Forthcoming peer review and looking ahead to cabinet next month

It’s half term week, which means along with many others, Carlton and Terence are enjoying a well-earned break, although Terence did come in for an important item at cabinet liaison on Monday.

We met with cabinet members yesterday morning to talk about the forthcoming peer review, which takes place week commencing 6 November. The arrangements for meetings and the timetable for that week were discussed, as well as the information that’s required for the peers to read up on us prior to their arrival. The peers will assess how we are doing and where we can improve to ensure that we can deliver what we need to in the next few years. These reviews are always really useful and we are looking forward to welcoming the team to County Hall and the opportunity of hearing their views and feedback.

We also discussed the cabinet meeting on 7 November, which will include special school provision, service user engagement on our adult social care services, a paper on the transformation of adult care including the proposed changes to improve the service, and how we will work with partners to continue to safeguard those who are most vulnerable. There will also be a revision to the existing Community Asset Transfer (CAT) policy to speed up the way we work with town and parish councils to transfer services and facilities that are best delivered at local level. This revision reflects the huge amount of work undertaken in Salisbury to transfer a wide range of services and assets to the city council.

We are expecting quite a lot of members of the public at the cabinet meeting, so in this instance it will be held in the council chamber.

At our corporate leadership team meeting yesterday afternoon we discussed what’s coming up in December: new policies and decisions for cabinet including finalising the approved campus programme (first approved in 2012), to include the Melksham House site, and Cricklade and Calne and the outdoor education provision.

Along with Carolyn, we also said farewell to James Cawley and Julia Cramp last week. They both worked extremely hard on behalf of the organisation, and we wish them well in for the future.

And, before anyone spots the deliberate mistake, we will be updating our blog picture next week, just in case you don’t know what we all look like.

Have a great rest of the week…

Alison and Alistair
(Carlton and Terence are on leave)