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.
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