As we reach the end of the financial year, I thought I would share with you some of the achievements and highlights that you as a team have delivered this year. I want to thank you personally for your effort, tenacity and resolve in delivering such a formidable set of achievements for our customers during what is a tricky year for people like us who work in the public sector.
This year has been a year of delivery, performance improvement and cost reduction for the department after the successful launch of Wiltshire Council and the Business Management Programme the previous year.
The Workplace Transformation Programme has delivered Bourne Hill on time and below budget; the new library in Pewsey was opened; a new facility for young people and adults with learning difficulties was opened; 500 staff were relocated to Shurnhold in Melksham and we delivered plans for two new children's homes in the county. We have also become the first council in the country to take over a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) deal from the private sector, saving our taxpayers over £400,000 per year.
Information Communication Technology underpins the operation of the whole council and all of its 350 plus services. We in-sourced this service from the private sector to deliver improved performance for our customers (the first time fix rate is up from 30% to 60%) and reduce our costs by over £2 million. Work continues to develop the service for the needs of a 21st century organisation as evidenced by the roll out of 700 new Windows enabled laptops for front line staff to work flexibly to better serve our customers.
Our housing benefits service underwent external inspection by the Audit Commission. It showed a fair performing service with promising prospects for improvement - equal to the best of the new unitary councils created in 2009. We implement a single all-new benefits system later this year to further improve the service.
Our website has recently been externally audited. It has improved from 2 to 3 star and is now in the top 25% of council sites in the country. We also lauched HR Direct, our successful new web portal for first point of contact to the HR service.
Our work behind the scenes on better procurement - a fundamental part of our new Business Plan - is starting to deliver. First year savings of up to £11 million have been identified and these are now being re-procured to deliver the cost reduction required in our 2011-12 budget.
Improvement work using Systems Thinking methodology from the private sector manufacuting industry continues to drive up performance and reduce cost. Customer Services demand (our customers contacting the council) has been reduced by 30% as we identify and eliminate avoidable contact.
We received a clean bill of health from our external auditors for the accounts for the first year of the new council.
Just a selection of our success this year. Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
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Carlton Brand, Corporate Director Wiltshire Council
Dr Carlton Brand
Carlton Brand, Corporate Director Wiltshire Council
About me
Dr Carlton Brand has worked in local government since 2004 and joined Wiltshire County Council in 2007.
During Carlton’s time as Corporate Director at Wiltshire County Council he co-led the transition to the new unitary Wiltshire Council. As part of the ongoing transformation process he led on the implementation of an ambitious new business management programme utilising SAP to underpin the new organisation; the introduction of systems thinking (lean) to transform service performance for customers; and procurement reform amongst his many other corporate responsibilities. In the last couple of years he has developed a new organisation model for the council which is based on hubs and campuses, working with partners such as the Police around the community areas.
Carlton is passionate about developing future leaders and has led the development of a coaching and mentoring programme across the council in order to develop leaders and enable managers to share their skills and experience. Himself a fully accredited executive coach and leadership mentor, Carlton is a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
Carlton enjoys engaging and sharing ideas with partner organisations and other councils through his activities with South West Councils, SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) ACCE (Association of Council Chief Executives) and CCN (County Councils Network) among others.
Prior to joining Wiltshire, Carlton was Corporate Director for Resources at St Edmundsbury Borough Council in Suffolk where he led on performance improvement through systems thinking and the efficiency/cost reduction agenda in response to the Gershon review, amongst others.
For the first twenty years of his career, Carlton worked for Ford Motor Company; first as a design engineer in product development and latterly as a senior manager leading large teams of engineers on the concept, design, development and launch into manufacturing of major new model programmes such as the Ford Focus. Carlton has worked widely across Europe, the USA and Japan in many Ford and supplier engineering and manufacturing facilities.
Married with two sons he enjoys all forms of motor sport, cricket, fishing and astronomy.
During Carlton’s time as Corporate Director at Wiltshire County Council he co-led the transition to the new unitary Wiltshire Council. As part of the ongoing transformation process he led on the implementation of an ambitious new business management programme utilising SAP to underpin the new organisation; the introduction of systems thinking (lean) to transform service performance for customers; and procurement reform amongst his many other corporate responsibilities. In the last couple of years he has developed a new organisation model for the council which is based on hubs and campuses, working with partners such as the Police around the community areas.
Carlton is passionate about developing future leaders and has led the development of a coaching and mentoring programme across the council in order to develop leaders and enable managers to share their skills and experience. Himself a fully accredited executive coach and leadership mentor, Carlton is a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
Carlton enjoys engaging and sharing ideas with partner organisations and other councils through his activities with South West Councils, SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) ACCE (Association of Council Chief Executives) and CCN (County Councils Network) among others.
Prior to joining Wiltshire, Carlton was Corporate Director for Resources at St Edmundsbury Borough Council in Suffolk where he led on performance improvement through systems thinking and the efficiency/cost reduction agenda in response to the Gershon review, amongst others.
For the first twenty years of his career, Carlton worked for Ford Motor Company; first as a design engineer in product development and latterly as a senior manager leading large teams of engineers on the concept, design, development and launch into manufacturing of major new model programmes such as the Ford Focus. Carlton has worked widely across Europe, the USA and Japan in many Ford and supplier engineering and manufacturing facilities.
Married with two sons he enjoys all forms of motor sport, cricket, fishing and astronomy.
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