Our Petition is now coming up to the 750 mark.
Thank you so much for your support.

Let us now go for 1000+ Signatures as our target. Petitions are a good way to reinforce concerns we have regarding the failure to support those in need, often to the extent that it puts vulnerable people’s welfare and lives at risk.

We have only been able to reach a fraction of those people affected by the delays and failures of Wiltshire Services. We still have many to reach who have access to the internet, but there are others who do not have that small luxury, or who are unskilled in using it effectively.

I have promoted the Petition as best I can, but we need to get this out to those who do not have adequate access. This means we must engage neglected people we meet and assist them to get guided access to the Petition and other means of getting their critical needs met.

My source of Facts and Information.
As a Community Worker, Counsellor, Community Advocate and as a Town Councillor, I meet and hear from people every day. People who are struggling and who feel let down and ignored by the institutions that are supposed to be there for them. It is not just Wiltshire Council of course.

The very process of felling heard and listened to is healing in itself and seeing the changes that a good petition and campaign can bring is empowering to people who have felt powerless for much of their lives. The journey is often as rewarding as reaching our chosen destination.

In these various roles I describe I am in contact with the range of Services that Wiltshire Council is obliged to provide. I knew from direct contact and feedback, that Front Line Staff are under incredible pressures, largely because of lack of resources and serious staffing shortages.

In fact, staffing reductions have been so serious over the last 12 years (50% reductions & more) that remaining staff are resigning, taking early retirement &/or going off sick. The problem is that Front-Line Staff are now overstretched and additionally constrained in what they can tell their customers.

Another irony that results from these key failures, it that it is sometimes necessary to engage temporary staff from agencies, to cover the most critical staffing shortfalls. This is significantly more expensive, and those temp staff introduced need time settle in and engage fully.

Who Pulls the Strings?
How Wiltshire’s critical Services are required to operate is now determined more by Accountants and Legal Advisors, rather than by Professional Managers and Supervisors. This is the reason that Staff cannot tell you about the real causes for the increasing delays, of many weeks and months.

This especially affects those services that are reliant upon professional interventions, like Community Care Assessment, Social Care Provision, Social Work, Youth & Community Support, and Children & Family Services. it affects all services provided, including dealing with the Complaints.

As a result, there are many poor decisions made, forcing people to ask for ‘Reconsideration’, or even having to go to Court for an Appeal. Even those of us involved in supporting this lengthy process are now overworked. That is why I have resorted to this petition and seeking a political resolution.

Cutbacks in Planning & Development also cause distress.
The economic and political constrains put on Wiltshire Council’s Planning Department has also had a serious impact upon the support that is available of families, those who are homeless, needing to leave home, running a small business, or wanting to start up a business within our communities.

Wiltshire Councils Housing & Homeless Services are affected by the fact that Planning is more concerned to support House Building & Sales (& generating Rates), rather than providing affordable rental housing, with a diversity of accommodation to meet the needs of young single people.

In the business sector, Wiltshire Council is willing to risk small business failures, with long periods of empty Commercial Properties, rather than make their Commercial Premises more affordable, thereby driving down the rents of greedy private landlords. This is commercial & fiscal idiocy.

What are our Elected Representatives doing about this?
Sadly, even our Elected Representative on Wiltshire Council seem to be badly informed, while others remain silent because of the pressures from the whips of their political Party. Alternatively, there is childish infighting between Parties, which results in economic stagnation we now see.

The institution of Wiltshire Council is now largely determined by well paid Executives, who are more interested in securing their positions and bonuses, than properly, honestly, and openly overseeing the services they are legally required to provide as our ‘Public Servants’.

What else can we do?
So, besides signing our Petition, you are entitled to seek ‘Reconsideration’; an Appeal against unsatisfactory decisions; complain to Wiltshire Complaints Department; and/or contact you Local Wiltshire Councillor; Heads of Departments; The Chief Executive; and even your local MP.

My suggestion is that you prepare to do all these things and I will provide some guidance here as to how to go ahead with each of them. But for now, please sign the petition, encourage others you know to do the same and report (on the Petition’s comments & feedback sections) why you signed the petition.

If you can afford it, you can also promote this Campaign. I and others have done this several times and it does help get the petition out to others. Remember, there are increasing numbers of people who are now being failed by these and other underfunded and under-resourced critical services

Other Critical Services in NHS are affected by Wiltshire's failings.
In fact, the failure of Wiltshire Council to place Vulnerable Adults in appropriated Residential or Nursing Accommodation. Or be provided with the aids, adaptations, and social care to support them in their own homes, is blocking critical beds in the NHS hospital services. Both Patients and NHS Services suffer as a result.

There are so many impacts and consequences, many that I have highlighted here and in previous updates, but there are more to come. I will try to keep you up to date as best I can.