www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Members Update - 23rd May 2008
The Implementation Executive recently agreed principles and process for appointing Corporate Directors and Service Directors to the new structure. There will be five departments, each led by a Corporate Director supported by a number of Service Directors who will take responsibility for a range of the services provided within the department.
There are two Corporate Director posts unfilled and a number of Service Director posts. The Implementation Executive has set up an appointments panel of eight (four members from the County Council and one from each of the District Councils). The Appointments Panel is hoping to make all the appointments to Corporate Director and Service Director by the end of July. The appointments made will be announced as soon as possible.
I am sure that these appointments will give staff across the five authorities a greater sense of certainty. One of the first tasks of Corporate and Service Directors will be to progress the design and development of changes to service and structures.
George Batten
Transition Programme Director
Elections
(a) Parish and Town Council elections - The Structural Change Orderwhich created the new unitary Council alsodeferred parish and town elections in Wiltshire to 2013, thus resulting in a 6 year term for many parish councillors. This approach was designed to put parish elections on the same cycle as the elections to the new unitary authority without unduly shortening the terms of any current parish councillors. However during the Parliamentary debate on the structural orders the Minister undertookto bring forward an amending Order if there appeared to be a widespread sense thatthere shouldbe parish council elections in 2009.
We havenow received a formal consultation letter from DCLG seeking our views onthis matter and we are considering our response including consulting the Wiltshire Association of Local Councils on the matter.
(b) Unitary elections - the DCLG has also published a consultation paper on whether the elections to the new unitary council, scheduled for 7 May 2009,should be deferred until 4 June 2009 when they would be combined with the European Parliamentary Elections.
We are currently consulting our colleagues in the District Councils on the practical difficulties of this proposal.
Dates for your diary
- 3 June - Members seminar – BMP - 4pm-6pm
- 17 June - Implementation Executive - 4pm-6pm
- 26 June - Members Seminar – Street Scene - Assembly Rooms, Town Hall, Devizes - 6.30pm-8.30pm
NB:The above seminars are open to Members from county and district councils.
Workstream news…
Business Management Project (BMP)
The blueprinting workshops are well underway, with lively debate discussing how SAP (systems, applications and products) will be set up to match the needs of the services within the organisation, namely, HR, payroll, finance and procurement.
There is a Members’ seminar on 3 June 2008 from 4pm to 6pm in the Conference and Development Centre at County Hall, Trowbridge. Details will be sent out in due course.
Resources Workstream
Ready Steady Go : Vesting Date comes early for Electoral Services
Electoral Services is the first service to be set up as a single team and plan to be in their new location at North Wiltshire District Council's Monkton Park offices and operational by 1st September 2008.
Electoral Services staff have been meeting since February with representatives of all the authorities looking at ways of joining up as one team whilst ensuring they maintain their excellent service and standards.
Members of the team have put themselves forward to focus on particular areas and tasks, including a canvass plan, equipment audit, data merger – no small tasks - and all have worked extremely diligently in order to achieve these in such a short time.
One of the most important issues was organising the three different types of election software used by the authorities into one –– by fast tracking processes the team have procured the Express software currently used by two teams. Implementation and testing dates have been organised with a go live date of 13th August – an amazing achievement by all those involved.
Staff and Members at North Wiltshire District Council have been extremely supportive with the move to have the full election team at Monkton Park. They are welcoming the team with lunch anda visit to their new offices on 2nd June.
Frontline Services Workstream (FLS)
Graham Wilson, FLS Workstream Manager, has confirmed that by the end of May 08, lead officers and working groups in all eight service areas will have compiled the first drafts of a set of detailed reports clarifying how the services currently operate, what needs to be done to successfully amalgamate and transform them and what customers’ preferences are. Integration of some services is evolving naturally and some are likely to be merged well before April 2009. “The FLS Workstream is facilitating the handover by developing documents to inform the new directors exactly what is being done when the new structure is in place,” he says.
Community Leadership and Governance (CL&G):
A programme of workshops for area managers and team leaders has been set up to discuss collaborative working between services at the community area level and how these services will engage with and deliver through the area boards.
Customer Focus
The workstream are in the final stages of preparing the Customer Access to Services Strategy which will go to Overview & Scrutiny and JIT early in June and then for final sign off with the Implementation Executive on 17 June. This document sets out what customers can expect on 1 April 2009, together with the direction of travel of the transformation of customer access to services to 2012.
Contact Details
By Post
Programme Office,
Wiltshire County Council
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8JN
By Email
By Telephone
01225 713017
Notes: This is a communication from the Towards One Council Joint Implementation Team on behalf of Kennet District Council, North Wiltshire District Council, Salisbury District Council, West Wiltshire District Council and Wiltshire County Council. Minutes of the Towards One Council Joint Implementation Team are available on the extranet or by contacting us at the Programme Office.
