Reflecting on a busy 2017 and looking ahead to 2018

Hello,

We can hardly believe it’s almost Christmas and we fully recognise that it’s time for a well-earned break to recharge and have some downtime.

Yesterday we held the last of this year’s regular weekly meetings with cabinet members. We approved the launch of a new homelessness campaign; called ‘Real Change Wiltshire’. The campaign aims to raise awareness that not all beggars are homeless and that more useful and sustainable help can be given through charities and outreach workers – rather than donating cash on the street.

It also aims to make sure that those people that can help a rough sleeper and provide the support that they need are better publicised so that members of the public can contact them directly; particularly at this time of the year when the temperatures drop and its Christmas.

We think this is a really positive campaign – and launching it at this time of year, when life can be really tough for some, is the right time.

We also discussed with cabinet the budget meetings held last week with all of the directors to further discuss plans to find £30m of savings in 2018-19. The good news is we’re continuing to reduce the gap, but there is more work to be done to agree the timings of some of the proposed saving and how they will be implemented. This will enable us to ascertain whether we can achieve a full year savings from the proposals or a partial saving.

We are still awaiting the funding announcement from Government, which is expected this week - once we have this we can assess our current position and the savings required. We will update on this in the New Year. 

At yesterday’s corporate leadership team meeting we discussed the recent notice from the Care Quality Commission informing us that there will be a review of the whole system of health and social care in Wiltshire early next year. This will be a wide-ranging and thorough review which will impact not just on us, but also our key partners in the clinical commissioning group, our three acute hospital trusts, and Wiltshire Health and Care, the partnership focused on delivering improved community services and enabling people to live independent lives for as long as possible.

Local system reviews look at how people move between health and social care, examining how delayed transfers of care occur and how these are managed, with a particular focus on people over 65 years old. The review will also include an assessment of commissioning across health and social care and the governance systems and processes in place in respect of the management of resources.

As always with this kind of scrutiny, we know that the review will look at what is working well but what is really important is that it highlights areas for improvements. This is critical for us in terms of how we make the integration of health and social care a reality. Clearly there will be a lot of work to be done to prepare for this and we will update you further when we have more information.

You can see our latest highlights presentation on the intranet.

Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s been another really busy year and we’ve achieved a great deal as an organisation which is down to your hard work and contribution.

Our thanks go to those of you who will be working or on call over the festive period. Hopefully you will all have a chance to unwind and have a well-earned rest at some point.

We are all looking forward to 2018 and an exciting year of opportunity and delivery.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Keeping Wiltshire safe

This week’s blog has to start with a huge thank you to all of the teams who have been dealing with the impact of the most extreme cold weather that Wiltshire – along with many other parts of the country – has seen over the last few years.

Our gritters have travelled more than 13,000km, spreading 830 tonnes of salt across the county’s road network to keep people moving. All primary and secondary routes across the county have been treated, and were treated again from 6pm on Monday night. We will continue to monitor primary and secondary routes and treat where required. Please make sure you all take care on the roads, particularly on minor roads which are untreated.

It is a real team effort to keep Wiltshire safe during the very cold weather – it’s not just about salting roads – but, it’s also about ensuring the safety of the vulnerable, particularly those who may be sleeping rough. Our thanks to everyone who has been, and continues to be, involved and let’s hope it warms up again very soon!

Yesterday we met with cabinet members ahead of a very busy cabinet meeting today. We discussed the agenda and the various reports as well as the highlights from last week, which you can see on the intranet. 

We are making progress implementing the senior management structure, and our congratulations go to Tracy Daskiewicz who was appointed Director of Public Health following an interview with the Officer Appointments Committee on Friday. Tracy has been acting up into this role and will take it on permanently with immediate effect. We are sure you will join with us in congratulating Tracy and wishing her every success in the role.

We spent yesterday shortlisting for six of the other vacant director roles; commissioning (both children’s and adults), adult social care (two roles), education and skills, housing and commercial development, and economy and planning. We have had a good response to the recent advertisements and there are some really strong candidates. Interviews will take place in the New Year and we’ll keep you updated on the outcome of these interviews.

This week, we continue to work on next year’s budget setting; particularly as we await the Government funding announcement and its impact on us. We have scheduled to meet with directors this Thursday to further review the savings proposals and the opportunities to generate additional income in each service area.

Could we please remind you all, that if you haven’t yet voted for the Achieving Excellence Winner of Winners for 2017 (as shown at the recent staff forums) please cast your vote. The video which was can be found on the intranet along with details of how to vote. We are still finalising the answers to all your staff forum questions – there were 358 questions in total – and, as we promised we will answer each one and publish them all. Given there were so many this is taking some time, so please bear with us.

Finally, we wanted to talk about Lorraine Brown, who sadly lost her son Alex in a motor bike accident on 10 August this year. Alex was only 21 years old. Since the accident planning and building control team members have been fund raising in his honor and have so far managed to raise over £2,000 for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance, which tried to save Alex. The team has raised this money through cake sales, raffles and completing the Monster Race in September (as pictured).

More next week, just ahead of the Christmas break.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Next year's budget and looking ahead to cabinet

Hello,

A big update this week reflecting the volume and diversity of work that’s being delivered.

Yesterday started with our regular meeting with cabinet members and a look back at another busy week. You can see the highlights presentation here.

Cabinet members were particularly interested and impressed with staff that volunteered to take part in a litter pick around Trowbridge – in their lunch break – as part of the Clean Up Wilts campaign. The idea was generated through EPIC and a huge well done to everyone who got involved and helped collect 13 bags of rubbish in just an hour. Future litter picks are being scheduled in Chippenham and Salisbury and the members have asked if they can also participate and do their bit to clean up hot spots and improve the county.

Last week we spent time focusing on next year’s budget (2018/19) and we met with directors and heads of service to discuss plans and ideas for potential savings and ways of generating more income too. We then met with cabinet to share the outcome of these meetings and the position is now a lot clearer – as it stands we need to find around £30m of savings next year – and, so far we have identified just over £25m - with around £4.4m still to find. We’ll know more following the funding announcement from Government next week (expected on 11 December) and the amount of savings that still need to be found. We will present our final position on the savings and income by 8 January to be discussed and considered by Full Council in February.

It’s not just about next year’s budget – we are also analysing what we need to do to ensure we come in on budget this year – which is critical so that we don’t have to find even more savings next year. We know that if we take no management action, we are projecting a potential overspend of £6m, and Directors continue to work together and with their services on actions to address this and balance the budget.

With the onset of winter and a definite chill in the air at the moment it’s important we consider help for rough sleepers. We always provide emergency provisions for anyone sleeping rough during severe weather and overnight accommodation for those who need it. We are fortunate that the number of rough sleepers in Wiltshire is low, but it is still an issue for us and we will continue to work with partners to do what we can and look at whether we are doing enough.

Another project which you will be hearing a lot about over the next four years is the boundary review, which is now underway, at some pace. The review will consider the total number of elected members on the council, and then review the numbers and boundaries of electoral divisions within the authority boundary. There is a huge amount to do in a tight timeline with lots of information required in the preliminary stage, including housing development numbers and forecasts on the future size of the electorate. Once we have gathered the required information, the council will put forward its view on the future size of the council from 2021 onwards.

Later this week there will be an information session for staff interested in taking part in the new Leadership and Management programme which we announced at the staff engagement forums. Using the apprenticeship levy we are now able to offer qualifications to staff, supporting us with succession planning and ensuring we have a resilient workforce with all the skills needed for the challenges the public sector faces in the future. The 20% off-the-job training requirement of apprenticeships is the biggest barrier for employers nationally, however we are ensuring that the training providers we procure can offer this in a way that works for us as an organisation. To find out more about the programme, please visit grow.

Looking ahead, cabinet meets next Tuesday and it’s a busy meeting with some big items being discussed, including the council’s overall performance, the council tax base, schools funding for next year, our strategy for school places up to 2022, our carers’ strategy, an update on health and social care integration, a report on leisure provision, and an update on the community campus programme.

Finally, we’re sorry to announce that Alison Elliott will be leaving us. Alison has had a huge impact spearheading the transformation of adult social care and taking on a wider brief as an interim corporate director over the last few months and we will announce shortly the arrangements following her departure. Alison is sadly leaving due to personal circumstances and our thoughts are with her and her family at this difficult time.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence