Another varied week

One thing that’s for certain in the world of local government is that no one week is ever the same.

This week the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, visited Salisbury to meet those involved in the response and recovery of both the city and Amesbury and to highlight further afield that both are very much open for business. His visit was widely publicised and provided reassurance that central government is committed to helping Salisbury and Amesbury get back to normal.  

Another significant and positive milestone is Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury, which reopens to the community today (Friday 24 August). This popular city centre park has been closed since July and its closure has affected footfall into the city centre. Its reopening is good news especially on the eve of the August Bank Holiday when many families will be out and about.

On the theme of families – it’s that time of the year when our thoughts were with all those students picking up GCSE results, which we know can be a daunting time for young people. The overall results have been really good and even if the passes weren’t as expected there’s always options. One is apprenticeships and we’re committed to recruiting apprentices as we know how effective they can be. We held an event at County Hall for young people and parents to find out more about this option and we are really pleased that the number of apprenticeships is increasing year on year. If you know of someone who may be interested in apprenticeships please see the Parents' Guide to Apprenticeships on the Work Wiltshire website.

This week Carlton spent some time with the adult social care team looking at how the service is working following its recent period of transformation. Carlton met with team members from access and reablement, the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, the RUH hospital integrated discharge service and the Devizes mental health team, among others. It was a really useful learning experience and inspiring to meet a lot of skilled and dedicated staff doing great work.

On another note and highlighting how in one week nothing is the same and the diverse nature of our work; officers from our fleet compliance team joined colleagues in the Wiltshire Police Road Safety Unit to undertake an exercise across Warminster, Amesbury and Salisbury. The aim was to uncover any safety issues with taxis and private hire vehicles through a series of random stops. Fifty vehicles were inspected and two were taken off the road immediately for defective tyres. An example of partnership working to ensure public safety.

This weekend is a bank holiday and we hope you all enjoy the extra day and fingers crossed that the sun shines!

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Looking forward to welcoming two new colleagues in November

We’re sure you’ll agree that it continues to be a busy summer. It seems the days when work slowed a little at this time of year are most definitely in the past.

We are pleased to confirm that we have appointed two new Directors following completion of a recent recruitment process. Helean Hughes has been appointed to the role of Director Education & Skills and will join us on Monday 5 November. Helean is currently working at South Gloucestershire Council where she is the Head of Education, Learning & Skills. Claire Edgar has been appointed to Director, Learning Disabilities & Mental Health and will join us on Wednesday 14 November. Claire is currently working at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council where is the Head of Service for Mental Health & Learning Disabilities. We are really looking forward to welcoming them both to Wiltshire.

We mentioned last week that the annual canvass is underway, which helps ensure that the electoral register is up to date. We’re pleased to say we’ve had a really positive response, with people clearly receiving the message to respond via text or online. Only one-third of returns are arriving by post, which is good news. It saves taxpayers’ money and staff time. The canvass runs until the autumn and we’ll continue to encourage people to respond digitally.

Earlier this week it was confirmed that The Mill pub in Salisbury is now safe following a thorough clean by specialist teams after the Novichok incident in March. The site has been handed back to its owners, who aim to re-open in the autumn following some refurbishment. This marks another significant step forward in the recovery programme and it will be good to see the centrally located pub reopen for business. Slowly business is returning to normal and we need to focus on the longer term and getting visitors and tourists back into the city centre. Working with Visit Wiltshire and Visit England we are looking at how Salisbury is promoted to rebuild confidence and allay any concerns.

We were really pleased that Ofsted recognised the improvements made by our family learning team for their work to reconnect adults with education. The inspectors carried out a monitoring visit and awarded a Good Progress grade in four areas that were highlighted in a previous inspection. Well done to the team for their hard work, which puts the service in great shape ahead of another inspection in the autumn.

We have been communicating the message as wide as we can to encourage people to dispose of their waste correctly. Unfortunately, we are spending more on picking up waste dropped in our communities – money which would be better spent on front-line services. Our campaign was supported by magistrates who imposed penalties totalling £1,230 on a Swindon man for fly-tipping in Broad Hinton. He claimed to have paid someone to dispose of his rubbish but didn’t check they had the correct licence to do so. The message is that we won’t tolerate fly tipping and we will work hard to prosecute offenders.

We’re sure that A-Level results will have dominated many households this week. Don’t forget if you’re one of these households - whatever the results were - there are lots of opportunities for young people in Wiltshire. That goes the same for those getting their GCSE results next week. Fingers crossed for everyone who has an interest in those.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Don't miss out on having your say

Hello,

As has been widely reported, the funeral of Dawn Sturgess was held in Salisbury on Monday. Jane Scott sent flowers on behalf of the whole council and our sincere condolences go to Dawn’s family and friends at this difficult time.

The community spirit in both Salisbury and Amesbury has been remarkable and recognised by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in a letter thanking local people for their resilience after the recent incidents. You can read the letter here.

If you are a resident in the county, over the next few days you should receive a letter from Carlton, in his capacity as Electoral Registration Officer, asking you to respond to the household enquiry form. These letters are being sent out as part of our annual canvass – a huge logistical challenge which involves around 220,000 letters being sent out to Wiltshire households and the responses collated to ensure that our electoral register is accurate and up to date.

Please return your response online and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
The canvass itself is really important to ensure that anyone who is eligible to vote is actually registered. Please don’t miss out on having your say. Our thanks go to the elections team at this busy time for them.

The consultation on the future of special educational needs schools came to a close this week. We received more than 850 responses and the team will now begin the process of going through the responses to gain a better understanding of views on an issue which people understandably feel very strongly about. Once this has been done, a report will be considered by Cabinet in the autumn to agree the next steps.

The Families and Children’s Transformation Programme Board met at Springfield Community Campus in Corsham this week. Members discussed a number of updates on the programme – including a proposal to create an Early Support Hub (which would sit alongside the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub), how partners can work more closely in their approach to commissioning services, and also how we tell people about the great work the programme is doing.

We are pleased to be able to tell you that the new waste and recycling contracts started on Monday as planned with relatively little disruption to services. Our thanks and congratulations go to the waste teams who have worked hard to achieve this, especially over last weekend. There was also great support from Fleet Services, Highways, Finance, HR, Legal Services and Communications to ensure that everything was in place for the commencement of new services. Thanks also go to Customer Services who are now working with residents, the waste service and our contractor Hills to deal with any missed collections and help iron out any wrinkles as the new collection services become established.

On Tuesday we met with our current broadband providers BT Plc and Gigaclear Plc. These quarterly meetings are an important part of the robust contract management process we have in place, that to date has allowed us to deliver a fibre broadband service to over 88,000 premises across Wiltshire on time and within budget.

We also honoured achievements in the field of adult education at an awards ceremony held as part of the Family Learning project. The scheme supports less confident learners who may have missed opportunities in life due to educational, social or emotional circumstances. Students – all parents aged 19 and above – were recognised for the enormous strides they made in the past year as part of our Family Learning project. More than 100 award winners and guests attended the ceremony – well done to everyone involved.

Finally, following interviews last week for Director Education and Skills and Director Adult Care Learning Disabilities and Mental Health we have made offers to successful candidates, and once we have completed the appropriate checks and clearances we will announce who has been appointed.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

A busy summer ahead

Hello,

We are almost in the summer holiday period, and while this means that the number of meetings reduce, there is little sign of the organisation slowing down. The programme of work across service areas combined with the incidents in Amesbury and Salisbury is keeping us all busy.

On Tuesday evening a special community meeting was held in Salisbury to update local people on the investigation following the recent incident and on the recovery programme, and, most importantly, to provide an opportunity for local people to ask questions and raise their concerns with a panel of representatives including Alistair, Wiltshire Police and Public Health England.

About 200 members of the public attended and so far the live broadcast of the meeting (available on our Facebook page) has been seen around 7,500 times and this number is rising.

A special community meeting was also held last night, this time in Amesbury, to update the local community and to enable a question and answer session. This meeting was also broadcast live.

These meetings are a really important way of engaging with local communities, and gaining a better understanding of their concerns; particularly given the recent extraordinary events that have taken place and the ongoing media attention that these have generated.

Throughout the recovery phase we will be doing all we can to support the communities of Amesbury and Salisbury. We recognise that full recovery will take time and we need to support the local economy and wider community, both in the immediate aftermath of the incidents, and in the longer term. The government’s recent announcement of a further funding to provide immediate support enables us to continue to allocate grants and business rate relief to those affected during this difficult period. 

The long-term plans to support the local economy have been discussed with central government and include accelerating local development and regeneration programmes to bring jobs and investment to the wider local community. We will update on this programme in future blogs.

This week the Officer Appointments Committee meets to consider two Tier 2 appointments -Education & Skills and Learning Disabilities & Mental Health. We’ll update you on the outcome of the interviews as soon as possible.

During the summer, the Families and Children’s Transformation team will be attending various family fun days to speak to parents and carers to better understand what’s important to them and how they want to be supported during times of need. You can have your say by going to our Families and children’s transformation survey 2018

Our Black, Minority, Ethnic Staff Network held their regular meeting this week with four guest speakers. Kerry Beety and Saeed Naizai told an inspiring story of a young refugee child's journey to the UK and how he found a loving new family through fostering; Hári Sewell, a management consultant and former NHS executive director, gave a motivational talk on making a positive impact in society; and senior democratic services officer Will Oulton spoke about the importance of blood donation and the need for more BME donors. Well done to everyone involved in organising and taking part in this event.

Just a reminder that the changes to recycling collections comes into effect next Monday with the aim of encouraging everyone to recycle more and reduce the waste collected. The team has done a great job raising awareness of the extra items you can now recycle and you can find out more on our website.

Finally, for those of you taking a break during the school holidays, enjoy some time off and if it’s a staycation fingers crossed the sunshine lasts!

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Amesbury update

As you’ll be aware the eyes of the world’s media are once again focused on Wiltshire following a major incident being declared in the early hours of Wednesday last week and last night we heard the tragic news that Dawn Sturgess had died as a result of coming into contact with the nerve agent Novichok. 

Having a death occur in our local community; particularly in such extraordinary circumstances will undoubtedly affect local residents and we will continue to support them and our partners in any way we can whilst the police carry out their investigation into this dreadful crime.  

A public meeting will be held in Amesbury tomorrow evening (Tuesday 10 July). Local and national partners will be attending to update and provide support and reassurance to the town. The Prime Minister has also committed support to helping the local communities of both Amesbury and Salisbury. Salisbury has shown such stoicism and resilience since the first incident occurred in March and we will continue to provide help, where it is needed, throughout this extremely difficult period for both of these local communities.

As we have said previously we need dedicated resource to support Amesbury and Salisbury and we recognise that we also need sufficient resource to continue to deliver council services and the important programmes that are vital to transforming how we work in the future. We are therefore discussing appropriate interim arrangements to ensure we have resource allocated where it is needed for the foreseeable future.

We will keep you updated you on the incident and recovery situation and please remember that the guidance from Public Health England remains that there is not a significant health risk to the wider public.

Last week cabinet met and discussed our improvement in adoption performance, future ownership of traveller sites, and housing provision in the county (an issue which will be discussed again at Full Council tomorrow).

We were really pleased that cabinet agreed a further investment of £1.2m for children’s services to help address the expected increase in demand for social care services in the coming years. The increase reflects a national trend and the funding will help provide additional social workers to meet the increasing demand and ensure we can achieve our ambitious plans to improve outcomes for children.

The hot weather looks set to continue and we fully appreciate that County Hall is extremely warm and at times we know it’s an uncomfortable working environment. The air handling system is under extraordinary pressure as a result of the continued high temperatures and some serious technical failures. We’re working to fix the problems and to review what system the building needs for the future. In the meantime, wherever possible consider working in other hubs, or from home whilst this matter is resolved.

And, we must just say a huge well done to senior corporate support officer Kartar Singh, who won the Local Government Challenge at last week’s LGA national conference. This is nothing short of an incredible achievement – for those who aren’t aware, the competition sees the best and brightest local government officers compete in a series of real-life events around the country. The final was held at the annual conference in Birmingham and Kartar really impressed the judges. Well done Kartar a great accolade for you and the council!

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Thank you

Hello,

We’ll start this week with a really big thank you – to everyone who supported us as we cycled the length and breadth of Wiltshire last week.

It was some ride – 130-odd miles – but it was a beautiful day and it’s fair to say we enjoyed it. Most of it, anyway!

The ride was a real team achievement and we are so pleased that together we raised more than £3,000 for Wiltshire Mind, which is a great cause.

Thanks to everyone who donated to our Just Giving page, and to our support team on the day, who made everything run so smoothly.

We’d particularly like to thank the #EPIC team, who set themselves the challenge of engaging staff to beat our 130 miles…which they did quite comfortably with around 725 miles ridden on exercise bikes in Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury – a fantastic achievement which helped raise £315 towards our total.

Thanks also go to all the riders who took part and especially Steve Manning, who had the original idea for the ride and turned it into reality. And, knowing Steve, he is already mapping out an even tougher challenge for next year…

While we’re talking about #EPIC, well done to the team who were finalists at yesterday’s HR Excellence Awards. Terence joined them for the awards ceremony, where our staff engagement work was nominated in two categories - most innovative deployment of HR technology, and outstanding employee engagement strategy.

This is a brilliant achievement from what is, let’s not forget, a relatively new team which has already achieved so much and deserves recognition – and no doubt there’ll be lots more achieved in the near future.

On the subject of recognition there is still time to get your nominations in for individuals or teams who you think have gone above and beyond and deserve an Achieving Excellence award. Please make your nomination here by the end of the week.

You’ll no doubt be aware of the media coverage of the visit of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall to Salisbury last week.

More than 5,000 people were at the Market Square to see Their Royal Highnesses and they took time to meet the traders and businesses that were directed affected in The Maltings and all those who have been involved in the incident – either as a first responder, or as part of the recovery programme. The city is starting to get back to normal and the Royal visit was a huge boost attracting so many visitors. This weekend (30 June) the winning bid to host next year’s National Armed Forces Day will be announced. If ever there was a time and place for recognising the role of the military – it surely has to be Salisbury that’s chosen – fingers crossed!

Looking ahead to next week, Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting has a really busy agenda. While the headlines from the meeting will no doubt focus on housing (with a big attendance expected for the item on the site allocations plan), the agenda touches on so many parts of our work – including gypsy and travellers, adult social care, governance, social workers, adoption, and an update on our overall performance which affects all areas.

We’ll update on that, and more, next week.

Finally, thanks to all of you for your patience during the hot weather – we’re aware that working conditions are quite uncomfortable for many, particularly at County Hall, and we would urge you to ensure you read the latest advice to help you stay as comfortable as possible. 

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

The Bustard Ride is nearly upon us

Hello,

Well the day has almost arrived, as tomorrow – the longest day – we will be setting off bright and early for the 130 mile Bustard Ride around Wiltshire.

We’re as prepared as we can be for what promises to be a challenging but great day – if a somewhat exhausting one!

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored us in raising money for the mental health charity Wiltshire MIND. If you haven’t sponsored us yet, please do so by visiting our Just Giving Page

We’re really grateful for the support we’ve been shown by so many of you – so far around £1,800 has been pledged – and not just with sponsorship, but also by those taking part either in the ride itself or  providing support along the route. In addition the #EPIC team have set you all a challenge to beat our 130 miles by riding exercise bikes that will be set up in County Hall, Monkton Park and Churchfields so please take an opportunity to support this…and if you fancy it, you can hop on one of the bikes too. We wish them and you the best of luck.

We’ll let you know how we get on and we have chosen the longest day to allow time and light if we need it! You can follow our progress on twitter – follow @wiltscouncil – or on our website.

Tomorrow is also the summer Solstice and many staff are involved in supporting this major event which attracts thousands of visitors.

Talking of major events this week ends with what promises to be amazing memorable day in Salisbury with the visit of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall to the city to supports its recovery.

They’ll be meeting members of the public and local businesses before a special reception at the Guildhall to meet first responders and all those who have been involved in the city’s recovery programme.

The recovery took another step forward this week with the handing back of Amesbury ambulance station, the third site to be handed back, following The Maltings shopping centre and Salisbury ambulance station. Salisbury is returning to normal and visitor numbers are slowly picking up.

Later on Friday, the Families and Children’s Transformation Programme Board meets in Devizes - FACT is a real multi-agency programme, which is now into its second phase with a focus on:

• No Wrong Door – an integrated multi-disciplinary service for young people aged 12 – 25 who are either in care or on the edge of care
• The development of a joint systems leadership approach
• Bringing multiple case management systems into one system to ensure all information is shared in one place.There will be more on the outcomes from this meeting in next week’s column, and we’ll continue to keep you updated on this important programme as it grows and develops.

Carlton spent the day with senior managers from adult social care and public health on Tuesday. The away day was a great opportunity for the team to discuss their priorities, values, what great management and leadership look like, and the exciting transformation journey that lies ahead. Thanks to everyone who took part, and for the superb support from the HR&OD team.

Finally, you may be aware that all our special schools for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are now at full capacity and at least 220 new special school places will be required by 2026. In the north of Wiltshire 70 additional places for children with complex needs will be required. Several options will be explored to assess how this provision for pupils with special needs in the future can be met. We are consulting on the options to help decide the future investment in special educational needs schools.

Please do respond yourself, if you would like to, and please do share with friends and family before 31 July. You can find the consultation here.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Bustard Ride, community recovery and Cabinet updates

Hello,

We’d like to start with a thank you to all of you so far who have donated to our Bustard Ride, which takes place next Thursday in aid of mental health charity Wiltshire MIND. So far we have raised around £1,000 and we would like to extend a huge thank you for your kind donations which act as a real incentive for us to complete this challenge!

If you haven’t seen the full list of staff taking part please visit our donations page – if you haven’t made a donation yet, we’d really appreciate it if you could support us and your colleagues. We’re all cycling a long way for a really great cause and we would be grateful for as much support as possible. Thank you. Our #EPIC team will also be involved on the day with exercise bikes at County Hall, Monkton Park, and Churchfields.

As you’ll have heard, Tuesday 12 June marked 100 days since the attack in Salisbury and Cabinet held its meeting in the city. It was also announced that The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will be visiting Salisbury next Friday (22 June) as part of the city’s recovery. Along with meeting members of the public and local businesses, Their Royal Highnesses will join a reception in the Guildhall to meet those who were the first responders at the incident and those who are helping deliver the recovery work to help the city get back to normal. It promises to be a really special day for Salisbury, helping to boost its profile, the local economy and restore confidence in this beautiful city that it is a great place to visit.

Cabinet discussed and approved a £9m spend on our digital programme, and as part of this we are working with Microsoft on a body of work that will ultimately improve the whole experience for customers. This means that all of us will need to work differently in the future and we’ll update more on what this will mean in future columns.

Cabinet also discussed an investment of £4m in housing to go some way towards meeting demand. It also discussed keeping the outdoor education centres at Oxenwood and Braeside open until the end of the year to allow time for proposals for future use of the buildings to be considered. The end of year budget position was also discussed and as a result of effective financial management we not only delivered a balanced budget in 2017/18, but also an underspend of £410,000.

Yesterday we held our regular forum with managers and heads of service and most of the meeting focused on ‘creating an EPIC workforce’. We always say that staff are our most important asset and we want to make sure that everyone is really engaged. There is clear evidence that the most engaged service areas are those that regularly report EPIC impressions and that complete the most e-learning, have the lowest sickness absences, highest take up of apprenticeships, and leadership and management courses. It was a good discussion, and there’s a lot for managers to think about, action, and discuss with all of you.

The positive work to further integrate partner agencies within our Support and Safeguarding Teams continues, with an Outreach Worker from Wiltshire Substance Misuse being aligned to the teams being confirmed this week. This builds on the Domestic Abuse Family Support Workers who have been within teams since April this year.  

Earlier this week we, along with a number of partners, took part in a Care Quality Commission Summit to discuss the recent targeted review of the local health and social care system, which was carried out earlier this year and published yesterday.

The review was commissioned because there are issues with how effectively the system works as a whole. The final report recognises the hard work and effort already being done by all staff and partners to improve the care and support for Wiltshire residents, and provides useful insight into the areas where we need to do more.

Some of the highlights include people who need care and support being kept safe, staff being recognised for their commitment and caring approach, and praise for our adult social care transformation. As always, what we really want to focus on in is the areas for improvement and we have already produced a detailed action plan to implement a single overarching strategy to address the following areas:

1. New Wiltshire health and social care model
2. A single overarching health and social care strategy, improving outcomes with a focus on prevention and early intervention
3. Strengthening joint commissioning across the whole system
4. Improving Wiltshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board effectiveness
5. Unifying and developing whole system governance arrangements
6. Developing a sustainable integrated workforce strategy
7. Implementing digital opportunities and information sharing across the system
8. Developing a single, integrated communications strategy

We’ll be talking about this a lot more over the next few weeks and months as this important programme of work develops. 

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Bustard Ride

Hello,

Two cycle rides of a quite different type this week…

Firstly, a huge thank you to the team who pulled together and delivered last week’s amazing OVO Energy Tour Series cycle race in Salisbury, which was held as part of the recovery programme.

From start to finish the event was absolutely brilliant and particular thanks go to those staff who volunteered to work as marshalls and ensure the 8,000 or so people who lined the streets to watch the race were able to safely enjoy the event. 

If you didn’t manage to catch it, the race was shown on ITV4 and is available to watch here. As it is being broadcast in 100 countries, it showed to a worldwide audience what a great city Salisbury is and how it is getting back to normal.

We’re under no illusions that the second ride will draw slightly smaller crowds…our very own Tour de Wiltshire rolls off the starting line at County Hall on 21 June as we set off on a 130-mile bike ride around the county to raise money for the mental health charity, Wiltshire MIND.

The idea for the marathon cycle emerged from last year’s staff engagement forums after all three of us made the mistake of admitting that we are keen cyclists.

Quite a few of you challenged us to turn our passion for pedalling towards a useful purpose – and the Bustard Ride was born.

Our thanks go to Steve Manning, from the environmental health team, who came up with the idea and has put a considerable amount of his own time in to planning the ride.

From Trowbridge, we will cycle a scenic anti-clockwise route around all of our community areas, taking in Warminster, Salisbury, Amesbury, Marlborough, Devizes, Malmesbury, Chippenham and Melksham, before arriving back at the start.

We’ve all taken the day off to complete the challenge and we’ll be joined on the adventure by Chief Constable Kier Pritchard from Wiltshire Police and other colleagues in the organisation and our EPIC staff engagement group will also be supporting us – more details on their involvement will follow in our next update.

Kier’s presence will at least ensure we aren’t tempted to break any speed limits along the way!
Rather than setting any records, our focus is on completing what will be a gruelling nine or ten hour challenge. So it’s no coincidence we’ve picked the longest day of the year to do it!

Wiltshire MIND does an amazing job in campaigning to ensure that everyone experiencing a mental health problem can get the support and respect they deserve. It’s an organisation that is very close to all our hearts, and they need every penny they can get to continue their priceless work.

We’re keen to raise as much money as possible – if you’d like to support us, our JustGiving page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bustard-ride-wiltshire

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Milestone in Salisbury recovery

Hello,

We reached a significant milestone in the recovery of Salisbury this week with the Maltings site area being handed back to the recovery coordinating group by Defra following extensive cleaning and testing by specialist teams.

Work will now be carried out to repair and clean the area ready for opening. Other potentially affected sites – including nearby Zizzi and The Mill pub – are being cleaned by specialist teams. Defra is overseeing the work based on expert advice, and with the support of specially trained MOD personnel.

We’re now just over a week away from the grand final of elite cycling's OVO Energy Tour Series which will take place in Salisbury. The race action will be shown in two hour-long highlight programmes on ITV4 in the UK, as well as in over 100 countries worldwide, showcasing Salisbury to an international audience. From our perspective, it isn’t just about cycling of course, and there will be a range of free fun activities taking place during the day, with something for everyone to enjoy in the city.

An update on the Salisbury recovery was given to members earlier today at Full Council by Jane Scott and Alistair, outlining the progress which has been made and the support we have given to businesses, and the city more widely. The update finished with a round of applause from members for a job really well done to the very wide range of people and organisations who have been involved in the recovery – a sentiment echoed by us. To keep up to date on Salisbury developments, follow Wiltshire Council on Twitter and visit our dedicated webpage at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/salisbury

Another milestone this week – this time in adult social care where the transformation programme entered another phase with a new structure model now in place which will underpin a number of changes that will gradually be introduced over the coming weeks and months. We believe these changes will significantly improve how we provide these care services. These include further developing our Help to Live at Home service, improving people’s first point of contact to the service, introducing an adult care Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) based on the model we have in place for children, creating and running a council reablement service, and continually developing how we commission services. We will keep you updated, but for more information on some of the work the team are doing, please visit The Wire.

Another key transformation programme is digital, which is helping to improve how we will deliver our services more efficiently and effectively into the future. Part of this is making it as easy as possible for members of the public to report issues and so we’ve given the web version of My Wiltshire a fresh new look which will hopefully improve the overall experience for the user. The system is now a well-established means for people to contact the council about a range of issues at a time it suits them, and overall it has helped us become a much more efficient and responsive organisation. You can find out about all the changes on our website, and we should point out that the app version of the system won’t be changing just yet.

Finally, we joined with the rest of the organisation in joining in the minute’s silence held today to mark the first anniversary of the Manchester Arena attack. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this terrible incident.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Planning for the future

Hello,

Cabinet took place earlier today and discussed a couple of really important issues which will shape our county over the next few years – special schools and housing.

These are both subjects which really engage people, and the council chamber was packed for the meeting.

Cabinet agreed to begin a consultation to assess how best to meet the requirements for special school provision in Wiltshire into the future. We need an additional 220 places by 2026 for children and young people with special needs and/or disabilities. It’s really important that children with special educational needs are given high quality local placements, and in a large county likes ours it’s essential that these are provided in the right places geographically, with a balance between the north and the south. It’s not just about providing the right number of spaces, but about providing inspiring, state-of-the-art special schools which offer excellence in both education and outcomes for all pupils.

There was a good deal of discussion and questions about the draft Housing Site Allocations Plan which sets out how we will plan for growth and meet housing needs up to 2026, and this debate will continue when the issue comes back to Cabinet and Full Council before the summer.

Last week in Salisbury we welcomed the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, who came to see how the city is recovering following the incident in March. The Ambassador took in some of the sights of the city before visiting the area in which the incident on 4 March took place. He was positive about the city and its recovery, and also praised the community’s resilience. The decontamination work carries on and we are continuing to support businesses and residents. The changes to free car parking took effect on Monday and we will monitor the impact this has.

Fostering Fortnight began yesterday and to coincide with this we’ve put out a call for more people who can offer a foster home to a child to come forward. We need to find 120 foster families over the next three years to cope with the demand, and we need 36 of those this year. You can find out more at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/fostering

We’re always keen to celebrate success – so well done to the team who were highly commended recently at the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport Annual Presidents Dinner for the pothole spotter trial. This pioneering project, jointly conducted with York City Council and Thurrock Borough Council, uses high definition cameras attached to our waste vehicles to monitor and scan Wiltshire’s roads to identify potential potholes. The data gathered can then be used to help inform decision-making about road repairs. A great example of cross-service working to deliver real improvements.

Looking ahead, if you’re going to be watching the Royal Wedding and want to do so in a unique way, why not head to Salisbury to join BBC Wiltshire’s party where the ceremony will be broadcast on 50ft screens outside Salisbury Cathedral. The event takes place from 9am-4pm, and they’ll be family friendly entertainment, live music performances and more. 

You can see our latest highlights presentation on The Wire.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Salisbury shortlisted for Armed Forces Day

Hello,

We hope you all managed to enjoy at least some of the brilliant sunshine over the long weekend (it doesn’t seem all that long ago we were talking about snow!) and are back to work feeling refreshed. Our thanks go to those staff who worked or were on call over the Bank Holiday.

Some really positive news – our joint bid, submitted alongside Salisbury City Council, for the city of Salisbury to host the Armed Forces Day National Event next year has been shortlisted and goes through to the next assessment stage.

This is a huge event in the calendar, and if we are ultimately successful it will be a tremendous boost to the city and a fitting way to thank the military personnel and emergency services that have supported the recovery programme.

The clean up operation in Salisbury continues and last week, eye-catching displays were put up to help promote businesses and direct visitors to the city’s attractions. Having discussed with businesses the impact of free parking in Salisbury, we are taking some steps to increase the turnover of spaces for shoppers and visitors. From next Monday parking will be free from midday on weekdays and all day on weekends. Park and ride sites will remain free, and we’ll continue to monitor the impact of how these measures are supporting the local economy.

Later today we are officially opening ‘Rothermere’, a combined innovative treatment hub and alcohol treatment service in Trowbridge, which we’ve worked in partnership to deliver. The ground floor will be an operational drug and alcohol treatment service, run by Turning Point, with the first floor a self-contained five-bedroom flat, with communal kitchen and bathroom, managed by Julian House. Tenants will go through the drug and alcohol treatment service and get support from both Turning Point and Julian House following their rehabilitation. It’s the first of its kind in the county and will make a real difference to the lives of those who need the support. 

The Staff Voices Conference takes place tomorrow in celebration of the National Day for Staff Networks. Staff Voices is the banner name for our staff networks (BME, LGBT+ and Carers and Disability) who are co-ordinated and work together. We are firmly committed to the principles of diversity and inclusion, not just in the way we delivery our services but also the kind of workplace we are. 

And finally – our annual Big Pledge campaign launches on Monday. This year it’s called Beat the Clock and encourages people to make personal pledges to get more active. The campaign runs from 14 May to 8 July and you can find out more about how you can get involved by visiting the website or watching this short video.

Our latest highlights presentation can be found on the intranet.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Televised cycle event coming to Salisbury

Hello,

In Salisbury, the clean up of affected sites continues, alongside our work with partners on the recovery plan for the city. As part of this, we announced at the end of last week that the city will host the Grand Final of the OVO Energy Tour Cycle series on 31 May. As a milestone in the cycling calendar, this is a real coup for the city and it will also bring a huge number of people in to the area who we hope will have a look around the city and see for themselves how Salisbury is recovering. The action will be shown on ITV4, along with more than 100 countries worldwide.

We are putting a call out for your support as we need marshals to assist with the delivery of the event, which will attract a large number of spectators. You would be required on site in Salisbury city centre from 3:30pm to 10pm approx.

If you would like to be part of the team and help to deliver this exciting event, please contact events@wiltshire.gov.uk by Friday 4 May.

We attended this year's South Wilts Business Expo at the Guildhall in Salisbury on Wednesday, which was a great opportunity to let residents know about lots of exciting entertainment and activities coming up in the city. This includes BBC Wiltshire’s forthcoming live screening of the Royal Wedding at Salisbury Cathedral.

On Thursday we met with leaders from right across the health and social care system in Wiltshire, to look at how we could work better together. It was agreed by everyone that there is a great deal of excellent work taking place, but that we could actually deliver more benefits for our residents if this work was more integrated. All agencies committed to a single overarching strategy to provide more effective prevention, health and social care outcomes for the population.

As part of this we will strengthen the arrangements of the health and wellbeing board, develop an integrated workforce strategy, and develop and review governance. We also reaffirmed our commitment to appoint a joint Corporate Director/Accountable Officer post for the council and the clinical commissioning group this year. There’s a lot of exciting work ahead – and we’ll keep you updated along the way.

The Ofsted Annual Conversation also took place last week. The name, of course, doesn’t reflect how often we interact with Ofsted, and this meeting - a formal discussion which enables critical self-evaluation - is part of our ongoing dialogue with them. We discussed with Ofsted our social care self-assessment, education and skills performance, and our future transformation plans. The initial feedback we received was positive, with formal feedback expected in the next two weeks. We’ll share this when we have it.

This week we’ll be launching a month-long campaign to encourage 11,000 people to sign on to the electoral roll ahead of the annual electoral canvass later in the summer. The more work and preparation we do now, the better shape we’ll be ahead of the summer. You have to be registered to vote to have your say in any local or national election, and although there is no major election on the horizon, by-elections regularly take place throughout the county along with other local referendums. If you want to have a say on development in your area, such as neighbourhood plan referendums, you need to be on the electoral register.

The regular Coaching Network meeting takes place this week in Trowbridge, with a talk on ‘stillness in coaching’ by guest speaker Penny Gundry. We always say that our people are our greatest asset and we’re committed to the continuous personal and professional development of our staff. We fully endorse coaching as a tool – it provides a confidential environment for staff to explore themes affecting their daily working lives and ways to move forward positively in their roles. If you haven’t considered coaching before, we’d highly recommend a conversation with your manager about it.

You can find out more about our coaching offer on the intranet.

Finally, booking has opened for the second #EPIC Talk which takes place at the end of the month – sign up now to hear RUH cardiologist Dr Ali Khavandiv talk about how to improve our health, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight through contemporary evidence-based dietary interventions. Further details are available on our website.

You can see our latest highlights presentation on the Wire.


Alistair, Carlton and Terence