Thanks to all the staff who’ve gone the extra mile in the last few days to make sure the city keeps running during the freezing conditions. A special thanks must go to our highways staff for keeping the traffic moving and I know this is appreciated by officers and members across the Council as well as residents, hospitals and businesses. I’m also conscious that our social care teams face particular challenges and I’m indebted to them for their commitment and care.
Planning our response to Storm Emma has been a really big task for the Corporate Management Team, with red and amber threat forecasts constantly shifting and making it difficult to predict snowfall. Sometimes we have to err on the side of caution to keep people safe and sadly this meant the postponement of the annual budget Council meeting yesterday. The meeting will now be held next Tuesday at 5pm. It also meant some of our St David’s Day celebrations were cancelled but others have moved indoors and the parade is still due to go ahead on Saturday.
We’ll try to keep everyone up to date via Staffnet and team briefings. The guidance to staff on inclement weather has been published again on Staffnet.
Thanks also to our schools who managed to remain open for as long as practicable. Thankfully the weather looks set to warm up a bit next week so hopefully normal service will resume as soon as possible.
International Women’s Day
A range of activities have been planned this important year in women’s history. With the centenary last month of partial women’s suffrage and other important anniversaries this year we are making a big splash for International Women’s Day on Thursday March 8th.
The theme this year is “Press for Progress” which for us in Swansea Council means celebrating how far we have come but recognising there is still a way to go until gender and other types of equality are achieved here and in wider society. Swansea Council has a far better gender balance than almost all the other councils in Wales at senior management level, where 50% of directors team and 44% of Leadership Team are female. This is also the case with our elected members with women composing 42% of Council.
All staff and councillors are invited to a special event on Thursday 8th March at 1pm in the Civic Centre Council Chamber in which Swansea University’s Dr Alys Einon will talk about gender stereotyping in the workplace which we are sure will provide some important food for thought.
To book and for more details go here.
Scrutiny review
On Tuesday I was interviewed by the Wales Audit Office who’ve been exploring how ‘fit for the future’ our scrutiny functions are, whilst also considering how we’re responding to the current challenges including the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Thanks to the great work done by our officers and councillors on scrutiny and policy development I was able to give a good account and point to examples of work produced by scrutiny and policy development and delivery committees. Hopefully they’ll recognise the excellent work done in Swansea but we can always learn from other councils and so I’ll be keen to see any possible areas for improvement when they publish their findings.
Congratulations
The Dylan Thomas Exhibiton at the Dylan Thomas Centre has been named as the Best Family Venue in the UK, by Fantastic for Families. The Awards recognise the contributions of organisations made to arts and culture for families during 2017, and last night the Dylan Thomas Centre was named as the Best Family Venue ahead of the likes of Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park and artsdepot in London. Thanks to Jo Furber, Georgia Thomas and the team at the Dylan Thomas Centre for securing this national award for us.
Congratulations also to Timm Dadds from Cwmrhdyceirw Primary School who has been nominated for an Into Film Educator of the Year Award. The ceremony will take place in Leicester Square on March 13 and Timm is shortlisted with two others in the whole of the UK. Fingers crossed for Timm.
Farewell
I learned this week that Sara Harvey will be leaving her current post as Regional Programme Director with the Western Bay Programme to return to the Welsh Local Government Association. Sara has done an excellent job over the past few years and I wish her well for the future. Thanks Sara.
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