This is the first full week of running our complete ICT service end-to-end and I must say we’re quietly pleased with the way the first seven days have gone. Our first-time fix rate (how many calls we can fix at the first point of contact from our customers) is well above the level that Steria handed over to us on January 13. I spent some time at Bradley Road on Monday with the team, and it’s fair to say they’ve done a brilliant job. It will take us some time for the service to settle down and I thank our customers for their patience over those calls that do take us some time to fix or if the line is engaged when they call. We’re still learning about how many people we need on the helpdesk at peak times.
Yesterday I attended the Resources Scrutiny Select Committee with around 12 elected members. There were two major items on the agenda; a review of where we are with our HR plans especially the status of the management review and a series of presentations on our procurement work, especially the status of the £9 million we plan to save in 2011-12. Both reviews went well with some robust questioning and scrutiny from all sides.
Talking about HR, our new HR Direct web facility will be going live on January 31. I had the opportunity to review and test the new site in the test environment yesterday and I have to say it looks brilliant; very easy to use and intuitive too. When I see functionality like this it reminds me that some areas of Wiltshire Council really are becoming cutting edge in our industry. Well done to all involved.
England have just bowled out Australia for 230 in the second ODI, so fingers crossed for the next four hours!
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 21 January 2011
Friday, 14 January 2011
Friday 14 January 2011
Hi everybody and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had a good break over the Christmas period and I also hope that you can still remember it! 2011 seems to have started with all the pace that 2010 finished.
It’s been a momentous week this week for the team. At 12.01 this morning, we took our ICT contract back in house and so from today the whole of the ICT service is delivered by the Wiltshire team. I’d like to thank the forty or so people who pulled an “all-nighter” last night to ensure this happened on time, and as smoothly as possible. Performance reports that I have so far received are all positive, but I would ask you for your patience as and when some of the bugs do occur while we sort these out. This programme has been technically very difficult, including an enormous amount of knowledge transfer required as our team have had to learn so much about parts of the system that we haven’t delivered for well over ten years. Well done to the whole ICT team – great job.
The second momentous event of the week has been the take-over of the Monkton Park PFI building. This is an innovative first in local government where I believe that we are the first local authority to take over a PFI deal. This has been delivered by property, legal and workplace transformation colleagues including much negotiation with the banks over the Christmas period to pull it off. This deal gives us complete control of the building and importantly saves us around £300,000 per year – money that our elected members can now re-focus to their front line service priorities.
Finally for this week, work on the 11-12 budget continues apace. The final budget will be published in the next couple of weeks so we’re now into the minutiae of detail around specific proposals and how these are presented. I’m pleased to say that we’re just about balanced. Well done to the finance team. This week and next week we are consulting the public and businesses on their budget priorities so that these can be reflected in the final submission. More on this next week.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week
It’s been a momentous week this week for the team. At 12.01 this morning, we took our ICT contract back in house and so from today the whole of the ICT service is delivered by the Wiltshire team. I’d like to thank the forty or so people who pulled an “all-nighter” last night to ensure this happened on time, and as smoothly as possible. Performance reports that I have so far received are all positive, but I would ask you for your patience as and when some of the bugs do occur while we sort these out. This programme has been technically very difficult, including an enormous amount of knowledge transfer required as our team have had to learn so much about parts of the system that we haven’t delivered for well over ten years. Well done to the whole ICT team – great job.
The second momentous event of the week has been the take-over of the Monkton Park PFI building. This is an innovative first in local government where I believe that we are the first local authority to take over a PFI deal. This has been delivered by property, legal and workplace transformation colleagues including much negotiation with the banks over the Christmas period to pull it off. This deal gives us complete control of the building and importantly saves us around £300,000 per year – money that our elected members can now re-focus to their front line service priorities.
Finally for this week, work on the 11-12 budget continues apace. The final budget will be published in the next couple of weeks so we’re now into the minutiae of detail around specific proposals and how these are presented. I’m pleased to say that we’re just about balanced. Well done to the finance team. This week and next week we are consulting the public and businesses on their budget priorities so that these can be reflected in the final submission. More on this next week.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week
Monday, 20 December 2010
Monday 20 December
Well here we are - Christmas is only 5 sleeps away and we're nearly at the end of 2010 as well.
What a year it's been; challenging, frenetic, speedy and tricky don't begin to summarise it. Overall though we've achieved a great deal. When I look back over our objectives for 2010 we have collectively delivered on almost everything we set out to achieve. And that is thanks to all of you. Your resilience, tenacity and determination to deliver and succeed are inspirational and make this organisation the best I've ever worked for.
I'd like to thank you for your effort and achievements this year and wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful 2011.
Talk again next year.
All the best,
Carlton
What a year it's been; challenging, frenetic, speedy and tricky don't begin to summarise it. Overall though we've achieved a great deal. When I look back over our objectives for 2010 we have collectively delivered on almost everything we set out to achieve. And that is thanks to all of you. Your resilience, tenacity and determination to deliver and succeed are inspirational and make this organisation the best I've ever worked for.
I'd like to thank you for your effort and achievements this year and wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful 2011.
Talk again next year.
All the best,
Carlton
Monday, 13 December 2010
As we reach the end of the year I'm reflecting on what we have achieved in 2010, how we have gone about it and what lays ahead in 2011. For all of you who lead and manage others in teams, I thought you might like my top 10 ways to motivate teams:
1. Let people choose
2. Make it a pleasant place to work
3. Allow staff to work flexibly
4. Consider an internal awards scheme
5. Show an interest
6. Avoid cash incentives
7. Create clear goals...
8. ... and track progress
9. Lead from the front
10. Say thank you
It would be good to hear from you how you think we're doing against these criteria.
And finally, my views about the difference between leaders, managers and administrators:
1. Leaders - "what should we be doing?"
2. Managers - "how should we do it?"
3. Administrators - "why we can't do it?" Only joking...
Thanks for reading and talk again next week when we will have only five sleeps to go before Christmas Day.
Carlton
1. Let people choose
2. Make it a pleasant place to work
3. Allow staff to work flexibly
4. Consider an internal awards scheme
5. Show an interest
6. Avoid cash incentives
7. Create clear goals...
8. ... and track progress
9. Lead from the front
10. Say thank you
It would be good to hear from you how you think we're doing against these criteria.
And finally, my views about the difference between leaders, managers and administrators:
1. Leaders - "what should we be doing?"
2. Managers - "how should we do it?"
3. Administrators - "why we can't do it?" Only joking...
Thanks for reading and talk again next week when we will have only five sleeps to go before Christmas Day.
Carlton
Friday, 3 December 2010
Friday 3 December 2010
Today is a good day. England have bowled out the Aussies for 245 and are 1 without loss at stumps on day 1. Smiles all round. It was a long cold night...
Earlier this week I attended the Scrutiny Management Liaison Committee chaired by Cllr Jeff Osborne. This is the coordinating group for the four formal scrutiny select committees. We discussed and agreed on-going scrutiny arrangements for our procurement, performance and budget work moving forward.
Our procurement programme to identify and deliver £9 million of cash savings in 2011-12 is going well and is on track. We have reviewed our plans and results this week to confirm our confidence in achieving this figure through a combination of re-procurements, direct negotiations with our top suppliers (quick wins) and an additional phase of re-procurements due to commence part way through 11-12. Well done to all those in the team and across the organisation, working so hard to achieve this.
On Wednesday we held an asset management workshop with colleagues from the private sector. It was experimental in nature where we started to look at how assets might be managed in the context of "big society" and increased community engagement. We're not sure where this work will lead but we have to explore new and innovative ways to deliver our work in times of reducing budgets. Exciting stuff and I'll keep you posted on progress.
Thanks for reading and speak again next week.
Carlton
Earlier this week I attended the Scrutiny Management Liaison Committee chaired by Cllr Jeff Osborne. This is the coordinating group for the four formal scrutiny select committees. We discussed and agreed on-going scrutiny arrangements for our procurement, performance and budget work moving forward.
Our procurement programme to identify and deliver £9 million of cash savings in 2011-12 is going well and is on track. We have reviewed our plans and results this week to confirm our confidence in achieving this figure through a combination of re-procurements, direct negotiations with our top suppliers (quick wins) and an additional phase of re-procurements due to commence part way through 11-12. Well done to all those in the team and across the organisation, working so hard to achieve this.
On Wednesday we held an asset management workshop with colleagues from the private sector. It was experimental in nature where we started to look at how assets might be managed in the context of "big society" and increased community engagement. We're not sure where this work will lead but we have to explore new and innovative ways to deliver our work in times of reducing budgets. Exciting stuff and I'll keep you posted on progress.
Thanks for reading and speak again next week.
Carlton
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