Have your say

Our budget proposals are out for consultation and we’ll be starting staff roadshows next week so that you can have your say.

Despite the better than expected funding from Welsh Government, we’re still facing budget pressures next year after almost a decade of austerity. One of the big challenges is minimising the impact on staff and we’re doing everything we can to avoid compulsory redundancies. Unfortunately, there are some posts identified as potentially “at risk”, but we’ll be aiming to avoid any potential compulsory redundancies through redeployment opportunities or ER/VR, wherever possible.  I also expect managers to consider “bumped redundancies” as another way of avoiding compulsory redundancies. I know this is an unsettling time for those staff potentially at risk but, rest assured, as in previous years, we’ll be pulling out all the stops to avoid job losses wherever we can.  I’ve made my expectations on this very clear to the Corporate Management Team and I know they’ll once again do their best to deliver.

The staff roadshows start next Thursday and these will be a chance for you to learn more about the budget proposals and to have your say on the proposals. You can get details of the roadshows here and please come along to one of the sessions.

At the end of November I mentioned in my blog that the Sustainable Swansea programme is due for review.  The original ambitious strategy was agreed by Cabinet in October 2013 and it has formed the foundation for service and financial planning ever since.  It continues to provide the basis for our medium term financial plan but we must now adapt our thinking to reflect some important issues and developments.  This must include planning for continued austerity, adapting to regional working, improving public engagement and continuing digital transformation. Part of this review will include some reflection on what has been achieved by the Sustainable Swansea programme in terms of cultural change, transformation and financial management.  Often this can be incremental. I’d like everyone who wishes to have a say to be involved in setting out our framework for the future and I’ll be discussing this with directors over the next week or so.

Regional Working

Discussions continue with the Welsh Government on future collaboration between councils and in the meantime regional working continues apace.   On Tuesday I met the regional CEOs to discuss progress on the City Deal and the potential to develop further projects on transport and energy. And on Thursday I attended the Regional Partnership Board for health and social care to discuss Transformation Fund Programmes Evaluation, Early Years and Prevention Funding and the Home Dialysis project.  There’s an increasing volume of work being done regionally and I know this is creating extra workload for many officers.  The need for a more consistent and formalised approach on a common footprint is urgent and I hope the discussions we’re having with Welsh Government will deliver this.

Domestic Abuse

CMT is looking at how we can support staff who are victims of domestic abuse and violence. It’s a really important issue that affects many people and we’ll be reviewing existing policies to see how we can strengthen the support we offer.

Thanks

Thank you to all our staff who were out in this week’s storms ensuring our services continued to run and supporting the public. Let’s hope that’s the last of the extreme weather for a while!

Well done to Clint Jacobs in our cleansing team who’s been praised by the public for coming to the aid of a man who collapsed on the street in Uplands. Thankfully, Clint was on hand with others to help the man before an ambulance arrived.

And thanks to all the staff, councillors and charity supporters who joined me at the Lord Mayor’s Charity Quiz last night, raising £529 for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Fund which supports Llys Nini, Crisis and Unity in Diversity.