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