Wednesday 12 December 2012

Well it’s almost Christmas and just time for one last blog before the break. I have to admit to feeling slightly tired and I’m longing for some time off with Tracy and the boys. We’re having a quiet one at home – not even planning to go back to Essex this year which must mean that we are now fully assimilated into the West Country after six years. Yes it is that long. I am looking forward to reflecting on all that has happened this year and also starting to think through our objectives for next year. Fun all the way in the Brand household! I have a few items for my telescope on my Christmas list too.

Could I thank you all for your hard work, commitment and focus this year. The innovative things we’ve achieved together never cease to amaze me: whether it’s the year of celebration (the Jubilee visit and the Olympics); our work with communities to share service delivery and develop new ways to work together and shape services locally; major new contracts for highways and street scene; our new behaviours framework; meeting over 2,000 staff at our regular forums; our improvement in customer satisfaction by 16%; seven new campuses approved and under development; our new hubs and work anywhere technology (well almost anywhere); our continued work on systems thinking to improve service performance; the integration of colleagues from Public Health – they bring another innovative dimension to our organisation; the help to live at home programme and extra care housing schemes in adult care and new commissioning strategies and delivery models in Children’s services; our primary schools rated as being amongst the best in the country in the recent league tables published; the Planning transformation programme which goes from strength to strength; the Police & Crime Commissioner elections; Economic growth, employment and the Core Strategy are progressing well too. And what can you say about the Porton science park? All of these achievements are truly outstanding and the list could go on and on...

We’ve had some tough challenges too: the Ofsted review of Children’s safeguarding, and our budget cut by a further £16m to name but two. However, we are well placed to meet these challenges with talented and skilled staff and robust delivery plans.

The key leaning for me from all of this is just what a talented and strong team we have in Wiltshire. We should probably spend a little more time celebrating our successes, especially over the next couple of weeks.

Have a very Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year. All good wishes for 2013.

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 next year.

Carlton