Councils are an easy target for criticism and humour. You know the old chestnuts like:
- “How many people work for the Council?”
- “About half of them”.
In reality we deliver services that are fundamental to people. We protect and educate children, provide essential care for our older citizens, stop people getting poisoned through food safety and air quality monitoring, collect and recycle refuse, keep the city moving, house the homeless, help people find jobs, provide entertainment and events and provide people with a final resting place. In short, we offer cradle to grave services and most of these perform very well.
80% of our citizens are either satisfied or very satisfied with the services we provide for them. Yet only 40% would be willing to speak highly of us or recommend us to a friend. This is a puzzling fact and one that we need to address.
Part of the answer may be how we promote and market the organisation. This is how many organisations in other sectors protect and enhance their reputation. There’s little understanding among the population generally about the breadth of services councils deliver, many of which are below their radar. I could have added dozens more important and essential services to the list above.
But perhaps it’s also about how we engage and communicate with our customers. In future the delivery of some services will need to be with our citizens, rather than to them. Lee Wenham and I are discussing how we best allocate resources and people to do this. I‘ll be discussing the issue of reputation with colleagues over the coming months and asking the innovation community to help me with this.
Lagoon update
On Monday I was part of a delegation of Cabinet Members and senior officers that met with Mark Shorrock, CEO of Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, and his team. We discussed the proposal to set up a turbine assembly plant in Swansea when the lagoon is finally given the go ahead. We also discussed the current situation with the UK Government and what more needs to be done in terms of persuasion. Mark and his team are also keenly interested in working with us on our bid and programme for the UK City of Culture 2021 and they have some innovative and exciting suggestions about how they might be involved.
We’ve now had the feedback from UK Government on our City of Culture bid and we have a lot of work to do between now and the end of September. I hope staff and councillors will continue to engage in our campaign to demonstrate that the whole city supports this ambition.
Mandatory training; domestic violence
I mentioned last week the Domestic Abuse Hub and the need for all of us to be aware and respond to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV). One in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic violence in their lifetime and one in five children have witnessed it, with devastating impact.
Under the VAWDASV (Wales) Act 2015, the local authority has to:
- publish a local authority five-year training plan with annual targets
- undertake a local needs training analysis
- ensure 100% of the workforce undertake the Group 1 training by March 31, 2018
- provide annual reports in respect of each financial year on the progress made regionally or locally
Corporate Management Team agreed to address the training requirements via a combination of e-learning and face- to-face sessions. It’ll be a massive challenge to train all staff before April and I’ll need your help and commitment to do so. The training will be a combination of eLearning and face to face sessions for those who do not have access to the on-line offer. The link to the online course can be accessed via logging in to the Learning Pool here.
All councillors will receive Group 1 training as part of their induction. One session has already been held and another session is planned in the autumn. CMT and the Leadership Team will undertake the training as soon as possible and we’ll be asking each service area to nominate champions.
Innovation
On Wednesday I met our new Corporate Innovation Officer, Rhys Curtis, who takes over the post vacated by Leanne Cutts. Rhys brings with him his experience in the private sector here and in the USA and will be spending the next few weeks navigating the organisation, getting to know people and offering to engage with services to support them. I know you’ll all give him a warm welcome and I look forward to us all working together to further embed innovation in our culture.
Congratulations
Well done to our Access to Services team for their work with our Disability Liaison Group, which has been recognised by other Welsh councils as an example of great practice. The group is led by representatives from Swansea’s disabled community to ensure their views on council services and schemes are considered and addressed. Anyone wanting more information on the Disability Liaison Group should contact Sherill Hopkins in Access to Services.
Our Sport and Health team is continuing to do great work to encourage more girls to take up sport. A well-attended event was held at Penyrheol Leisure Centre earlier this week, with more following this summer. Well done to everyone involved.
Blog
I’ll be trapped in a tent with three small children for the next couple of weeks so my next blog will be on August 25.
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