Our latest annual performance results show we’re continuing to improve in our priority areas and national targets. We all know how tough the local government climate is with reduced budgets and growing demands, but our staff are continuing to make huge efforts to improve services for people.
We’ll be reporting the outturn to councillors in the coming weeks but in terms of our five Corporate Priorities, here’s a few highlights from the report:
- Safeguarding people from harm – our preventative care model in Adult Services is having a positive impact and we’re continuing to make progress in Children’s Services, despite a higher than expected level of demand.
- Improving education and skills – the picture is improving and we’ve had our best attendance levels and a number of pleasing school inspections. We’ll be working closely with schools to bring further improvements.
- Transforming our economy and infrastructure – some major projects are moving forward, such as the Digital Arena. We’re providing training and employment via our Bricks and Mortar scheme and we’re above target in dealing with planning applications.
- Tackling poverty – there’s progress through a range of initiatives and this’ll be further supported by our new Poverty Strategy.
- Transformation and future council development – our ambitious changes continue through channel shift to online, completing and implementing 15 out of 17 Commissioning Reviews, although more work is needed on reducing sickness absence and managing our budgets.
Overall, the performance is really pleasing and, whilst there’s always more to be done, I and Corporate Management Team are delighted with the efforts of staff and I’d like to thank you for everything you do. The report will now go through the political cycle and the details will be published.
New Cabinet
Leader Rob Stewart has unveiled a new Cabinet structure to tackle the council’s priorities and the challenges we face. The structure was agreed at yesterday’s Annual Council Meeting:
- Rob Stewart – Economy and Strategy (Leader)
- Clive Lloyd – Business Transformation and Performance (Deputy Leader)
- David Hopkins – Delivery
- Mark Child – Care, Health and Ageing Well
- Jen Raynor – Education Improvement, Learning and Skills
- Robert Francis-Davies – Investment, Regeneration and Tourism
- Andrea Lewis – Homes and Energy
- Mark Thomas – Environment and Infrastructure Management
- Elliott King – Children’s Services Early Years
- Will Evans – Children’s Services Young People
- June Burtonshaw – Better Communities Place
- Mary Sherwood – Better Communities People
Further details of individual Cabinet portfolios are here and information on committees will be updated later today.
Children’s Services Inspection
We were notified this week that the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) will undertake an inspection of our Children’s Services in July. The inspection will focus on the effectiveness of services and arrangements to help and protect children and their families and will particularly consider the experience and progress of looked after children and care leavers including the quality of preventative interventions, decision-making, care and support and pathway planning. The inspection will consider arrangements for permanence for looked after children and children who return home. This will include the use of fostering, including adherence to fostering service regulation and national minimum standards, residential care and children placed out of local authority area. It will also evaluate the quality of leadership, corporate parenting, including the management and governance arrangements in place to develop and support service delivery.
Children’s Services has remained consistently on the agenda for CMT since the difficulties we experienced some years ago and I’ve been particularly pleased with the corporate commitment to some of our innovations. I mentioned in a recent blog that the Children’s Commissioner published her Hidden Ambitions report which recognised our work in helping care leavers to become apprentices, supporting their housing needs and using our Beyond Bricks and Mortar scheme to secure training and employment opportunities. Inspections are often unsettling experiences but I’m confident that staff and councillors will demonstrate our commitment to this critical service area.
City Deal
All is now set for approving the City Deal Joint Working Agreement at Council next month. At this week’s shadow joint committee meeting we discussed the regional digital infrastructure projects. A series of bids are being prepared to deliver the fibre-based infrastructure that will ensure the city and the region are digitally ready for the next wave of technology.
The Biggest Weekend
The eyes and ears of the music world will be on Swansea this weekend when the BBC’s Biggest Weekend comes to Singleton Park. The likes of Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran will be leading the greatest collection of pop stars the city has seen in a single event. This has taken a huge amount of planning and organising and I’m grateful to all our staff who’ve worked so hard to bring this prestigious event to Swansea. There’s a series of spin-off initiatives as well that’ll have a lasting legacy.
Congratulations
The positive impact of Western Bay’s regional working across health and social care has landed two prestigious prizes at the All Wales Continuous Improvement Community’s (AWCIC) Annual Awards. Western Bay won ‘Best Local Government Initiative’, and ‘Achieving a Common Purpose’ for its Commissioning for Complex Needs Programme which addresses irregularities in the quality of care across the region. Well done to everyone involved.
I’m delighted that our city centre has once again been awarded the Purple Flag by the Association of Town and City Management. It’s great recognition for the partnership we’re involved in to make this area’s night-time economy safe and welcoming. Thank you to everyone for their efforts.
GDPR
New data protection laws (GDPR) take effect today and means people will have more rights over how personal information is used. It also increases the responsibility of organisations like ours in the way we collect, store, use and share personal data – with much larger fines for breaches in the law. More: www.swansea.gov.uk/staffnet/gdpr
I’m away next week so my next blog will be on June 8.
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