Archives for November 2020

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It’s been a bit of an unusual week, starting in the early hours of Monday morning with a Teams call to our Skyline partners in New Zealand, followed later in the evening by a Zoom meeting with the Governor of West Virginia on an exciting inward investment proposal linked to the Dragon Energy Island project that builds on the previous lagoon proposal.

There’s global investment interest in the city right now, building on the enthusiastic response from the development industry to our Shaping Swansea launch a few weeks ago.  Given the gloomy statements from the Chancellor this week about the long-term prospects for the UK economy this is very encouraging as we try to make sure the city and the region can compete economically.  The Leader and our Director of Place, Martin Nicholls, have done an excellent job in raising our profile but I suspect they’d hope for slightly less busy days than last Monday.

Excellence in Education

I was delighted to hear all of our schools inspected by the HSE achieved Grade One sign-off for the way they’ve adapted to deal with Covid-19.  The two final visits took place this week at St David’s Primary School and Ysgol Crug Glas.  The inspector was impressed at how quickly both schools communicated with parents and the levels of compliance. The pupils’ behaviour was exceptional and he described the level of compliance with social distancing and hand-washing in St David’s as “the best I have ever seen”.  Huge thanks and congratulations to all our schools and education team, and particularly Nicole Overton who’s done a magnificent job supporting them.

I was also delighted Beth Titley from Careers Wales highlighted us as the only authority actively engaging with her organisation during the pandemic.  In her own words:  “This true willingness to continue to work in partnership during the most difficult and unprecedented of times is a ‘leading light example’ in helping to ensure that young people continue to have access to impartial careers information, advice and guidance at key points in their education.”

On top of all of this our education team have been contributing to Estyn’s thematic review of Covid, the return to school and blended learning.  Many councils opted-out due to pressures of work but our proactive and positive response reminded me that Swansea schools don’t need to make extensive last minute preparations for outside inspections. They are ‘ready’ and offering excellent care and education every day.  Thanks to Helen Morgan-Rees and Cabinet Member Jen Raynor for their continued leadership and to all schools for their commitment and expertise.

Our colleague Nick Williams will be retiring as Director of Education with immediate effect due to ill-health. Nick has helped us to improve our education service over many years and in different roles. We talked on the phone this week and Nick told me that he is sad to be leaving as he has enjoyed working here very much and will miss his colleagues. I’d like to place on the record my thanks to Nick and I hope his health improves over the coming months and years.  Thanks for your contribution Nick and best wishes for the future.

APSE nominations

Once again Swansea is well represented in the APSE Service Awards, with five service areas shortlisted.  These awards have been extremely competitive, with over 100 organisations taking part from across the UK.  Only the very best submissions have been shortlisted in each category and ours are:

• Building Services for workforce initiative for the development of the in-house sprinkler initiative
• Building Services for best team of the year
• Craig Cefn Parc for best housing and regeneration initiative
• Trading Standards team of the year
• Culture Sport and Leisure team of the year.

So good luck to all involved when the winners are announced on December 16.

Sad news

I was saddened last week to hear about the recent passing of former councillor Keith Marsh.  Keith represented the Bishopston ward from 4 June 1998 to 4 May 2017.  He was a larger than life character, committed to serving his community.  The funeral was held yesterday, with attendance unfortunately constrained by the coronavirus restrictions.  My thoughts go to his family, friends and colleagues.

The latest figures show the rate of infection and the rate of positive tests are both reducing in Swansea but it’s too early to say if this is a long-term trend.

As of yesterday we had a case per 100,000 ratio of 220 against the Wales average of 164.5 and a testing positivity rate of 15.8% against the Welsh average of 12.9%. I shared these figures with the Scrutiny Programme Committee which I attended this week following their request for an update on key developments over recent weeks, the current local COVID-19 situation, the outlook and challenges we face.

A number of things have occurred since I last spoke to the committee, most importantly the impact of the second wave of Covid-19. This has meant we’ve had to once again adjust our services to manage the firebreak, protect citizens, enforce rules and support businesses.

The other major development has been around vaccines, most notably the Pfizer Biotech and Moderna versions which are likely to be followed by many more, with the Janssen testing under way in UK. I advised the committee we’re working closely with regional partners to roll-out the mass vaccination programme from the Bay field hospital and satellites in Gorseinon and Margam.  Initial indications are that priority will be given to residents and staff in care homes and we’re working to develop a comprehensive mobile programme.  However, we need greater clarity over the national vaccination programme in order to ensure a co-ordinated response, particularly the rate of release of the vaccine to our region.

I told members that the organisation is coping but creaking under the pressure created by the additional challenges of TTP and preparing for mass vaccination. Pressure on many services remains intense and we have faced additional problems including flooding following the recent downpours.  Staff continue to rise to the task but we approach another challenging period over the winter.

Particular concern remains on the system pressures in the NHS and social care.  We are constantly monitoring the capacity in hospitals and it’s possible that the coming weeks will see the opening of the surge capacity at the Bay field hospital.  The pandemic has brought into even sharper focus the inter-dependency of health and social care services as they work to support and protect citizens.

The long-term impact on the economy also remains an over-riding concern but we’re doing our best to counter it.  Regeneration projects continue, including Swansea Central Phase One, the Kingsway and various other important residential and education developments.  We’re making progress on the tidal lagoon and we continue to support businesses by implementing the WG grant schemes where we have once again hit the ground running with just under 90% paid out by our fantastic finance staff in just two weeks.

I advised the committee that in the run up to Christmas we’ll need to monitor closely the difficulties that city centres face in retail and hospitality sectors and the management of large numbers of people in public areas. One potential change we’d like to see is the compulsory wearing of face masks in crowded areas.  We’re in active discussion with the Welsh Government, the police and colleagues in Cardiff who face similar issues.

Away from the Committee, there was a distressing incident in our Central Library this week. Two men refused to sanitise their hands or wear face masks and, when spoken to by our staff, they filmed the situation and ended up grappling with our staff. Our security and police attended, but this is totally unacceptable behaviour and I expect the proper action to be taken against the perpetrators. I can only apologise to our staff for what was a very distressing incident and hope they recover quickly. I have asked our security team to review our arrangements.

The news this week that successful vaccine trials had taken place was met with an almost universal sense of relief.  And on the back of this long-awaited good news, we’re now working to help to deliver the necessary mass vaccination programme in partnership with the local health board and colleagues in Neath Port Talbot.  We don’t yet know the exact form of the programme or the prioritisation decisions that will drive who gets the vaccine and when.  But we’re working with regional colleagues to prepare the mass vaccination facility to hit the ground running some time next month and I’ll keep you posted on progress. At the same time, it’s clear the recent firebreak restrictions are having a positive impact on the rate of transmission.  This trend is likely to continue over the coming days and weeks, but the expectation of many is that there’ll still need to be further firebreaks if the R rate rises again.   This is clearly problematic for us all, and extremely difficult for our local businesses who need some continuity and some certainty about how they’ll be able to operate. We’re doing all we can to support businesses within the current restrictions.

Copr Bay

Despite the pandemic restrictions, it’s been a huge week for the city centre with three key developments. The Arena’s topping-out, the naming of new Copr Bay district and a future view of our £1bn regeneration plans. The virtual topping-out of the 3,500-capacity arena took place via a video featuring drone footage sweeping through the expansive – and newly-named – Copr Bay Phase One district. It takes the viewer around the complex and right up to the arena rooftop over 20m above the road below. It includes parkland, homes, commercial units, parking and a landmark bridge. A second phase will follow with more homes, work spaces and commercial opportunities.

And visitors to the district can use digital binoculars that combine archive and historical images with digital innovation to see how the city will look once the investment is complete. Well done to everyone involved. To see this exciting project progress during the pandemic is inspiring.

Good news

It’s great to see two of our teachers recognised in the Welsh Government’s Professional Teaching Awards. Chris Mitchell, from Pontarddulais Comprehensive School, is a finalist in the Secondary School Teacher of the Year category and Jonathan Thomas, from Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, is in the running for the Pupils’ Award for Best Teacher. Congratulations and good luck to both when the winners are announced later this month.

And well done to Jeff Dong and our finance team after being shortlisted in the LAPF Investment Awards which recognise achievements in the Local Government Pension Scheme. We’re shortlisted in two categories: Best Investment Strategy and Innovation. It’s great to know our pensions are in safe hands.

We should be preparing for the annual Christmas Parade, attracting tens of thousands to the city centre. But in these unusual times our Cultural Services, Marketing and Events teams have come up with an innovative way of launching Christmas in the city without putting people at risk.

Whilst the pandemic prevents us gathering to see our favourite characters, dancers, drummers and Santa, we can instead sit in the comfort of our own homes and watch Swansea’s virtual Christmas Parade.  This is a brilliant idea and I’m grateful to everyone involved. Sign up for the Facebook event here. Subscribe to Enjoy Swansea Bay YouTube here.

Thanks

I hope you all managed to see the completed DIY SOS programme about the new home for Surfability at Caswell Bay broadcast on BBC1 last night. What a truly outstanding project and achievement and the council staff involved in making it happen should feel very proud. To have pulled off the support for such a project in the middle of a pandemic with all of the pressures faced is incredible. My thanks to all involved.

I’ve said in the blog about how grateful I am for the fantastic work by our staff to help the city and its citizens through the pandemic.  So this week I was delighted to receive the following feedback from a member of the public: “I just wanted to get in touch to say a huge thank you to all the Swansea council staff. These times have hit us all hard, but I’m in admiration to you all for carrying on and continuing to make our county both economically viable and attractive to visitors and business. Credit where it’s due – you’ve been great and you’re all hugely valued. Please keep up your awesome work.”

 I couldn’t put it better myself. Thank you everyone.

Yesterday I appeared before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee at the House of Commons to discuss our response to the pandemic.

It was a great opportunity to reflect on all the things we’ve done since last March, as well as thinking about what we do when the new restrictions come in next week.

What struck me was the sheer scale of what we’ve achieved and the enormous efforts of our staff and councillors during the past eight months.

Our immediate challenge was to support the NHS and we’ve worked with our local health board and Neath Port Talbot Council to ensure a consistent and united approach. We built a 1,000-bed field hospital in just six weeks – forget anything DIY SOS has done, it was almost miraculous to achieve that in such a short space of time.  We reluctantly, but out of necessity, changed our social care offer and added extra residential care settings to support hospital discharges, we sourced vital PPE, opened childcare settings across Swansea for key workers and sadly ensured we had sufficient mortuary and body storage facilities.

On top of this we did so many other things including providing free school meals throughout, operating the shielding system for the vulnerable and introducing and operating the Test Trace Protect system.

And then for the current firebreak we also brought in local testing capacity, set up a revised business support programme and stepped-up enforcement.

We all know we did much more than this and we have heroes right across the council, but when you sit back and consider all of this it really hits you just what you have all done.

The MPs were also keen to know how we’ve been working with the Welsh Government. My view is we’ve never worked closer and our access to WG Ministers has been constant and excellent. We’ve been consulted on restrictions and lockdowns and put forward suggestions, many of which have been taken on board. And working across local government and with the WLGA has been excellent.

Of course there have been issues. The test and trace system has had problems and we’re operating with a huge degree of financial risk as we’re having to pay for Covid-related things up front and waiting and hoping that the Government will cover those vital costs.

But that doesn’t take away from the huge number of success stories.

And now as we prepare to enter a new phase of restrictions next week, we mustn’t forget we’ll have tough days, weeks and months ahead. The number of cases continue to rise nationally and locally and we don’t expect the impact of the current firebreak to be felt for several weeks yet.

You’ll have seen some of the details of what to expect after November 9, but more details will follow. In the meantime, I know many of you are already planning the service changes based on those new restrictions.

And our over-riding message from here on must be to take personal responsibility and do the right thing. Some areas such as pubs and restaurants will be re-opening, but there will be restrictions and we all need to think what we should do rather than what we can do.

There’ve been some examples locally of people not doing the right thing. We’ve seen students disciplined, individuals fined and businesses closed. But they are the minority because the vast majority of people are being sensible despite how tough that may be at times. Not seeing loved ones or meeting friends isn’t easy and those running local businesses affected by lockdown must be heartbroken.

We’re doing all we can for those businesses. And once again I have to thank colleagues in Finance and ICT for responding so quickly and ensuring the latest grants are paid as quickly as possible.

Away from Covid matters, I’m delighted our Dylan Thomas Centre that won a UK national award yesterday. Its Literature and Trauma initiative was saluted by the Museums Association’s Museums Change Lives awards for delivering positive social impact. The creative writing scheme is a big hit with its target audience – refugees and asylum seekers living in Swansea. www.swansea.gov.uk/DTSaward0511

Well done to Andy Rose who is the Direct Payment Services Manager in Adult Services. A caller to the BBC’s Jason Mohammed show rang to thank Andy who came to the rescue when the 80-year-old caller fell and injured herself in the marina. The injured woman could not praise Andy enough and I’d like to pass on my thanks too.

And a big thanks to our Active Young People team who’ve organised some mobile skate sessions in Morriston for scooter and skate enthusiasts on the back of a request from a young lad, thanks to the team for the swift and great response.

Once again, thank you for all your efforts. Let’s all do the right thing, and please stay safe.