In this issue:
What's new?
The Customer Engagement Team has developed a new Customer Service Toolkit – My Council Works (you can also find this as a tile on the ‘Your Work’ section on My Council Works). It provides an introduction to the team, the systems they manage, useful training and the services they offer.
Here you ‘ll find the following key sections:
- Customer Service Training
- Customer Engagement Team
- Systems We Cover
- Why Develop Internally
- Recent Success Stories
- Projects in the Pipeline
One of the features is a new easy-to-use tool Liberty Spark – My Council Works. Spark is a simple, visual collaboration tool that helps organisations map out how their processes work so everyone can understand them, spot problems, and make improvements.
It uses clear diagrams to show step-by-step workflows, making it easier for teams to collaborate, find inefficiencies, and improve how things get done, leading to better services, lower costs, and smoother operations.
The Engagement Team has been using Spark to support a range of projects, including short-term let licensing, communities fund applications, and primary school registration processes, among others.
You can also find Liberty Spark on our Service Design page on MyCouncilWorks.
Coming up
School’s out for summer
If you’re still wondering what to do with the kids this summer, LiveArgyll is running a range of summer camps and events. From multi-sport to gymnastics, football to shinty, pickleball sessions and family fitness classes, you can find all the information at LiveArgyll.
You can also find lots of activities (both indoor and out) for all ages on the Parent Club Scotland website.
We hope all our education staff, children and young people have a lovely summer.
Congratulations
David Mitchell, MBE
Congratulations to David Mitchell, Head Teacher at Dunoon Grammar School. David received an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list for his outstanding services to education. Well done David for all your hard work and dedication.
Well done Jonathan
Congratulations to Jonathan Hoyland, Telecare Technician, who took part in his first ever kiltwalk, raising money for The Beatson cancer charity, in memory of his mum. He completed the Glasgow to Balloch walk in 7.5 hours. Fantastic achievement Jonathan!
Regulatory Services and Building Standards successes
Congratulations to our Regulatory Services and Building Standards Teams on celebrating a well-deserved hat-trick of successes last month.
At the Scottish Local Authority Building Standards Scotland Awards, the team won the Outstanding Service and Commitment Award for its efforts in supporting other local authorities with ‘commercialisation work’.
The team also retained its Customer Excellence (CSE) award following an audit at the start of May. The audit said the team ‘clearly remain at the forefront of excellence and the recommendation for retention of the CSE Standard is well deserved.’
To top it off, Conor Brolly, Environmental Health Officer, and Adrian Rowe, Regulatory Services Officer, were awarded the Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Health and the Higher Certificate in Food Standards Inspection at the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland’s (REHIS) Awards Ceremony.
Alan Morrison, Regulatory Services and Building Standards Manager, said: “I am very proud of the whole team for the endless hard work and commitment which have led us to achieve these awards. I would especially like to pay tribute to Conor and Adrian on their awards. They have both shown a great dedication to studies and a strong determination to succeed, which I am sure will take them far in their careers. Congratulations.”
Climate friendly Argyll and Bute
Help nature at your doorstep flourish this summer
Working and living in Argyll and Bute, we’re never far from trees, hills, water, beaches and all the wildlife that comes with such a diverse landscape. Our environment shapes so much of our lives and even though it seems abundant, our natural habitat could do with a helping hand this summer.
Helen Wallace ,our Local Biodiversity Project Officer, tells us about what’s going on in our natural world and the simple things we can do day to day to make a positive difference.
What is biodiversity?
The variety of all living things and how they interact. For example our types of trees, flowers, moss, birds, insects, fish, mammals, fungus and bacteria.
Why is biodiversity important in our natural word?
Everything in our natural world is connected, the soil that grow the plants, that then support our pollinators and the growth of crops, the quality of our air, wetlands to prevent flooding, our wellbeing. The greater our biodiversity the stronger our natural world is.
What’s our biodiversity like in Argyll and Bute?
We have incredible diversity here, from unique seabird colonies on our islands to wildcats and ancient forests but across Scotland about 20% of our species are considered at risk of extinction or are declining.
What can we do?
The good news is that there is plenty of things we can do to help nature in our corner of Scotland thrive. Here are a few suggestions:
- Leave an area of your garden to rewild and allow wildflowers to grow through
- Let some ‘weeds’ grow for a bit longer as plants such as dandelions are vital for bees
- Consider swapping artificial grass to natural grass to help worms and other bugs which are delicious to many native birds
- Try not to use poisons in your garden as these could accidently kill hedgehogs, owls and other animals. RHS offers good advice Slugs and snails / RHS Gardening
- Swap glue traps for humane traps so animals are not accidently killed
- If you’re creating a wildlife pond think about having shallow edges to allow animals to escape if they fall in.
- Install bird boxes, bat boxes, pine marten boxes, insect hotels to enjoy nature flourishing in your garden.
- Put up bird and red squirrel feeders
- Leave gaps in fences to allow animals to travel through
If you love nature as much as I do I hope you enjoy these tips and helping our natural world flourish.
Where can we find out more?
If you’d like to learn more NatureScot has produced Developing with Nature Guidance which offers great advice for lots of different things that can be done to help nature in our gardens Developing with Nature guidance | NatureScot
Connect for Success
A space to test ideas, gain diverse input and help with decision making
Our new council-wide sounding board The Link launched in June with a membership of colleagues from roles and locations that reflect the breadth of what we do. Meeting five times per year, the group will get-together to discuss topics that you put forward, offering a unique friendly space for constructive feedback. As a unique addition to our working lives, the group is there to help foster creativity and innovation, bounce ideas about and gain new perspectives that can help shape your work.
If you’ve got a topic in mind then simply get in touch for a chat about how it works and what’s involved.
Contact The Link Chair, Rachel Holliman rachel.holliman@argyll-bute.gov.uk (Communications Project Officer – Connect for Success)
Newsflashes from June
Training and useful resources
We have two great learning opportunities now available on LEON:
Professional Development Award (PDA) in Project Management
Earn a SCQF Level 8 qualification . This course includes five workshops and covers:
- Project justification and planning
- Managing project implementation
Using Data to Tell a Story
A two-part workshop open to all staff, focused on turning data into insights and using storytelling to drive change. Linked to Connect for Success and Data-Driven Decision Making.
Visit LEON to learn more and register.
Please note: All bookings require manager approval. Managers will receive a booking alert to approve your place.
Growing Our Own
Growing Our Own is an initiative the Council established a number of years ago to ensure that we have a skilled workforce for the future.
The initiative promotes the Council as an employer, provides opportunities for the workforce to develop and aims to attract and provide opportunities for young people within the area.
A number of colleagues have recently supported external events as part of Growing Our Own.
Developing our Young Workforce recently organised a STEM event with ALIenergy at Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh. Cameron McAuley, Environmental Health Officer took part in a council workshop where he talked to pupils about his work. Amy Wemyss, our Senior Quantity Surveyor also delivered a workshop to pupils on Construction and Quantity Surveying.
Colleagues from HROD, Early Years, Adult Care and Customer Services attended a careers fair at Oban High School earlier this month to meet pupils.
Margaret Bennett, OD Project Officer attended the event: “It was great to attend the Oban High School careers event to promote the wide range of opportunities at the council and talk about how the knowledge and skills pupils are gaining in school can link to work they will do in the future.”
You can find out more about Growing Our Own on MyCouncilWorks.
