November could be nicknamed nervous November for me, as we await the results of the yearly resident and staff surveys for the council.
Whilst I’m confident that we have made sensible and much needed improvements to the council since taking over in May 2023, it will be fascinating to see if the people of Swindon and those who work for the council (and there is a very significant crossover, with the vast majority of our staff living in the town!) share my opinion that we have been making good progress.
Whilst I’m convinced that the council feels a more positive and welcoming place to work since we took over and I can feel that difference when I walk into the building, our work won’t be complete until residents feel that the council is a more engaged and listening organisation and that we are delivering good public services and getting as much as we can right first time!
We’ll be bringing the survey results to the November Cabinet meeting and making them public, whether they are good or bad, as we are committed to being open and transparent about the feedback we get and how we intend to use it.
I am pleased that there has been a sizeable increase in how many people have completed both surveys this year and am grateful to staff who made a concerted effort to get out to some parts of the community who haven’t been as likely to complete the surveys until now.
The information that we get from the surveys is valuable to help understand community priorities and get essential feedback on the services we provide.
Huge thanks to all of you who took the time to complete a survey and share your opinions with us, we are really grateful.
Alongside the resident and staff survey results, we will also be bringing forward the results of our recent Local Government Peer Review which sets out how officers and councillors from other local authorities think we are doing and gives us some useful advice on next steps, as well as the latest letter from Ofsted setting out how we are progressing on our improvement journey after the previous administration were rated as Inadequate for their running of children’s services.
We will also be sharing our plans for the Town Centre, consistently raised as a key issue on previous resident surveys, as we prepare for the next round of Let’s Talk Swindon engagement sessions with residents, where we’ll be seeking your opinion on the plans.
The plans are being finalised after a session with Town Centre landowners to get their feedback and buy-in to the ambitions we have set ourselves.
Once we have got feedback from residents at those engagement sessions, we will be using the plan to attract new investment to the town!
I can’t wait to get resident feedback and then start the process of taking the plan out to the investors to build the Better Swindon we all want to see.
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