Well the holidays are almost over for most of us and next week we return to something like normality in the council. I must admit that I have relished the last couple of weeks in terms on the amount of time that I've had to think about and plan the future direction of the Resources team. I find that quite difficult under normal circumstances with the pace of day-to-day work and the number of meetings that I have to attend.
So what about the future then? Well as the Leader has said it's all about delivery over the next four years. We've been on a journey to establish One Council, our community area boards and key enablers such as BMP. Now it's all about delivering the vision: resilient communities, customer focus, high quality low cost services and working together with our communities and partners (unitary plus).
So what does that mean for the resources team? In the short term, the next 4-6 months it means completing the appointments process, ironing out the residual issues with SAP and ICT generally, and commencing the pay harmonisation process. Over the next 12 months we will be leading major work programmes to meet key elements of the vision above. These include expanding our lean or systems thinking service transformation work (delivering customer focus and high quality low cost), work place transformation (delivering customer focus and low cost), procurement reform (delivering low cost), ICT investment (delivering customer focus, high quality and lower cost). More of this when we all meet on September 29 for the Resources team day, and more about work place transformation at the staff events starting in September - Salisbury is first up on September 7, so please come along if your are based in or around the city.
I chaired the corporate procurement board yesterday. This board of a cross functional team of directors and heads of service involved in procurement, commissioning and purchasing. It is charged with delivering procurement reform, encompassing; cost reduction - £9m targeted this year alone, development of our SAP procure-to-pay processes including category management, and developing our policies and procedures with regard to procurement generally. This group has a key role in the organisation as we spend over £325m per year on purchased goods and services. We were briefed by Tony Brett about the Buy Wiltshire website, www.buywiltshire.co.uk, an initiative aimed at businesses in Wiltshire to be able to advertise their services to us and each other and also for us to publish details of our current and potentially new contracts coming up. It is important to remind ourselves that when we purchase anything, we should be looking at buywiltshire.co.uk first to see which local suppliers can meet our needs. If you could all please do this.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 28 August 2009
Friday, 21 August 2009
Friday 21 August 2009
Back to work this week after a great week in Dorset. The weather was brilliant and we all had a good break together - I'm still trying to get the sand from Weymouth beach out of my shoes!
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & information management staff structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & information management staff structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday 21 August 2009
Back to work this week after a great week in Dorset. The weather was brilliant and we all had a good break together - I'm still trying to get the sand from Weymouth beach out of my shoes!
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & IM Staff Structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
I visited Monkton Park on Wednesday to spend the afternoon with the customer team. I sat with Amy and Sue and listened to a number of calls related to pest control and numerous other requests that our customers make. It's always good to meet staff and to understand some of the pressures they face. A big learning point for me was just how important a fully up to date web-based staff contact directory is. Ours is mixed in terms of quality, so I must encourage you all to check your entry and update it as appropriate. The customer team rely on this information when seeking to identify who should take a call to answer a specific customer query.
I met with HR this week to review progress with the appointments process. We now have around 104 people in the redeployment pool having already redeployed 96 people from that pool. We will continue to make every effort to place people over the coming weeks. Up to 40 of the people in the pool are from ICT and we have put our up-to-date structure chart on the Wire under Corporate ICT - then Business Transformation, ICT & IM Staff Structures. This is a big step forward and we now have nearly all the jobs JEQed and all the information together in one place for everyone to see the opportunities available to them. Please do take some time to study this in the days ahead.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Thursday 6 August 2009
Last Friday I spent a full day with the Wiltshire Employment Support Team (WEST) - part of the Department of Community Services. This service enables people with learning difficulties amongst others to seek, obtain and maintain real paid work - a real demonstration that we are involved with lives not just services. Samantha Buchanan and Graham Logan took me round to meet some of their service users and some of the employers that offer real paid work to people.
So what did I learn? Well I was really buzzing when I got home - it was inspiring to be with people with such passion, pride and expertise in their work and a real privilege to meet some of our service users all of whom share the same passion. I learned that the team make a huge impact on peoples lives - both our service users and on the lives of the people who care for them. Of course finding work is difficult in any circumstances, but in a recession it is doubly hard so it was fascinating to understand some of the techniques our staff use to address this. I was embarrassed by the fact that we as an an employer do not offer many roles like this too. So I shall be working with colleagues in the Corporate Leadership Team to identify and develop some real opportunities in this area over the next few months.
This morning we had our regular ICT Steering Team Meeting. This is where we meet at a senior level with both service staff and ICT staff to review what we are doing, how we are performing and where we need to direct more effort. It was interesting to see that since April 1, demand in terms of the number of calls being made to the ICT help desk has risen by over 40%. This is because we have 2,000 more staff and PC's on the network as well as the patch work of infrastructure, networks', domains and kit inherited from the five previous organisations. This year is one of transition for ICT as we work hard to sort out all of this to be able to deliver a single integrated high performing service. It's going to be a challenging journey!
I shall be away from the office next week on holiday so we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Thanks,
Carlton
So what did I learn? Well I was really buzzing when I got home - it was inspiring to be with people with such passion, pride and expertise in their work and a real privilege to meet some of our service users all of whom share the same passion. I learned that the team make a huge impact on peoples lives - both our service users and on the lives of the people who care for them. Of course finding work is difficult in any circumstances, but in a recession it is doubly hard so it was fascinating to understand some of the techniques our staff use to address this. I was embarrassed by the fact that we as an an employer do not offer many roles like this too. So I shall be working with colleagues in the Corporate Leadership Team to identify and develop some real opportunities in this area over the next few months.
This morning we had our regular ICT Steering Team Meeting. This is where we meet at a senior level with both service staff and ICT staff to review what we are doing, how we are performing and where we need to direct more effort. It was interesting to see that since April 1, demand in terms of the number of calls being made to the ICT help desk has risen by over 40%. This is because we have 2,000 more staff and PC's on the network as well as the patch work of infrastructure, networks', domains and kit inherited from the five previous organisations. This year is one of transition for ICT as we work hard to sort out all of this to be able to deliver a single integrated high performing service. It's going to be a challenging journey!
I shall be away from the office next week on holiday so we'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Thanks,
Carlton
Friday, 31 July 2009
Friday 31 July 2009
My theme for this blog is connecting with our customers, citizens and communities. This is vital for any organisation, be it in the public or private sector. Organisations which don't connect become irrelevant. Irrelevant organisation fail.
This week started with a full meeting of the Extended Leadership Team (ELT) - the corporate and service directors. We had a morning focusing on the new Corporate Plan which we will be drafting and developing with elected members over the autumn. This plan will describe our priorities for the next four years and what we will be working on to turn the our vision and goals into tangible outcomes for the people and communities in Wiltshire.
We are seeking to move away from the traditional service based approach to this work - that is each service coming up with hundreds of priorities and initiatives. This traditional complexity causes many problems - not least that we end up working on hundreds of separate initiatives rather than focusing on doing a few things very well. We are seeking to structure the plans not around services but around themes that relate to the people we are here to serve. These themes might be; Myself, My family, My community, My place. If we start thinking about delivering outcomes within these themes we stand a much better chance of connecting with our customers, citizens and communities moving forward. More on this to come.
I met with some elected members from the Warminster area board plus Ian Brown, Head of Service Amenity & Countryside and Heather Abernethy the town clerk to discuss and agree a way forward on some priority areas for the town. This was exciting as it demonstrated to me the potential power of the area boards to get things done quickly by connecting us with our communities to make a difference.
I'm spending all day today out on the road with the Wiltshire Employment Support Team - Samantha Buchanan and Graham Logan, part of the Department of Community Services. This service enables people with learning difficulties amongst others to seek, obtain and maintain work - a real demonstration that we are involved with lives not just services. I'll tell you all about what I learn next week.
Have a good weekend and talk again soon.
Carlton
This week started with a full meeting of the Extended Leadership Team (ELT) - the corporate and service directors. We had a morning focusing on the new Corporate Plan which we will be drafting and developing with elected members over the autumn. This plan will describe our priorities for the next four years and what we will be working on to turn the our vision and goals into tangible outcomes for the people and communities in Wiltshire.
We are seeking to move away from the traditional service based approach to this work - that is each service coming up with hundreds of priorities and initiatives. This traditional complexity causes many problems - not least that we end up working on hundreds of separate initiatives rather than focusing on doing a few things very well. We are seeking to structure the plans not around services but around themes that relate to the people we are here to serve. These themes might be; Myself, My family, My community, My place. If we start thinking about delivering outcomes within these themes we stand a much better chance of connecting with our customers, citizens and communities moving forward. More on this to come.
I met with some elected members from the Warminster area board plus Ian Brown, Head of Service Amenity & Countryside and Heather Abernethy the town clerk to discuss and agree a way forward on some priority areas for the town. This was exciting as it demonstrated to me the potential power of the area boards to get things done quickly by connecting us with our communities to make a difference.
I'm spending all day today out on the road with the Wiltshire Employment Support Team - Samantha Buchanan and Graham Logan, part of the Department of Community Services. This service enables people with learning difficulties amongst others to seek, obtain and maintain work - a real demonstration that we are involved with lives not just services. I'll tell you all about what I learn next week.
Have a good weekend and talk again soon.
Carlton
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