Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Archives for June 2017

Keeping our tenants safe

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My week has once again been dominated by dealing with the issue of cladding to high rise blocks.   We’ve submitted panels to the Building Research Establishment for testing and we await the results.  We do however note that, without exception, every single panel tested by English councils has failed the BRE test.  This is of course extraordinary given that the buildings would have been cleared by building regulations and has led us to ask the BRE a number of questions about the testing regime.

Our high rise blocks meet current building regulations, but if the tests ordered by the Government go beyond these requirements then we might also fail. We’re seeking clarification over what’s being tested as we and tenants need to have these details.

In the meantime, we’ve put contingency plans in place and agreed further steps to reassure tenants. Their safety will remain the most important thing.

We are briefing all members of council today on the progress made to date and we will introduce further measures to reassure our tenants about their safety.

Director of Resources

This week we interviewed for the post of Director of Resources following Mike Hawes’ departure a couple of weeks ago. Following the interviews and assessment centre the Appointments Committee decided not to make an appointment and have asked me to make alternative arrangements through an interim internal appointment from among our Leadership Team.  I’ll be working with colleagues in HR to make the necessary arrangements as quickly as possible.   I’ll keep you updated with progress.

Be the spark

On Wednesday I attended the launch of Be the Spark the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff.  To counteract the low levels of entrepreneurship in Wales a group of businesses, entrepreneurs and public servants have worked together for two years to start a “movement” to promote innovation in commerce.  This is based on the important connections between government, academia, corporate business, entrepreneurs and venture capital.

I worked with local government colleagues to identify the most significant challenges and what we could do to deal with them.   My focus was on the importance of our schools and the curriculum in the development of entrepreneurial skills, so I was disappointed that it appeared that no representatives from schools in Wales had been invited.  This will be picked up by the team and I spoke to a number of attendees from all sectors about some practical ideas to build on the good work done by our schools in promoting entrepreneurship.  I hope to say more about this in the future.

Security

As part of our work to increase security, staff at both Guildhall and Civic Centre, will be issued with council-branded lanyards. Wearing these is compulsory in staff areas. Councillors are also being issued with lanyards by our Democratic Services team. This has already started at Guildhall, where lanyards are available via Security, who will continue to challenge those not correctly displaying ID.

Distribution at Civic Centre should start next week, with a supply of lanyards to identify Welsh Speakers and learners expected shortly.

Staff are also reminded that if their photo ID is dated, faded or heavily scratched it should be replaced by emailing employee.serviceshelpdesk@swansea.gov.uk and providing your pay number.

Wales Airshow

I’m looking forward to watching this year’s Wales Airshow. At the moment the weather forecast is good, so I hope to see 200,000 people congregated on our fantastic seafront to enjoy the spectacle over the two days. This will not be without a level of disruption though, and staff have been working hard to implement the necessary road closures and diversions required to comply with heightened security measures.  Thanks to all the staff involved.

Congratulations and thank you

We’ve become the first Welsh council to secure a prestigious quality mark. Congratulations to all in Employee Services who helped to win accreditation in the national Payroll Quality Partnership and Payroll Assurance Scheme. This is a wonderful achievement.

Congratulations also have got to go to a team from Child and Family Services who decided to participate in the Swansea Half-Marathon last Sunday, some of whom are pictured here. They were running for a range of different reasons including for charity, to keep fit and their wellbeing. Well done to all who took part.

Farewell to Lynda Hill who’s retiring from the Council after more than 27 years’ service. She started her career at Brynmill Primary school looking after my children and she subsequently worked in Social Services. She has made a huge contribution to the service. Thanks Lynda.

And Dave McKenna, our Scrutiny Manager, is leaving after 22 years. Dave has played a major role in developing our scrutiny function and he’s highly-regarded by officers, councillors and other councils. I wish Dave well in his new venture!

Sad news

It was sad to hear of the recent death of John Collins, who worked closely with our sports development and events teams for many years as a volunteer. John had been a volunteer and athlete since 1955, helping contribute to events including the Swansea Bay 10K, the Swansea Special Festival, the Swansea Sports Awards and the Community Chest Funding panel. He’ll be missed.

 

 

Improving children’s lives

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I met Sally Holland, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, to discuss progress on the delivery of services to children and young people. Sally is visiting every council in Wales and picking up good practice.  Our staff gave a number of presentations on the BAYS project, accommodation pathways, Info-Nation, young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET), employability and apprenticeships.  I think Sally was impressed by what she saw, including videos recorded by some of our looked after children.

We had a constructive discussion about getting young people into work. It’s a deep concern that only 1.3% of school leavers in Wales went into workplace training programmes, such as apprenticeships, last year. One in three children in Wales live in poverty and this has to be an area where we can make a significant impact through the co-ordination of services and creation of clear and consistent pathways to employment.  I’ve previously stressed the importance of getting this right for our looked after children, which must be a priority for us.

I discussed some of the issues with Councillor Jen Raynor, the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, and I’ll be asking our directors to work on this. We’ll also need to work with the Regional Learning Partnership to address this challenge.

Seaview, NEAT team and the MJ Awards

In my blog on 16 September last year I wrote;

On Monday I visited Seaview Community Primary School and met the head teacher, Julie Dunn, and her team. Julie explained the challenges the school faces and the determination of the team to improve the lives of the children in Mayhill.  I was taken on a visit to all the classes and different year groups to see the children learning and they were eager to show me what they were doing.  For those who are not familiar with the school it’s an unusual circular design that in itself presents a lot of challenges and needs investment.  The lack of green space for the school restricts what can be done and I promised Julie that I’d try to help deal with some of the environmental issues and the spaces available for the children to play and exercise. I’ve asked colleagues to help with this.

Since then I’ve been delighted with the way our teams have responded to this challenge, and in particular our NEAT team, Debora Webb, our Service Project Manager for the Work Development Service, Sue Reed, Kevin Webb and Martin Bignall. I’m sure there are others who I should thank and I hope to get the opportunity when the grand opening takes place.  It‘s been a real team effort and they’ve made a huge difference to the school environment and so I was delighted to see the work development service shortlisted for the recent national MJ awards.  A huge thank you from me to all involved for their hard work.

We were also shortlisted in the workforce transformation category for our work on Sustainable Swansea. Thanks to all who were shortlisted for showcasing some of our most innovative and creative services on the national stage.

Where next for scrutiny?

I gave a short presentation to the Annual Scrutiny Work Planning Conference.  Scrutiny is an essential function in developing and reviewing policy and it‘s important it its inquiry panels and performance panels focus on the right issues.  This week’s discussion included transport and parking, social care, City Deal, anti-social behaviour, community cohesion and schools admission policy. Thanks to all the councillors and officers who attended.  This work will be critical in planning the scrutiny programme.

Welsh Audit Office 

On Tuesday I had my quarterly meeting with the Wales Audit Office, including how the Council manages risk, progress on the establishment of the City Deal governance framework and the effectiveness of our commissioning process.

I look forward to the WAO feedback on commissioning, although they only looked at the early reviews and we will need to make sure they are up to date on how we have streamlined and improved the process more recently.

CMT Awayday

Wednesday was uncomfortably warm for most of us and particularly for CMT who spent the day at the Mansion House considering the budget, future transformation, the Band B schools programme, city centre delivery strategy and the performance report for adult social services.

We also agreed the performance indicators for recommendation to Cabinet which will help us monitor progress on corporate priorities and the Corporate Plan 2017 – 2022.  The coming weeks and months will be exceptionally busy for us all as we agree our work programmes and performance targets.

Please wear your sunglasses

RNIB are asking people to wear sunglasses next week as part of a national campaign.  Wearing sunglasses protects your sight, so they are asking if we can all show our support by posting a #ShadesForSight sunglasses selfie on National Sunglasses Day on Tuesday 27 June 2017.

I had no idea that there was a National Sunglasses Day but it is an important message so let’s show our support.

Good news and congratulations

Steve Sheriff, our civil parking enforcement manager, is retiring after 37 years’ service. One of his last acts will be a charity haircut and dye on his last day which is being performed by colleagues in his team and for which he’s been growing his hair since March. I wish him well with that and his much-deserved retirement.

Well done to the Dylan Thomas Centre for being shortlisted for the UK-wide Family Friendly Museum of the Year award. We’ll know in October if we’ve won so I’ll keep you posted.

For the third year running, the Brangwyn Hall has received a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, based on reviews by visitors to the Brangwyn. A great combination of good management and having a great catering partner in JR Events & Catering. Thanks to all the staff involved.

Congratulations also to Lyn Hovvels who has won the Gower College Swansea Apprentice of the Year award.

This is an outstanding achievement for Lyn who is a plumber in our Corporate Building Services and it is the first time one of our apprentices has won the award.  Well done Lyn and keep up the good work.

Reassuring residents after Grenfell Tower disaster

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Grenfell Tower

I watched in shock and disbelief as the dreadful events unfolded at Grenfell Tower. The impact on the community has been devastating and our thoughts go to the families of friends of all those who lost their lives or suffered injury as a result of the tragic fire.

Our Housing and Corporate Building teams responded immediately to reassure our high rise residents through letters hand-delivered on the day of the fire. We have 11 high rise blocks and 672 tenants living in them. Every flat has a hard-wired smoke detector which is tested annually as part of the gas service inspection.  In addition, all communal areas have a full annual risk assessment by us and Mid and West Fire Service, to make sure that all the blocks are to the highest standard and to ensure that any issues identified are addressed immediately.  We will review our procedures as further information emerges.

Although it’s too early to determine the cause of the fire there’s been some speculation about the cladding on the buildings.   We’ve been carrying out improvement works to a number of the high rise blocks and this includes cladding the buildings’ exterior.  Our schemes have only used non-combustible products both as cladding and fixing frames with a series of full fire breaks. However, there’s no room for complacency and our teams are conducting further investigations to provide absolute reassurance to our residents.  Thanks to all involved for the rapid and comprehensive response.

Corporate Management Team

CMT has been working closely with Cabinet on the arrangements for resourcing the new Policy Development and Delivery committees. It’s important we align the work programmes for the committees to the council’s policy commitments and priorities.  There’ll be a report to Council next Thursday which will define the remit of the committees and I‘ll expand further on this next week.

CMT discussed a number of reports including the progress being made on adult safeguarding and the finance and performance outturn reports for 2016/17.

We also agreed proposals for a new self-serve switchboard for staff. In future staff will be able to call the switchboard and use voice-activation to get through to a colleague elsewhere. Last year our switchboard answered more than 255,000 calls and 18% of these were from staff so this initiative will improve efficiency. To help with this, it’s essential staff update their contact details on Oracle.

Better communications

We’re making Skype for Business available to staff in the next few weeks to help improve communications. It can be used on PCs and other digital devices to talk to council colleagues via instant messaging, voice calls and video calls. It allows us to work more agilely and end the reliance on phone and email, which many of us complain about. We’re rolling-out more digital improvements and I’d encourage you to give it a try.

Ambition Week at St Helens

On Tuesday I was invited to meet the Year 6 pupils at St Helens Primary School for a Q&A session as part of their ambition week. They asked me what councils do, how do you get to work for them, where their money comes from and our plans for the city?  This was followed by questions ranging from my “typical day”, to terrorism and whether I’d been on TV!

The ambition week is a great opportunity for pupils to think about their futures and to learn more about the world of work. Congratulations to head teacher Mark Thompson for organising the event and Jack Branford, the teacher who facilitated it excellently.

Race Council Cymru

On Thursday I met with Uzo Iwobi, chief executive of Race Council Cymru which is an umbrella body bringing together key organisations in Wales to cooperate on promoting integration, championing justice and race equality in institutions and society.  The RCC are asking us to work with them on the celebrations for Black History Month which is held every October and to work with us on our UK City of Culture 2021 bid.

Vigilance in our buildings

The on-going terror threat needs to be kept into perspective, but at the same time we all need to be vigilant. As part of this, councillors, staff and the public may be asked to open their bags for our security officers to carry out checks. We should also wear our ID cards at all times and politely challenge anyone tailgating at security doors or not wearing ID. These small steps will help improve security for us all.

Take That

It’s not my cup of tea but I understand the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium was a resounding success. There were a number of complaints about long queues that resulted from enhanced security checks but I guess that’s something we are all going to have to get used to whilst the UK threat level remains at severe.

Thanks to all the staff who helped with the logistics for the concert. It’s not an easy job when 32,000 descend on the stadium and it was very well co-ordinated by the Council.

Congratulations and thanks

Our Registration team has received glowing report from the General Register Office. The team is responsible for recording all births, deaths and marriages in the city. The team’s improved customer service has also been praised and is very welcome in a service that can often be dealing with difficult circumstances. Well done to everyone involved.

Many of you will know Jane Guy who’s retiring next week after nearly 44 years’ service. Jane was the first clerical officer appointed to West Glamorgan County Council in Nov 1973 (prior to the 1974 local government reorganisation) and during her career Jane’s worked for eight chief executives. Well done Jane, have a lovely retirement.

We were shortlisted for two honours in the annual MJ Achievement Awards which concluded with an event in London last night.

Our Social Services Work Development Service was acknowledged for its excellence in community engagement. Also our Sustainable Swansea: Fit for the Future initiative was saluted for its achievements in workforce transformation. Well done to everyone involved because getting shortlisted in these UK awards is a huge achievement.

In the election spotlight

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This has been another long 24 hours for me and the team who help me to run the UK Government Parliamentary election. I cast my vote as soon as my polling station opened and was greeted by an amazingly cheery and bright-eyed polling station team of Mal, Geraldine and Rebecca.  Like all the other polling station staff they faced a long day and I am hugely indebted to everyone who helped run this election. Thanks for the warm welcome from the staff in the polling stations I was able to visit.

The elections team once again exceeded expectations, despite only just recovering from last month’s council elections. This time we faced heightened security concerns following the dreadful events at Manchester and London Bridge and the support from our security staff and special events team was outstanding.  I was also grateful for the work done by our resilience team working with the Police.

Congratulations to Dean Howard, the first presiding officer to deliver his ballot papers to the election count.  Dean came second at the local government election count but beat his personal best by arriving at around 10.15.  As you can see from the photo Dean was pretty pleased with his performance. Mind you his polling station was only 100 yards from the count.

We had a lot of attention on the Gower constituency given the closeness of the 2015 result; a margin of only 27 votes. This wasn’t just from the local and national media companies.  Gower was one of eight constituencies across the UK to be visited by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association team  led by Callum Forster and made up of politicians from the governments of Bangladesh, South Africa, St Lucia and Ghana.  Each of the eight constituencies is the subject of an election assessment to consider the conduct of the electoral process, and make recommendations for improvement. On Tuesday Huw Evans and I met with the CPA team and answered a range of questions about the electoral process and how it operates here in Swansea.  They also visited the postal vote team and a number of polling stations in the Gower constituency.  I look forward to their feedback and any suggestions on how the process could be improved in future.  Huw and I made a few suggestions of our own which would require changes to national legislation and hopefully the CPA team will take these on board.

Congratulations to the MPs who have been elected to represent our three constituencies;

Swansea West – Geraint Davies

Swansea East – Carolyn Harris

Gower – Tonia Antoniazzi

 

Appointments

This week the appointments committee met to shortlist candidates for the post of Director of Resources. Interviews will be held on 26th June and I am confident that Council will be able make an appointment the following day.

On a different note a number of people have asked me why the post of Chief Executive has been advertised. When I was appointed to the post last year it was on an interim basis for one year.  Under local government rules interim appointments of the most senior staff should only be for a year.  It was my view, and the Leader’s view, that an interim appointment would be the best way forward because it would allow the newly elected Council to choose their own permanent Chief Executive.

Approval of Swansea Central planning application

On Tuesday Planning Committee considered the planning application for Swansea Central. I have mentioned the project a number of times in previous blogs but the approval by Planning committee was a significant milestone and a green light to proceed with the regeneration plan for our City Centre.  Comments at the committee reflected the quality and detail of the application.  This has required a mammoth effort from our staff and a lot of people deserve to be thanked for their contributions not least of which are Phil Holmes, Huw Mowbray, Lee Richards, Katy Evans, Ryan Thomas, David Owen, Liam Smith and Stephen Smith.

The next phase is delivery and will be equally challenging but I am delighted that the key milestones have been met and confident that we can progress this apace.

Trading Standards

A Trading Standards case in Crown Court earlier this week has determined that a local shop owner jailed for selling dangerous ‘legal highs’ must now pay back more than £120,000 of the money he gained during the years he traded. This is great news and a further example of the hard work by Trading Standards and our Legal Team who have vigorously pursued the case, ensuring individuals do not profit from harmful trading activities.

City Centre

Demolition of the former Oceana building on Kingsway is now about 50% finished. Experts from Cuddy Group, who are demolishing the building for the council, are continuing to dismantle what remains of the building with a high-reach excavator. Scheduled for completion this summer, the demolition will pave the way on site for a new office development accommodating tech businesses.

High 5 Awards

Nominations are starting to increase for this year’s High 5 awards but we want more. The High 5 awards are open to any child, young person or group in three age ranges – under 13s, aged 14 to 19 or 20-25 year olds. We’ve also added a schools award this year which looks to recognise and reward larger school groups, even whole classes, years or teams.

All nominators need to do is fill in a nomination form here where they get the chance to explain why their choice of nominee should get a High 5, whatever the reason might be.

We’ve made it even more accessible to answer any query you have about High 5 this year with a new phone number we’ve set up.  If you have a query or would like to leave a voice nomination call (01792) 635699 and leave a message. 

UNESCO

Next week we will welcome visitors from across the UK and Europe who are keen to find out how Swansea is encouraging children and adults alike to learn about enterprise.

We were the first city in the UK to become a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and are hosting a two-day meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

Visitors will hear how we have worked with schools, colleges and universities to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), and see at first hand the extensive efforts to inspire young people to think about setting up their own businesses.

More than a dozen delegates are expected from as far afield as Scandinavia. I hope we will all give them a warm welcome.

Agile working

In the Civic Centre it’s great to see our new Agile Working area expanding. It’s encouraging to read the positivity coming from staff already there. I particularly like Marlyn Dickson’s observation in her case study: “Business conversations are so much easier … every working day feels much more human and personable.” Still wondering what it’s all about? Pop in and chat to some of your colleagues there!

Congratulations

It was great to hear that Burlais Primary School will soon be home to a garden from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show after their success in the Greening Grey Britain project. The new school which was completed in 2015 will soon have a courtyard filled with plant life and colour.  There was great coverage on the One Show last Monday as well.  Congratulations to Alison Bastion and her team.

Congratulations also to transformation officer Gemma Whyley, who helped lead a Welsh team to glory at a major global cheerleading championships in the USA. Gemma was one of two coaches involved with the Welsh Paracheer Unified Freestyle Pom team that won gold at the ICU International Cheerleading and Dance World Championships held in Orlando, Florida. Twenty-five per cent of the team – the first ever from Wales to win at the championships – is made up of young athletes with physical disabilities.

And finally….

Are you going to the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening (June 14)?

If you are, then all the info you’ll need on car parking, taxi tips, drop-off points, pick-up points and road closures is here. My thanks to staff in special events and transport for all their work in the build-up to the event to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible.