Awards
We came up trumps again this week at another UK awards event which highlights the great work our staff are doing. We won the gold award at the iESE (Improvement and Efficiency South East) awards for our Transformation in Waste & Environment submission. The award was for our Household Waste Recycling Centre initiative which is fantastic recognition for the success of the project. Congratulations to staff in waste management and colleagues in parks and cleansing, communications, highways, housing, and the call centre who all contributed.
We also gained the bronze award for Transformation through Support Services, for implementing the ICT Service Desk and self-service portal which achieved improved efficiency, better demand management and reduced cost. The whole Digital Services team were involved in ensuring it was scoped and delivered on time, and I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work.
There were 157 entries and we were the only Welsh council shortlisted in both categories, which is a fantastic achievement.
Great services, great staff
Here are four examples of how our staff are making such a huge difference. After winning an award for a film they made, our Children’s Rights and Participation Group, which is made up of looked-after children and youngsters who have experienced care, is to receive a Diana Award. The Diana Awards are presented to courageous, caring and compassionate young people for transforming the lives of others in the name of Diana, Princess of Wales. I’m sure colleagues in Child and Family Services and Education are especially proud and they too deserve credit for this fantastic achievement.
Another initiative gaining recognition is the council-led domestic abuse hub. The BBC recently featured the story of a Swansea couple who survived domestic abuse with the help of this pilot project, which follows a Sustainable Swansea commissioning review. It’ll be the first of its kind in Wales. Here’s the BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39450276
The refurbishment of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery has been highlighted by Constructing Excellence in Wales as an example of best practice. It was one of a number of projects to participate in the Enabling Zero Waste initiative, with Construction Excellence in Wales providing technical advice and guidance on waste management. Figures show 82.9% of its waste was recycled, 12.1% was converted into energy and 1.8% was either prevented or re-used.
Our Car Parking Services team and Commercial Services have successfully promoted car parking for local businesses. As a result, our High Street multi-storey car park, which has historically been underutilised, now accommodates over 300 Virgin Atlantic and TUI Group employees. Similarly, our Strand car park now accommodates 283 BT employees.
Our New CRM system
The new Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) for managing customer contact went live on March 30. It’s a massive improvement on the one previously hosted by Cardiff Council which has been in place for 10 years. It’s also enabled £70,000 worth of savings to be made. This cloud-hosted system is faster and more robust, which enables our Contact Centre floorwalkers to access data from tablet PCs and mobile phones so they can triage customers during high demand.
I’m really impressed it’s been built in-house using one of the new digital platforms. Our Communications team are also using the social engagement module to monitor traffic around the UK City of Culture 2017 bid. More developments will grow across the Council now the new platform is live.
I’d like to send special thanks to Rayna Soproniuk from digital services and Delyth Evans and Michelle Regan from the Contact Centre, who all worked incredibly hard to get the system in on time.
Discussions with Cardiff
This week I met Paul Orders, Chief Executive at Cardiff Council, to discuss a range of issues including the respective City Deals and how the two cities in Wales can co-operate in the future. Despite my undying love for Swansea City FC, I enjoy visiting Cardiff and it was interesting to hear the forthcoming proposals for the continued regeneration of our capital city. Paul and I have had a number of meetings along with Will Godfrey, Chief Executive at Newport Council, mainly about how the three cities can help to reinvigorate the Welsh economy. Different councils have different strengths and co-operation between us is an excellent way to improve services and learn from others. The challenges facing Cardiff and Swansea are very similar and I explained our approach to transformation through Sustainable Swansea. We identified a number of areas where we can collaborate and I’ll be discussing these with councillors.
School visits
Last Friday I visited Penyrheol Primary School for a meeting of the school council and pupil representatives. It was interesting to hear the numerous activities taking place in the school, and great to see how the investment in new ICT kit there is paying dividends.
The council voted on which charities the school would support and decided that Water Aid and protecting dolphins were their priorities. They’re also collecting for the local food bank. I had a quick tour of the brightly-coloured classrooms. Penyrheol pupils are among the most welcoming and happy young people I‘ve met in schools, so thanks to head teacher Alison Williams, the staff and all the children for looking after me.
On Tuesday I dropped in to see Jamie Richards, Head Teacher at Cadle Primary School. We had an interesting conversation which reinforced my thinking about the need to undertake a cross-cutting commissioning review of services for children and young people. He explained many of the challenges of joint working and I hope he’ll contribute to our thinking on how we can better co-ordinate a whole council approach in future. The pupils were more interested in hearing about the forthcoming airshow than our plans for the city centre or lagoon. Thanks to Jamie, the staff and pupils for a brief but enjoyable visit.
As usual I took the opportunity to have a brief look round the neighbouring community and was pleased to see progress being made in improving the environment and housing in Fforesthall, Cadle and Portmead.
Spring has arrived
It feels like winter is officially over now that floral displays are emerging across our city thanks to the fantastic work done by our teams in parks. It makes a huge difference and I’m grateful to everyone involved.
Clean-up
Well done to staff in our cleansing team who joined local PCSOs in a joint day of litter-picking and clean-up action in Mount Pleasant. It’s an excellent example of how joint-working with other organisations in the city can benefit local communities.
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