Archives for July 2020

This week the full Regional Partnership Board for our health and social care collaboration met for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.  To date we’ve needed to adopt emergency governance measures with decision-making being undertaken by chief executives and leaders of the councils and the local health board.  So it was another step back to business as usual and a chance to share with colleagues the actions taken during the Covid crisis.

The emergency arrangements have worked well and allowed rapid decisions to be made and throughout there’s been a strong commitment to regional working and establishing a regional response on all key issues.

The discussion at the RPB focussed on a frank assessment of the key issues with a particular focus on how we have collectively managed care home settings.  The three partners collectively engaged our former CEO, Jack Straw, to analyse the response and prepare a report highlighting the main issues, challenges and actions.  This focussed on general support to care homes, managing and preventing infection in care homes, testing, ethics and creating capacity in the NHS to manage the pandemic.

Overall the report is reassuring, although the lessons need to be learned and applied in the future, particularly in the event of further spikes or peaks in infection.  I suspect the coming weeks will see a strong focus on this through the scrutiny process, given the level of public interest nationally in the whole issue of care homes and hospital discharge.  The report is also being fed into the national review being undertaken by Dr John Bolton on behalf of the Welsh Government.

But the main credit must go to the staff working in and supporting our care homes, both in council ownership and in the independent sector.  They have done a magnificent job in the most difficult circumstances imaginable and the city owes them a huge debt.  Thanks to Jack and everyone who contributed to the report.

Shielding

In the next few weeks the Welsh Government’s shielding programme will be suspended and as such the council role in directly support for the 9,000 residents in Swansea will end.

Our last delivery of weekly food parcels will go out to homes on August 11 and we’ll be contacting those who’ve relied on this service to signpost alternatives as they’ll now be able to leave their homes to shop and still access priority food delivery slots. By then we will have delivered around 7,000 parcels since we took over the job in June.

The emergency helpline number will end and the dedicated call centre will also wind down. Staff there will have dealt with in excess of 25,000 inquiries and requests for help from those on the shielding list and have worked with of partners and volunteer groups to assist all Swansea residents during this difficult time Two of the four emergency food distribution centres we established in the early days of the pandemic have now closed as demand reduces and we’re reviewing future arrangements. Close to 12,000 families and individuals have been supported by Swansea’s emergency food response.

From the feedback we have received it’s clear people have genuinely appreciated the vital support we’ve provided which has seen colleagues from departments across the council work side-by-side.

As shielding is paused more staff will be returning to their ‘usual day jobs’ but again I’d like to thank them for their outstanding commitment and efforts. Some of our staff have been shielding, either to protect themselves or to care for loved ones including their children. In the coming days they’ll be contacted to discuss future arrangements in relation to returning to their workplace, where they are not able to continue to work from home.

A risk assessment will form part of this process but if you have any concerns about this please speak to your line manager.

School Improvement

Last week I mentioned that we’re changing the arrangements to support regional school improvement.  I’ve had highly productive discussions with the CEOs in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Neath Port Talbot with a view to streamlining our approach and connecting the work of the Regional Skills & Learning Partnership and the City Deal Skills & Talent initiative.  It’s essential we align these workstreams to secure maximum benefit for our learners from future economic regeneration.  I hope we can now move at pace to agree and establish the new arrangements.

Kingsway

I have to admit I was nervous last week about how the changes to the traffic network would be received by the public and by our city centre businesses.  I shouldn’t have worried.  Our team did a brilliant job as I found out when I tested the routes out myself on Sunday.  The response of the businesses has been really positive. The whole look and feel of the Kingsway has been transformed and this is set to continue and accelerate as we develop our key schemes including the former Oceana site.  Thanks to all involved.

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to dominate our working lives. As the Welsh Government eases lockdown measures we can start the process of returning to a semblance of normality, but there is still a way to go.

I’ve spoken in the past few weeks about how our response to the pandemic has transformed the council, the work we do and the way we go about it. Your response to the pace of change in these times has ensured critical services have been maintained and helped save lives.

One of the biggest changes has been the move to working from home. It’s become a norm for many of our staff based mainly in council offices. We’re now looking to them to help influence and shape how we’ll operate from council offices in future. We’ve just launched a survey seeking views, so if you’ve been based mainly in one of our offices prior to the pandemic, please take the time to participate here. We will be running a similar survey for councillors too as there have been major changes in the way that elected members work. My apologies to anyone who tried the link yesterday when it wasn’t working. If you need the survey in an alternative format please contact the service centre helpdesk: ServiceCentreHelpdesk@swansea.gov.uk

Our services are continuing to emerge from lockdown and this week we saw the re-opening of Singleton Park’s Botanical Gardens. The parks team has done a fine job in keeping things ticking over since March. I’m also sure thousands of families are cheered by news that we’ve re-opened more than 80 play areas in time for the school holidays. Hospitality businesses have also re-opened to provide an outdoor service and we’re now working with them on plans for indoor operations, scheduled to return from August 3. My thanks to all involved, along with a request that we continue to observe the two-metre rule and the 20-second hand-washing advice. We need to remember the virus is still with us.

School improvement

This week the ERW joint committee considered future collaboration on the delivery of school improvement services.  As Chief Executive of ERW I’ve been working closely with the six constituent councils (Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Powys) to agree how we’ll work together in future.  ERW hasn’t been without its challenges and problems, but over the last three years we’ve gradually introduced improvements to how the service is delivered.

There’s now a consensus that the region would be better split into two, mirroring the collaborations on economic development through the Swansea Bay City Deal and Growing Mid Wales partnerships. This means that from April next year our partners will be Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.

Education directors across the region will be working on this as a priority and working with ERW and Welsh Government to make sure the process runs smoothly.  There’ll be uncertainty about the future for ERW staff but I hope we can reassure all involved quickly.  The move to the City Deal footprint offers a real opportunity to better connect the regional economic development ambitions with the skills and potential that our young people gain through schools, colleges and universities. 

I’ll be working very closely with colleagues to make sure we grab this opportunity with both hands to assist in the economic recovery.

We also agreed the appointment of two joint chief officers to drive things forward from within ERW; Ian Altman and Greg Morgan.  This is required given the imminent retirement of Yan James, the current interim MD.  Congratulations to both and thanks to Yan for his excellent work.

Kingsway

Kingsway two-way: Designed by experts

Ahead of the switch to two-way traffic on the 26 July, Cllr Mark Thomas talks about the expert input we've had in the design of the new-look Kingsway, and how we're ensuring there's sufficient parking for disabled drivers who visit the city centre.? Read more about the changes: https://www.swansea.gov.uk/kingswaytwoway#KingswayTwoWay #Kingsway2Way #PlotYourRoute

Posted by Cyngor Abertawe – Swansea Council on Thursday, 23 July 2020

This weekend two-way traffic is to return to the Kingsway. It’s one of the final steps in a project that has seen it become a pedestrian-friendly, tree-lined city centre space with a 20mph speed limit for vehicles. I want to thank all those involved for their commitment and determination to deliver this project for the people of Swansea. Good luck with the change-over this weekend.

Children’s rights

For more than a decade we’ve been at the forefront of councils in embedding children’s rights into all the work we do. So it’s great to hear praise from the Children’s Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland following her team’s visit to Swansea to look at what’s happening in our schools. They were impressed by what they saw which the commissioner described as sector-leading in Wales. My thanks to Nick Williams and his teams for their work in this area.

School’s out – fun’s in with Enjoy Swansea Bay!

With the school holidays now upon us our Cultural Services Marketing team has pulled together a checklist of fun activities over the next six weeks to keep families and children busy. It’s worth a look here: www.enjoyswanseabay.com/summer

We now know shielding for vulnerable people is pausing on August 16 which has major implications for staff and the council.

The Chief Medical Officer’s announcement yesterday means the 9,000 shielded people in Swansea can begin to return to some kind of normality. This includes many of our staff who’ve been shielding and those caring for loved ones, including children, who’ve had to shield.

When shielding started we made huge changes to support the vulnerable. Staff quickly re-trained and were redeployed into a call centre with the support of IT colleagues, and others have been delivering food which will continue up until the end of shielding. The dedicated call centre number became a lifeline for many people.

We’ve also worked with the voluntary sector to ensure people get their medicines and vital supplies, and providing a friendly voice to those who are isolated. The work of our Local Area Co-ordinators has also been vital in this, linking with a small army of volunteers.

I’ll be returning to this issue in a future blog but during this period we delivered 5,000 food parcels, our helpline dealt with more than 23,000 inquiries while those who are alone and vulnerable have received more than 7,500 telephone calls as part of the neighbour to neighbour support coordinated by us and the Swansea Council for Voluntary Action.

This week schools break-up for the summer holidays so I’d like to thank all our teachers and school staff for their outstanding work during the last three months. More than 50 of our schools have been open throughout the lockdown, some during school holidays and weekends, providing emergency childcare for around 600 children of key workers each day.

Staff have also been setting school work remotely, keeping in touch with vulnerable learners, helping out with the delivery of free school meals and supporting our response to Covid-19 in many other ways.

This response has been a massive effort by all involved and I can’t thank or praise them enough for the way they’ve responded because without that support I’m sure more people would have died.

It’s this kind of dedication and willingness from our staff to go the extra mile that has made me so proud to be Chief Executive during this crisis. This shows what we can achieve and I really hope we can build on this effort in the future to help make all of our communities better places.

The pause in shielding also directly affects those staff who’ve been unable to work during this period. We’ll be contacting them in the coming weeks to discuss the future arrangements in relation to returning to their workplace, where they are not able to continue to work from home. As usual, if you have any concerns, please speak to your line manager.

Also thanks to our staff who’ve been involved in helping business in the hospitality and tourism sectors re-open. We need to continue supporting these businesses and taking practical steps to help customers and visitors return so that our economy and local enterprises can start to recover from the awful impact of lockdown.

We will of course continue to monitor the infection rate with our partners in health and we must be prepared to reintroduce measures to contain the spread of the virus if this happens.  We’ll do this via the Test, Trace, Protect programme that has now bedded down brilliantly thanks to some rapid and innovative work by our staff.

Yesterday Cabinet approved the financial outturn reports for the last financial year.  Thanks to the efforts of all involved to manage expenditure and recover debt we finished the year with a healthy balance.  This was just as well as it’s provided the necessary scope for us to respond to the pandemic crisis while we recover additional costs incurred from the NHS and Welsh Government.  I’m grateful to all of you, but particularly Ben Smith and the finance team for delivering these reports in extraordinary circumstances.

Cabinet also noted the delivery of our largest ever £126 million capital programme last year and I hope we can exceed this next year despite the economic and logistical challenges caused by Covid-19.

Awards

Well done to our colleagues at the Glynn Vivian. The gallery has been shortlisted for a national award thanks to the team’s very effective work with families. It’s an outstanding venue with a vibrant programme of events and exhibitions – online now, of course – so this recognition is well deserved.

Our projects at Parc Y Helyg and Craig Cefn Parc have both been shortlisted for the Constructing Excellence innovation award, and our active travel programme has been shortlisted for the value award category.  This is a recognition of the fantastic work done by our staff.  Presentations to the judging panel are at the end of July with a virtual ceremony in September.

Sad News

Yesterday we heard that former Councillor Gethin Evans has passed away.  Gethin was a real character who made a huge contribution to the Council over many years, having first been elected to Lliw Valley in 1991 and serving on West Glamorgan and more recently on this council until 2008.  Our best wishes go to his family and friends.

This week our Leadership Team worked on the Recovery Plan I mentioned a few blogs ago.  The framework is pretty much complete but we’re still developing the governance process.  There are a number of key themes emerging which will drive our work going forward.  These are:

• Health, Welfare and Community
• Business and Economy
• Future Council
• Finance
• Education, skills, prevention, wellbeing and safeguarding
• Environment

The next few weeks will see the completion of the Recovery Plan to tackle the challenges that have resulted from the global pandemic but of course work is already well under way on all these themes.

A current focus for many of us at the moment is support for business and the economy.  I mentioned before that progress has been positive on many of our major projects, including the digital arena that’s taking shape.

Yesterday the Swansea Bay City Deal Joint Committee met via Microsoft Teams and it was reassuring to hear that all of the projects within the programme are making good progress despite the upheaval caused by Coronavirus.  Afterwards we all met with David Davies, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales, to update him on progress and to ensure the UK Government remain up to speed with where we are.  He was clearly impressed by the progress made and we reminded him how important the growth deal was in the recovery plan, but also that there are many other projects which we will be pursuing as a region to get back on our feet.

One of these is of course the tidal lagoon and staff may have seen the reports regarding the planning permission for the previously proposed tidal lagoon has expired at the end of June. This project proposed by a private company was previously rejected by UK government as being too expensive.

You may also be aware that the council and city region partners had undertaken a review of the lagoon and believes it could still be delivered under the following principles:

• A public owned private sector funded project
• A reduction in the capital cost of about 30%
• Significant increase in green energy produced by incorporating solar, wind and hydrogen production assisting
• Large influx of jobs and growth to the region
• The addition of battery storage leading to further efficiencies
• The creation of a one of a kind tourism and research destination

We believe this is exactly the type of green infrastructure investment that both the UK and Welsh Governments are promoting as part of their recovery plan so we are continuing to work on a plan and hope to be able to provide positive updates in the near future. 

All of our teams have been performing heroics during the pandemic, but this week I want to mention our cleaning staff who continue to provide fantastic support to those buildings that have remained open as well as at the new facilities that have been created to provide services throughout the crisis.  In particular, Kim Jenkins and Deborah Pavey have been commended by staff at Maes Glas for their outstanding approach and in actively engaging with the residents to take part in cleaning around the home. A special thanks also to Stella Davies who’s worked tirelessly from day one, juggling resources and helping to keep key services open and supported.

Faces of Swansea Council: Denise

Denise is a cleaner in our sheltered housing complexes. During the pandemic she is making sure that these buildings are as clean and sanitised as they can be for our tenants.#FacesOfSwanseaCouncil #HereForSwansea

Posted by Cyngor Abertawe – Swansea Council on Thursday, 9 July 2020

Our staff Faces of Swansea social media campaign has generated tens of thousands of video views over recent weeks. It’s also been praised by top UK comms specialists as a great best-practice way to tell the public stories of our commitment to providing critical services during the pandemic. Well done to all who’ve participated and drop a line to Chris Peters-Bond if you or members of your team want to be featured.

Whilst the Wales Airshow couldn’t go ahead as planned last week, our Cultural Services Marketing and Events teams marked the day with a digital celebration. The event was designed in such a way that ‘spectators’ could dip in and out according to their particular area of interest and the team also managed to get the coffee and lunch breaks sponsored by local businesses. The digital celebration was a huge success, reaching almost a half a million people, with over 92,000 video views, and a Q&A video with the ever popular ‘Reds’ being the most popular with over 11,000 views. Congratulations to all involved – it was an innovative, well-planned and well received alternative event and a great addition to the Cultural Services.

Wales is beginning to emerge from lockdown but the pressures on the council and our workforce continue. 

The recent return of schools and shops along with the planned re-opening of pubs and restaurants outdoors all bring new challenges for us. It’s likely the shielding process for our most vulnerable people will continue into August. Alongside this we expect the workload on the test, tracing and protect programme to increase.

All of these require our staff to work in different ways and deal with new challenges. At the same time our “normal” work continues to return so it’s a really difficult balance and I recognise the pressure our staff face.

We’ve never been in this situation before, so I suppose we’re all learning and adapting as we go along. But the dedication and commitment of our staff remains outstanding. We’ve all had to change what we do and how we do it and that’s likely to continue for many months yet.

One of the many sad, but less known, aspects of the pandemic is the rise in domestic abuse and the impact on children. Rhodri Jones from Education, Russell Dwyer, Head of St Thomas’ Primary School, and Helen Woodward from South Wales Police have worked in partnership to notify schools when children hear or witness domestic abuse at home. Sadly, since lockdown began, the numbers of contacts Rhodri and his team have co-ordinated has increased significantly. Their work has had a positive effect on children and I’m grateful to all three for going the extra mile. Separate to this, our domestic abuse hub has gained global publicity. The chatbox provides safety advice and emotional support to those who need it throughout the pandemic. It now features in the Microsoft blog that goes worldwide so that other can see what we’ve done. Well done to everyone involved in it.

Back to school at Craigfelen Primary

Some great work by pupils at Craigfelen Primary School this morning observing distancing and regularly washing their hands as they return to class.It’s a big day for all our schools as they start offering ‘Check in, Catch-up and Prepare’ sessions to pupils.There are restrictions on the numbers that can attend any school at any one time and schools have been contacting parents and guardians outlining the sessions available to them.Hope all those returning enjoy and many thanks to Craigfelen for sharing their videos.

Posted by Cyngor Abertawe – Swansea Council on Monday, 29 June 2020

Thanks to all the school based staff who have done a brilliant job on getting pupils back to school this week.  I know it’s taken a massive effort with a very short timescale but I’m very grateful to you all.

It’s great to see our Crowdfund Swansea scheme has been pledged more than £64,000 by hundreds of backers for local projects.

It means four projects have reached their funding goals – Gateway to Swansea Botanical Gardens, accessible toilet at Pontarddulais Cricket Club, Copperworks Community Centre and Swansea and Gower beach clean stations

There are still a number of projects needing pledges to reach their funding target, further details are here.

These wonderful ideas could help transform our local communities, but they need your support. Thank you to our staff who helped launch this back in the autumn.