An update on Salisbury and business as usual

Hello,

While the eyes of the world’s media remain very much focused on Salisbury, we are continuing to work with local and national partners to do everything possible to help the city recover.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove visited Salisbury on Friday and met with Jane Scott, Alistair, John Glen MP and several local business representatives.

To support the businesses and to encourage visitors, along with free park and ride we agreed to introduce free parking in all our city car parks. This has had an immediate and positive impact with a notable increase in shoppers and visitors over the weekend – let’s hope that continues.

This morning at the cabinet meeting, which was held in City Hall, Salisbury, an update on the recovery programme was provided to the local community and attendees; including media representatives.

There is understandably a huge amount of interest in what is being done to support the city, particularly from businesses, and we have launched a new web portal to provide information and advice on the support that’s available and what’s happening to help the city return to normal at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/salisbury

While the developments in Salisbury are an extraordinary situation, our council business as usual continues.

Among the items discussed at Cabinet today was the report produced and feedback following the peer challenge last year by senior local authority representatives from across the UK.

The team told us they observed:

• a solid track record of financial management
• strong and accessible political leadership which sets a clear direction
• good working relationships with stakeholders
• an ambitious agenda for the next 10 years and a resolute focus on ‘strong communities’ 
• a committed workforce - all staff that the team met told them that Wiltshire Council is a great place to work; that they feel valued, are developed to undertake their roles and feel supported to progress their careers
• evidence of a very impressive approach to staff engagement throughout the organisation from frontline staff to senior leaders
• a very good recovery in children’s services.

While this is great feedback, our focus as always is on how we can use what we’ve been told to continue to improve.

We’ll be taking the same approach with the feedback we’ve received following a joint Ofsted/Care Quality Commission review of the local area’s provision for young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) in January.

The inspection team praised the effective partnerships and the ambition to deliver the very best outcomes for Wiltshire’s children and young people and recognising our effective partnerships across education, health and social care. The inspection has confirmed that the strategic plans we have in place will deliver our ambitions.

Over the weekend, our community engagement managers helped to facilitate more than 70 litter picks across Wiltshire as part of the postponed Great British Spring Clean. Thanks to everyone involved in helping to tidy up our county and remove around 7.5 tonnes of rubbish!

Finally, last night saw the first of a series of #EPIC Talks – and the bar was set very high with the first speaker, Dr Charles Kriel. Dr Kriel was recently appointed as the Specialist Advisor to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Fake News at the House of Commons, advising on issues surrounding influence campaigning, personality profiling, and micro-targeting social media audiences.

This was a really topical issue for the first talk, a new initiative which has come from our EPIC staff engagement group. More talks are already being planned and we’d encourage you to try to get along to one if you can.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Another great team effort

Hello,

It’s hard to believe we’re talking about snow again! We thought we’d seen the last of the extreme weather two weeks ago, but last weekend the mini beast from the east returned and caused disruption across the county, albeit a little less than the last snowfall.

Our emergency planning team was in touch with the MET Office and we were able to put in place a number of measures to ensure that services could be maintained and the roads could be accessed.

Thanks to all those involved in managing the response to the weather; in particular our highways team who spread over 1,000 tonnes of salt on primary and secondary routes throughout the county. However, please heed the advice and take care when driving as some roads are untreated and the low temperatures will mean ice patches and black ice.

You may be aware that at last week’s Salisbury Area Board an update on the ongoing situation in the city and the recovery plan that is being put in place, was delivered by us and our partners. The recovery plan involves many local and national partner agencies working together to help the city over the next few months. While the investigation continues, the recovery group – led by us - is focused on what it can do to support the community and local businesses; particularly those directly affected by the incident.

We have introduced free park and ride at all the city’s five sites free until Easter Monday when the impact will be reviewed. The aim is to encourage visitors and shoppers to the city.

Next week’s Cabinet meeting will be held in Salisbury City Hall and a further update on the recovery plan will be an additional item on the agenda. It’s vital that the local community is kept informed and has the opportunity to raise questions and matters of concern. Cabinet members will also talk to local businesses, visit Bourne Hill and other locations in the city following the meeting.

A large number of individuals and teams across the council are working with partners on the recovery plan and our thanks go to everyone involved – it is a big and challenging programme and will take some time to help the city to recover. It is extremely important that we do everything we can to support Salisbury.

Whilst we recognise the spotlight is on Salisbury and the scale of the work required, we also have to manage business as usual in the council.

Last week the Care Quality Commission visited as part of their review of the health and social care system. The team spoke to a large number of staff and partners and we will wait to see what their feedback is so that we can take whatever action is necessary to ensure people in Wiltshire receive the best possible service. Thanks to everyone who was involved.

We’re really pleased to say that last week’s Business and Sports Annual Gala Dinner was the most successful one we’ve ever had with more than £55,000 raised by local businesses for future Olympians and Paralympians. It’s the fifth time we’ve held the event and it continues to go from strength to strength. Grants were awarded to ten elite athletes on the night, and we know that this money makes a real difference to the recipients in helping them to fulfil their potential.

Finally, good luck to the team behind our community hub programme who will be visiting London to find out if we have won in the Best Service Delivery category at the Local Government Chronicle Awards. Having picked up the silver award at the iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards for this programme a couple of weeks ago, we’re hoping we can go one better this time around!

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Thanks for your support during this unsettling time

Hello,

We’d like to start this blog with a big thank you to all of those staff at Bourne Hill whose working arrangements have been affected by the ongoing police activity in Salisbury and to all the staff that are now actively involved in supporting the multi-agency group with the work that’s required.

Carlton visited Bourne Hill yesterday and said it was good to see and speak with staff from customer services, registration, revenues and benefits, planning, adult care, children’s services, police colleagues and FM.

We're aware that other staff have also been affected - a number of meeting rooms at County Hall are now being used, and we took the decision to remove the IT facility from mobile phones and iPads as a security measure at the end of last week.

This is an unprecedented situation and we appreciate that it is an unsettling time; particularly given the ongoing investigation and extensive media coverage. Thank you for your continued support.

This has been an extraordinary incident and we recognise that it is an unsettling time for local residents and businesses. Whilst the investigation into the incident continues, we are working with our partners and local and central government agencies to set out plans for what’s required to help Salisbury return to normality as we move into the recovery phase that follows a major incident.

Local residents, businesses and the city’s national and international visitors will be reassured that Salisbury is a vibrant and safe place to live, work and to visit. Cabinet has decided to hold its next meeting on 27 March (2018) in Salisbury and to include an update on the multi-agency recovery plan and provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Working together with our local and national partners we will take action to assist those affected as a result of the incident. A priority is to provide the support that’s needed to help the city return to business as usual and to promote its attractions and wide range of activities that it has to offer. As this recovery process is implemented we will keep you updated.

This week has also seen a number of staff involved with the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) visit. This is part of a review of the effectiveness of the health and social care system in Wiltshire. This week’s visit is only one part of the review and there will be extensive data gathering which will enable the CQC to understand the system, how it works, and, most importantly identify any areas for improvement.

Finally, our biggest event of the year; the Business and Sports Annual Gala Dinner takes place this Thursday evening in the Atrium. Now in its fifth year, this event, which raises money for Funding Wiltshire’s future Olympians and Paralympians Foundation, is a firmly established fixture in both the sporting and business calendars. Last year businesses raised almost £50,000 for our up and coming sports stars. Our challenge this year is to beat that total! We’ll let you know how it goes next week.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Great teamwork showed by all

Hello,

We have to start by acknowledging that the last few days have been exceptionally busy for many teams across the council as a result of the most extreme weather we’ve seen for years, which resulted in a major incident being declared for Wiltshire.

The teamwork, both internally and with partners, has been nothing short of outstanding and demonstrated that we did everything possible to keep people in Wiltshire safe and the services running smoothly, given what we faced.

Our thanks go to everyone for doing such a fantastic job in some of the most challenging circumstances we faced for many years.

Being able to respond in the way we did doesn’t happen by chance. It’s a result of being prepared and our Emergency Planning and Highways teams who did an exceptional job, not just in coordinating activity over the last few days, but also ensuring we had the training and business continuity plans in place to be able to manage the situation effectively.

We recognise that it will take some time for services to get back to normal due to the disruption caused and the backlog in some cases but we are now officially back to business as usual.

Although… some of you may be aware that another major incident was declared yesterday (Monday) following an incident in Salisbury where two people were exposed to an unknown substance. While the details of exactly what happened and the impact is still not clear we are working with other agencies including the police and health partners, to ensure people are protected and safe. Whilst this incident has been widely covered by the national media, we will keep you updated of the position as more information is available.

On a separate and hopefully more positive note, tonight we will find out if our community hub programme has been successful in the Community Focus category of the iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards. Baroness Scott, John Thomson and Laurie Bell are attending the event and while we are really pleased to make the final shortlist for this national award, it would be great if they come back with the winner’s trophy!

Finally, this week is Women’s Health Week and we hope all our female colleagues will engage with at least one of the many events taking place this week. Yesterday a webinar took place with a discussion about the menopause, breast and gynaecological cancers, screening and mental health, among other things. Today some of our female staff will share their own personal experiences in the Council Chamber, and throughout the week at each hub female health MOTs will be taking place. Please get involved in what is a really great initiative, and follows the successful Men’s Health Week held last year.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Temperatures tumble this week

Hello,

It feels like there’s only one place to start this week, and without wishing to state the obvious, it’s very cold!

Our Emergency Planning team is in regular contact with the MET Office and is closely monitoring the situation. We’ve put in place a number of measures, both internally and externally, to make sure we can maintain service delivery and keep people safe during the forecasted extreme weather.

We appreciate that if the forecast is accurate for the end of this week, that some of you may find it difficult to get to work. We’ve taken the decision today to cancel our regular meeting with managers and heads of service tomorrow due to the bad weather, and would ask that all managers check their business continuity plans. If you are affected, please discuss with your manager the options available for you to work from home or remotely. If this isn’t possible, managers have the discretion to authorise paid or unpaid leave, or making up the time. Please refer to the Time off for exceptional circumstances (severe weather) policy.

For those less fortunate, the predicted extreme weather will be particularly difficult. We have put in place our severe weather emergency provisions and we have a statutory duty to provide help to anyone sleeping rough especially when the weather is predicted to fall to 0 degrees or below for three consecutive nights. More details can be found here.

It’s important when people do need to contact us – particularly in an emergency – that it is easy as possible for them to do so and the price of a call is reasonable. Numbers beginning 0845 can be very expensive to call and we’ve instigated an urgent review of their use as we are aware that some services are still using these numbers. We will be encouraging people to use the customer services number (0300 456 0100) and look at discontinuing the use of any numbers which charge people extra. We are looking at interim solutions where we cannot stop using 0845 numbers immediately.

Staff working in Trowbridge today will be aware there has been a major leak on the second floor of old County Hall due to the cold weather. The heating in this area was turned off for some time so it will take a while before the whole of old County Hall is back to normal temperature. We would urge you to avoid this area and make use of hot desking areas elsewhere in the building, or discuss working from home with your manager. Our apologies go to those staff affected by the disruption.

We’ll provide a further update next week – until then, stay warm!

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

An update from Full Council

Today is Full Council and this morning councillors debated and agreed the budget for 2018/19. This included the proposals to save £25 million to fund the increased demand in services; particularly in adult and children’s social care and to increase Council Tax and the Social Care Levy by a total of 5.99%. (Please see our separate message about this here on The Wire.

Members will discuss this afternoon the draft recommendation of the council’s electoral review committee to increase the number of Wiltshire councillors from 98 to 99. The draft recommendations will go to the Local Government Boundary Commission for a decision on the number of elected members that this council should have. Any changes won’t take effect until the next full council election, in 2021. We will update on the outcome in next week’s blog.

Whilst this week there is inevitably a great deal of focus on the budget, we have also discussed with cabinet members (at our weekly meeting yesterday) the Wiltshire Local Plan refresh (updating the Wiltshire Core Strategy to 2036). The discussion focused on how we align future growth - both housing and business - to the council’s aspirations set out in its ten year Business Plan. This needs to include all public sector services – what will be needed and where these will be located; such as health services, police and fire, and how we will work with these partners and others, including the MoD to make sure that we provide the housing, infrastructure and community facilities that Wiltshire needs in the future.  This is a major programme of work for the council and cabinet members will take an in-depth look at the Local Plan Refresh programme of work on the 12 March to agree the next steps.

As you are aware we have a number of other major programmes of work underway. These focus on transforming key services; adults and children’s, implementing digitisation and becoming more commercial. We are also focusing on what more communities can do and where they may be best placed to deliver services and facilities locally.

These programmes form part of the budget proposals being discussed today, as they are all projecting to deliver significant savings. Our programmes to transform how we deliver services were also covered in last year’s peer review, and the peer review findings and recommendations will be published soon. The feedback has helped us to focus on an action plan to deliver improvements and we look forward to sharing this with you shortly.

Finally for this week;

We are pleased to update that we will be hosting the 2018 LGA Local Government Challenge in April. Local government officers compete in a series of real-life challenges and are tasked with problem solving to come up with innovative solutions to the challenges faced by local government. We have been asked to set a challenge which is likely to be around one of our transformation programmes. The LGA allocates a scholarship of £10,000 to the winner and we hope that Kartar Singh (senior corporate policy officer), as one of this year’s contestants, will enjoy the experience and learning and maybe win the scholarship!

And, some of you may be aware that Michael Hudson, director of finance and procurement and the council’s statutory Section 151 officer has announced that he will be leaving Wiltshire Council after seven years to take up the role of director of finance with Worcestershire County Council, which is near to where he lives. During his seven years Michael has ensured that the council has successfully managed its finances including the pension fund, treasury management activity, revenues and benefits and has ensured that a balanced budget has been set and delivered each year despite the significant financial challenges we have faced throughout this period. We would like to thank Michael for this. Michael will leave in May and I am sure you will all join us in wishing him well in his new role. Steps to recruit a replacement for Michael will take place shortly.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence.

#CleanUpWilts and a new director of commissioning

Hello,

Next week the budget for 2018/19 will be finalised following a thorough process. The proposals have been reviewed by Overview and Scrutiny and the committee’s considerations will be submitted to council members to include in their discussion and deliberations. Last week the Government announced additional funding for local authorities. We estimate that we will receive around £1.3m for adult social care services and £665,000 from the Rural Grants fund. This additional funding is welcome given the pressure to find £25m of savings. 

As well as the budget, next week full council will discuss the boundary review and proposals which could have an impact on the number of elected members that will make up the council in the future. It will be an important meeting, and you can view it live on the web feed (Tuesday, 20 February) – it’s always good to see democracy in action and listen to members debating the issues that affect the council; particularly the allocation of funding for the services we deliver.

Talking of funding, each year we spend more on clearing up dropped litter. Currently it’s around £2.5m, which is totally avoidable. Phase 2 of the #CleanUpWilts campaign launched this week with roadshows taking place across the county. The aim is to raise awareness, achieve a shift in behaviour and reduce the amount of litter by encouraging people to dispose of litter responsibly. Thousands of people have signed up as part of a local community group to take part in the Great British Spring Clean in March to tackle hot spots in their area. Last week we were finalists in the Clean Up Britain national awards for the work that our local communities do to improve Wiltshire – a great accolade to all the volunteers who give their time and support. 

We’re pleased to update that last week we appointed Helen Jones to the post of director for commissioning. Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm the recruitment of the director of education and skills. The post will be re-advertised and we will keep you updated.

Last week Terence, along with other directors for children’s services from around England, met with the children’s minister Nadhim Zahawi and civil servants to discuss the Government’s plans for schools, education and social care. It was a very useful and informative meeting.

We’re are big advocates of the coaching programme and we’re pleased to say there is an opportunity for six staff to become trained coaches within the council coaching pool. This will involve undertaking the ILM Level 5 qualification in coaching and mentoring and committing to coach council staff in addition to your current role. For further information and an application form please see Becoming a Coach on grow. The closing date for applications is Monday 19 February 2018. It’s a great opportunity, and for both the coach and those who are coached it’s very worthwhile. 

Having just been through an Ofsted inspection that focused on our special educational needs & disabilities services (SEND), we’re expecting the draft letter from Ofsted in the next couple of weeks with the initial feedback. Starting next week another inspection is taking place, and a different area of our work will be looked at. Over the next 14 weeks the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will be reviewing the health and adult social care system in Wiltshire. CQC will send a team to visit us on two occasions and they will also be collecting an extensive amount of data and information as part of the process. It gives an opportunity for us and our health partners to show how effective our system is and how we are integrating these services. 

As we always say, the feedback helps us to make improvements to the services we provide.

More next week.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Strategic partnerships and the next phase of the Clean Up Wilts campaign

Hello,

The budget proposals, published just over a week ago, are currently being considered by members. Yesterday Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee discussed the proposals and will re-convene this week on Friday (9 February) to consider amendments put forward by opposition groups. Cabinet met this morning and the proposed budget and new Commercial Strategy were the main items discussed. Having taken into account the feedback from yesterday’s overview and scrutiny meeting, cabinet agreed that the proposals go forward to Full Council for its consideration on Tuesday, 20 February. The announcement from Government on the Revenue Support Grant and what we will be allocated is expected this week. We can then assess the impact, if there is any, on the budget proposals for next year.

Thank you to everyone who assisted with the joint Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection of Wiltshire’s special education needs and / or disability (SEND) arrangements last week. Our thanks again to all of you who demonstrated your responsiveness and commitment to work together to deliver what was needed.

Well done to everyone who was involved in our bid for more than £8.5m from the Government to support the construction of the Yarnbrook West Ashton Relief Road which will help deliver 2,600 new homes in the area. Last week we found out we’d been successful in securing this funding, which will pay for the additional ecological protection, design and construction costs. This includes improvements to the A350 road layout adjacent to the site. The funding will enable the delivery of the strategic housing allocation in this area.

This week consultation on proposals for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down (Stonehenge Scheme) will be launched. This is a major milestone and another step closer to a scheme which aims to protect the World Heritage Site and alleviate the traffic issues on this major arterial route and in local communities. We are working closely with Highways England and our partners to deliver this major project.

On the theme of partners, our strategic partnership with the police is a really important one, particularly given our close working and shared space. Last week we met with the police senior management team to discuss how we can further develop our joint working. It was a very wide ranging meeting which included discussion about high frequency contacts, our transformation programmes, shared space, safeguarding, budgets, future plans, and also how we can collectively celebrate our success as we move forwards.

It’s always good to get recognition for a job well done. We heard at the end of last week that our community hubs programme has been shortlisted for a Public Finance Innovation Award in the community engagement category. Well done to the team involved – we’ll find out whether we win towards the end of April. And, later this week we’re a finalist at the Keep Britain Tidy Awards following our successful community litter picks as part of the Great British Spring Clean. Fingers crossed…

Next week phase 2 of our Clean up Wilts campaign launches with roadshows in Tidworth, Salisbury (two roadshows), Trowbridge, Chippenham and Devizes.

This phase focuses on encouraging people to stop dropping litter; particularly from their vehicle, to switch to reusable materials, to recycle more, and to sign up to join this year’s community litter picks as part of the Great British Spring Clean. The campaign aims to reduce the cost to collect this litter – currently we spend £2.5 million picking up rubbish. Given the pressures and demands on our budget this money could be better allocated to support vital services. The campaign is currently supported by Landmarc, Spire FM, McDonald's and Salisbury City Council and Idverde. It is hoped more businesses will get involved and help us to combat this issue that has a detrimental impact on the environment and wildlife, and our budget.


Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Next year's budget proposals and this week’s joint Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection

Hello,

This week got off to a really busy start with the joint Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection, the publication of the budget papers, and a cabinet meeting.

Ofsted and the CQC are conducting an inspection of the local area’s Special Education Needs and / or Disability (SEND) arrangements. The inspection team arrived at County Hall yesterday and will be with us until Friday. The inspectors will be visiting a number of sites, including schools and children’s centres, and also looking at health provision, meeting with parents, carers and children and young people as well as council and the clinical commissioning group senior leaders and staff. As we’ve said, these inspections are really important because they help us to improve our service and focus on areas where we need to do things differently, as well providing acknowledgement of where we are doing well.

As you’ll have seen, the proposals for next year’s budget have been published. A briefing for councillors takes place later today after the cabinet meeting, and a briefing for local media was held yesterday morning. In case you haven’t seen our budget briefing to staff, you can read it here.

At our meeting with cabinet members yesterday we discussed the new way of delivering services to schools. Right Choice... for your school, is the new name for our traded service and website which provides a single market place for all schools to view and purchase the products and services they need. It is being launched at engagement events with headteachers and business managers from all Wiltshire schools today and next week. This is a big change – all services to schools will be traded through a new platform from March 2018. Take a look at the website.

At today’s cabinet meeting the car parking strategy, school capital programme, school admissions policies, and a progress report on the adoption service, were discussed. Cabinet will also meet again next week with the focus being on next year’s budget. Our thanks go to Cllr Chuck Berry for his hard work as cabinet member for housing and economic development. He has chosen to stand down, so the responsibility for housing will be taken on by Cllr Richard Clewer and Baroness Scott will lead on economic development.

Last week we interviewed for the two director adult care posts for access and reablement and continued support and we are pleased to update that Emma Legg has been appointed as director adult care, access and reablement. Emma has been acting up into this role and we are delighted that we have been able to appoint her permanently. We have also taken steps to appoint to the role of director adult care, continued support and we hope to update you on progress with this soon.

This week we will be interviewing for the Children’s and Adult commissioning role. The second tier structure implementation is almost complete and we are looking forward to having the director posts in place and working together to deliver the programmes of work aligned to the business plan that were set out in yesterday’s budget briefing update.

Today Wiltshire welcomed HRH the Duchess of Cornwall to officially open St Mary’s C.E. School in Marlborough, which was built as part of the Government's Priority Schools Building Programme, with a contribution from us.

Finally, you can see our latest highlights presentation here.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Congratulations to Jane on making the LGC top 100 'power list'

Hello,

Yesterday Terence received the call from OFSTED and the Care Quality Commission, who informed him that they will be conducting an inspection of Wiltshire’s Special Education Needs and / or Disability (SEND) arrangements. The inspection will run from Monday 29 January to Friday 2 February. These inspections are a great opportunity for us to showcase all of the positive work we do with children, young people, and their families in Wiltshire. We’ll keep you updated on the visit and feedback from the inspection team.

This week, we are working with directors to finalise the budget proposals for 2018/19, we need to set out the timescales for delivering proposed savings, and the projected income. The final proposals will be published on Friday in readiness for the cabinet meeting on 7 February. Briefings for elected members and the media are scheduled for early next week ahead of formal discussions at Overview and Scrutiny, Cabinet, and finally Full Council on 20 February.

Last week we held the first meeting of the year with managers and heads of service in which we discussed our priorities for the year ahead, including the transformation programmes in children’s and adults’ services. We also discussed the boundary review, which is progressing this week, with a meeting of the Electoral Review Committee. The review is an important piece of work which is considering the total number of councillors; as well as the number and boundaries of electoral divisions within the council.

As you know, last week we interviewed for the post of director of education and skills, and we are awaiting confirmation following an offer of appointment. This week, tier 2 director recruitment continues, we will be interviewing for two adult care directors, and next week we will interview for the commissioning role.

Recruitment for the remaining corporate director post (the joint role with the clinical commissioning group) is being progressed.

In case you didn’t see it, Jane Scott was on BBC Sunday Politics West. The main focus was the changing role of libraries and how, with the support of 800+ volunteers, we are helping to protect this service and combat the growing issues around isolation and loneliness. Calne Community Hub and Library and its Open Access system were featured. If you missed it, the section can be accessed here. If you did watch the programme and saw the section on air quality, you may be interested to know that we are reviewing our policy. While this is a national issue, and one where there is no easy and accessible solution, we need to make sure that we, and our local communities, take action to make the air we breathe as clean as possible.

Last week, Jane was voted the 39^th most influential person in the public sector in the Local Government Chronicle’s latest Top 100 ‘power list’. This accolade is based on the council’s achievements and transformation programmes since it became a unitary in 2009. Jane said this recognition was not just an honour for her personally, but also for her cabinet and council staff who work so hard for the people of Wiltshire.

On the theme of recognition – this Thursday we will be presenting the final quarter Achieving Excellence Awards from 2017. This ceremony will include the regular team and individual awards and the individual and team ‘winner of winners’ for 2017 following your votes. We will publish all the winners on the Wire this Friday.

Finally, you can see our latest highlights presentation here.

Alistair, Carlton, and Terence

Current focus on recruitment and next year's budget

Hello,

As you may be aware our focus is currently predominantly on recruitment and next year’s budget setting.

Last week interviews for commercial and housing, and economic development and planning director’s posts were held. We were delighted that Tim Martienssen has been appointed as director of economic development and planning. Tim has been acting up into this role, and has now taken it on permanently with immediate effect.  Unfortunately, the appointment committee did not appoint to the commercial and housing role as it did not consider that the applicants were suitable. The position will be reviewed.

This week interviews for the director of education and skills, will be held and interviews for positions in adult social care and commissioning will follow next week. We will keep you updated on the outcome of these interviews. We will be pleased when all the roles are filled and we can work together as a new team to deliver the business plan and the big change programmes.

As we mentioned our other key focus right now is next year’s budget and we continue to work closely with cabinet members on the proposals for delivering the £25m of savings required and for meeting the increasing demand in some service areas. This is never an easy task and we will be a position to share these proposals with you soon, as they will be published by 29 January, in readiness for the cabinet meeting on 6 February. The final decision will be made by Full Council on 20 February.

Today we will be holding our first meeting of 2018 with managers and heads of service. We have decided to focus on a number of key areas, beginning with our priorities for this year, and the progress being made on some of our key transformation programmes – adult social care, and families and children.

At the end of last year we heard that our community hubs programme had been shortlisted in the Best Service Delivery Model category for the LGC Awards 2018. As part of the judging process, yesterday deputy leader John Thomson and Laurie Bell, director communities and communication, were invited to London to present to a panel of four chief executives what we have achieved and why Wiltshire should win the award. Their presentation focused on how visionary we have been, our innovative approach to community working, and how we are adopting a business-like approach to minimise the need for subsiding these facilities in the future. We’ll find out in mid-March whether they did enough to convince the panel!

You can see the latest highlights presentation here. 

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

2018 - a year of opportunity and delivery

Welcome back and happy New Year for 2018!

We hope you all managed to enjoy a well-earned break over the festive period and are ready for the New Year. Our thanks go to those staff who did a great job managing the impact of the extreme weather over the last couple of weeks.

As we said in our pre-Christmas blog, 2018 promises to be a year of opportunity and delivery and we’re pleased that interviews for the vacant director posts for economic development and planning, and commercial and housing are underway this week.

Over the next few weeks the interviews for the two adult social care directors; continued support, and access and reablement, as well as directors for commissioning, and education and skills will also take place.

We hope to appoint to these roles by early next month, but in the meantime, the following temporary arrangements have been put in place; 

• Graham Wilkin – interim statutory director, Adult Social Services (DASS)

• Emma Legg – acting director, adult social care 

• Evelyn Wheeler – interim director, commissioning 

• Alan Stubbersfield – interim director, skills and education

Our first meeting of the year with cabinet members took place on Monday. We discussed the cabinet meetings scheduled for 30 January and 6 February and the agenda items which include feedback on the consultation on the local transport plan and next year’s budget. 

As we previously updated, next year we need to find around £25m in savings to meet increasing demand in some services. On Monday we ran through proposals to deliver these savings. Whilst most of these have been accepted, more detail is required for some of the proposals put forward.

As you may have heard, the government has agreed that councils can now increase council tax by up to 3% without a referendum. The maximum used to be 2%, and the extra 1% could generate around £2.4m for the council, should members agree to this increase.

In terms of what happens next on the budget - all directors and heads of service will be sent base budgets to review shortly. The papers setting out the budget proposals will be published on 29 January, ahead of the cabinet discussion on 6 February, and a decision by full council on 20 February.

That might sound like a long process – but the reality is that when setting the budget there needs to be an appropriate level of scrutiny given the size of our budget and scale of services we deliver.

Whilst there is a lot of focus on next year’s budget, we still need to manage this year’s budget to ensure that it is balanced and that we continue to minimise any potential overspend. We are encouraging all managers to be vigilant in their approach to any recruitment and spend from now until April and to recognise that by being diligent we can achieve a balanced outcome.

This Friday we are hosting a visit from Gloucester City Council, that is keen to look at how we work, with a particular focus on our hubs and our programme of transformation following the move to unitary. With the budget challenges and service demands facing local authorities several have visited to look at rationalisation of property, flexible working and community working.

Finally, the EPIC staff engagement team launched the opportunity to deliver an EPIC Xmas impression. More than 1,000 impressions were sent over the Christmas period – an incredible response! We encourage you to make use of impressions to recognise and thank your colleagues for their work. If you haven’t sent one yet, EPIC has now launched new impressions focused on empowerment, innovation and collaboration. You can find out more about impressions here.

And the EPIC team is still looking for more volunteers, the deadline for applications is today. You can apply here.

Finally, the recent highlights are on the intranet.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence

Reflecting on a busy 2017 and looking ahead to 2018

Hello,

We can hardly believe it’s almost Christmas and we fully recognise that it’s time for a well-earned break to recharge and have some downtime.

Yesterday we held the last of this year’s regular weekly meetings with cabinet members. We approved the launch of a new homelessness campaign; called ‘Real Change Wiltshire’. The campaign aims to raise awareness that not all beggars are homeless and that more useful and sustainable help can be given through charities and outreach workers – rather than donating cash on the street.

It also aims to make sure that those people that can help a rough sleeper and provide the support that they need are better publicised so that members of the public can contact them directly; particularly at this time of the year when the temperatures drop and its Christmas.

We think this is a really positive campaign – and launching it at this time of year, when life can be really tough for some, is the right time.

We also discussed with cabinet the budget meetings held last week with all of the directors to further discuss plans to find £30m of savings in 2018-19. The good news is we’re continuing to reduce the gap, but there is more work to be done to agree the timings of some of the proposed saving and how they will be implemented. This will enable us to ascertain whether we can achieve a full year savings from the proposals or a partial saving.

We are still awaiting the funding announcement from Government, which is expected this week - once we have this we can assess our current position and the savings required. We will update on this in the New Year. 

At yesterday’s corporate leadership team meeting we discussed the recent notice from the Care Quality Commission informing us that there will be a review of the whole system of health and social care in Wiltshire early next year. This will be a wide-ranging and thorough review which will impact not just on us, but also our key partners in the clinical commissioning group, our three acute hospital trusts, and Wiltshire Health and Care, the partnership focused on delivering improved community services and enabling people to live independent lives for as long as possible.

Local system reviews look at how people move between health and social care, examining how delayed transfers of care occur and how these are managed, with a particular focus on people over 65 years old. The review will also include an assessment of commissioning across health and social care and the governance systems and processes in place in respect of the management of resources.

As always with this kind of scrutiny, we know that the review will look at what is working well but what is really important is that it highlights areas for improvements. This is critical for us in terms of how we make the integration of health and social care a reality. Clearly there will be a lot of work to be done to prepare for this and we will update you further when we have more information.

You can see our latest highlights presentation on the intranet.

Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s been another really busy year and we’ve achieved a great deal as an organisation which is down to your hard work and contribution.

Our thanks go to those of you who will be working or on call over the festive period. Hopefully you will all have a chance to unwind and have a well-earned rest at some point.

We are all looking forward to 2018 and an exciting year of opportunity and delivery.

Alistair, Carlton and Terence