. It’s well documented that the demand on adult services is increasing and the Adult MASH has already played a key part in strengthening information sharing and decision making.

Protecting all vulnerable people in Wiltshire is our top priority and we’re pleased to see the positive results that our MASH model has achieved so far.

A busy week…

Finally, what a busy week this has been!  This week has seen each of us attending meetings across the country, including the likes of the Local Government Association Annual Conference in Bournemouth, Cabinet at County Hall, a Defence Committee, the HR Excellence Awards in London, and the ADCS Conference in Manchester.

Our HR team were shortlisted for awards in two categories, unfortunately they were not successful this year however – being nominated alongside some huge private sector companies was, in itself, a fantastic achievement and our congratulations go to all our HR staff involved in this. 

Following Baroness Jane Scott’s decision to stand down, you will have seen the news that Philip Whitehead has been voted in by the Conservative group as their new party leader.

Next week, Full Council will meet and during this meeting a new leader of the council will be voted in. Once the decision has been made we will ensure you’re all updated on the change. The Lib Dem leader Ian Thorn, Labour Leader Ricky Rogers and Independent Ernie Clark remain leaders of their respective groups.

Jane standing down leaves some big boots to fill in the council, her hard work, dedication and strong leadership has really shaped the unitary council here in Wiltshire and she will be sorely missed.  We do of course wish Jane all the very best in everything she does going forward. Jane will remain a local councillor and I am sure we will continue to see her at to council meetings going forward. 

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Sad to see Jerry leave cabinet

Sad to see Jerry leave cabinet

We were very sad to hear that Jerry Wickham has decided to step down from the council’s cabinet team due to ill health. We have all worked closely with him over the last few years and no matter what your political allegiances are, you can’t argue that Jerry took his responsibilities very seriously and worked so hard for the council and community he served.

Jerry has been particularly instrumental in the work we’ve undertaken to transform our adult social care services and bridging the gap between health and social care. Jerry has been very open and honest about his prostate cancer since his diagnosis three years ago and regularly used his public platform admirably to advise men to look out for the signs and prevent more cases.

Even last week, following his announcement and the difficult time he is going through with his family, Jerry took time out to speak to the Gazette and Herald about his condition, and that says a lot about him. We wish Jerry and his family all the best and our thoughts are with them.

Baroness Scott to step down

This week, Jane confirmed that she will step down as leader following 16 years in the role. She was appointed the leader of the then Wiltshire County Council in 2003 and when the authority moved to unitary status in 2009 she was voted to lead the new organisation.

Jane was instrumental in leading the council into unitary status in 2009 and there have been so many achievements over the past 16 years. We look forward to celebrating these over the next few months.

We are all sorry to see Jane go, but we are also looking forward to working closely with the new leadership team.

Ofsted calling

We have just heard today (24 May) Ofsted will be carrying out an inspection of our children’s services teams from next week.

We have been expecting the call and although this will be a very busy time, we are ready to present the wide range of work our teams carry out with dedication, commitment and professionalism every day. The inspectors will be reviewing our work from next week and they will then be visiting our hubs from Monday 3 June to gain a real insight into the work we do. The next three weeks are going to be busy for the teams so please bear this in mind and as we may have said before – please be ready to make them a coffee too!

We’ll report back on how this is going next week.

Election nearly counted

This week marks the culmination of a lot of hard work and many late nights for our elections team. Despite the tight timescales and pressure, the team loves the hustle and bustle involved at this stage and the responsibility they have. Wiltshire is only one cog in the South West region, so we won’t actually be formally declaring any results ourselves, instead we’ll be feeding our results through to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council to announce the results. We hope you managed to vote yesterday (23 May), and thank you to the many people who worked during the day and also those who worked through until the early hours of this morning today for the verification. An early thank you also to those taking time out of a bank holiday weekend to participate in the count on Sunday. We are very grateful to all of you.

Plenty of discussion in the chamber

Tuesday and Wednesday were dominated by full council and cabinet respectively. At full council, members voted in a new chairman and that responsibility now lies with James Sheppard for 2019/20. The bulk of the meeting was taken up by the important task of members being allocated to the various council committee meetings.

Our vision for the future of special educational needs was the main issue discussed at cabinet. Rightly the process for the proposals to reach this point has been detailed and thorough, as it’s absolutely vital we get this right. We have met and spoken to many very passionate and knowledgeable parents and school representatives as part of this work and are grateful for their time in ensuring we have views from all perspectives. Cabinet agreed to establish a new maintained special school with an executive leadership team for Rowdeford, St Nicholas and Larkrise no later than 1 September 2021 and for a new school to be created on the Rowde site by September 2023.  Larkrise and St Nicholas will stay in use on the current sites until the new provision is ready and it is appropriate for pupils to transition to the new school campus at Rowdeford. We will be investing a significant amount of money in the new school and we’re confident it will meet the needs of all who go there. We knew whichever option was decided upon would have an impact on families and we will continue to work closely with them during this transition, as this is not the end of the process by any means.

Excitement down in Salisbury

On the same day as the European election, Salisbury city centre was transformed as professional cycling came back to Salisbury in the shape of the OVO Energy Tour Series. The city’s historic streets were lined with crowds cheering on these incredible athletes. What a great event! We also released the tickets for the Armed Forces Day National Event last week and we have been very pleased with the response so far. We’re now just over a month away and there are still plenty more exciting announcements coming soon, including the headlining acts. Keep an eye on the Twitter feed and website for all the latest news.

Never a dull moment

It’s been a little while since we last blogged and there’s plenty to talk about as the last few weeks have been particularly busy, and we’re sure that’s been the case across the whole council.

Planning for the polls

Something that’s unexpectedly taking up our time is the arrangements needed for the European Parliamentary Election. It was confirmed this week that the election will definitely take place, and in truth that doesn’t change things for us as we’ve been working with that assumption for the last few weeks. One of the main challenges so far is recruiting staff to help us at the polling stations, and at the verification and count. Of course, it doesn’t help that it falls on a Bank Holiday weekend as many people have rightly made prior

arrangements. If you’re interested in taking on a role at the election please email electionstaff@wiltshire.gov.uk and let us know which area you would prefer to work in. Despite the upheaval, running an election is a fun, full throttle experience and we’re always impressed, but never surprised, how our election staff rise to the challenge. It’s going to be a hectic couple of weeks but we work in a local authority and that comes with the territory.

In good stead for Ofsted

As you may be aware, our Ofsted inspection of children’s services is overdue, and we feel sure it will happen soon.  Our children’s teams continue to do an excellent job, and the teams are prepared for the arrival.  When “the call” comes and Ofsted arrive we will be ready to show them how far we have come since the last inspection in 2015.

Much like with elections, the inspection process is very intense, and when this starts many of the staff in children’s services will be working long hours – please be mindful of this and perhaps keep your colleagues in some extra coffee to show your support! 

Big Pledge is active again

We know many of you have taken part in Big Pledge over the years and we’re pleased to see it return again. This year’s challenge is called ‘It’s not just cricket’ but you don’t have to be handy with a bat and ball to take part, you can take part in any activity to get more active. We’d heartily recommend you challenge your colleagues as we know from previous years that healthy competition has spurred people on to keep going. Improving activity levels is great for both mental and physical health so please sign up today and get involved. Those in Salisbury and Amesbury are being asked to take part in Beat the Street and that’s another really fun way for all the family to get a little more active.

Soldiering on with fantastic plans

Not content with running an election, preparing for an anticipated Ofsted inspection and launching a new health and leisure campaign, we are also making good progress in the arrangements of the Armed Forces Day National Event in Salisbury, with 50 days to go until the big weekend. This event promises to do so much for the city of Salisbury and Wiltshire and we are working hard with our partners to put on a fantastic show for everyone. Not since the 2012 Olympic celebration event have we put on an event of this scale in the county. It’s been challenging for a number of reasons but things are really shaping up nicely. We were also pleased to hear that HRH The Princess Royal has been confirmed to attend and we’re delighted the event has had a royal seal of approval. For more information on the event please visit the website.  If you would like to volunteer to help at the event please email AFD19@wiltshire.gov.uk.

Just another typical few weeks at the council! No day is the same that’s for sure…

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Elections and school admissions

Vote of confidence in our elections team

On Friday we formally published the notice of the European Parliamentary Election. It’s not something we had initially planned on having to do but obviously events at Westminster and beyond have brought us to this point. Even though there’s still a certain degree of doubt whether the election will actually take place, we have to follow the correct process and are working on the assumption it will happen. In short, that means we will be very busy until 26 May. We have to organise poll cards, polling stations and count venues and staffing, among many other actions. The election itself falls on a bank holiday weekend so that presents its own challenges, particularly as many people will have already made plans. It’s a real logistical headache but our hugely committed and passionate elections team are no strangers to working to tight deadlines. In 2017 the team successfully delivered local elections and a general election within the space of around five weeks. We are under no illusions the pressure we’ll be under but with plenty of support, and coffee, we should be ok.

An admission of success

Another busy team at the council at the moment is our school admissions service. They have the rather unenviable and very challenging task of allocating school places. This week it was the turn of primary schools. Just like elections, this is a hugely logistical process, and the result of which matters a great deal to many parents and carers. The team has once again done a great a job with 98% of families offered one of their top three preferences and 93% their first. The team is well aware of the responsibility they have as a child’s primary school education sets the foundations for the rest of their lives. We thank them for all their hard work.

Salisbury the place to be

We were delighted to see that Salisbury was named as the best place to live in the UK by

the Sunday Times. This is testament to everyone involved in helping the city recover from the incident last March and those communities who remained so resilient throughout. The city has taken great strides since then and with that in mind, we confirmed some changes to the current parking arrangements in the city this week. We now feel the time is right to end our ‘free after 3pm’ car parking initiative, but park and ride will remain free. Salisbury finds itself in a good place but we will continue to support the city and the south of the county as much as possible. We recently confirmed the OVO Energy Tour Series will be returning in May and we of course have the Armed Forces Day National Event in June, so there’s so much for the city to look forward to and many visitors to be welcomed to see the best place in the UK to live for themselves.

Looking forward to long weekend

We can’t quite believe we’re almost a quarter of the way through the year already. We probably sound like a broken record, but It’s been a particularly busy few months for everyone, so we hope that you have a relaxing long Easter weekend. Thank you as always to everyone on call or those having to work over the long weekend, we really appreciate your support.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Solid structure to build on

As you will have read recently, we have now confirmed the new tier 2 senior management structure. The Hot Wire has all the details you need so we won’t go into specifics here, but thank you to all of you who provided feedback. Any structure changes at a senior level will invariably have an impact across the organisation so your perspectives on how you feel it will work day-in, day-out is really useful. We now believe we have agreed the right structure to put in place, which will help us continue to be resilient and visionary, and that is essential in these uncertain times. We will update you as soon as we have all the people confirmed in roles.

Continuing to work with families on our vision for special schools

We recently announced plans to extend our consultation into our vision for special schools, following discussions with local families. As we fully expected, over the past few months this issue has provoked a lot of discussion and debate, which we very much welcome, and we feel extending the consultation is the right decision and will help further strengthen the working relationship with families. We have always said we want the families affected by the proposed changes to be fully part of the process, and following further consultation this will ensure cabinet will be in a position to make a fully informed final decision, which is expected to take place this summer.

Melksham milestone 

For anyone with a vested interest in Melksham, you may have been tracking the progress of Melksham Community Campus over the years. It’s fair to say there have been some ups and downs in the project but we’re delighted that a planning application has now been formally submitted. We’re aiming for a mid-2021 opening if all goes to plan. It can’t be overstated how impressive the facility will be when complete, and we’re excited for everyone to see what’s planned. Leisure facilities have been improved up and down the county over the last few years and they will bring positive health and social benefits to our local communities. A new monthly newsletter dedicated to Melksham Community Campus has also been published which will keep you up to date on everything that's happening.

Making a bid to improve our towns and city

Chippenham town centre

We have submitted three Expressions of Interest for funding from the government’s Future High Street Funds to help support our ambitious plans for Chippenham, Trowbridge and Salisbury. With the prevalence of online shopping, town centres have to offer something a little different to compete and encourage people to take a trip out. If we’re successful, we will work with those towns and government to develop full applications which, if ultimately supported will, we think, greatly improve the offer for residents, businesses and tourists alike.

Trying to Brexit plan amidst the uncertainty 

Alongside our partners, we are still regularly having discussions about Brexit and the likely impact of the various possible scenarios, but as you can imagine it’s challenging given the current national uncertainty. Of course, by now we were meant to have left the EU, but we’ll continue to keep a close eye on proceedings i
n parliament and prepare as much as we can.


Electing to plan carefully
As we said, national uncertainty doesn’t help with our planning, and that’s certainly the case for our elections team as much as anyone. For obvious reasons the team is very much alert to the possibility of what could occur in the next few months – from referendums to elections, as well as staying on top of the day to day work.

Real assets for Devizes and Chippenham

The Devizes asset transfer was recently completed

There have been two recent positive updates for our programme of work to transfer assets to local communities. It has been confirmed that Devizes Market Place will have a dual role as a car park and community space, following discussions with local businesses and residents. We believe this is a great outcome for all concerned. We have also agreed to transfer a number of assets to Chippenham Town Council, including markets, play areas and streetscene services. Local councils are embracing this approach and during this programme, invaluable working relationships are being strengthened, all for the benefit of local communities.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Reflecting on Salisbury

It’s a bit of a bumper blog this week with lots going on to tell you about.

Salisbury – a year on

As you will no doubt be aware,  a year has now passed since the incident in Salisbury, an incident that had such a huge impact on the local community and us as a council. We can’t quite believe a year has passed, and it has been one of the most intensive 12 months for everyone involved. We were very proud to announce recently that Sergei Skripal’s house has now been thoroughly cleaned and handed back to the council to bring it back into use. This normal home quickly became the epicentre of this international incident, so it’s a huge milestone and step forward that it has now been declared safe. Our priority is to return it to a family home, and work will begin soon to refurbish it to get it ready.

The resilience of the community in the area has been incredible and we continue to work alongside them and ensure they are supported – it’s hard to imagine what an upheaval and disruption it has been for them. Our focus now is looking forward and working with our partners to ensure Salisbury and the south of the county has a positive future.

Finally, we again just wanted to thank each of you who has provided support either directly or indirectly during this time. The incident had a knock-on effect for much of the work you do, and we know it’s not been an easy time as colleagues were taken from teams at no notice to solely focus on Salisbury. It has been an unprecedented time during which we have learned so much, all done under the glare of the international spotlight. But what we all mustn’t forget is that lives have been changed forever because of this, and one was tragically lost; our thoughts remain with everyone affected.

Good news for Melksham Community Campus

Moving on to business as usual, the Melksham Community Campus project has recently made positive progress. This is our most ambitious campus plan and as it’s a purpose-built facility,  this has meant overcoming many logistical challenges along the way to get us to this point.

We are now looking forward to submitting planning consent for the campus later this month and we expect it to be built by mid-2021. Last week our campus team met with members of the public at two events to show off the plans. It is going be a top-quality facility and we’re really excited to see it develop over the next couple of years. If you want to keep up-to-date on all the progress, a webpage has been set up dedicated to Melksham Community Campus. 

Best in the west

Recntly, a number of staff TUPE transferred from the council to the newly formed Adoption West, which formally got under way on 1 March.

The aim of this collaboration between authorities in the west is to deliver an adoption service that offers improved outcomes for both children, people who want to adopt, and people whose lives have been affected by adoption. The staff transferring over have worked for Wiltshire Council for a combined 238 years, and we thank them so much for all their service and hard work. We’re very fortunate that they will continue their great work at Adoption West, which will be to the benefit of families up and down the county and beyond.

Up for the challenge

We recently hosted the second task of the 2019 Local Government Association Challenge. The challenge is very similar to the TV programme, The Apprentice, for selected local government officers from around the country. Ten candidates competed in a Salisbury-themed challenge. Last year our very own Kartar Singh was the winner of the 2018 challenge and he was involved in the setting of this year’s challenge. The teams met councillors, members of staff and other stakeholders to help them research local information that will help them with their challenge. We’re very happy to play our part in the development of future leaders.

National apprenticeship week

Sticking with the apprentice theme, last week was National Apprenticeship Week. We’re huge supporters of apprentices and see it as a great opportunity to have a fulfilling career and we have many working with us at the council. We know many organisations who embrace apprenticeship schemes so there are plenty of opportunities out there.






Local area coordination team gets some visitors 


Last week we were joined by some international visitors. Health workers joined us from Singapore to spend some time with our local area coordination team and find out about the good work they’ve been doing within local communities and to share learning. For those not familiar, we introduced local area coordinators in September and they are based within some communities in Wiltshire to work alongside members of the community to help them become more resilient, ensure they have the right support if required, and help them to identify and develop their strengths, talents and abilities. The guests from Singapore spent most of their time with the local area coordination team right in the heart of the community to hear directly from those people they have worked alongside. It’s proving to be a successful way of delivering positive outcomes, and we were only too pleased to welcome them here.


Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Budget to be discussed at full council meeting

Budget to be discussed at full council

Next week the budget proposals for 19/20 will be discussed and debated at full council and by the end of that meeting an agreement should be in place. There’s still time for there to be changes and councillors will discuss it in great detail. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the budget process, it’s always a busy time of year and we appreciate everyone’s help and support. We’ll update you on the outcome next week.


Supporting Swindon 

We were concerned to hear the announcement that Honda plan to shut their factory in 2021. Although this is in the Swindon local authority area, it will have ramifications across the county, and we are already working with Government, Swindon Borough Council and the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership on this.

Consultation on special schools nearing conclusion

We are now approaching the final week of the consultation into our vision for special needs schools. The consultation closes on 1 March and before the deadline we are holding an additional public session in Melksham on 25 February to get people’s views. We have engaged with as many people as possible throughout this work and the discussions on our proposals continue to be very worthwhile and important. The cabinet will be meeting this spring to consider the proposals in the light of the responses to the consultation.

Our team don’t waste their time

There was a BBC story published recently which said that in 2018 there was more than 1.8m complaints received by councils from people about their waste not being collected. This is of course one of our ‘bread and butter’ services and often the very thing people think of when they are asked what does a local council do. We’re pleased to say we weren’t on the named
and shamed list and we have an excellent record of collecting bins on schedule. It only tends to be issues like the recent snow that causes any major disruption.

Having read that news story, a member of the public took time out of their day to email us to say that in 20 years of living in Wiltshire they had only had one missed collection and that was due to van parked inconveniently – the bin was promptly collected the next day. It’s always nice to get feedback and support like this and it’s a testament to our great waste team.

Convenience at a click of the mouse

With waste and recycling being one of our most visible services, their pages tend to be the most visited on the council website. This week we have launched a new waste digital system which offers huge benefits to residents, as previously people could only report a missed bin collection or pay for garden waste. There are lots of things you can now do – all with one sign-in. These features are also available on My Wiltshire app, but as that system is changing soon, we are guiding people towards our website. Other benefits now include being able to report missed bin collections as soon as they happen; and, crucially, people can get updates from the system at their request. Our aim is to make the online service simpler, quicker and better and we’re sure residents will agree that we’ve achieved it.

If you are a Wiltshire resident, it is also now easier to access and manage your council tax account online. We’re asking you to sign up and log in to access your council tax account online before the new system is made available to the public in March. You can sign up here.
Once signed up, you can see your account and payment history, change your details, set up or amend your Direct Debit, change your address and view documents sent to you.

This new facility is just one of the many ways our customers can obtain the information they need simply, quickly and easily. For further details about the system or to report any issues, please contact Sally.Kimber@wiltshire.gov.uk.

A bid for funding that we hope will be streets ahead

We recently announced plans to submit an expression of interest to bid for investment from the Government’s Future High Streets Fund. If we are successful we intend to use the money to support the improvement of Salisbury for its residents, businesses and visitors. The city has had a tough time over the last year so we hope any additional funding will help to compliment and support our ambitions. We’ve launched a survey to get people’s thoughts on what changes they’d like to see in the city. More recently, Government has allowed larger authorities more bidding opportunities and

Wiltshire is asking our other towns, who face their own issues, to express their interest in bringing forward two more bids for this fund. High streets are facing challenges across the country and people’s expectations from what they get from their high streets are ever-changing and it’s important we recognise that and strive to evolve alongside them.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Hard work from committed staff

Snow joke – our teams responded brilliantly

For many the sight of snow is greeted with excitement and joy , but for us our immediate thoughts are ‘how will this adverse weather affects our services’? Because of the professional and fantastic work of our committed staff, we’re pleased to say the answer to that particular question is there was very little impact.

It’s fair to say we had more snow than forecast but our emergency and highways team stepped into action, working day and night to keep Wiltshire’s roads as safe as possible. From dealing with snow and then the inevitable ice, the team gritted the roads time and time again. Indeed, officers from so many departments put plans in place to ensure their services weren’t affected– from adult care workers checking on the vulnerable to library assistants determined to get to work so that they could continue to serve the the local community – so many of you went the extra mile and we thank you for your support, it doesn’t go unnoticed and it is really appreciated.

Flag flying high for equality and inclusivity

As a council we were proud to raise the LGBT flag outside of County Hall earlier this week. It’s a symbol that we are an open, welcoming and inclusive organisation. Many staff and members attended  to witness the flag being hoisted and it was a really positive start to the week. It’s LGBT History Month and if you pay a visit to the atrium at County Hall you will see an eye-opening display which just goes to show how far we’ve come as a society over a short period of time. It’s quite shocking to see how much attitudes have changed in the past 20 years. Please do take a look if you can.

Draft budget considered by cabinet

Cabinet took place this week and it was the latest meeting which saw the draft 2019/20 financial plan on its agenda. Rightfully so, the budget goes through a rigorous process before the council’s 98 councillors debate it on 26 February. We are an organisation that spends almost £1bn per year and every penny has to be accounted for. Cabinet endorsed the plan that focuses on delivering savings and managing the growth and services pressures. Each year the budget increases by around £10m from additional council tax, but the demand in some services including adult social care and children and families means there is a need to continue to find savings and efficiencies.

Just the job – achieving excellence

It really has been a week of hearing about the fantastic work that you all do. We were pleased to host  the latest Achieving Excellence Awards and as always it was an  inspiration. The awards highlight the variety of work that we deliver and how our staff often go beyond the call of duty. We heard a number of stories of staff looking out for vulnerable people, dealing with a major incident and a manager going above and beyond to be there for a seriously ill member of staff. The awards presentation is a highlight in our diaries and we hope all the nominees and winners also had a good time. Recognition from your colleagues and an award for a  job well done, really can make a difference and it’s a thank you from us too

Alistair, Carlton and Terence