Thank you and merry Christmas

This week we have been tying up loose ends at work before a much-needed Christmas break – that this year more than ever we are looking forward to and, we know it’s the same for all of you.

As this is our last blog this year we wanted to take this as an opportunity to say thank you for all your hard work and commitment this year. We have been truly impressed with everyone’s resilience, hard work and continued good spirits in what has been the most challenging 12 months.  As you saw in the recent staff forum highlights video, we have achieved so much and continued to provide high quality services.

The video could have extended to at least three-hours to capture all the great work you’ve done this year. Editing it down was tough but a good challenge to have.

We are finalising the budget plans for next year and while there are savings to be made we still intend to invest significantly in big programmes of work.

Next year marks the tenth anniversary of Wiltshire Council.

We have grown as an organisation in this past decade and despite the current national uncertainty, we remain optimistic about what the future and what we can achieve in the next 10 years and beyond.

Christmas is a time to support one another and spend time with family and friends. County Hall will welcome those not quite so fortunate with open arms and a turkey lunch on Christmas day.  We want to thank those of you will be at County Hall on Christmas Day to support the annual lunch and those who need a friendly welcome and support on this special day.

Many of our services don’t run from nine to five and we know that many of you will also have to work or be on call over the Christmas period and we thank each of you who has to do that. It is really appreciated, not just by us, but also our residents.

We hope you have a merry Christmas and a great start to the new year. We’ll see you in 

2019…

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Get involved in this year's survey

How is it for you?

The 2018 staff engagement survey launched this week and is now open until 7 January.

We really appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey.

It matters how you feel about working for Wiltshire Council - what we are do well and where we can do better. 

This has been another challenging year with a high demand for on services and more than ever we want you to know that you are valued and have the right support to do your job well.

What you think and your feedback is important as it helps us plan how we do things in the future.

Changes to light up our streets

This week cabinet agreed to invest more than £12m in LED lighting for the county’s streetlights.

It’s been under consideration for a few years, and although it’s a big investment, it will pay dividends in the long term.

Our lighting stock is ageing but this upgrade will give us modern technology that is flexible, cost effective and uses a lot less energy.

Full council will consider the proposals and if approved the two-year installation will start next year.

Wiltshire College and Community First to discuss outdoor education provision

Our proposals to continue outdoor education provision in the county took a step forward with cabinet agreeing to formally progress with the preferred bidders - Wiltshire College and Community First.
Both proposals offer great opportunities for young people and we are looking forward to discussing their plans.

Budget process gathers pace

Our budget planning continues to gather pace and early in the new year it will on the agenda at a number of meetings. The papers are due to be published at the end of January and by the time it is presented to full council in February, the budget will have been discussed at a members briefing, overview and scrutiny meetings and a cabinet meeting, among others. This is a detailed, but necessary and democratic process, as we look to finalise the budget.  

Snail mail falls behind in this year’s canvass

A few months ago we put out a plea to residents to respond to this year’s annual canvass online or via telephone or text. It saves us a lot of money and time in not having to manage as many paper responses.

We’re delighted that for the first time ever more people responded digitally than those who mailed the form back. In fact, 21,329 extra households responded digitally – that’s a great result and we thank all those involved.

Who don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but let’s just say that the elections team could have a busy year ahead of them – so milestones like this are very helpful indeed.

No smoke and mirrors – we commit to tackling tobacco

This week the council pledged to do everything it can to reduce the impact of smoking on health, by signing the Local Authority Smokefree Declaration.

Carlton Brand, Jane Scott and Tracy Daszkiewicz sign the declaration

This is work we have been doing for a number of years, but this re-iterates that it’s one of our top public health priorities. Plans are also continuing to make our main hubs smokefree from March next year.

We know this will require a culture shift and won’t be easy, but we feel now is the right time to introduce this. For those who do smoke but want to quit there is lots of support, including a dedicated health trainer team and detailed information on our smoking support pages. Our public health team will host staff engagement sessions in the new year to talk in more detail about the plans so please keep an eye out for those. 

Keep calm and carry on

This has been another turbulent week for national government and we just wanted to reiterate what we covered at the recent staff forums – that our budget preparation is progressing well and we have done as much Brexit planning as we’re able to at this stage.

Clearly there is still uncertainty about how this will all play out but we are monitoring things closely and we will prepare for any scenario and challenge that could occur.

We’ll speak again next week for our final blog of 2018.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Forums finale

Forums finale – it was great to see you

This year’s Staff Engagement Forums concluded with two packed sessions at Trowbridge.

We’re really pleased with how they’ve gone and we’d like to thank all the teams who helped to plan and run them so successfully.

As we said at the sessions, we will publish answers to all the questions that were asked and will notify you that they are available.

Please feel free to send any feedback on the sessions through to EPIC@wiltshire.gov.uk as we want these to be of value to you, so if we didn’t achieve that, please tell us what you think might work better. Your views are very welcome as they help us to plan future sessions.

Just a note that today is the last day for nominating the team and individual in our Achieving Excellence Winner of Winners.  If you haven’t already voted, please look at the winners and why they won an Excellence award – there’s some fantastic stories in there – pick your winner of winners.

 Wiltshire wares

County Hall this week hosted the annual Wealth of Wiltshire Fayre.

We are aware of a couple of comments on social media from residents querying why we host such an event and if it’s the best use of our resources. Every year we receive positive feedback from the traders and the event attracts people into the atrium, which is a community space.

Self-assess for future success

Today (Friday) Terence is taking part in the South West Region Self-Assessment Peer Challenge. This is a really useful exercise that involves assessing how your own authority works, and where you see yourselves, and then asking colleagues from other areas in the region to challenge that perspective.

We regularly take part in peer challenges as it’s important that we constantly review how we work, and ensure it’s the best possible way to be doing things. Ultimately this is all to the benefit of residents as our services and efficiency improves as a result.

As they say, every day’s a school day and we never want to stop learning. 

Meeting with public service peers

The Wiltshire Public Service Board took place this week. It’s always useful to meet with our public service peers and there was lot of good discussion on a number of issues including an update on our local plan, how we are each progressing on our budget setting, an update on the exciting plans for National Armed Forces Day, and the role we all play in combatting modern slavery.  

Catching up with the CCG

We had a useful meeting with Wiltshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group this week.

As partners our aim is to achieve a seamless join-up of health and social care services – which is a priority.  Winter is a challenging period for these services so we are talking through potential issues and how these can be addressed quickly.

Lights, cabinet, action

It’s cabinet again next week, and the papers are now published.

It’s another busy agenda including proposals for outdoor education provision, and a paper on putting the case for the council to convert streetlights to LED. The meeting will be streamed live, and we’ll highlight the decisions made next week.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence