Friday 28 March 2013

The 2013 unitary and parish elections are in full swing now. We’re in the middle of the nomination process – accepting nomination forms from potential candidates for May 2nd. There could be over 2,000 candidates contesting over 400 election – the second largest elections in the UK, so it’s a very big challenge for the team. All going well so far but as Returning Officer it’s a little unnerving!


I have just been interviewed by Mark O’Donnell on BBC radio about how we as an employer encourage people with disabilities into the work place. This is a very important issue for me because we need to attract and retain the very best people in the organisation. With 17% of the population having a disability, we need to reach out and ensure we recruit from this large pool of talent. At present only 2.3% of our staff declare themselves as having a disability so we have some work to do.

Earlier this week we had another in a series of staff engagement events at Monkton park aimed at explaining the changes that we plan to refurbish the building between May and December this year. This will affect the 300 staff based there and a further 200 who will be moving in. Key highlights are; desk to staff ratio of 1:2, paper-less office space, flexible meeting space, hot desking and flexible IT enabling staff to work anywhere – especially out in our communities with our customers and clients. This is all about improving service performance and dramatically reducing the costs to the business of the many buildings we have. I am also pleased that we will share the building with our police partners – enabling us to join up our services with them.

Finally I wish you all a happy Easter holiday – if you’re staying at home or going away, stay safe, relax and have fun. Don’t eat too much chocolate either (40Ibs lost so far...).

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 couple of weeks.


Carlton

Friday 15 March 2013

This week I have had the pleasure of attending not one but two award ceremonies – the first was for all of our staff who were nominated for awards for 2012 and the second was the health and wellbeing awards for Wiltshire, celebrating the efforts and achievements of staff, partners and community groups from across the county. Both were a humbling experience and served to remind me what dedicated and talented people we have in the organisation and across our county. The future is bright when you see such talent recognised.

The personal challenge I have had this week with the two ceremonies is avoiding the extra food on offer. I’ve now lost 32Ibs and counting...

All of the staff nominated for awards were winners in my opinion, but I was particularly pleased to see the Development Services team win the innovation & Transformation award. It has been a long hard journey for the team of 160 and it’s not over yet.

For a full list of nominees and winners please see the link below:

http://thewire.wiltshire.council/index/corporate-awards-2012/corporate-awards-2012-winners.htm

Speaking of innovation and transformation, I have this week been interviewed by The Guardian Public Leaders Network Zone for a piece on systems thinking and how it joins up with the wider transformation programme including buildings, new technology and most importantly leadership and management of people. You can read the interview here, and I would appreciate any feedback:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/vodafone-partner-zone/interactive/wiltshire-s-lean-thinking-transforms-service

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

Thursday 7 March

I have mixed feelings this morning; England were hammered on Day 2 of the first test against New Zealand which doesn’t bode well for the Ashes later this year, but I have now lost just over 2 stone in 7 weeks which is good. Three more to go, and I must buy a suit that fits for the staff awards next Tuesday. Speaking of which I’m really looking forward to seeing many of you in the new Atrium at County Hall to celebrate the achievements of so many colleagues over the past year. Reading the nominations was an inspiring and humbling experience.


Over the last week or so I have attended four staff engagement sessions that Maggie Rae organised for Community Services; Salisbury, Chippenham, Devizes and Trowbridge. Over five hundred staff attended and it was good to speak with the team and hear their ideas for improvement and innovation over the next few years. I always worry that as a team – all 5,000 of us – we will run out of ideas of how to improve services for our communities, clients and customers. I needn’t have worried, and I was so impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment to doing things differently in the future.

Tomorrow, Maggie, Carolyn and I are spending a full day together to work on the draft of the new Business Plan. When the new members are elected in May, we want to have an analysis of the current situation the country and county are in together with a series of options for members to pursue to deliver their policies, priorities, ideas, and manifestos. This is exciting and really gets the creative juices flowing. More on progress in future blogs.

This morning I am meeting with the CEO of the Police & Crime Commissioners Office to explore ways in which we can support each other to enable delivery of the Police and Crime Plan, and to ensure the Police and Crime Panel – a type of scrutiny function that many of our elected members sit on – works well. I’m then being filmed for a short video on mentoring young people, something that I enjoy a lot. Not sure about being filmed though!

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