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