The first steps

It’s great to see some of our schools return this week as we begin to take their first steps of recovery from the on-going pandemic.

It comes as the number of Covid cases in Swansea has fallen to 53 per 100,000 which is a massive fall from more than 700 per 100,000 a few months ago.

This week pupils in the Foundation Phase (aged 3 to 7) went back into class. Some had all their pupils in this age group back from Wednesday, others are using a phased approach, but by Monday all children in the Foundation Phase should be in school.

Initial indications show it’s gone very well so far and some schools are reporting high and even 100% attendance rates.

Schools and teachers, supported by our officers across the council, have done a great job in preparing by updating risk assessments and making sure schools are as Covid-safe as possible.

All schools should this week have lateral flow testing kits from the Welsh Government so from next week teachers can be tested twice a week. There are bound to be concerns and teething issues but our officers have tried to make the reporting of results as simple as possible and improved the system for reporting positive cases among pupils and staff.

It should also be remembered that schools have not been closed during lockdown – they‘ve been providing on-site learning for the children of critical workers and our most vulnerable children.

Teachers have also been providing online learning and the feedback from parents and students has been largely very positive. This of course can’t replace face to face teaching in schools and the Welsh Government has indicated that all primary school pupils and some secondary pupils could start returning from March 15.

I want to thank everyone involved in our schools and other services that have worked together to make this possible. It really has been an outstanding effort.

Next week we’ll start recruiting our new Head of Achievement and Partnership for Education which was Helen Morgan-Rees’s former role before she was recently appointed our Director of Education.

Call to action

The positive news that Covid cases are falling and vaccinations are speeding along is giving us a bit of an election headache.

There are elections for the Senedd, Police and Crime Commissioner, our Castle By-Election and a Mumbles Community Council By-Election on May 6. It’s always a massive operation for us but this year it’s going to be even more complex with the need to ensure we have safe environments for voters, staff, candidates and party officials.

Every election our staff work wonders by taking on roles in polling stations, counts etc, but this year we’re going to need your help more than ever.

We’re setting up approximately 145 polling stations and will need three staff in many of them. We’ll also have two count venues at the Brangwyn Hall and LC. Counts are expected to take place on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We’re taking extra measures to make all of these venues safe for everyone working there and casting votes etc. And it goes without saying staff safety and welfare will be our priority.

It’s a particular headache for me as I’m now the Regional Returning Officer for South West Wales. We’ll be having weekly meetings with the Welsh Government and Electoral Commission, and the support from our elections team has been fantastic

But to make this work we need more staff than ever to come forward. Our election team are finalising their plans and they’ll be advertising opportunities for staff in the coming weeks.

My appeal to everyone is if you can help please come forward when you see the adverts on Staffnet and in future blogs.

We’ve already had 32,000 people wanting to vote by post. If you want to apply for a PV and you live in Swansea area, please contact elections@swansea.gov.uk.

Another great effort

Last weekend our highways teams were out yet again in atrocious weather dealing with floods and rising river levels around the city, including places like Ynystawe and Clydach. My thanks to the team for their efforts.