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November 2019                                                                       November 2019

       Peer Review
       The Local Government Association recently conducted an independent review of
       Dorset  Council.  Officers  and  councillors  from  other  councils  across  the  country
       recently visited Dorset Council to review our progress since we formed in April. In
       summary, they told us:

       political leadership is setting the agenda and there is good cross-party working
       it’s good we are asking residents about our draft Council Plan, but we need to
       develop our relationships with town and parish councils

       we  need  realistic  plans  to  meet  financial  pressures,  balancing  priorities  with
       aspirations
       although employee morale and enthusiasm is good, many feel anxious due to the
       high level of change and we must respect that and work to improve morale

        We  are  grateful  for  the  feedback  which  will  help  us  improve  early  on  in  the
       council’s life.

       Extra Police Officers in Dorset
       The   go ver n men t   r ec ently
       announced  funding  for  the
       recruitment  of  additional  Police
       Officers.  Dorset  Police  to  receive
       an  extra  50  officers in  year  one  of
       Operation Uplift programme. It has
       been  announced  that  the
       recruitment target for Dorset Police
       is  50  new  officers  as  part  of  year
       one in the 6,000 national Operation
       Uplift  scheme.  This  figure  will  be  in
       addition to the existing planned recruitment for officers that Dorset Police already
       had in place. The National Policing Board recently announced how year one of
       the Government’s officer uplift programme would be allocated across all of the
       forces in England and Wales. The uplift numbers for both year two and year three
       of the scheme are yet to be confirmed.
       Chief  Constable  James  Vaughan  said:  “This  is  a  good  start  and  it  will  bring  a
       welcome relief to our stretched workforce.

       Brexit

       We  have  been  allocated  a  total  of  £500k  from  Government  to  aid  our  Brexit
       preparations.  To  date  £100k  of  this  has  been  approved.  We  are  working  with

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