We are preparing for Brexit, whatever that means!

The role of chief executive, like many jobs, ranges from the mundane to the interesting, but in recent days it’s certainly moved to the bizarre!

I’ve been asked to prepare for Brexit, but if anyone out there can tell me what I’m meant to be preparing for I’d be really grateful. We also recently received a small grant for the extra costs Brexit will generate, but I’m not sure what those extra costs are yet!

On a more serious note, Adam Hill and Craig Gimblett have attended various working groups set up by the Welsh Government to look at issues like loss of food and fuel supplies. But to me, this doesn’t seem entirely realistic, although more may become clearer in the next week or so.

Our £12m scheme for the Kingsway is in the news because our main contractor, Dawnus, is in difficulties. But behind these headlines there’s the human story of the workers facing financial and other implications. Given this is a Swansea firm this is clearly a concern for us. As always, when faced with a crisis, our officers have risen to the challenge and a team of people are working to deal with the consequences of Dawnus’ plight and to ensure we complete this scheme. Dawnus were also our main contractor at our new pupil referral unit at Cockett and we’re taking similar steps to ensure this scheme goes ahead. There are many people involved, but particular thanks to Martin Nicholls, Stuart Davies, Alun Thomas, Gareth Hughes and Debbie Smith.

Today we’ll be launching the celebrations for the 50^th anniversary of Swansea’s city status. Throughout the year we’ll be staging a programme of events and activities to celebrate everything good about our city, and today’s event is to spread the word to our stakeholders and partners who can “be part of it”. We’ve create a logo for the 50^th and we’ll be using this on our website, social media, printed materials etc to help promote Swansea. We’re also adding it to our email signature so please follow this guidance and adopt the logo on your work emails.

Regional working across issues like health and education were a feature of local government life when I left in 2016 and it remains so today. I understand the current Welsh Local Government Minister, Julie James, will be introducing legislative steps this Spring to encourage further regional working. So it’s with some dismay that I see Neath Port Talbot are threatening to leave ERW, the regional education consortium, along with refusing to make their financial contributions this year or in the year of their notice. This council’s position is that we’re committed to working with others in regional structures which are resourced and governed properly so it can be seen to make a positive contribution to outcomes for children and young people. The NPT position appears to be borne out of self-interest and is in my opinion unprofessional. We’ll pursue their financial contribution so that it doesn’t impact on other partners. The reality is that regionalisation, or elements of it, is the direction of travel and we have a duty to make it work.

Corporate Management Team reviewed our corporate risk register. It seems to me the continuing loss of funding increases the probability of some of these risks occurring so we have to be clear about the mitigation we put in place.

We also considered proposals for replacing our Oracle system covering finance and HR. As always with IT we face the dilemma that the current system will become obsolete, but there are costs and resource implications when implementing the new version. CMT understood the case for replacing the system, but we’re not prepared to commit the financial or human resource until an implementation plan is devised giving assurance we can actually deliver it.

Rachel Moxey, Head of Poverty and Prevention, Gavin Evans and Damian James gave CMT a briefing on the future of our outdoor activity centres which are used by young people from across Swansea. CMT acknowledged the good work undertaken to improve the financial performance and operation of the centres which will help in the next few years. The briefing also looked at potential options for making the centres more sustainable in the longer term, but ultimately this will be a political decision and we’ll need to consider the resources needed if we were to, for example, go down the route of creating a trust.

Rachel is due to leave us to take up a new post in Pembrokeshire and Dave Howes, Director of Social Services, thanked her for her hard work and we wish her well.

Finally, I’ve received feedback in relation to my comments on the mental health strategy last week. Whilst I highlighted the service pressures and shortcomings, I should also have acknowledged the sterling work that our mental health social workers do in very challenging circumstances.