This week has been packed! On Monday we held our Autumn Team Day for all staff in the department. We use these twice yearly events to review where we are including what we’ve achieved and learned together; assess the issues we face at the moment, and describe and agree the priorities for the next six months. There has been a lot going on in the organisation over the past few months so it was important to get the the whole team together. We try to inject a little fun into the presentations and exercises as well as addressing the business issues that it is important to discuss. Everybody seemed to enjoy the day and we have had some really positive feedback from staff on the importance of these events.
Wednesday was the Audit Committee where members approved the final accounts for 2010-11. These were unqualified and finance also had to comply with the new international standards for accounting reporting. They have done a fantastic job achieving these outcomes this year. Well done to the team.
On Thursday, Cabinet and CLT met with their counterparts from Buckinghamshire CC. The purpose was to exchange information and views on what we’re both doing and to pick up ideas from each other in terms of how we might develop our thinking and delivery in different ways. The Bucks transformation programme is very similar to ours and I was interested to hear how they are using SAP to automate their performance appraisal process on line for all employees. The Bucks way of commissioning their economic development work from a board comprising many private sector business partners was innovative too. We’ll be exploring how we might achieve some of the benefits that they are seeing from this approach.
Also published this week is the report to Cabinet on the senior management restructure. Cabinet will make a decision on this next week, October 6. This is well worth a read and can be found at the link below. I think this is an excellent report; innovative, bold and deliverable in my opinion and sets us up very well for the next few years as we deliver our business plan together.
Thanks for reading and we’ll catch up again next week.
For daily updates, views and opinions, you can now follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand
Have a good weekend in the sun.
Carlton
Friday, 30 September 2011
Friday, 23 September 2011
Here we are on Friday again and this week has been excellent. It’s always good to finish the week on a high.
The DTR team met for half a day yesterday to define how we will balance our budget next year and deliver the £5million reduction that we need to contribute to the overall corporate position and investment in front line services. We now have a plan for how we will achieve this and the service directors and I are working on the implications for our customers, communities, the business, politicians and of course our reputation. I am so pleased that we have retained our services in house and are able to do this – redirecting spend into our priorities and front line services. If we had contracted these services out, or if we were in a shared service arrangement, then these savings at these levels would be unavailable to our communities and the rest of the business.
I chaired the Shaping the Future Board earlier in the week where we reviewed the work on our new values and behaviours. This is a great piece of work and will help us to change the culture of the organisation over time in line with the aspirations described in our Business Plan. There has been a huge amount of staff engagement in developing this and I thank you all for getting involved and for setting out the behaviours that will help make Wiltshire Council a really great place to work in. This will be rolled out and communicated progressively through the autumn but will also feature as part of our team away day on Monday.
I spent some time coaching and mentoring two young managers in the team this week. I love this aspect of my job – developing others, and frankly it is the most important part of any senior leaders role. Growing managers and leaders is something that great organisations do and I would encourage others to make the time to do this. The return on investment is massive!
Finally, we have our autumn team day on Monday in Devizes. This is a chance for the whole team to get together; to review where we are, what’s happening, to celebrate successes and talk about our objectives for the next six months. Always enjoyable and challenging, I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Sharpen your pencils for those tricky questions...
For daily updates, comment and opinion on all sorts of things, you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand.
Have a good weekend and speak again next week.
Carlton
The DTR team met for half a day yesterday to define how we will balance our budget next year and deliver the £5million reduction that we need to contribute to the overall corporate position and investment in front line services. We now have a plan for how we will achieve this and the service directors and I are working on the implications for our customers, communities, the business, politicians and of course our reputation. I am so pleased that we have retained our services in house and are able to do this – redirecting spend into our priorities and front line services. If we had contracted these services out, or if we were in a shared service arrangement, then these savings at these levels would be unavailable to our communities and the rest of the business.
I chaired the Shaping the Future Board earlier in the week where we reviewed the work on our new values and behaviours. This is a great piece of work and will help us to change the culture of the organisation over time in line with the aspirations described in our Business Plan. There has been a huge amount of staff engagement in developing this and I thank you all for getting involved and for setting out the behaviours that will help make Wiltshire Council a really great place to work in. This will be rolled out and communicated progressively through the autumn but will also feature as part of our team away day on Monday.
I spent some time coaching and mentoring two young managers in the team this week. I love this aspect of my job – developing others, and frankly it is the most important part of any senior leaders role. Growing managers and leaders is something that great organisations do and I would encourage others to make the time to do this. The return on investment is massive!
Finally, we have our autumn team day on Monday in Devizes. This is a chance for the whole team to get together; to review where we are, what’s happening, to celebrate successes and talk about our objectives for the next six months. Always enjoyable and challenging, I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Sharpen your pencils for those tricky questions...
For daily updates, comment and opinion on all sorts of things, you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand.
Have a good weekend and speak again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 16 September 2011
16 September 2011
Well who was it that said a week is a long time in politics – Harold Wilson I think. He was right! It’s been a busy couple of weeks in Wiltshire since we last spoke.
We’ve been working hard on preparing the key elements of next year’s budget – Michael is leading this and has set out clearly what is expected from each service area in terms of savings next year. The council’s 4-year Financial Plan clearly sets out the need for us to save £36 million next year. For Resources and Transformation this means we’re now generating ideas and proposals to evaluate over the next few weeks to enable us to balance our budget for 2012-13. More detail on this over the next few weeks.
I attended the Resources Select Committee yesterday, at Monkton Park, where they were scrutinising the Transformation Programme. I presented a paper and current status of our work which then led to an hour of questions and answers about the detail. Always a robust affair, it was great as it challenged our thinking and will help in developing how we can better achieve our objectives.
Whilst at Monkton Park yesterday, I visited the Elections team. We’re in the middle of the annual canvass at the moment so the whole team were very busy. I also has a quick look at the proposed new parliamentary boundaries. Some big changes in Wiltshire which could move from 5 constituencies to 4.5 – sharing one with North Dorset. Controversial stuff. All comments have to be back to the Electoral Commission by early December.
CLT has met a number of times over the last week. The team is working very well together and driving the organisation forward to deliver the political priorities, policies and actions determined by our elected members in the business Plan. The Extended Leadership Team – including all the Service Directors – met this week also to ensure we were all focused on delivering the objectives that we have agreed and we all agreed that whilst it may be unsettling for some as the organisation decides on its future leadership model, it is business as usual. The Leader of the Council, Jane Scott also attended this session and led a full discussion about our priorities and work over the next few weeks and months and reiterated the need now to deliver the plans we have in place . This was very well received by all attendees.
I’ve got the “Twitter bug”. If you would like more regular blog updates, usually daily and in only 140 characters, you can now follow me on Twitter - @drcarltonbrand. How’s that for good value!
Talk again in a week or so...
Carlton
We’ve been working hard on preparing the key elements of next year’s budget – Michael is leading this and has set out clearly what is expected from each service area in terms of savings next year. The council’s 4-year Financial Plan clearly sets out the need for us to save £36 million next year. For Resources and Transformation this means we’re now generating ideas and proposals to evaluate over the next few weeks to enable us to balance our budget for 2012-13. More detail on this over the next few weeks.
I attended the Resources Select Committee yesterday, at Monkton Park, where they were scrutinising the Transformation Programme. I presented a paper and current status of our work which then led to an hour of questions and answers about the detail. Always a robust affair, it was great as it challenged our thinking and will help in developing how we can better achieve our objectives.
Whilst at Monkton Park yesterday, I visited the Elections team. We’re in the middle of the annual canvass at the moment so the whole team were very busy. I also has a quick look at the proposed new parliamentary boundaries. Some big changes in Wiltshire which could move from 5 constituencies to 4.5 – sharing one with North Dorset. Controversial stuff. All comments have to be back to the Electoral Commission by early December.
CLT has met a number of times over the last week. The team is working very well together and driving the organisation forward to deliver the political priorities, policies and actions determined by our elected members in the business Plan. The Extended Leadership Team – including all the Service Directors – met this week also to ensure we were all focused on delivering the objectives that we have agreed and we all agreed that whilst it may be unsettling for some as the organisation decides on its future leadership model, it is business as usual. The Leader of the Council, Jane Scott also attended this session and led a full discussion about our priorities and work over the next few weeks and months and reiterated the need now to deliver the plans we have in place . This was very well received by all attendees.
I’ve got the “Twitter bug”. If you would like more regular blog updates, usually daily and in only 140 characters, you can now follow me on Twitter - @drcarltonbrand. How’s that for good value!
Talk again in a week or so...
Carlton
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