Archives for January 2017

Regional projects have a big impact

January 27, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Western Bay

With the push for regional collaboration likely to gain impetus after the local elections, it’s great to see one of our regional projects is having a big impact.

On Tuesday I attended the Western Bay Regional Partnership Board to discuss progress on the regional population assessment, which is a massive exercise of data gathering and interpretation in care and support that all such partnerships in Wales are required to carry out. This will help to make sure future decisions are evidence-based and that services are tailored to meet the needs of the population. It’s a crucial piece of work and it was encouraging to see it’s nearing completion and will be accessible via the Western Bay website and through our own Council website.

A lot of people have been involved in this great project, which has been a genuine partnership effort in terms of contributions. Overseen by Sara Hayes, Director of Public Health Wales at ABMU HB, data coordination led by Bridgend CBC and editorial oversight and writing led by Neath Port Talbot CBC colleagues, there has been considerable input from within our social services teams, particularly John Grenfell (Senior Information and Development Officer) and thanks to Sara Harvey and the team for all the hard work that has gone into it.

The board was established to provide high quality services that protect children and adults from harm, promote independence and deliver positive outcomes for people in Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea. The local authorities in these areas are working closely with the ABMU Health Board and with third and independent sector partners. Its primary purpose is to provide a strategic mechanism for co-ordinating a programme of change made up of specific projects that the partners have identified as a common priority.

The agenda for the partnership board was lengthy but important and we discussed the digital strategy for ABMU, the common regional ICT programme (WCCIS) as well as updates on commissioning for care homes and young people.

I think that the Western Bay is making good progress and I fully expect that the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Finance will want to see this continue when he returns to the issue of local government reform. Robust challenge and heated debate are often signs of a maturing partnership and this was certainly the case on Tuesday.

City Deal

It’s been another busy week on the City Deal with further video-conferences and discussions with the UK Government. Yesterday Council received a presentation from the Leader on the City Deal and a report seeking authority for the Leader and I to sign on behalf of Swansea, should the Welsh and UK Governments agree the City Deal in the coming weeks.

It was an excellent debate in the chamber and Council enthusiastically gave its unanimous support. I thank all officers and members who have contributed to this, particularly Huw Mowbray and the Economic Development Team who have lived and breathed this for the last six months!

Similar Council meetings have also been held in Carmarthenshire and Neath and Port Talbot this week to agree the principles of the deal, and Pembrokeshire will meet shortly to follow suit.

eBay

The Facilities Team, supported by the Commercial and Web teams, has successfully implemented the corporate eBay account. This started when the Facilities Team requested an eBay account as they had a surplus of office furniture from Penllergaer and other satellite sites.

In the initial phase we’ve tested the financial end-to-end sales process which involves links between a PayPal account and the Council’s main financial system.

To date we’ve generated more than £10,000. The experience of using eBay has been a positive one and so the expertise gained to date will next be made available to some users across the authority to list items for resale, surplus goods and redundant office equipment. At first eBay limited our trading account to a maximum of £1500 of sales; due to our success in selling goods and receiving positive feedback from buyers the limit has continually increased and we’re now able to sell up to £10,000 worth of goods at any one time and this limit will grow as our use of this sales platform expands. It’s important to note that as well as the financial gains that have been made by using this system we have also reduced waste. This method of disposal is separate to the Council’s re-use scheme. The rules of that scheme dictate that surplus property of any description should first be considered for transfer within the Council before any other method of disposal is considered.

Director of Resources

The Appointments Committee met on Monday and agreed a shortlist of six candidates for the post of Director of Resources. The final appointment will be made by Council on January 31 following the assessment centre process.

Staff Engagement Event

We’ve almost finished reviewing the comments and ideas from the staff engagement event and I hope we’ll be able to publish them all in the coming weeks. This has taken longer than expected because there were a large number of submissions and some of the ideas require detailed consideration by the Corporate Management Team and Leadership Team.

St David’s site

Rivington Land, our development managers for the St David’s site, will be publishing a draft outline planning application next week. Providing the ideas and concepts for the site’s regeneration, the publication follows extensive consultation with residents and businesses. The submission of an outline planning application will follow by the end of March for a new development featuring shops, restaurants, an indoor arena and a new, broad pedestrian link over Oystermouth Road.

Twin town

We’ve got some visitors from our twin city of Mannheim coming to Swansea next week to find out how the Council is going about transforming our services in the wake of the unprecedented budgetary challenges we’re facing. It’s testament to all the innovative work being carried out by our staff that the visit is taking place, with public sector organisations overseas keen to find out how we’re tackling the challenge head-on here.

Drone

Ben George, from our highways and transportation team, is becoming quite the expert in the use of drones to take photos and record videos. Some of his images and footage of Swansea from different vantage points are stunning. Here’s an image of the Guildhall he took with a drone.

Pride in our standards

January 20, 2017 by Martin 3 Comments

Corporate Health Standard

A week on from gaining the Platinum Corporate Health Standard I’ve had time to digest the assessors comments and it’s something that we can all be proud of.

To get Platinum an organisation really has to excel in terms of wider corporate social responsibility and innovation across the six categories – transport, facilities management, procurement, employment and skills, capital build, and community engagement. You also have to demonstrate that sustainability runs through each of these, providing a direct link to the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

Assessors met with 15 service users and staff and were impressed with a range of projects. These include the Fforestfach Day Service which is doing great things to support adults with learning disabilities to benefit from jobs and work experience that makes a difference to them and to local communities. The service deserves great credit for seven brilliant projects ranging from the well-known NEAT teams to catering services at the Victoria Park Kiosk, the Fforestfach fruit and vegetable nursery and the Grounds Maintenance Team which supports management of wildlife and environmental habitats.

The service is celebrating its 10^th birthday this year and during that period 245 people have been supported into paid employment so it’s really fitting that their story has helped us gain the Platinum award.

The assessors points included:

Innovation and commitment
Not afraid to try something new
Passion/belief
Leadership, not just management, at all levels
Lots of creativity
People feel empowered
Engagement – from the top all the way down
Passionate
Lots of partnership work and not worried about who gets the credit
The range of organisations we work with is great
Exemplar of good practice

This award really is a great credit to all our staff so thank you very much for all your commitment, you should all be proud of what you’ve achieved!

Tanya Nash

Next Friday will be the last working day here for Tanya Nash, our Sustainable Development Team Leader. Tanya has secured a new and an important role as Head of Performance with the Future Generations Commissioner’s office.

Tanya will be a great loss to this Council. For almost 17 years she has worked tirelessly to help us embed sustainable development principles into our organisation. On that journey she’s met many challenges including a number from our former Chief Executive Jack Straw, who once memorably asked her “what’s the point in having resources if you don’t consume them?” He was of course joking but it was interesting to witness Tanya’s way of handling such scepticism with a combination of patience, logic and persuasion which has characterised her career with us.

I wish Tanya all the best for the future and thank her for the excellent contribution she’s made to both the Council and the city. I know that we will still see Tanya in her new role and I look forward to further discussion on how we can ensure that sustainability is completely embedded in our organisation.

City Deal

Hot on the heels of Sir Charles Hendry backing plans for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, we’re hoping the UK Government will approve the Swansea Bay City Region’s City Deal bid by the end of February. If approved, it’d be hugely positive news for Swansea because of the thousands of jobs it would generate and the billions of pounds it’s worth to the local economy. A report going to Council on January 26 asks Councillors to give authority to the Leader and me to sign an “in-principle” City Deal agreement.

So far the City Deal projects have been prioritised and agreed. We’ve held a pitch session to the First Minister and effectively have Welsh Government support and approval. We’ve also held a number of meetings with the Secretary of State for Wales – including meeting reps from supporting businesses.

In terms of the next steps, we’re preparing for a pitch session to UK Ministers in two weeks and hopefully we’ll get a positive announcement towards by the end of February.

Sustainable Swansea commissioning priorities

During the recent staff roadshows we highlighted how the Sustainable Swansea programme is evolving into a cross-cutting themes approach. At this week’s Corporate Management Team away day we considered potential priority areas for the next round of commissioning reviews which will be outcome-based rather than service specific. These include outcomes for children outcomes for adults, transportation, capital programme, sustainable communities and prevention.

Once finalised the priorities will be the focus for the Sustainable Swansea Programme. Sarah Caulkin, our Chief Transformation Officer, is pulling together a transformation register of all activity as we recognise that change is going on across the organisation.

The next step will be to discuss these priorities at Leadership Team, involving Heads of Service and Directors to get support. There are also workshops planned for February where managers will be engaging staff in their own areas to discuss the priorities and to agree what can be done in individual teams and services to put them into action.

Inappropriate behaviour

You’ll know from previous blogs how strongly I feel about people treating our staff with respect. There’s no place for abusive behaviour and I’m delighted that the Innovation Community has been looking at this issue. Today I’m meeting some staff to consider how we turn their ideas into actions. It’s not an easy issue but we want to be creative in our approach so that we get the message across to the public that they should treat our staff with respect. I’ll update you as we make progress.

Well done

An independent panel has now shortlisted nominees for the annual Swansea Sports Awards, which are organised by our sport and health team. A special mention to three members of staff who’ve been shortlisted: Karen Gibbins, in our library service, and Sam Richards, in our cultural services team, both for volunteer of the year; and Adam Thomas, also from our cultural services team, for young volunteer of the year. Fingers crossed for all three who deserve recognition for their efforts.

It’s great to see more than 15 of our schools have now achieved RRS (Rights Respecting School) Level 2 – the highest level of the award granted by Unicef UK to schools that have fully embedded children’s rights in their policies, practice and ethos. YGG Llwynderw has become the first Welsh medium school in Wales to achieve the award. Assessors were full of praise for the staff and pupils and noted that it had an inclusive, warm and nurturing atmosphere which is based on an appreciation of rights and respecting one another. Congratulations to headteacher Gayle Shenton and everyone at the school.

The Guildhall is featuring in a trailer for a new movie starring Gemma Arterton, Bill Nighy and Jeremy Irons. Cast and crew were here in the autumn to film scenes for ‘Their Finest’ – a film set in World War Two. My thanks to staff in marketing for facilitating the filming request.

We all deserve respect

January 12, 2017 by Martin 2 Comments

Respect

One issue that continues to bother me is aggression and bullying of staff by people outside the organisation. It has festered ever since I spoke to Highways staff who told me that they thought it was just a normal part of the job when working on site.

Well, it isn’t!

Many of the things we do as an organisation are essential but often unpopular. Child and adult protection, civil parking enforcement, housing evictions and planning enforcement are just a few obvious examples but it extends to many other officers and councillors who have direct contact with the public. There is a mutual obligation that we should respect our clients and customers and we are entitled to be treated with civility in return.

Last Friday I met with the Innovation Community group which was set up last year to consider what can be done to tackle this issue. It is a complex one but over the coming weeks I’m optimistic the group will have some proposals that we can share and consult upon. I hope as many of you as possible will let us know your thoughts on this.

Staff views

At the recent roadshows in December staff asked a number of questions on a wide range of issues. We’ve now provided answers to all of the questions which are available via this link.

It’s great that staff came along and asked questions, but please don’t wait for the next round of roadshows to raise issues. You can post a question or a comment on this blog and I will respond to everyone.

Tidal Lagoon

Well it’s been a long time coming but we finally have the report from Sir Charles Hendry on tidal lagoons and it recommends to the UK Government that we proceed with the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay project.

In his report Sir Charles concludes that

“Moving ahead with a pathfinder lagoon is, I believe, a no-regrets policy. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, has rightly spoken about the obligation on policy makers to plan for the longer-term.

I don’t believe there would be any debate in decades to come about whether this was the right thing to do, even if it ended up as the only lagoon constructed – but I would expect it is much more likely to be seen as the decision which started a new industry, and all done at the cost of a small number of pence to consumers each year. This is not therefore just about how we decarbonise the power sector in the most cost effective way now; it is also about very long-term, cheap indigenous power, the creation of an industry and the economic regeneration that it can bring in its wake. If this is the conclusion, it also follows that we should start that process as swiftly as we can. After years of debating, the evidence is I believe clear that tidal lagoons can play a cost-effective part of the UK’s energy mix.

This is fantastic news for the city, the region and the economy. It will provide clean, carbon-free electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes for over a century. It will ensure that thousands of job opportunities are created for our citizens and help to attract even more investment and employment to Swansea Bay.

The UK government still needs to agree on a deal and a marine licence will also need to be approved and there will be much more to do and say over the coming weeks. For now I wish to put on the record my thanks to all the politicians and officers who have worked tirelessly on this project over the last five years. I have no doubt that the efforts of Swansea councillors, planners, economic development and other staff members have had a significant impact on Sir Charles and the review team.

Improving our reputation

CMT had an update this week on our social media activity and we’re really pleased with the progress we’re making. We’ve started using more videos online which are catching the public’s attention and helping to get messages to them. Technology and online services are also helping to significantly reduce the number of people coming into the Contact Centre. We also had the latest customer feedback that shows 72% of people are satisfied with the way we run things, which is a great endorsement of our staff and services.

Pentrehafod School

On Monday I visited Pentrehafod School to meet the head teacher, Jennifer Ford. Jennifer took over the leadership of the school in September and has a very clear vision for the future. We discussed the current challenges and future financial pressures as well as school performance and strengths. She also told me about the moving events that took place at the school to commemorate the Aberfan disaster.

We then discussed the rich history of the Hafod area and the importance of the school and the community working with the Council to interpret and celebrate that history through the Hafod Copperworks Cu@Swansea project. Following our successful stage 1 HLF bid our teams in Economic Development and Cultural Services continue to work with Swansea University and the community to regenerate the area whilst preserving the important heritage. It’s easy to forget what a difference the Council and its partners, particularly Swansea University, have made over the last five decades. It is one of the most remarkable regeneration projects in Europe. For those of you who can access YouTube here is a reminder of what the lower Swansea valley used to look like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCT1rFB9weU

I hope all the schools in the Hafod area will engage with us and I look forward to working with Jennifer and her team on this project in the future.

Corporate Health Standard – Platinum

Yesterday we had a visit from the Corporate Health Standard http://gov.wales/topics/health/improvement/work/corporate/?lang=en assessors following our submission for assessment of the Platinum award. The process was extremely challenging and focussed on the extent to which we’re embedding sustainability into our organisation and demonstrating community leadership. My “half hour” session with the assessors lasted an hour and they were keen to hear about everything the Council and the staff are doing. My thanks go to Craig Gimblett, Sarah Owens, Katja Davies, Deb Webb and all of the staff and service users who took part in the preparation and presentations on the day. Also thanks to Councillors Clive Lloyd and Erika Kirchner who have been supportive of the project and the Helping Hands initiative throughout.

I’ve just been advised that we will be recommended by Public Health Wales to the Welsh Government for the Platinum Standard. This is an achievement that everyone in the organisation can feel rightly proud of with the assessors describing Swansea Council as an exemplar organisation. I will be saying more about this great award in future blogs.

Christmas hamper raffle

Following my comments about the Charity Christmas Quiz I was contacted by Anne Furlong from the Benefits team who told me about the annual Christmas hamper raffle. A few years ago she suggested to her colleagues that we organise Christmas hampers to raffle for charity (choosing a different charity each year). Staff kindly donate an item and then sell raffle tickets around the department. This year they raffled seven luxury hampers and 47 individual prizes raising £720 and the money went to Macmillan Cancer Care in memory of our friend and colleague Debra Griffiths who sadly recently lost her battle with cancer. They will be looking for a different charity to raise funds for this year and hopefully will be just as successful. Well done to all who contributed.

Thanks and well done

A big vote of thanks must go to staff in Waste Management. Kerbside collection, HWRC, Baling Plant managers, supervisors, and crews have done a tremendous job over the Christmas period. Comparing the fortnight after Christmas with the fortnight before Christmas, the amount of recyclables collected at the kerbside increased by 41% with the residual waste only increasing by 21%.

Obviously we expect waste to increase over the Christmas period, but comparing Christmas this year with last year we’ve seen an increase in recyclables of 16%, pushing our kerbside only recycling figure from 58% last Christmas to 60.1%. As well as staff, the residents of Swansea should also be congratulated for this huge effort in recycling.

There have been media articles suggesting that the three-bag limit has increased fly-tipping but our recycling performance has increased from 52.8% in 2013/14, prior to the three-bag limit, to 56.5% in 2014/15 and to 59.5% for 2015/16 For 2016/17 we expect this to rise to 61%. These figures include fly-tipping. Well done to all.

Thanks to our public lighting and city centre teams for their work in designing and installing new lighting columns in Castle Square. Including colour change technology, the lights will be themed in different colours to mark events that could include St David’s Day, Welsh internationals and awareness-raising campaigns.

Thanks to all the staff who have taken part in our consultations on adult social care and domiciliary care. The plans aim to reshape services to give adults more choice, control and independence by ensuring they get the right support at the right time. If you haven’t already taken part go to www.swansea.gov.uk/adultsocialcarereview for more info and to complete the survey. The consultation runs until February 10.

Timber frames have now started to go up on land off Milford Way in Penderry for the first new council homes in a generation. The new homes will be constructed to innovative, super energy efficient standards, and will help other similar schemes in future as we look to tackle fuel poverty and Swansea’s lack of affordable housing. Thank you to everyone involved.

Listening to staff

January 5, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Staff Engagement

This week the Leadership Team of Directors and Heads of Service discussed the feedback from the staff survey and the recent staff engagement events.

I‘ve been working with Leanne Cutts and Rhian Millar to identify themes from the consultation and members of the Corporate Management Team have volunteered to lead on these themes.

The themes are: behaviours/culture; new ways of working; breaking down silos/career progression; reward and recognition; workplace and policies; communication/staff involvement and commercial/efficiencies.

I want to ensure that all the comments and suggestions from staff are considered in detail, responded to quickly and are given proper consideration.

Leadership Team discussed each of the themes in detail and we will be publishing the responses on StaffNet as well as distributing them to workplaces across the city.

Budget

We face a few tough months in order to balance this year’s budget and we need all our staff to play their part. I think one of the biggest myths in the council is that if you don’t use your full budget you’ll lose it the following year. That is not true! We do not routinely reduce budgets based on under-spends.

And historically we’ve seen spending increase during the final few months of the year, sometimes on non-essential items. The spending restrictions remain in force and we need all staff to be responsible and work within these rules so that we can balance our budgets.

Our budget consultation is still under way and we’ll be reporting the outcome of this as soon as possible.

Senior staffing

You probably already know that Mike Hawes, Director of Corporate Resources, and Lindsay Harvey, Chief Education Officer, are both leaving later this year. Mike’s retiring and Lindsay is taking up a Director post in Bridgend.

Mike’s post is currently in the process of recruitment and we hope to appoint on January 31. We hope to advertise Lindsay’s post next week and appoint in February.

Trewarren Project

You may remember that some blogs ago I mentioned the fantastic community project that helps people with learning disabilities at the Trewarren garden project. Unfortunately the bid for an Aviva Community Fund award narrowly missed out despite getting nearly 2,000 votes.

The good news is that thanks to the persistence of Lorraine Howells and the team their application for another grant scheme has been accepted. They have been successful in being selected for the Tesco Bags of Help Grant Scheme and the project has been approved.

The project, along with two others in the region, will go forward to a vote in Tesco stores where customers will decide the outcome by voting for their favourite project each time they shop. Voting will take place until January 28 and the winners will be announced by the end of February. The project with the highest number of votes across our region will receive £5,000, the second placed project £2,000 and the third placed project £1,000. So if you shop in Tesco please make sure you cast your vote.

Safeguarding training

Having had face to face training and completed the online modules, I’m now encouraging all staff to complete the training. Safeguarding is one of our top priorities and we’ve committed to all staff undergoing the training. As I found out, it’s online and not too time-consuming so, for those who haven’t already done so, please make every effort to work through it.

Congratulations

It was great to see the announcement in the New Year Honours List that our former Chief Executive, Jack Straw, has been recognised for his years of service to health and local government with an OBE. It is a relatively rare occurrence in local government. When I spoke to him to congratulate him he was unusually modest and asked me to thank all the people who have worked with him during his career and particularly in the City and County of Swansea. In his own words “The award is a reflection of them rather than me. For me it puts the icing on the cake which was an enjoyable career but it has only been possible through the hard work and dedication of others.” Jack has promised to send us a photo providing they let him into Buckingham Palace in a Nottingham Forest football shirt.

The Admiral Swansea Bay 10k has made the final 12 in two categories of The Running Awards 2017: Best 10k and Best Child Friendly Event.

Our staff do a great job in organising and running this event, so please vote at http://therunningawards.com/vote/104/111#vote to ensure this great event gets the recognition it deserves.

Well done to staff in strategic estates for all their work in gifting part of our former Pontardawe Road transport depot to the Swansea Canal Society. The gifting of the land means the Canal Society will be able to reinstate a part of the canal, including a lock, that was buried when the depot was originally built. The rest of the land will be sold at auction, helping generate money that will be reinvested back into council services.

Xmas Quiz

On December 23 the Cabinet and Corporate Management Team formed a number of officer and Member teams to take part in what will hopefully be an annual Xmas quiz.

We held a bring a bottle event at the Mansion House and the Lord Mayor, ably assisted by the Mansion House staff, cooked a magnificent curry for us all prior to the quiz event.

Andrew Taylor, our Complaints Manager, set the questions and performed admirably as quizmaster for the evening. Four teams entered and after a close contest the team I was in, along with the Lady Mayoress and councillors Andrea Lewis and Des Thomas, was declared the winner. The event raised £150 for the Lord Mayor’s charity and I’m grateful to all who helped to support it.