The next few weeks are critical in the management of the pandemic. As we head towards Christmas there are real concerns over the spread of infection. The infection rate is at record levels in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. The strain on health and social care services is intense and growing. The workload of our Test, Trace, Protect team has ballooned and we’re increasing the staffing as rapidly as we can and we may need to redeploy more staff.
This week the Leader and I met with the Health Minister, Vaughan Gething, along with our colleagues from Neath & Port Talbot and the Swansea Bay University Health Board. We set out our concerns and these will be factored into Welsh Government thinking in the days ahead.
The message from the Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Frank Atherton, is sound advice: “We are facing a very serious situation. Coronavirus is accelerating. The virus is spreading faster than we could have anticipated and certainly faster than we’ve seen through the autumn months. This is just one Christmas, which I won’t be spending with my children. My main priority is to keep my whole family safe and healthy. The best way I can do that is to stay at home and have a small Christmas this year.”
Sadly, this common sense approach is not shared universally. We continue to see examples of irresponsible behaviour and blatant stupidity. This impacts on the ability of staff to cope and we will, for their sake, continue to take a hard line where rules are broken. We aren’t exempt from this and while the vast majority of our staff have been brilliant, some have let themselves down. The message of personal responsibility cannot be communicated strongly enough and we must all set an example to others.
We’ve also announced that from Monday all our schools will move to blended/remote learning until term ends on December 18. This comes after updated advice from the Chief Medical Officer yesterday evening and representations from primary school head teachers.
As if that wasn’t enough
This week’s news has been almost equally dominated by Brexit. I’ve previously shared the views of most mainstream economists on the negative impacts of the failure to secure a trade deal. Our internal working group have been planning as best as they can but this may be an impossible challenge. We continue to work with the Welsh Government to deal with the substantial risks and hope that tangible progress can be made in negotiations with the EU. But it is time to plan for the worst and hope for the best.
On the bright side
I’m not a huge fan of Christmas but I’m always impressed by the efforts of others at this time of the year. Huw Mowbray added to the cheer with an image of how our Kingsway project may look by Christmas 2022.
It’s Christmas Jumper Day so mail your photo entries to staffcomms@swansea.gov.uk. Please donate £1 (or whatever you can afford) towards the Lord Mayor’s charities. Who knows, if we get 100 entries I may even don a tasteless Christmas jumper myself (for the first time ever) and share the horror with you in my Xmas blog.
Carers
Our Head of Child & Family Services, Julie Davies, reminded me that of the 562 total number of children and young people we look after, there are currently 185 living with Foster Swansea carers and 163 living with family and friends carers. Even during normal times our foster carers do an incredible job that isn’t always valued properly by society. so tonight we’ll light-up he Guildhall as a mark of appreciation for all our Foster Swansea Carers, Kinship Carers and their families. Thank you to each and every one of our foster families and wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.
Congratulations
We’ve been recognised by Ystadau Cymru – a Welsh Government initiative – for our work on agile working and commercialisation of the city centre. Well done to everyone involved. This sort of recognition with Welsh Government will be increasingly important for us as we try to persuade them to support our various city centre hub initiatives.
Well done to our schools that have been recognised in the Estyn annual report. Leaders at Pentrehafod School were praised for developing a tracking system that’s led to better academic outcomes and increased sense of wellbeing for pupils. Birchgrove Comprehensive’s focus on mutual respect and stronger teacher-pupil working has reduced exclusions and increased attendance and punctuality. And at our pupil referral unit PRU, the management committee regular visits has led them to provide better support and challenge to senior leaders to help improvement.
Sad news
Very sadly, we’ve lost one of our colleagues and friends with the sudden passing of Alan Pritchard, a voice engineer in our Digital Services ICT team who worked with us for over 25 years. Colleagues have received numerous messages from across the authority expressing their sympathy and sadness, showing how much Alan was liked and respected. Our deepest sympathies and condolences to Alan’s wife Jo, who is a valued colleague in the Service Centre, Alan’s children and all his family and friends at this very sad time. He will be greatly missed by family, friends and colleagues.
Once again, thank you for everything you’re doing in the face of adversity. I couldn’t be more grateful and proud to be your Chief Executive.
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