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.
Phil,
Thankfully Swansea seems to have avoided the snow but in anticipation of issues with attending work an email was sent out reminding staff of the council’s severe weather policy “which explains what should be done in the event of inclement weather and gives clear guidance about staff attending work during these periods.”
The lack of flexibly in the policy, in particular 5.1/2 where an employee will only be credited from the time they arrive in work does not incentivise staff to struggle into work. As you will be aware in previous episodes of snow many staff have made great efforts to attend work, often arriving later than normal due to lack of public transport, being unable to safely drive etc. If you set off from home and it takes you 2 or 3 hours to walk to work and arrive at 10 or 11am you are then told you have to work back the hours you missed. Many staff will think that they may as well take annual leave (if they have any leave to use) as the effort of attending work is not appreciated and this then leaves offices unmanned.
Tremendous goodwill has been shown by staff over the last few difficult years with us being asked to continue to provide the same standard of service but with less people. Surely when it comes to inclement weather some goodwill could be shown to staff plus it will encourage more staff to make the effort to attend work if at all possible.
Thanks for your query Carol. The Severe Weather Policy was reviewed in 2014 as part of Single Status. The new Policy states that an employee will only be credited from the time they arrive into work. This is because it was felt by a number of staff and managers that there were inconsistencies and unfairness with application of the previous policy whereby employees could be credited from the normal starting time. It is important to me that employees are treated consistently by managers but I will discuss this matter with colleagues at the Corporate Management Team.
Working from home may also be an option where a member of staff is unable to attend their usual place of work. However, staff are not permitted to make a unilateral decision to work from home. Such a decision can only be made following discussion with the Line Manager and where home working arrangements have previously been authorised and necessary risk assessments undertaken.