Bella’s SLT Blog

Before I start, please note that what I am about to tell you has not all happened this week! I know I like all that timey-wimey/Dr Who stuff, but I haven’t managed to fold time, create wrinkles in it, or even use one of those time-turners that Hermione Granger has in Harry Potter. This time Bella’s blog is more a reflection of events over the past two weeks.

Karen, Dia and I met with the Electoral Commission last week to discuss a number of matters including the forthcoming annual audit of the electoral roll and how the May elections had gone, particularly in light of the new voter ID requirements. You may have already spotted in the news that roughly 14,000 people across the country were not able to vote on 4th May as a result of the new requirements. From Mole Valley’s perspective, 99.6% of our electors, voting in the 59 polling stations throughout the district, brought photo ID with them. By the end of poll day, of the 204 electors who were initially turned away, 122 returned and were able to vote.

It was really pleasing to hear that the Electoral Commission were impressed with the Household Notification Letters we sent out prior to election day, advising residents of changes to the district ward boundaries, as well as the voter ID requirements. And they’ve asked us to share our best practice with electoral services colleagues up and down the country.

I appreciate how busy the Transformation Team have been, having attended four Service Review meetings myself in the past couple of weeks. We really did get “under the bonnet” of everything the Democratic Services, Electoral Services, HR &OD and Legal Teams do and it definitely felt like no stone was left unturned. It will be interesting to see how this work shapes up in the months ahead.

As the UK Covid Inquiry continues, all local authorities are required to supply data at various stages and a number of us met recently to prepare the information we need to provide by the middle of July. At this point, the Inquiry is interested in what key equipment and supplies, including PPE, was procured for the purpose of supporting the pandemic response, by whom, from which suppliers, by what method, and at what total cost to the taxpayer.

During Covid, we of course needed to arrange for the provision of PPE to our own staff, including masks, hand sanitiser and gloves, and this extended to those working on the May 2021 elections. Kate Butcher is now kindly pulling all our data together for submission to the Inquiry.

This week, I attended the same Coaching – Mentoring course that Piers mentioned a couple of blogs ago. It was fascinating and there were a few things that really stood out for me that I wanted to share –

– It’s important to use what we learn on training courses (and this probably applies to anything new that we learn) within four days otherwise we will forget it.

– We can read so much from someone’s body language (some would even say that communication is 70% body language and 30% spoken word.)

– The importance of silence. So, when someone is thinking about something before they answer a question, they often cast their eyes upwards. They are recalling a memory/information. If you spot this, stay silent and wait for the person to speak again.

Coincidentally, I also noticed that Seonaid’s “squiggles” seem to be becoming a thing. The trainer on our course has written a book on coaching and what should be on the front cover but…..

In other news, I’ve been reading quite a few reports that officers are taking through the July cycle of meetings. And I had planned to run a code of conduct session for our Parish Councillors earlier this week. Unfortunately, I only had one taker….I clearly cannot compete with all the good stuff over at Dorking Halls (and I can’t wait to see the new Indiana Jones film btw), but I am hoping that more Parish Councillors will be able to attend the next session arranged for later in the summer.

That’s it from me this time. Have a good weekend.

Bella