The start of a new term awaits

Can you believe that next week will be ‘start of term’ as September arrives and we move into a busy and challenging end to this year?

Hopefully you’ve been able to take a break over the summer period and recharged as the calendar of council, team and project meetings resume. As the autumn approaches next year’s budget planning gets underway. This is an annual process but throughout the year we discuss delivery of savings and additional income with the extended leadership team and cabinet members. You may be aware of recent reports of other councils that have reported being at near-breaking point financially; whilst this is not the situation in Wiltshire, we recognise the value and need for careful and detailed plans and review.

Updates on next year’s (2018/19) budget will feature in our blog until it’s finalised in February. It’s important that everyone is aware of our overall financial situation as this is the basis of the context for many decisions that need to be made.

The autumn will also see public meetings being arranged that provide an opportunity for cabinet members to talk to local communities about the council’s vision, focus and the challenges that we face.

This week the Local Government Boundary Commission for England announced that it is ‘minded to’ recommend that Wiltshire Council retains its current number of councillors of 98 beyond the next elections in 2021. If this proposal goes ahead it doesn’t mean the status quo will remain as there are likely to be changes to electoral divisions.

We’d recommend you look at our electoral review pages which explain the process. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England are now publicly consulting on their conclusions and the Wiltshire Council Electoral Review committee are also looking for people’s views – and council staff are included in that. They can be emailed to committee@wiltshire.gov.uk.

Next week (Tuesday 4 September) marks six months since the incident in Salisbury. This milestone date is a focus for local and national media and BBC’s Inside Out programme on Monday (3 September) features Salisbury and how the city has coped and is moving forward.

On a lighter note you may have seen a story this past week about a woman who wrote a poem to appeal against a parking ticket. Our appeals officer replied with a poem of his own to confirm that her appeal had been successful (for legitimate reasons we should add, not just for her rhyming skills!). The woman was delighted with her reply and the good humour shown and the story was covered by national media, and there was also a lot of positive feedback across social media about how we handled this.  Sometimes it’s good that the public can see that the council is made up of real people with real personalities. It’s also good to see the parking team get a warm response as they work so hard and rarely get positive publicity.

We don’t think we’ll roll out any poetry training on grow any time soon - even though clearly that’s the way forward for positive customer interactions…

Have a good weekend

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Another varied week

One thing that’s for certain in the world of local government is that no one week is ever the same.

This week the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, visited Salisbury to meet those involved in the response and recovery of both the city and Amesbury and to highlight further afield that both are very much open for business. His visit was widely publicised and provided reassurance that central government is committed to helping Salisbury and Amesbury get back to normal.  

Another significant and positive milestone is Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury, which reopens to the community today (Friday 24 August). This popular city centre park has been closed since July and its closure has affected footfall into the city centre. Its reopening is good news especially on the eve of the August Bank Holiday when many families will be out and about.

On the theme of families – it’s that time of the year when our thoughts were with all those students picking up GCSE results, which we know can be a daunting time for young people. The overall results have been really good and even if the passes weren’t as expected there’s always options. One is apprenticeships and we’re committed to recruiting apprentices as we know how effective they can be. We held an event at County Hall for young people and parents to find out more about this option and we are really pleased that the number of apprenticeships is increasing year on year. If you know of someone who may be interested in apprenticeships please see the Parents' Guide to Apprenticeships on the Work Wiltshire website.

This week Carlton spent some time with the adult social care team looking at how the service is working following its recent period of transformation. Carlton met with team members from access and reablement, the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, the RUH hospital integrated discharge service and the Devizes mental health team, among others. It was a really useful learning experience and inspiring to meet a lot of skilled and dedicated staff doing great work.

On another note and highlighting how in one week nothing is the same and the diverse nature of our work; officers from our fleet compliance team joined colleagues in the Wiltshire Police Road Safety Unit to undertake an exercise across Warminster, Amesbury and Salisbury. The aim was to uncover any safety issues with taxis and private hire vehicles through a series of random stops. Fifty vehicles were inspected and two were taken off the road immediately for defective tyres. An example of partnership working to ensure public safety.

This weekend is a bank holiday and we hope you all enjoy the extra day and fingers crossed that the sun shines!

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Looking forward to welcoming two new colleagues in November

We’re sure you’ll agree that it continues to be a busy summer. It seems the days when work slowed a little at this time of year are most definitely in the past.

We are pleased to confirm that we have appointed two new Directors following completion of a recent recruitment process. Helean Hughes has been appointed to the role of Director Education & Skills and will join us on Monday 5 November. Helean is currently working at South Gloucestershire Council where she is the Head of Education, Learning & Skills. Claire Edgar has been appointed to Director, Learning Disabilities & Mental Health and will join us on Wednesday 14 November. Claire is currently working at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council where is the Head of Service for Mental Health & Learning Disabilities. We are really looking forward to welcoming them both to Wiltshire.

We mentioned last week that the annual canvass is underway, which helps ensure that the electoral register is up to date. We’re pleased to say we’ve had a really positive response, with people clearly receiving the message to respond via text or online. Only one-third of returns are arriving by post, which is good news. It saves taxpayers’ money and staff time. The canvass runs until the autumn and we’ll continue to encourage people to respond digitally.

Earlier this week it was confirmed that The Mill pub in Salisbury is now safe following a thorough clean by specialist teams after the Novichok incident in March. The site has been handed back to its owners, who aim to re-open in the autumn following some refurbishment. This marks another significant step forward in the recovery programme and it will be good to see the centrally located pub reopen for business. Slowly business is returning to normal and we need to focus on the longer term and getting visitors and tourists back into the city centre. Working with Visit Wiltshire and Visit England we are looking at how Salisbury is promoted to rebuild confidence and allay any concerns.

We were really pleased that Ofsted recognised the improvements made by our family learning team for their work to reconnect adults with education. The inspectors carried out a monitoring visit and awarded a Good Progress grade in four areas that were highlighted in a previous inspection. Well done to the team for their hard work, which puts the service in great shape ahead of another inspection in the autumn.

We have been communicating the message as wide as we can to encourage people to dispose of their waste correctly. Unfortunately, we are spending more on picking up waste dropped in our communities – money which would be better spent on front-line services. Our campaign was supported by magistrates who imposed penalties totalling £1,230 on a Swindon man for fly-tipping in Broad Hinton. He claimed to have paid someone to dispose of his rubbish but didn’t check they had the correct licence to do so. The message is that we won’t tolerate fly tipping and we will work hard to prosecute offenders.

We’re sure that A-Level results will have dominated many households this week. Don’t forget if you’re one of these households - whatever the results were - there are lots of opportunities for young people in Wiltshire. That goes the same for those getting their GCSE results next week. Fingers crossed for everyone who has an interest in those.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Don't miss out on having your say

Hello,

As has been widely reported, the funeral of Dawn Sturgess was held in Salisbury on Monday. Jane Scott sent flowers on behalf of the whole council and our sincere condolences go to Dawn’s family and friends at this difficult time.

The community spirit in both Salisbury and Amesbury has been remarkable and recognised by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in a letter thanking local people for their resilience after the recent incidents. You can read the letter here.

If you are a resident in the county, over the next few days you should receive a letter from Carlton, in his capacity as Electoral Registration Officer, asking you to respond to the household enquiry form. These letters are being sent out as part of our annual canvass – a huge logistical challenge which involves around 220,000 letters being sent out to Wiltshire households and the responses collated to ensure that our electoral register is accurate and up to date.

Please return your response online and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
The canvass itself is really important to ensure that anyone who is eligible to vote is actually registered. Please don’t miss out on having your say. Our thanks go to the elections team at this busy time for them.

The consultation on the future of special educational needs schools came to a close this week. We received more than 850 responses and the team will now begin the process of going through the responses to gain a better understanding of views on an issue which people understandably feel very strongly about. Once this has been done, a report will be considered by Cabinet in the autumn to agree the next steps.

The Families and Children’s Transformation Programme Board met at Springfield Community Campus in Corsham this week. Members discussed a number of updates on the programme – including a proposal to create an Early Support Hub (which would sit alongside the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub), how partners can work more closely in their approach to commissioning services, and also how we tell people about the great work the programme is doing.

We are pleased to be able to tell you that the new waste and recycling contracts started on Monday as planned with relatively little disruption to services. Our thanks and congratulations go to the waste teams who have worked hard to achieve this, especially over last weekend. There was also great support from Fleet Services, Highways, Finance, HR, Legal Services and Communications to ensure that everything was in place for the commencement of new services. Thanks also go to Customer Services who are now working with residents, the waste service and our contractor Hills to deal with any missed collections and help iron out any wrinkles as the new collection services become established.

On Tuesday we met with our current broadband providers BT Plc and Gigaclear Plc. These quarterly meetings are an important part of the robust contract management process we have in place, that to date has allowed us to deliver a fibre broadband service to over 88,000 premises across Wiltshire on time and within budget.

We also honoured achievements in the field of adult education at an awards ceremony held as part of the Family Learning project. The scheme supports less confident learners who may have missed opportunities in life due to educational, social or emotional circumstances. Students – all parents aged 19 and above – were recognised for the enormous strides they made in the past year as part of our Family Learning project. More than 100 award winners and guests attended the ceremony – well done to everyone involved.

Finally, following interviews last week for Director Education and Skills and Director Adult Care Learning Disabilities and Mental Health we have made offers to successful candidates, and once we have completed the appropriate checks and clearances we will announce who has been appointed.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence