The battle lines over local government reorganisation appear to have been drawn. Last Friday I updated you on the Welsh Government proposals to reduce to 10 councils, but on the same day you may have seen coverage of a feisty meeting between council leaders and the Cabinet Secretary. I won’t make further comment at this time but I did say it wasn’t going to be an easy ride. Swansea has consistently been open to considerations on merger but it’s unclear what the views of our neighbours are. We’ll be holding discussions with them over the coming weeks to develop an understanding. In the meantime, I’ve submitted some observations to our scrutiny inquiry panel which I hope will be helpful in their deliberations.
Education funding
I met with the Welsh Government Education team to discuss the thorny topic of the Minority Ethnic Achievement Grant. You may have read about this in the media. Councillors in Swansea and elsewhere have been unhappy about the funding reductions by the Welsh Government and I’ve been doing my best to recover the position, or at least some of it. The Welsh Government have made it clear that they want consistent regional models for the distribution of education grant funding but this is not without issues, particularly for urban authorities like Swansea who face different pressures given our demographics. I’m conscious that a number of staff in our Ethnic Minority Achievement Unit have been informed that their jobs are at risk and I’ve asked the education team to work closely with them during the consultation period to see how we can support schools, and the pupils who receive this service, following the Welsh Government changes.
Budget latest
CMT received an update from Ben Smith, our Chief Finance Officer, setting out an early view of the likely year-end position and ongoing risks around delivering some of the budget savings for 2018-19. It’s already clear that as austerity continues to bite in the form of further savings, that we, like many councils, will struggle to balance the books. We can’t just live within our existing budgets any longer, we also have try to underspend to offset the undoubted pressures and surprises that will emerge during the year. I know we’ve just come out of a really tough budget cycle, but I suspect these tough times will continue.
You may remember a significant number of staff were “at-risk” in Corporate Services. Thankfully, that number has now reduced to four due to the commitment of managers and our HR team in supporting staff. I’m also grateful to those staff who’ve been redeployed for being willing to take on a new challenge. I’m hopeful that we can work with the four remaining staff to get a positive outcome.
Bryntawe visit
After a number of unavoidable postponements I finally got to spend some time at Ysgol Gyfun Bryntawe this week. I had been there in January to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day but I did not get a chance to talk to Simon Davies, headteacher, or any of the pupils. There is a lot of innovation happening at the school, particularly in the way that classes are organised, with teachers floating between rooms rather than pupils. Simon took me on the visit and then I met the school council. It is a school where culture, performance and music are alive and I’m proud to say, fiercely promoted, so amongst the topics for discussion was how austerity will hit arts funding. We then talked about the possible impacts of austerity on school budgets and the general challenges the city faces (including the Lagoon again). Thanks to all for the warm welcome and once again for the sense of optimism for the future of Swansea when you meet such articulate and intelligent young people.
Although it’s been relatively quiet in the media, work continues on pushing the case for the tidal lagoon. The Leader and I have held a number of meetings and conference calls to try to unblock the current deadlock. I’ll keep you updated.
Awards
Our Colliers Way scheme has been commended in the Municipal Journal 2018 awards under the ‘Best Social Housing Initiative’ category. The judges were looking for interesting and innovative social housing projects with clear outcomes. There were a record number of entries this year so this a great achievement for the team. Well done to all.
The South Wales Evening Post Community Award winners will be announced tonight. Phil Treseder, our Learning and Participation Officer, has made the final shortlist for the Community Champion Award for his commitment to YMCA Swansea, over the last 10 years as chairman and trustee. Also Kevin Allen who was part of our City of Culture bid team has made the final for the Ambassador award. For Twin Town fans if Kevin wins I’m confident he’ll be laying on sausage rolls and Welsh cakes in the gazebo. Good luck to both.
Data changes
The new European General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, will change the way we work from May 25. It requires us to be more open and transparent with our citizens about how we use their personal data. Citizens’ rights regarding their data will be strengthened and the deadline for investigating data breaches becomes a challenging 72 hours. We need to finish creating a corporate overview of all our personal data processing activity and to ensure that, at each point where we ask people to provide their personal details, we make clear to them what we’re going to do with the personal data they’ve supplied, There’s information on GDPR on Staffnet: http://www.swansea.gov.uk/staffnet/gdprguide
Farewells
More long-serving members of staff are leaving at the end of the month. They include David Laytham from Facilities, Simon Clark from Pollution Control, Tina Evans from Housing , Jeanette Lewis in Economic Regeneration and Planning as well as Jayne Bool, Steve Holt, Simon Mason, Richard Thomas and Raymond Morgan from Digital and Transformation Services and Teresa O’Flynn from the Contact Centre. Also leaving after long service are Geraldine Baker, Christine Gravelle, Kevin Jenkins, Karen Preedy-Davies and Janet Monks from Financial Services and Service Centre, Wendy Baker from Health and Safety, Andrea Thomas from Unison and Ian Rowden from Fforestfach Day Service. Thank you for all your efforts and outstanding service.
Happy Easter
I‘ll be on holiday for a few weeks so my next blog will be on April 20. In the meantime, I want to wish you a happy Easter break and thank you all for your work to improve the organisation and the city. As usual the events team have been very busy and there will be lots to do as you will see from this link.
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