I wanted to reflect on our customers this week. The first Cabinet of the new council was held on Tuesday. There was a presentation by the Chief Executive outlining the challenges ahead over the next four years. As well as the well documented public sector funding reductions, these include the need for us to change the culture of our organisation - essentially to deliver the contents of the "What will we be Like" documents that we developed on the run up to unitary. This is exciting work as it clearly places the customer at the centre of everything we do. Linked to this is our area working agenda using the new area boards. These will be vital for us as we seek to get closer to the people we serve.
I spent an afternoon in Salisbury this week with the Customer Care team. I sat with Debbie and Nicky listening to calls. I was surprised at how different the demand was from recent visits to Devizes and Trowbridge. Thanks to Liz and the whole team for hosting me and answering all my questions.
It was the Annual Adult Social Care awards event last night, and I just wanted to let you know that not only were individuals and teams within DCS Finance nominated for awards, we actually won 2 (out of 4) of the team awards.
The Financial Assessment & Benefit (FAB) team was nominated for and won the Customer Service award, and the Court of Protection Team was nominated for and won the Keeping People Safe award. In addition, the Data Migration team, which has been instrumental in implementing SAP and getting all the records from FRED (our access data base of care spending) onto Carefirst and SAP, were nominated in the Use of Resources award. Finally, Pete Little was nominated in one of the individual awards for his expert knowledge in a specialist area and the way he always quickly, helpfully and with a sense of humour, responds to requests from the ASC teams. Now that's customer focus - well done Pete!
The awards are judged by an independent panel, which makes this all the more pleasing and I am obviously thrilled that the really good work of the teams has been publicly recognised.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
Friday 19 June 2009
My blog is a little late today as I've spent the morning and lunch time in Devizes - firstly at Braeside attending the member induction session on scrutiny and then visiting some of the Resources teams located at Browfort.
The scrutiny induction was excellent. This is a very important aspect of the governance of the new council and works with the executive (the cabinet) to ensure our plans, objectives and delivery of services is working well. I am keen to use scrutiny this year to conduct more policy work ahead of formal decision making by the cabinet. We have many potential areas in Resources where we can make this a reality and I'll share these with the wider team over the next few weeks. The scrutiny work in support of BMP and shared services paid dividends with go-live in April where we were able to avoid many of the pitfalls that other organisations had experienced.
I then met up with the registration team. It was good to catch up with what's happening in the service (marriages and civil partnerships are on the up this year despite the recession - a good sign) as well as being a good opportunity to talk about how the team are affected by the recent major changes in terms of One Council, SAP and shared services.
I then spent some time meeting with the customer services team and spent an hour with Fiona listening to calls coming into the contact centre. I always enjoy this as our customer teams are so passionate and expert at what they do. Today was no exception. I would encourage any staff who haven't experienced this to do so - it's a real eye-opener. I find this important to do on a regular basis as it always identifies areas for improvement in our services. Today I learned that our contact directory and it's accuracy really slows down the team when trying to put calls through to the right services. I shall follow this up with the team next week.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
The scrutiny induction was excellent. This is a very important aspect of the governance of the new council and works with the executive (the cabinet) to ensure our plans, objectives and delivery of services is working well. I am keen to use scrutiny this year to conduct more policy work ahead of formal decision making by the cabinet. We have many potential areas in Resources where we can make this a reality and I'll share these with the wider team over the next few weeks. The scrutiny work in support of BMP and shared services paid dividends with go-live in April where we were able to avoid many of the pitfalls that other organisations had experienced.
I then met up with the registration team. It was good to catch up with what's happening in the service (marriages and civil partnerships are on the up this year despite the recession - a good sign) as well as being a good opportunity to talk about how the team are affected by the recent major changes in terms of One Council, SAP and shared services.
I then spent some time meeting with the customer services team and spent an hour with Fiona listening to calls coming into the contact centre. I always enjoy this as our customer teams are so passionate and expert at what they do. Today was no exception. I would encourage any staff who haven't experienced this to do so - it's a real eye-opener. I find this important to do on a regular basis as it always identifies areas for improvement in our services. Today I learned that our contact directory and it's accuracy really slows down the team when trying to put calls through to the right services. I shall follow this up with the team next week.
Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 12 June 2009
Friday 12 June 2009
The election is over and we have 98 new members forming Wiltshire Council. Political groups are forming and at next week's Council meeting a new Leader of the council will be confirmed. He or she will then confirm their Cabinet appointments. So by Tuesday we will know which Portfolio holders we will be working with in Resources, together with the members of Scrutiny with whom we will be working to develop new policy and review existing service performance.
The Members induction process is in full swing and we held a market-place event on Wednesday evening to show case all of the services that we provide. It was an impressive sight, with a huge amount of effort having been applied to the design and production of the various stalls. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to achieve this and for staying so late in the evening.
Development of SAP continues apace. HR, payroll and finance are running well with minor bugs to be improved. Procurement using Procure to Pay (P2P) including Accounts Payable (AP) is more mixed. It's working well in some teams and less well in others. We recognise this and are taking the following actions to improve the situation:
- one-to-one sessions for staff who need extra support
- workshops and drop in sessions for staff and managers on employee and manager self service (ESS/MSS)
- a Corporate Procurement Unit (CPU) advice line
- updating and improving user guides which can be found on The Wire
- additional vendors are being added when identified
To arrange for this type of support please call either the CPU help desk (Sarah Fullen - 01225 713219 or James Benjamin 01225 718229).
The BMP Programme Board are monitoring weekly the actions that need to be put in place to improve the P2P process to ensure its success and ability to support the whole business.
Speak again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Thursday 4 June 2009
This week's blog will be short and sweet as well as early! As a Deputy Returning Officer for the Trowbridge area, the week is completely dominated by the election today. The week started on Saturday when members of the election team spent all day assembling the nearly one hundred ballot boxes and the myriad of supporting information that the Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks within each polling station need on the day. Thank you and well done Caroline and Lin. We then held six separate training sessions at Bradley Road for polling station staff to ensure the almost one hundred staff involved fully understand the process, what's required, etc.
Within the Trowbridge area, we will be conducting the election and count for 28 divisions out of the 98 within the new authority. Whilst the election is today, the main focus will be Friday where we will be verifying the ballot boxes all morning and then holding the actual count of the ballots cast for candidates in the afternoon. I should be announcing results from about 2-3 pm on Friday right through to late afternoon. These will be posted on the website as soon as they're announced, so keep an eye out to see how things are shaping up politically for the new council.
Thanks and have a good weekend. Speak again next week.
Carlton
Within the Trowbridge area, we will be conducting the election and count for 28 divisions out of the 98 within the new authority. Whilst the election is today, the main focus will be Friday where we will be verifying the ballot boxes all morning and then holding the actual count of the ballots cast for candidates in the afternoon. I should be announcing results from about 2-3 pm on Friday right through to late afternoon. These will be posted on the website as soon as they're announced, so keep an eye out to see how things are shaping up politically for the new council.
Thanks and have a good weekend. Speak again next week.
Carlton
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