Update from Chief Executive Mark Wynn, 1 April 2025
Hello everyone,
Speaking of gritters, I recently visited our Wrightington Highways depot, you can read about this on the intranet. The photo below was taken at the depot with Rob Wilson, Highways operations manager on the left and Josh Charnock, Assistant Operations Engineer on the right.
I also attended the second of our long service lunches for staff who have worked for us for 40 years or more. It was great to see so many staff from all directorates who have chosen to spend their careers with us, and I hope the small token showed how much we appreciate this choice. The next lunch will be in June, and invites will be sent out soon.
County council elections
You will already know that Lancashire County Council elections will take place on Thursday 1 May. These elections will decide all 84 seats on the council. If you haven’t already, please take a look at our elections website. This contains everything you need to know, from how to register to vote, voter ID, and information about who will be standing in your local area, which will be announced on Thursday 3 April.
Once the elections have taken place, votes will be counted on Friday 2 May. You can stay up to date on the results as they’re announced on our elections website or on our social media channels.
Don’t forget, we're still in the pre-election period until 1 May. During this period, the council must not do anything which could be perceived as showing support for any candidate or political party and must ensure that the political impartiality of the council and its employees is maintained. Please refer to the pre-election period guidance for staff on the intranet to see how your service delivery may be affected during this period and who to contact for further advice.
As we approach the upcoming elections, I wanted to thank everyone involved for their hard work and dedication. Your efforts are crucial in ensuring a smooth and fair electoral process.
Live question and answer session
Thank you to everyone who attended the live question and answer session last week.
These events are crucial in helping us listen to staff from across the organisation to better understand and discuss the issues that matter most to them. Unfortunately, I was unable to be there due to attending a funeral, but I was keen this important session went ahead. I understand that we had a variety of questions, including those about devolution, local government reorganisation, elections, and finance and savings.
If you weren’t able to attend, I would encourage you to watch the recording here. We have also created a page that summarises the questions and answers, which can be printed and shared with staff who may not be able to watch the recording.
For those who attended the session or have watched the recording, it would be great if you could complete this evaluation form to see how you thought the session went and how it could be improved.
New SharePoint Intranet
You'll know that work has begun on building our new Intranet site, using SharePoint - a powerful platform for collaboration and content management. Feedback from the intranet survey will ensure the site meets the needs of our staff.
Our new intranet aims to have a clear identity with consistent branding, be a trusted single source of information, be clear, concise, and engaging, be accessible and inclusive for all, and help staff quickly find everything needed to do their jobs efficiently.
Work on a pilot site is underway. Once it's ready, you will have the opportunity to provide feedback. Content will be moved in phases, and editors and owners will be contacted with details on preparation and migration timelines. Training and guidance will be provided to help familiarise everyone with the new platform. Please keep an eye on staff news for updates throughout the process.
Staff check-in survey results
You may remember that we ran a short staff check-in survey at the beginning of the year. Over 1,500 of you took part and reported that:
- 59% of you feel fairly or very optimistic about working for the county council over the next 12 months.
- 76% of you have seen your service-level results from the 2024 staff survey.
- 65% of you are aware of the four key priorities that emerged from the 2024 Staff Survey: Pay and Workload, Leadership Effectiveness, Change Management and Involvement, and Bullying, Harassment, and Abuse.
- 64% of you are not aware of any actions being taken in response to these priorities.
I am pleased to see that many of you feel optimistic about working for the council and are aware of the survey results and priorities. However, I recognise the need to better communicate ongoing actions as a result. To address this, we have compiled a summary of actions from all directorates in response to the 2024 staff survey priorities. You can find these on the Staff Survey webpage.
Have a great week, everyone.