Successful opening of new campus

Pewsey welcomes new community campus

The grand entrance to The Vale Community Campus

Our campus and hub programme reached another milestone this week with the opening of The Vale Community Campus in Pewsey. The centre has been busy from the off and people have been giving us some great feedback already.

Over the last few years we have invested in improving and delivering sustainable community facilities, creating multi-purpose services and facilities under one roof.

The new campus at Pewsey has state of the art facilities and the community has been at the heart of this project, from inception to realisation. The campus and hub programme is creating valuable community space and services.

The swimming pool is impressive

SEND services top the agenda at cabinet

Our vision for the future of special schools dominated this week’s cabinet meeting.

People care passionately about these services, as do we, and that was evident in the number of people who attended and spoke on this matter, including parents of children with special needs. It was an emotive meeting.

Cabinet approved the proposal to invest £20m in two new centres of excellence for pupils with special needs and a statutory consultation will now begin as part of the delivery of our vision.

Focus on local service delivery

Cabinet also agreed a scheme that will help smaller communities take on the ownership and running local services and facilities, such as play areas and allotments.

Where it makes sense for both parties, we want to continue to offer communities the opportunity to take over the delivery of services in their local area. Several parish and town councils have taken on services and facilities as they are best placed to deliver these with their local knowledge.

Alistair held briefings in September

Bourne Hill staff engagement session

Alistair will host a follow up staff engagement session at Bourne Hill on 3 December at 3:45pm on the ground floor area behind reception.

This session follows up from those held in September to provide an opportunity to discuss with staff and teams located in Bourne Hill if everything is ok and working well following the recent refurbishment.

Alistair looks forward to seeing you. Could please email events@wiltshire.gov.uk to confirm your attendance.

Forums are full – but watch for cancellations

We’re pleased that the final Staff Engagement Forums are now fully booked, but if you did want to come please keep an eye on the booking form for cancellations.

The last sessions are at Trowbridge’s Civic Centre on 6 December.

Thank you to everyone who has attended so far and for embracing the new format. They’ve been enjoyable and informative for us.

Think Rink for a family outing

The Salisbury Christmas Market and ice rink is officially open

As we’re (unbelievably) nearly in December we want to end on a festive note this week.

This year the council is delivering the Salisbury Christmas Market and Ice Rink experience, which officially opens on Thursday 29 November.

It’s a real winter wonderland and well worth a visit with lots of artisan and individual traders and live entertainment as well as the opportunity to skate on ice to Christmas tunes!

And if that doesn’t bring you festive cheer, next week (Tuesday 4 December) County Hall hosts the annual Wealth of Wiltshire Christmas Fayre, with more opportunity to purchase Christmas gifts and stocking fillers from local small businesses.

Alistair, Carlton, and Terence

Great to see you at the forums

Forums off to a flyer

The forums have been packed so far

Thank you to those of you who have attended this year’s staff forums so far – there’s only two sessions now (in Trowbridge on 6 December). It’s been great to see the sessions so packed. We changed the format so that the sessions are more informal, informative and interactive. We hope we struck a good balance between informing and engaging.

National Armed Forces Weekend plans launched…with a little help from a Panther

Excitement as we launch our plans

Last week was a milestone date in our plans for National Armed Forces Day 2019. The official national media launch was staged in Salisbury’s Market Square, with great military assets; a Rigid Raider boat and Panther armoured car, providing the backdrop for some good photo coverage.

The day started early with almost 100 businesses and charities attending a breakfast event where we outlined our plans and the range of opportunities for them to get involved and offer support. National Armed Forces weekend will celebrate the military and the role they play in protecting the country and their part in in helping Salisbury and Amesbury to get back to normal this year. The three-day programme will bring communities together and we estimate that around 250,000 people will attend.

Investing in our towns and rural communities

This week cabinet committed £8 million to support towns and communities across the county. A 12-month programme will deliver improvements to local high streets and highways including repair of potholes, improve white lining, weed removal, kerb and pavement improvements, verges and improved road signage will be implemented. The funding has been allocated from Government along with some council funding.

In addition, to support high streets and the local economy, cabinet has decided to suspend Sunday charges in all our Wiltshire Council run car parks throughout the county.

Conference raises lots of talking points

There was some great speakers at the conference

Terence attended the 2018 National Children and Adult Services Conference in Manchester last week.

There were lots of thought provoking speakers and discussions. Two that stood out for Terence were a hard-hitting and sobering presentation on the impact of poverty on families and in particular children; and a talk on the challenges facing local authorities with regard to Special Educational Needs and Disability services.

It’s a challenge we know all too well, and following lots of planning and discussion, we have outlined our future SEND vision, and hosted a number of briefings with stakeholders to talk them through the plans. One constant throughout the process is that children have been at the heart of all our planning. The proposals, which centre on two schools – one a new purpose build – will address the need for an additional 220 SEND places and ensure those pupils are getting the specialist support they need. Cabinet will discuss the proposals at their next meeting on 27 November.

County Council Network

This week Carlton and Alistair attended County Council Network conference along with other local authority chief executives. There will be more on this conference next week...

Welcome to Claire & Tom

We’d like to welcome a new director to the council. Claire Edgar has now started as the Director of Learning Disabilities and Mental Health.

Tom Dobrashian joins us this week to lead on the delivery of the south Wiltshire economic recovery and growth plan.  Tom will be based at the Bourne Hill council office working alongside a small team.

Council in good health

We were pleased to welcome Duncan Selbie to County Hall on Monday 12 November. Duncan is the Chief Executive of Public Health England (PHE) and he paid us a visit to talk about our local public health services, and how they work in Wiltshire. He also spoke about his vision for PHE and the role local authorities play in this. We had a productive discussion and Duncan was very positive about the work we’re doing in Wiltshire, which was very gratifying to hear.

Thank you for sharing your day on #OurDay

Our council social media feeds were full of fantastic contributions from you on Tuesday. Once again, we took part in #OurDay and it was lovely to be able to share so many snapshots of your roles at the council. #OurDay gives residents the chance to peep behind the curtain and see some of the faces behind our work, this brings us closer to the communities we are serving, and gives an insight of what it is like to work at Wiltshire Council – thank you to all those who got involved in the annual Tweet-a-thon, if you  missed it please take a look at the council’s Twitter feed to catch-up with all the posts – it’s inspiring. For those who don’t know, we’re also on Twitter as well where you can keep up to date on what we’re up to.

Alistair, Carlton, Terence

Looking forward to the forums

Book your forum place today

We hope you’ve booked your place at the annual staff forums, which get underway next week. We’re pleased with what’s planned –  there’s plenty of interaction, film footage and information that we hope you find useful.

Looking forward to seeing you all there…

Bellissimo! Italian restaurant reopens in the heart of Salisbury

Zizzi in Salisbury reopened this week; marking another significant milestone in the city getting back to normal and moving forward. We’re really pleased to see this popular restaurant reopen following a refurbishment – a sign of Zizzi’s commitment and confidence in Salisbury.

 In the run up to Christmas it’s the perfect time to have Zizzi back and together with all the fantastic festive activities on offer including the Christmas Market and ice rink, we are confident Salisbury is going to have a really busy and successful couple of months.

They unveiled a stylish makeover

Zizzi is proud to be part of the community

Welcoming new recruits

We welcomed Helean Hughes to the Corporate Leadership Team this week. Helean is our new director for education and skills, and brings significant senior leadership experience in local government and education and look forward to working with her.  

We also  met new staff at the corporate induction event this week. There’s never been a more challenging and exciting time to work in local government and we always enjoy welcoming new people and their ideas and fresh perspective.

Planning with the leader

We have some valuable time booked in with council leader Jane Scott, and her deputy John Thomson this week. This will give us a good opportunity to do some forward planning and ensure the council’s priorities are on track. 


This year has demonstrated that anything can happen and that it’s not always easy to plan for the totally unexpected, but it’s how you respond and manage in these circumstances. It will be time well spent and the opportunity to look ahead.

National Armed Forces Day means business

To help launch our exciting plans for National Armed Forces Day 2019, a VIP military dinner took place at Larkhill this week with the county’s leading businesses.

The aim was to secure their support and funding for the event. Together we can deliver a spectacular occasion that recognises the role and value of our Armed Forces; particularly this year in Salisbury and Amesbury.

 
Out and about meeting teams

Carlton has spent some time with the adult Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team this week. The adult MASH was formed as part of our adult social care transformation programme and enables us to work with partners more effectively to safeguard vulnerable adults.

In a short space of time the team have quickly established themselves and are doing some great work for those who need it most.

Carlton also met our court of protection team and the team based at the Salisbury Foundation Trust. These committed teams work tirelessly to support vulnerable people and it was great to spend some time with them.

Working together to protect the vulnerable

Terence attended the Wiltshire Safeguarding Children’s Executive Board earlier in the week. This regular meeting is made up of a range of professionals to ensure we are all working effectively together to keep children in Wiltshire safe. The more we communicate with each other and collaborate, the more effective our safeguarding of the most vulnerable children and families across the county. 

Weekend of remembrance

Our Wall of Remembrance is currently on display at County Hall

This weekend is the time to remember and pay our respects to the members of the Armed Forces who served and sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. As this year marks the centenary of the end of the First World War it is an even more significant and solemn occasion, particularly as Wiltshire is proudly steeped in military tradition.

Our Wall of Remembrance, helped created by Wiltshire pupils, is back on display at County Hall and it's well worth paying it a visit to see the names of local people who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Salisbury Cathedral and the Royal British Legion have also worked together to arrange the projection of falling poppies on the front of the historic landmark from the 8 to 11 November – it will be a striking and powerful image, and a fitting tribute.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence