Friday 16 April 2010

Back to work after my hols, and I'm pleased to report that the weather on the Costa-Frome was excellent. All the better too for not having to navigate Icelandic volcanic ash clouds and millions of people at airports...

This week I spent a morning with the Customer Care Unit management team at their team meeting. We went through much customer demand data that they have been collecting from their lean review and started to understand what it's telling us about how customers are contacting us and the problems they sometimes face. I love this stuff as it represents such an important way of learning about how to improve our work. I recommend this approach to everybody!

I have had the initial KPMG findings for our 2009-10 Use of Resources assessment. I met with the steering team earlier this week to review these findings and plan further work over the next two months in terms of additional case and evidence material which we will have to pull together for the auditors.

I went to Potterne yesterday to meet with senior staff at Wiltshire Fire & Rescue. We're exploring ways whereby we might be able to collaborate on things such as fleet management and maintenance, procurement, and support services. I think there are some very quick wins on the cards here, and it was great to meet colleagues from another part of the public sector who think so too. More on this anon.

Just for information, I have re-started my weekly tea & biscuits sessions for front line staff. Those of you new to DOR may not have heard about these, but it is an opportunity for 5 or 6 front line staff and I to get together over a cuppa to chat about anything at all, how things are going, how we might improve them too. If you'd like to attend, please email Jane or myself.

Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend, and chat again next week.

Carlton