Tuesday 6 March 2012

Morning all, I’ve been a little behind with my blog over the last week or so. No excuses, my apologies. Can’t believe it’s March already and spring is definitely here. I’ve even cleaned my bike and taken it out a few times to blow away those winter cobwebs. This will only end in tears at some point...

It was a big week last week with Council approving the budget. I just want to thank all of the finance teams and others who have been involved in this over the past six months or so. At some points it felt like it was never ending but in the end we have a robust budget that protects services for our communities and meets the saving that we needed to make in a thoughtful and considered way. Thanks and well done all.

I had the pleasure of visiting the MOD Porton Down facility last week with the Local Resilience Forum (LRF). The LRF are the group of public sector officers from many organisations that plan and rehearse for emergencies that might happen in our community. The visit was important to enable us to familiarise ourselves with what is a large site and also to gain an understanding of the type of work conducted there and the risks involved. It was fascinating. I hadn’t realised that we have a community of world class scientists and engineers – more than 2,000 in total – on our door step. Talking to colleagues from other branches of government, we were able to join up some of the objectives of the various organisations and explore new ways of strengthening the work that employs so many people in Wiltshire. A great day.

This week sees a return to more normal duties after the excitement of the budget last week. I’m visiting the economic development and spatial planning teams in Shurnhold on Thursday – pop along if you have a few minutes please – and then going on to Browfort to meet managers and staff in our weekly hub meeting. I also have one-to-one coaching sessions scheduled with three members of staff this week which is always fun and a real learning opportunity for me.

I’ve been picking up messages that some staff might lack the confidence to use our Lync software. Lync is a Microsoft product on most of our computer desk tops enabling us to stay in contact and communicate with colleagues in real time between offices and different sites without the need to use email, the telephone or more importantly travel. I’m using the system a lot myself and with practise it’s become second nature. I urge you all to experiment with the system and if necessary dedicate some time at your teams meetings for some informal training.

For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand. Thanks for reading and we’ll talk again in a week or so.

Carlton