Workforce Plan update
The Cabinet approved the Workforce Plan in June 2018 and shortly after that an Implementation Plan setting out seven workstreams to implement the Plan’s 38 actions was approved. 
The Council has an ambitious agenda for the next four years as set out in the Council Plan. In order to achieved this Plan the Council needs to continue to focus on its staff who must be capable, flexible, responsive, and focussed on productivity. It must ensure that it has the right people with the right knowledge, skills and behaviours deployed appropriately to deliver the Council Plan.
The Workforce Plan, which was developed through extensive consultation with service managers, services and staff is based around three themes:
- Sustaining a skilled, flexible and motivated workforce
- Supporting and initiating transformational change
- Building and sustaining leadership and management capacity
Seven workstreams have been established to ensure the Plan and its 38 actions are implemented:
- Workforce Planning
- Employer of Choice
- PRD, Performance and Development
- Leadership and Development
- Wellbeing
- Recruitment, Selection and Retention
- Rewards and Recognition
A recent update report that was considered by the Council Management Team outlined the progress that has been made in each of these workstreams, including:
- Progress with developing service workforce plans or including workforce planning in Service Plans
- The review of the East Lothian Way and drafting a ‘Staff Deal’
- Reviewing the PRD process
- Development of Management & Leadership Development programmes for Service Managers and Managers, which will be rolled out over the coming months
- A wide range of new Healthy Working Lives development including the Minds? Aye! Campaign on mental health issues, Mentally Healthy Workplace training for managers and personal resilience training
- A review of recruitment and selection processes
- The review of the Managing Attendance Policy
A further update report on progress will be considered by the Council management team and the Trade Unions through the Joint Consultative Committee in the spring.
Care in the Car Parks
Safety Notice: 
Staff are requested to ensure responsible and safe driving, with added caution when using car parks at John Muir House, Randall House and Penston House. These car parks are extremely busy and pedestrians can feel vulnerable when crossing to access buildings.
Please reduce your driving speed when using the car parks and be aware of blind corners and pedestrians, particularly during winter’s darker mornings and evenings. Follow the set flow for traffic, observe the advisory arrows, give way and no entry signs and park your vehicle in designated spaces only, not within visitors spaces and disabled access spaces are only for use by Blue Badge holders. For electric vehicles, ensure the EV Charging Spaces are used appropriately and with courtesy.
Where pedestrian routes have been demarcated, use these when walking in and around car parks.
Please report any incidents / concerns to the Health & Safety Team: healthandsafety@eastlothian.gov.uk
An evening with Alice Roberts at The Brunton
An evening with Alice Roberts - Digging into Britain's Past! 
Professor, writer and broadcaster Alice Roberts is embarking on a UK-wide tour with her only Scottish date at The Brunton on 21 February.
Alice will share insights, anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories from her personal journey to explore Britain’s past, with clips from programmes, from Time Team to Britain’s Most Historic Towns and excerpts from her books.
Each show will finish with 20 minutes Q&A.
We really want to hear your views
Just before Christmas (on 20 December 2018), East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership launched the first stage of its consultation and engagement around the priorities for the next East Lothian Integration Joint Board (IJB) Strategic Plan. The plan is what determines the work of the IJB and the ELHSCP over the next three years, including how services will be prioritised and developed and how funding will be allocated. We are talking about social care services and health services, like GPs, so the strategic plan is relevant for every single one of us.
At the moment, our engagement centres on the strategic aims we set ourselves when the IJB was established in 2015. We’re asking people to tell us which of those aims are most important to them now, and asking them to look at some new priorities that have arisen from rising levels need, a growing population and new legislation.
We are really grateful to a number of people who have already responded to our survey, which went online just before Christmas. I also wanted to remind people who haven’t taken part yet about how important it is to get your views in now, as we would really value your input and ensure that the new plan really reflects the views of staff.
The aims from the 2015 IJB Strategic Plan include:
- making universal services more accessible and proportionate to need and developing our communities
- improving prevention and early intervention
- reducing unplanned admissions to hospital
- providing care closer to home
- delivering services within an integrated care model
- enabling people to have more choice and control
- further optimising efficiency and effectiveness
- reducing health inequalities
- building and supporting partnership working.
We also asked if people thought our six new local priorities are right. These are Primary Care, Adults with Complex Needs, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Shifting the Balance of Care, Reprovision Programmes and Carers. Over two-thirds of respondents thought we’d got it completely right; nearly 11 per cent didn’t think so, and a further 21 per cent made suggestions of their own, including more focus on mental health services for adolescents and dementia services, which we will be looking at very closely as part of our work around mental health.
This first survey will close on the 3rd February so there’s still plenty of time to take part. We’re also going to be holding staff events and meetings between now and mid-March to allow more in-depth discussions. And, we will factor in feedback we have from other consultations like the Carers Strategy; What Do I Want For My Life, and Growing Older.
We will also be issuing a fuller version of the draft strategic plan soon so that people can see the impact of what they have told us so far in setting the priorities for health and social care in East Lothian.
The aims emerging from the questionnaire as the most important so far are:
- improving early intervention and prevention
- providing care closer to home
- enabling people to have more choice and control.
If you would like to tell ELHSCP what you think, you can find:
You can keep up to date with development by following us at: