“Tomorrow is one of those moments in history that I suspect we will all remember for a long time. The referendum starts at 0700 when the polls open and they close again at 2200; 370,000 people are registered to vote in the county, an increase of 20,000 since the end of 2015. This is very positive for democracy in the county as well as a good cleanse and update of our electoral register. We then start the verification and count tomorrow night at 2200 and I expect to declare a result for Wiltshire somewhere between 0430 and 0530 Friday morning. The national result is likely to be declared a little later at breakfast time in Manchester.
Whatever the result, the outcome will have a profound effect on our lives, businesses and the prosperity for the county and country. So historical indeed.
Could I just say thank you to the election team for organising tomorrow. It’s a mammoth feat of programme management, technical knowledge, logistics and overall organisation. And they have done a brilliant job as they always do.
And thank you too to you all – 850 of you working tomorrow all day at the polling stations and a further 400 working at the four count venues through the night to get us to the result. 1,250 staff involved and I am very grateful to each and every one of you. Good luck tomorrow.
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton”
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Friday, 27 May 2016
EU referendum and a personal best
Yesterday I met with the managers and team leaders from across all of my service areas to update them on the wider national, corporate, political and service issues facing us all. We discussed devolution, business rate retention and the changes to local government financing as well as the key policy issues that the leadership team are currently working on, such as asset transfers to town councils, as well as the year end budget position for the team and the challenges we face during this year. It was a good conversation with lots of opportunities for questions and answers.
Attendees then broke into their service teams, facilitated by the Associate Directors, to work shop our approach to the ’17-18 budget and develop an initial list of ideas to achieve the savings we need next year. I was pleased to see the enthusiasm in all of the teams and the quality of thinking and ideas generated, many of which are radical which is always good. We now have a long shopping list of items to work up over the next few months. Thank you to all those who participated.
We are right in the planning and preparation phase for the EU Referendum which as you’ll know is taking place on June 23. Well over 1,000 people will be working on the day and through the night, but I’m still short of poll station presiding officers and poll clerks. So I need some volunteers please. It’s a great experience to work on elections and referendums, so if you’ve not been involved before please call or email me and we’ll get you involved. Whichever way the vote goes, it will be a historical night so do please come along.
Finally, I smashed my personal best for the 10 mile time trial on Wednesday evening with a time of 25 minutes 10 seconds. A time in the 25’s was my personal goal this year so I’ve now revised that down to 24 minutes anything before the end of the season. I might need a skin suit though…
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Attendees then broke into their service teams, facilitated by the Associate Directors, to work shop our approach to the ’17-18 budget and develop an initial list of ideas to achieve the savings we need next year. I was pleased to see the enthusiasm in all of the teams and the quality of thinking and ideas generated, many of which are radical which is always good. We now have a long shopping list of items to work up over the next few months. Thank you to all those who participated.
We are right in the planning and preparation phase for the EU Referendum which as you’ll know is taking place on June 23. Well over 1,000 people will be working on the day and through the night, but I’m still short of poll station presiding officers and poll clerks. So I need some volunteers please. It’s a great experience to work on elections and referendums, so if you’ve not been involved before please call or email me and we’ll get you involved. Whichever way the vote goes, it will be a historical night so do please come along.
Finally, I smashed my personal best for the 10 mile time trial on Wednesday evening with a time of 25 minutes 10 seconds. A time in the 25’s was my personal goal this year so I’ve now revised that down to 24 minutes anything before the end of the season. I might need a skin suit though…
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Monday, 9 May 2016
A big thank you
Just a very short blog today to thank all of our staff, their families and friends who were involved in the Police & Crime Commissioner election last Thursday and Friday – well over 1,000 of you across the county. Many of you worked from 6.30am on the Thursday to 4.30am Friday for which I am hugely grateful and thank you. It was a long day and with such a large and spread out county, with four counting venues it always presents some logistical challenges. As ever, these were met head on and addressed.
My special thanks to the elections team led by John Watling. The planning, training, and well thought out preparation again meant that we delivered a robust and accurate election. You’re all a pleasure to work with.
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
My special thanks to the elections team led by John Watling. The planning, training, and well thought out preparation again meant that we delivered a robust and accurate election. You’re all a pleasure to work with.
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Friday, 22 April 2016
Business Expo and an update from Cabinet
A fun week this week, especially yesterday when I spent most of the day in Salisbury at the Business Expo 2016 event which we ran in partnership with the City Council and others. It was good to see so many old friends from numerous organisations and to catch up on what’s happening, the challenges and opportunities ahead and how we might collaborate to ensure business, the public sector and voluntary sector work together to ensure Wiltshire is stronger and can face the challenges ahead.
The biggest business challenge I heard, and facing us right now, is skills and education including attitude to work. Many organisations told me that. We are working hard within our Economic Development team on this issue with the Local Enterprise Partnership, the schools and colleges and new initiatives such as our City Deal “Higher Futures”. This is targeted at brokering level 4 and above qualifications to military service leavers and others to prepare them for the commercial sector. It was great to meet the team on their stand in the market place.
On Tuesday Cabinet approved the asset transfer which some of us have been working on for over a year. This includes multiple buildings, land, street scene services such as shop mobility, toilets and landscape maintenance transferring to the City Council. Local councils are the right guardians for these services which they can shape and tailor to the needs of their communities with those communities. The city council will decide in July if they wish to take on this opportunity. I hope so – seize the initiative as I always say.
To those of you who are busy in Monkton Park opening and scanning postal votes ahead of the PCC election on May 5 can I thank you. I shall pop in to see you all later this morning. And to eat your chocolate.
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
The biggest business challenge I heard, and facing us right now, is skills and education including attitude to work. Many organisations told me that. We are working hard within our Economic Development team on this issue with the Local Enterprise Partnership, the schools and colleges and new initiatives such as our City Deal “Higher Futures”. This is targeted at brokering level 4 and above qualifications to military service leavers and others to prepare them for the commercial sector. It was great to meet the team on their stand in the market place.
On Tuesday Cabinet approved the asset transfer which some of us have been working on for over a year. This includes multiple buildings, land, street scene services such as shop mobility, toilets and landscape maintenance transferring to the City Council. Local councils are the right guardians for these services which they can shape and tailor to the needs of their communities with those communities. The city council will decide in July if they wish to take on this opportunity. I hope so – seize the initiative as I always say.
To those of you who are busy in Monkton Park opening and scanning postal votes ahead of the PCC election on May 5 can I thank you. I shall pop in to see you all later this morning. And to eat your chocolate.
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Friday, 8 April 2016
Elections and appraisals
Easter is now behind us, the evenings are lighter
and I’m enjoying my bike outside now. My first time trial of the year is in two
weeks and I’m hoping to get under 25 minutes for 10 miles. I’ve been training
all winter so fingers crossed. I’m trying to shed another 4-5 kg just to be
sure.
We’re now in full swing with preparations for the
May 5 Police & Crime Commissioner election and the June 23 EU referendum.
Thank you to all those of you who have volunteered to work on both these
important events (over 1,000 staff, ex staff and others). It will be fun as
always, especially as we will be counting overnight and not finishing until
very late (or very early if you prefer). The elections team is doing a
fantastic job preparing as always. Candidates are now nominated and we’re
printing ballot papers, poll cards and the like. I shall be leading a training
evening in Devizes next Monday for count supervisors and others so see some of
you there.
This is the time of year for appraisals, although
personally I prefer to have a continuous conversation throughout the year about
performance, behaviours and aspirations as well as any challenges emerging. I
have my formal appraisal next week with the leader so I have spent some time
this morning preparing my objectives, outcomes and performance measures. I want
to encourage you to do this too. Every member of staff should have a formal
appraisal so if you haven’t had yours for ’15-16 please ask your manager. The new grow
system on the intranet is a great tool to enable this.
Speak
again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to
connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Carlton
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