It's been a week out and about this week. Monday I was in Monkton Park for most of the day for Cabinet followed by a meeting of the Corporate Leadership Team. We spent some time digesting and discussing the implications of the coalition governments budget cuts of £6.2 billion this year. The next few years are going to be a time for innovation and creativity in terms of delivering enhanced services to our customer whilst cutting our costs!
Tuesday I was in Birmingham with the Chief Exec and Leader attending a conference with all of the other unitary councils that were created at the same time as Wiltshire. It was interesting to share information about how we are tackling some of the big challenges we face, and also an opportunity to learn from others.
Yesterday I spent some time with the Shared Services Team in East Wing. I always learn a lot form these visits and yesterday was no exception. I have a list of actions to follow up on where team members asked for help around issues such as; SAP interface development, the number of low value invoices we are processing, the way we process client contributions to respite care amongst others. If we can sort some of these issues out we will improve and simplify our business - which is good for our customers, our hard working staff and all at lower cost!
I shall be on holiday next week, so no blog I'm afraid. Back again week starting June 7.
Have a great bank holiday weekend and talk again soon.
Carlton
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Friday, 21 May 2010
Friday 21 May
This week saw the annual Council meeting on Tuesday where members decide whom will be chairing and serving on key committees across the organisation. Full Council also approved the Corporate Plan which will be in place for the next four years. This plan describes our vision, goals and the priorities and major work areas for the whole organisation. Our vision is to Create stronger and More Resilient Communities. It is underpinned by our three goals:
Deliver high quality, low cost, customer focused services
We must provide the services Wiltshire actually needs, of the quality our residents actually want, and do this in a cost effective way which represents value for money. We must make our residents and visitors, our customers, the starting point when designing and delivering services. Our focus, for everything we do, must be on the customer to ensure that people are satisfied with what we do.
Ensure local, open, honest decision making
To feel a sense of ownership and belonging, people must be able to contribute directly to the decisions that affect their local area. An open and honest approach is essential if we are to build trust in our communities.
Work together to support Wiltshire’s communities
The new council must work with its communities, focussing on their needs and helping them to help themselves. We will work closely with voluntary organisations, business and other public bodies. Working together to support communities and citizens, we can achieve so much more.
The Corporate Plan also describes our priorities and outcomes for the next four years
Our chosen priorities address the most pressing challenges facing Wiltshire. They respond to our customers and what they have said are important and need more attention.
The financial reality that we face means that we have to work differently. We must look at what we do, ensure we are doing the right things in the right way, avoid duplication, meet people’s needs and work in a more business like way to reduce costs.
We have identified the following priorities, as it is acknowledged that resources will not be sufficient to do everything we might want to do in the future.
- Focus on our customers and improve access to our services
- Work in partnership to support vulnerable individuals and families
- Local, open, honest decision-making
- Increase opportunities to help young people achieve their potential
- Support the local economy
- Meet housing needs
- Improve our roads and road safety
- Reduce our environmental impact
- Achieve savings, be more efficient and ensure we deliver value for money
We will review and design our services to reflect these priorities.
I'll come back to these priorities in future blogs, but for now have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Deliver high quality, low cost, customer focused services
We must provide the services Wiltshire actually needs, of the quality our residents actually want, and do this in a cost effective way which represents value for money. We must make our residents and visitors, our customers, the starting point when designing and delivering services. Our focus, for everything we do, must be on the customer to ensure that people are satisfied with what we do.
Ensure local, open, honest decision making
To feel a sense of ownership and belonging, people must be able to contribute directly to the decisions that affect their local area. An open and honest approach is essential if we are to build trust in our communities.
Work together to support Wiltshire’s communities
The new council must work with its communities, focussing on their needs and helping them to help themselves. We will work closely with voluntary organisations, business and other public bodies. Working together to support communities and citizens, we can achieve so much more.
The Corporate Plan also describes our priorities and outcomes for the next four years
Our chosen priorities address the most pressing challenges facing Wiltshire. They respond to our customers and what they have said are important and need more attention.
The financial reality that we face means that we have to work differently. We must look at what we do, ensure we are doing the right things in the right way, avoid duplication, meet people’s needs and work in a more business like way to reduce costs.
We have identified the following priorities, as it is acknowledged that resources will not be sufficient to do everything we might want to do in the future.
- Focus on our customers and improve access to our services
- Work in partnership to support vulnerable individuals and families
- Local, open, honest decision-making
- Increase opportunities to help young people achieve their potential
- Support the local economy
- Meet housing needs
- Improve our roads and road safety
- Reduce our environmental impact
- Achieve savings, be more efficient and ensure we deliver value for money
We will review and design our services to reflect these priorities.
I'll come back to these priorities in future blogs, but for now have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 14 May 2010
Friday
This week has been fascinating at the national level watching the political parties forming a coalition government. Clearly we expect now to have an emergency budget in around 50 days, so it will be interesting to see how the detailed policies for public sector spending emerge. Finance and CLT have been working on these likely plans for a number of months in our Medium Term Financial Plan, so I'm not expecting any big surprises. I have almost caught up on the nights sleep that I missed last Thursday after a long night at the count.
Yesterday we celebrated the final SAP Payroll rollout for schools over in the East Wing with speeches, lunch and cakes. It was a good opportunity to thank the staff involved, all of whom have put a tremendous amount of personal effort into ensuring a successful SAP launch. Our success here has been recognised recently with two awards - one national and one international. In the latter, we came third behind Asda and BP. Not a bad effort for Wiltshire in my book!
Earlier this week CLT spent a day at Urchfont developing the detail that will go in to the Business Plan that we are developing for member approval in September. The Business Plan will be the blue print of how we will run and develop the organisation to achieve the aims and objectives specified by members in the Corporate Plan. The Corporate Plan is due for debate and approval at Council next week. If you haven't had a chance to read this - and I urge you to as it describes what the council will be doing over the next 4 years - it's on the intranet. It's important that we all understand what is expected of us over the coming years.
Later today I shall be meeting up with the Housing team in Bradley Road. We'll be considering how we can help with the service transformation journey that they have started by deploying systems thinking or lean in critical areas of their business. More on this in future blogs.
Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Yesterday we celebrated the final SAP Payroll rollout for schools over in the East Wing with speeches, lunch and cakes. It was a good opportunity to thank the staff involved, all of whom have put a tremendous amount of personal effort into ensuring a successful SAP launch. Our success here has been recognised recently with two awards - one national and one international. In the latter, we came third behind Asda and BP. Not a bad effort for Wiltshire in my book!
Earlier this week CLT spent a day at Urchfont developing the detail that will go in to the Business Plan that we are developing for member approval in September. The Business Plan will be the blue print of how we will run and develop the organisation to achieve the aims and objectives specified by members in the Corporate Plan. The Corporate Plan is due for debate and approval at Council next week. If you haven't had a chance to read this - and I urge you to as it describes what the council will be doing over the next 4 years - it's on the intranet. It's important that we all understand what is expected of us over the coming years.
Later today I shall be meeting up with the Housing team in Bradley Road. We'll be considering how we can help with the service transformation journey that they have started by deploying systems thinking or lean in critical areas of their business. More on this in future blogs.
Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 7 May 2010
Friday 7 May 2010
I'm writing this at 5.20 am after declaring the result for the South West Wiltshire Constituency about two hours ago. It's been a long, fun night and I'm off home soon to bed.
I'd like to thank the election team for a great performance last night and this morning. The whole team has run the election very professionally.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I'd like to thank the election team for a great performance last night and this morning. The whole team has run the election very professionally.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
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