First of all my apologies for not writing last week. My parents were down from Essex so I took a day off to spend some time with them. I remembered my blog sometime after lunch (and maybe a beer or two) in the middle of Bath. No excuse though!
It's been a week of big decisions in DOR. On Tuesday, Cabinet took the decision to in-source ICT back to the council from Steria. This is hugely important. The council is going through huge change at the moment and this is likely to continue for many years. Work Place Transformation, service transformation, our work on lean, development of Area Boards and accelerating our work with communities, developing closer relationships with our public sector partners (Unitary Plus) mean the requirements from ICT are changing rapidly. We are better placed to improve and develop the service if we have complete responsibility for it. Deborah Farrow is working on the transfer plan and we'll share this with you as soon as possible.
Cabinet also received the draft Corporate Plan and Medium Term Financial Plan. These documents, available on the intranet are well worth a detailed read. They explain what we will be focusing on as an organisation over the next four years, what our priorities will be and how we will fund these. They explain how we will meet the financial pressures in the public sector too, although this work will be continually developed as the national picture becomes clearer after the election. The Corporate Plan will be formally approved by Council in May. My Service Directors and I will now be developing the DOR Business Plan that we will have to put in place to deliver the corporate objectives. We'll share this with you as we develop it during the next few months. Do please have a read and feedback your comments to me.
I'm also pleased to announce that Neil Ward has been appointed Head of Service for Property. Property joined DOR on March 1st, and as John Shorto is due to retire next month we needed to ensure a seamless transition to his successor. As this position will report directly to me, Members made the appointment on Tuesday. I'm sure you will all join me in wishing Neil every success in his new role.
Thanks for reading and we'll catch up again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 26 March 2010
Friday, 12 March 2010
Friday 12 March 2010
Friday again and nearly the end of another busy week. Before I start, could I say thank you to everybody who emailed me with their thanks and positive comments about last weeks Team Day. It's so heartening to get positive feedback from so many different and diverse service areas. I really appreciate it.
I was in Salisbury on Wednesday morning with Andrew supporting his sessions meeting staff in the south of the county. I also led the hub meeting where we went through the March Team Wire. There were lots of great questions covering all sorts of topics, and I would encourage others to join these sessions. It's very important for us to discuss the hot issues of the day and answer queries and worries that staff may have, be they related to IT, Harmonisation, Bourne Hill or any other subject.
Yesterday I was in Taunton for most of the day at the RIEP - the Regional Improvement & Efficiency Partnership. This is a group of officers from all over the South West charged with developing innovative plans and projects for improving innovation, improvement and efficiency of our services. Key items on the agenda were Housing, Total Place and of course the financial challenges that all of our organisations face at the moment and over the next 3-4 years. Wiltshire needs to be fully engaged in this to share best practice between our authorities so we keep ahead of the game. So that's what we'll be doing!
On Wednesday I attended the second Heath & Wellbeing Awards Ceremony in Devizes. This was a celebration of many public, voluntary and private sector initiatives in Wiltshire that seek to support and help make our communities and individuals healthier - both physically and mentally. I have to say that I was blown away by some of the people I met, their stories and what they do to help and support others. It was a very humbling experience.
Thanks for reading; have a good weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
I was in Salisbury on Wednesday morning with Andrew supporting his sessions meeting staff in the south of the county. I also led the hub meeting where we went through the March Team Wire. There were lots of great questions covering all sorts of topics, and I would encourage others to join these sessions. It's very important for us to discuss the hot issues of the day and answer queries and worries that staff may have, be they related to IT, Harmonisation, Bourne Hill or any other subject.
Yesterday I was in Taunton for most of the day at the RIEP - the Regional Improvement & Efficiency Partnership. This is a group of officers from all over the South West charged with developing innovative plans and projects for improving innovation, improvement and efficiency of our services. Key items on the agenda were Housing, Total Place and of course the financial challenges that all of our organisations face at the moment and over the next 3-4 years. Wiltshire needs to be fully engaged in this to share best practice between our authorities so we keep ahead of the game. So that's what we'll be doing!
On Wednesday I attended the second Heath & Wellbeing Awards Ceremony in Devizes. This was a celebration of many public, voluntary and private sector initiatives in Wiltshire that seek to support and help make our communities and individuals healthier - both physically and mentally. I have to say that I was blown away by some of the people I met, their stories and what they do to help and support others. It was a very humbling experience.
Thanks for reading; have a good weekend and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 5 March 2010
Thursday 4 March 2010
Just a very short blog this week; it's been a manic week in DOR, but at least it's felt like spring which is great.
Firstly, I'd like to welcome all of the Property team to DOR. Led by John Shorto, they officially transferred on Monday, and it's great to have them on board and part of our team. This move will enable us to better establish a fully integrated approach to resource planning across the organisation; people resources, property resources and financial resources all in one place.
The spring Team Day was a great success yesterday. I'd like to thank all the presenters, stall holders, organisers - especially Jo Middleton and Jane Gray - and all of the 650 or so team members who attended. After such a stretching year, it was great to see everybody and to feel the buzz throughout the team, as well as having some time to discuss some of the ideas for future improvement within our team and business.
I attended the Council Tax team "lean review" presentation this morning in Browfort. It was excellent - the team have really understood their service as a system, and now have a great platform from which to begin their service redesign around the customer. Jeannette Young, Phil Ruddle and the whole team should be very proud of themselves.
Thanks for reading, and we'll catch up again next week.
Carlton
Firstly, I'd like to welcome all of the Property team to DOR. Led by John Shorto, they officially transferred on Monday, and it's great to have them on board and part of our team. This move will enable us to better establish a fully integrated approach to resource planning across the organisation; people resources, property resources and financial resources all in one place.
The spring Team Day was a great success yesterday. I'd like to thank all the presenters, stall holders, organisers - especially Jo Middleton and Jane Gray - and all of the 650 or so team members who attended. After such a stretching year, it was great to see everybody and to feel the buzz throughout the team, as well as having some time to discuss some of the ideas for future improvement within our team and business.
I attended the Council Tax team "lean review" presentation this morning in Browfort. It was excellent - the team have really understood their service as a system, and now have a great platform from which to begin their service redesign around the customer. Jeannette Young, Phil Ruddle and the whole team should be very proud of themselves.
Thanks for reading, and we'll catch up again next week.
Carlton
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Thursday, February 25
This week the council approved its budget for 2010-11. It was a long meeting on Thursday but the budget went through quite smoothly. Over £24 million of savings were identified, none of which impact on front line services. The second year business plan commitments for One Council and BMP were exceeded again, and we also delivered over £8 million of savings from procurement activity. The Finance teams and all of the departments have done a great job in preparing the budget.
I attended a refresher of my election training on Wednesday in Andover. I shall be the Assistant Deputy Returning Officer for the Wiltshire South West constituency at the forthcoming parliamentary election, so I needed to brush up on my election legal and process knowledge. It was a great day, although always slightly scary when you realise what can go wrong!
Just a reminder that we are having our Team Day next week, March 3rd. There are over 600 people already signed up but I'm sure we have one or two place left if any are required.
I am in London on Friday meeting up with directors from five other unitaries. We will be exchanging information and ideas about some of the big issues we all face over the coming months. Money and the election will feature highly! It's a good opportunity to check out what others think, and also to test out some of my ideas on them before we develop more formal proposals.
By the way, Avatar was brilliant - I'm a softie for a love story...
See you next week at our Team Day.
Carlton
I attended a refresher of my election training on Wednesday in Andover. I shall be the Assistant Deputy Returning Officer for the Wiltshire South West constituency at the forthcoming parliamentary election, so I needed to brush up on my election legal and process knowledge. It was a great day, although always slightly scary when you realise what can go wrong!
Just a reminder that we are having our Team Day next week, March 3rd. There are over 600 people already signed up but I'm sure we have one or two place left if any are required.
I am in London on Friday meeting up with directors from five other unitaries. We will be exchanging information and ideas about some of the big issues we all face over the coming months. Money and the election will feature highly! It's a good opportunity to check out what others think, and also to test out some of my ideas on them before we develop more formal proposals.
By the way, Avatar was brilliant - I'm a softie for a love story...
See you next week at our Team Day.
Carlton
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Thursday 18 February 2010
My blog is a day earlier today as I'm taking tomorrow off with Tracy and the children. I think I'm being taken to see Avatar, which I had no idea I wanted to see...
I spent this morning at Monkton Park with Andrew Kerr. It was good to see so many people in the three face to face sessions that we held - almost 90 or so people attended. It was good for us to learn about Andrew's background and the reasons for him coming to Wiltshire.
He summarised this as wanting to lead Wiltshire's key goal of stronger resilient communities, through high quality, low cost services, open honest, local decision making and working together for the good of our communities. This vision and strong leadership is something that he wants to build on with us and our members to do three things:
Make partnership a way of life
Make Wiltshire one of the best local authorities in the UK and the best place to work for
Making localism and local determination our greatest strength
He was clear in his belief that Wiltshire can achieve these things in a short space of time, making Wiltshire an even better place to work, play and visit.
Enjoy the rest of the half term break and talk again next week.
Carlton
I spent this morning at Monkton Park with Andrew Kerr. It was good to see so many people in the three face to face sessions that we held - almost 90 or so people attended. It was good for us to learn about Andrew's background and the reasons for him coming to Wiltshire.
He summarised this as wanting to lead Wiltshire's key goal of stronger resilient communities, through high quality, low cost services, open honest, local decision making and working together for the good of our communities. This vision and strong leadership is something that he wants to build on with us and our members to do three things:
Make partnership a way of life
Make Wiltshire one of the best local authorities in the UK and the best place to work for
Making localism and local determination our greatest strength
He was clear in his belief that Wiltshire can achieve these things in a short space of time, making Wiltshire an even better place to work, play and visit.
Enjoy the rest of the half term break and talk again next week.
Carlton
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