Seasons greetings and thanks to all for your hard work this year

"Well it’s nearly Christmas and time flies when you’re trying to develop a balanced budget! I do want to take the opportunity to thank you all for your continued commitment and hard work this year. I find Wiltshire Council is an inspiring place to work and that’s down to all of you.

It was great to see so many of you at the staff forums which we completed last week. We held eight of these around the county and I have to admit I was surprised at the upbeat nature of the discussion, questions and ideas for improvement in the future. I found this encouraging, refreshing and heartening.

Do have a great Christmas, with a well-earned rest and have a happy new year. For those of us working over the holiday period, thank you.

We received our funding settlement from the government yesterday and as in previous years our finance team were spot on with their modelling and predictions. A cash cut in our 2015-16 grant of 13%, and this coupled with significant demand growth in adults, children and waste requiring overall savings of £30m or 10% to set a balanced budget. High numbers indeed but we have to remember that still leaves us with significant resources for us to continue to work with our communities and elected members to achieve our collective vision and objectives.

Speak again in 2015! 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.

Carlton"

Future funding, budgets and staff forums

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog, my apologies for this. It’s been a whirlwind of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) meetings where we are putting together bids for the county of up to £25m to deliver more high value jobs and houses across the county. We’re also working on the detailed project plans to deliver the schemes approved in the first round of our growing places funding that was announced in the summer. These schemes include Chippenham station and a number of road schemes across the county. Busy times for the economic development team.

I was in London late last week with other unitary directors and chief execs sharing our learning around our LEP, the budget where we need to identify £30m of savings for ’15-16, our business plan objectives and the wider transformation programme. It was reassuring for me to hear that we are up there with the best in terms of what we are delivering in the county, although the budget task is very difficult.

The autumn staff forum events start next week and I encourage you all to attend these. They are an important event for us all to share with each other what we are facing, how we will collectively tackle those challenges and most importantly to answer the questions that you will have for us all.

Speak again soon. 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.

Carlton

A couple of opportunities ....

A flying blog today just to make you aware of a couple of opportunities for us all. Wiltshire Council’s Learning in Wiltshire brand continues to go from strength to strength with a new and exciting website which really raises the profile of our service to businesses and communities across Wiltshire. Individuals and businesses can now access a fantastic programme of training and development to help further career and job prospects.

Please like, follow and share our Facebook page with your friends, family, work colleagues and businesses www.learninginwiltshire.org.uk

Wiltshire Rewards has been running for a year. Staff have spent over £880,000 and saved just over £100,000. Staff can join the scheme at any time by visiting www.wiltshirerewards.co.uk. Savings can be made on everything from your weekly food shop, to DIY, to holidays and days out.

Finally, the staff survey closes tomorrow. It is very important that we all complete this so that we can learn what we need to improve in the organisation moving forward. There is more information about how we acted on the 2012 survey responses on the staff survey information page on HR Direct.

Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter

Carlton

The importance of the staff survey

A very short blog today but with a very important message. 

I have just completed the on-line staff survey and I would like you to do the same please. It only takes five minutes (really) and it is vital that we get your feedback and comment on the organisation, what we’re doing, how we’re doing, what’s working and what isn’t. We do the staff survey every two years and it provides an important litmus test for what we’re all thinking and feeling and how we can continue to improve our work and organisation together.

As a management team we take the results very seriously and I will be very interested in comparing these results with the 2012 survey, to see where things have improved in the last two years, and where there are still improvements to be made. Working in the public sector is tough at the moment and we’ve had to take some difficult decisions around subjects such as the budget, working environment and how we deliver services. It’s therefore more important than ever that we get your feedback.

Here is the link to the survey 2014 staff survey.  There is more information about how we acted on the 2012 survey responses on the staff survey information page on HR Direct.

 For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter.

Speak again soon.

Carlton

Registering to vote and web casting council meetings

I’m glad it’s Friday already although the week has flown by. It’s been a tough one as I’m sure it has been for you too. Or of course that may be because I did a 10 mile time trial this morning on my bike before work – 23 minutes 27 seconds for the record. My legs ache now…

One of my roles is electoral registration officer (ERO) for Wiltshire. Under the new electoral registration system called Individual Electoral Registration or IER, if existing postal voters and proxy voters have not been confirmed onto the new December 2014 IER register, their postal or proxy vote has to be cancelled. We estimate that this will affect just over 3,000 postal voters across our county. In addition, proxy voters will only be able to retain their proxy appointment if their proxy is also registered individually in that revised register. So if I can make you aware of this, and remind you to ensure that you, your family and friends have all registered for IER. The General Election will be held on 7 May 2015, and it is therefore important electors ensure they are correctly registered before December this year. I don’t want anybody to lose their right to vote.

I attended a members training event yesterday. From next week’s full Council meeting we shall be web casting a live stream of the whole event which will then be available on the web for those who can’t make the live time. This is a positive step for promoting transparent local democracy and decision making as well as making public meetings more accessible to those who can’t attend in person. Members were advised on some of the issues facing anybody being filmed and recorded. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens and how this might change the content and nature of democratic debate in the chamber.

Speak again soon. 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.

Carlton