Continuing the path to recovery

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.