I’m James Walton, executive director of resources, and I’m standing in for our chief executive, Andy Begley, to compile this week’s staff update. 

As you might expect from an accountant, let me begin with some financial news.  

You may remember Andy mentioning a few weeks ago that the finance team were attempting to produce a draft set of accounts by the statutory 31 May deadline. Last week I received a statement from my accounting body stating that “senior leaders in local government finance have told us the 31 May deadline will not be achievable without considerable risk to their organisations and their professional standing.”

Well, not in Shropshire. Hot off the press, they’ve only gone and done it – our draft accounts were on the website on Wednesday. I’m very proud of the team and everyone across the council who contributed to making this possible.

I’m pleased to report that in terms of our year end overspend we are slightly down on where we expected to be and have reduced the overspend by £1.5m despite inflation and service pressures. The final figures show that we finished the financial year 2022/23 at £8.5m. 

The reduction shows that our plan to bring down the amount is starting to have an effect. This is despite a very challenging climate particularly with demand for services and the highest rate of inflation in almost 40 years. 

By adopting a medium-term financial strategy, and robust and more accurate financial reporting, the picture is better than we thought. 

Our overall position remains very challenging. In this financial year we need to reduce our spend by £51m to stay within budget. 

But I believe we’re moving in the right direction and our plans and hard work are having a positive effect. 

I’m delighted to see that we are making progress on this project and, following a successful Levelling Up Fund bid announced in January this year, officers have submitted plans to demolish part of the centre. We've been working closely with current tenants of the shopping centre to keep them up to speed on a project that will help to shape a town centre of which we can all be proud.  

Why not take a few minutes to listen to an interview with Councillor Dean Carroll on BBC Radio Shropshire that gives an excellent overview of the Riverside development?

There are plenty of activities planned for the month and on our intranet site you can read the first of several articles planned for the month. We look at the history of the rainbow flag up to the present day, and how you could display it in your Teams meetings this month. 

A choice of three Teams backgrounds is available, which have kindly been produced by our communications team. They will be available on the background option on Teams similar to the Shropshire Council branded backgrounds that we use.    

We’ll be flying a rainbow flag outside the Shirehall in Shrewsbury this month. Please keep an eye out for details of the week in which we will be flying it, and see if you can spot which one we’re using. 

If you want to take our quiz about the rainbow flag and to find out what’s happening here this month as part of Shropshire Pride celebrations click the button below.

SAND (Safe Ageing and No Discrimination LGBT+) asked LGBT+ people who are aged over 50 to submit a photograph of themselves waving to the Wave Project, which is designed to raise the profile of older members of the LGBT+ community in the county. 

The launch event of The Wave Project will be on Sunday 4 June at 5pm at the museum, with a chance to chat and enjoy a light afternoon tea. If you can make it, please book at wave-project.eventbrite.co.uk.

For those who are unable to come along, the exhibition will run to the end of June, so hope you get a chance to see it. 

One of the common barriers to potential foster carers is a concern over the effect it will have on their own children… but as Annie from Oswestry explains, the impact of having other children in your home can actually be extremely beneficial. 

We’d like to hear your views about health, wellbeing and community so that we can plan and commission the best possible services for residents. 

You can follow the link and complete the joint strategic needs assessment survey here.  

You can read more here about how your input will be used and which places in Shropshire have already benefitted from taking part. 

We’re celebrating winning a new award after being presented with Health Promotion of The Year at the West Midlands Public Health Ball Awards 2023 for our health checks in the farming community.   

The awards bring together the public health community in the region to recognise the incredible work taking place over the past three challenging years.  

Our colleagues were there to showcase the brilliant work that we do to support people in our county to lead the healthiest lives that they can.   

Rachel Robinson, our executive director of health, wellbeing and prevention and Paula Mawson, assistant director of integration and healthy people, were joined by colleagues at the ball on Saturday 20 May. 

Health checks include the chance to have a blood pressure reading taken and the opportunity to talk about wider wellbeing as well.  

The programme has been a huge success and is now being delivered at both Shrewsbury and Ludlow livestock auctions, with a third service to begin at Market Drayton this summer.  A huge well done to everybody involved in our health checks for the farming community. 

We are a nation that struggles with sleep, with 36% of adults in the UK reporting that they have trouble falling asleep on a weekly basis. This webinar will explore why we need sleep, how our sleep changes as we get older and will give guidance around improving your quality of sleep. 

You can register here or visit the Wellbeing Corner What’s happening in the Council>STW Staff Wellbeing Hub programme of webinars to see what other webinars they are running. 

*The Staff Wellbeing Hub has kindly made their programme of webinars available to all council employees. 

Shropshire is a fantastic place to live, especially if you enjoy the great outdoors so why not have your say in its future?  

I myself live just a few hundred metres from our Colemere Heritage site and love nothing more than an early morning, sun-dappled walk around this beautiful lake with my two Cocker Spaniels. Well, until they spot a nearby pheasant that is!.

Every year the outdoor partnerships team conducts an annual user survey in order to identify how and where best to use the council’s resources to maintain and improve our rights of way network, country parks and countryside and heritage sites. The survey also provides information to support the delivery of Shropshire’s Great Outdoors Strategy 2018-2028.    

To get involved and give your views, click on the link below. 

Shropshire’s Great Outdoors Annual Public Survey 2023