Sad to see Jerry leave cabinet

Sad to see Jerry leave cabinet

We were very sad to hear that Jerry Wickham has decided to step down from the council’s cabinet team due to ill health. We have all worked closely with him over the last few years and no matter what your political allegiances are, you can’t argue that Jerry took his responsibilities very seriously and worked so hard for the council and community he served.

Jerry has been particularly instrumental in the work we’ve undertaken to transform our adult social care services and bridging the gap between health and social care. Jerry has been very open and honest about his prostate cancer since his diagnosis three years ago and regularly used his public platform admirably to advise men to look out for the signs and prevent more cases.

Even last week, following his announcement and the difficult time he is going through with his family, Jerry took time out to speak to the Gazette and Herald about his condition, and that says a lot about him. We wish Jerry and his family all the best and our thoughts are with them.

Baroness Scott to step down

This week, Jane confirmed that she will step down as leader following 16 years in the role. She was appointed the leader of the then Wiltshire County Council in 2003 and when the authority moved to unitary status in 2009 she was voted to lead the new organisation.

Jane was instrumental in leading the council into unitary status in 2009 and there have been so many achievements over the past 16 years. We look forward to celebrating these over the next few months.

We are all sorry to see Jane go, but we are also looking forward to working closely with the new leadership team.

Ofsted calling

We have just heard today (24 May) Ofsted will be carrying out an inspection of our children’s services teams from next week.

We have been expecting the call and although this will be a very busy time, we are ready to present the wide range of work our teams carry out with dedication, commitment and professionalism every day. The inspectors will be reviewing our work from next week and they will then be visiting our hubs from Monday 3 June to gain a real insight into the work we do. The next three weeks are going to be busy for the teams so please bear this in mind and as we may have said before – please be ready to make them a coffee too!

We’ll report back on how this is going next week.

Election nearly counted

This week marks the culmination of a lot of hard work and many late nights for our elections team. Despite the tight timescales and pressure, the team loves the hustle and bustle involved at this stage and the responsibility they have. Wiltshire is only one cog in the South West region, so we won’t actually be formally declaring any results ourselves, instead we’ll be feeding our results through to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council to announce the results. We hope you managed to vote yesterday (23 May), and thank you to the many people who worked during the day and also those who worked through until the early hours of this morning today for the verification. An early thank you also to those taking time out of a bank holiday weekend to participate in the count on Sunday. We are very grateful to all of you.

Plenty of discussion in the chamber

Tuesday and Wednesday were dominated by full council and cabinet respectively. At full council, members voted in a new chairman and that responsibility now lies with James Sheppard for 2019/20. The bulk of the meeting was taken up by the important task of members being allocated to the various council committee meetings.

Our vision for the future of special educational needs was the main issue discussed at cabinet. Rightly the process for the proposals to reach this point has been detailed and thorough, as it’s absolutely vital we get this right. We have met and spoken to many very passionate and knowledgeable parents and school representatives as part of this work and are grateful for their time in ensuring we have views from all perspectives. Cabinet agreed to establish a new maintained special school with an executive leadership team for Rowdeford, St Nicholas and Larkrise no later than 1 September 2021 and for a new school to be created on the Rowde site by September 2023.  Larkrise and St Nicholas will stay in use on the current sites until the new provision is ready and it is appropriate for pupils to transition to the new school campus at Rowdeford. We will be investing a significant amount of money in the new school and we’re confident it will meet the needs of all who go there. We knew whichever option was decided upon would have an impact on families and we will continue to work closely with them during this transition, as this is not the end of the process by any means.

Excitement down in Salisbury

On the same day as the European election, Salisbury city centre was transformed as professional cycling came back to Salisbury in the shape of the OVO Energy Tour Series. The city’s historic streets were lined with crowds cheering on these incredible athletes. What a great event! We also released the tickets for the Armed Forces Day National Event last week and we have been very pleased with the response so far. We’re now just over a month away and there are still plenty more exciting announcements coming soon, including the headlining acts. Keep an eye on the Twitter feed and website for all the latest news.

Never a dull moment

It’s been a little while since we last blogged and there’s plenty to talk about as the last few weeks have been particularly busy, and we’re sure that’s been the case across the whole council.

Planning for the polls

Something that’s unexpectedly taking up our time is the arrangements needed for the European Parliamentary Election. It was confirmed this week that the election will definitely take place, and in truth that doesn’t change things for us as we’ve been working with that assumption for the last few weeks. One of the main challenges so far is recruiting staff to help us at the polling stations, and at the verification and count. Of course, it doesn’t help that it falls on a Bank Holiday weekend as many people have rightly made prior

arrangements. If you’re interested in taking on a role at the election please email electionstaff@wiltshire.gov.uk and let us know which area you would prefer to work in. Despite the upheaval, running an election is a fun, full throttle experience and we’re always impressed, but never surprised, how our election staff rise to the challenge. It’s going to be a hectic couple of weeks but we work in a local authority and that comes with the territory.

In good stead for Ofsted

As you may be aware, our Ofsted inspection of children’s services is overdue, and we feel sure it will happen soon.  Our children’s teams continue to do an excellent job, and the teams are prepared for the arrival.  When “the call” comes and Ofsted arrive we will be ready to show them how far we have come since the last inspection in 2015.

Much like with elections, the inspection process is very intense, and when this starts many of the staff in children’s services will be working long hours – please be mindful of this and perhaps keep your colleagues in some extra coffee to show your support! 

Big Pledge is active again

We know many of you have taken part in Big Pledge over the years and we’re pleased to see it return again. This year’s challenge is called ‘It’s not just cricket’ but you don’t have to be handy with a bat and ball to take part, you can take part in any activity to get more active. We’d heartily recommend you challenge your colleagues as we know from previous years that healthy competition has spurred people on to keep going. Improving activity levels is great for both mental and physical health so please sign up today and get involved. Those in Salisbury and Amesbury are being asked to take part in Beat the Street and that’s another really fun way for all the family to get a little more active.

Soldiering on with fantastic plans

Not content with running an election, preparing for an anticipated Ofsted inspection and launching a new health and leisure campaign, we are also making good progress in the arrangements of the Armed Forces Day National Event in Salisbury, with 50 days to go until the big weekend. This event promises to do so much for the city of Salisbury and Wiltshire and we are working hard with our partners to put on a fantastic show for everyone. Not since the 2012 Olympic celebration event have we put on an event of this scale in the county. It’s been challenging for a number of reasons but things are really shaping up nicely. We were also pleased to hear that HRH The Princess Royal has been confirmed to attend and we’re delighted the event has had a royal seal of approval. For more information on the event please visit the website.  If you would like to volunteer to help at the event please email AFD19@wiltshire.gov.uk.

Just another typical few weeks at the council! No day is the same that’s for sure…

Alistair, Carlton and Terence