www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Leading by Example
Leading by example - what’s it all about?
Public organisations in Wiltshire are taking the lead in improving the health and skills of their employees and reducing the amount of waste they produce.
The members of the Wiltshire Strategic Board are ‘Leading by Example’ to encourage businesses and other organisations to follow suit.
What are the benefits?
The Leading by Example initiative will enable organisations across Wiltshire to demonstrate their commitment to the three themes, thereby promoting organisational development and efficiency, and making Wiltshire a better place to live and work.
By signing up to the Leading by Example initiative we can collectively have a significant impact not only on our employees, but on their families and friends, by promoting healthy living, lifelong learning and waste minimisation in the County.
A Healthier Wiltshire
'To improve the health and wellbeing of people in Wiltshire by reducing the number of employees who smoke and by improving their diet and levels of exercise'
WiSB has set the target for Wiltshire to become the healthiest County by 2014. Employers can play a key role by providing employees with opportunities to make healthier choices in terms of smoking, substance misuse, diet, and exercise.
Top tips:
- Adopt a Healthy Eating Policy including standards for canteens, vending machines, food trollies, working lunches, conferences and training events.
- Ensure free water machines are provided and accessible in all staff locations.
- Provide Staff with access to subsidised physical activity opportunities such as gym membership.
- Ensure staff have access to support/counselling (eg via Occupational health services) if required in relation to substance misuse.
- Implement Smoke free Policy which strives to achieve Wiltshire Platinum standard (no smoking on site or within grounds/facilities)
Skills for life
'To improve the “skills for life” of people in Wiltshire by raising the skills of employees in organisations across Wiltshire'
If you sign up to improve skills for life in your organisation, you will work with a service provider to address, not only basic literacy and numeracy needs, but also to arrange short ‘brush up’ programmes addressing more sophisticated skills such as report writing, public speaking and presentation skills, which directly relate to individuals’ roles within your organisation.
You may want to start the process with an audit or survey of the skills of some sections, or all, of your employees. The Learning + Skills Council (LSC) - which itself has undertaken a survey of all its 70 staff - can help you to undertake such a survey. The LSC will act as a broker between you and a service provider who will arrange to carry out the skills audit.
Once the audit has been completed, the LSC can help you to meet the training needs which have been identified at no cost to your organisation. All Skills for Life provision is fully funded, with no fees for your organisation. Indeed, until March next year, the current free2learn Employer Training Pilot programme can meet the majority of the associated employee release costs as well.
Top tips:
- Keep to a simple upbeat message – you are supporting people in developing skills, not addressing deficiencies
- Consider branding the initiative – the national brand is ‘Skills for Life’
- Brief your middle managers – they will need to own the initiative
- Aim high – programmes can be up to GCSE A*-C grades
- Look for support - from your provider, from your trades unions’ Learning Representatives
Tackling waste
'To minimise the amount of waste produced and reduce landfill, by reducing the amount of office waste produced by organisations in Wiltshire'
Wiltshire’s Strategic Board has set itself a target to become the most waste efficient County by 2014. It is seeking to agree with Government a target of no more than 200 kilos of office waste to landfill per employee per year, and a recycling rate of 60-70%.
A sensible first step in becoming more waste efficient is to undertake a waste audit of your organisation to determine current levels of waste and recycling. Once the baseline is established, a series of measures can be implemented to try and reach the targets for increasing recycling and reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill sites.
Catherine Dixon at Wiltshire County Council will be able to provide you with more information about carrying out the audit and training your staff to become more waste efficient.
Top tips:
- Educate staff on all aspects of waste management and encourage them to suggest ways to improve efficiency and reduce waste
- Seek opportunities to reuse material - make note pads from scrap paper or give suitable materials to a local school or scrap store
- Consider segregation of waste (certain materials are more easily recycled than others)
- Seek to maximise use of electronic systems and reduce consumption of paper – only print emails if essential and publish information on the web
- Consider recycling of toner cartridges, drinks cans and office paper
How can my organisation get involved?
You can ‘sign up’ to any or all of the three themes. The key aim of Leading by Example is to help organisations make significant improvements in these three important areas.
Wiltshire’s organisations vary enormously in terms of size and focus and different organisations will set themselves different standards of achievement - the most important thing is to take significant steps forward in improving health of employees, reducing waste or improving skills for life in organisations across Wiltshire.
For smaller organisations and partnerships committed to the principle of Leading by Example, a key contribution may lie in communicating and promoting the objectives to members and partners. The active support of smaller organisations will be essential to the success of the initiative, even if they are unable to commit to the full range of ambitious targets.
More information
Further information and advice about Leading by Example is available from the three theme leaders:
Health:
Sarah Fussell
Tel: 01225 757520
Email: healthier@wiltshire.gov.uk
Skills:
Malcolm Parkes
Tel: 01793 608018
Email: wiltswindoninfo@lsc.gov.uk
Waste:
Catherine Dixon
Tel. 01225 757523
Email: wastemanagement@wiltshire.gov.uk
Contact Details
By Post
Project Manager
Healthier Wiltshire
Room 241B
2nd Floor, County Hall
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8LE
By Email
By Telephone
01225 757520
Opening Hours
Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
