Our staff in social care have been on the front line of the Covid response for 15 months. Their resilience has been amazing and I am full of admiration for them. So when we had the feedback from the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) yesterday following their recent assurance visit I was optimistic that this would be recognised. The visit examined the whole of our social services functions.
Social work is a tough job even without the pandemic and to be frank I was not going to take any unmerited criticism lying down. We will not get a formal letter from CIW until next month but I was reassured by the informal feedback which very much reflected what we already knew about strengths and areas for improvement. Thanks to Gemma, Kath, Lucy and Di who helped to manage the inspection. We will share the formal feedback as soon as we can.
Public protection
Another part of the incredible effort to keep people in Swansea safe has been the contribution of our public protection team. Their work with businesses, organisations and supporting the health service response to the pandemic has been rigorous, challenging and life-saving. That’s why it’s great to hear of UK recognition in the Regulatory Excellence Awards for their work alongside colleagues elsewhere in Wales.
City of Sport and Health
This week Councillor Andrea Lewis and I met the Secretary of State for Wales along with colleagues from Swansea University and the Swansea Bay University Health Board. We discussed the latest City Deal project being sponsored by the Council – the Life Science, Well-being and Sport Campuses. This project will create the environment to leverage about £115 million of additional investment to create a 55-acre Innovation Park and a national centre of excellence with performance sport infrastructure. It aims to attract sports tech and related companies to help establish Swansea as a sport and well-being innovation test bed.
The scheme builds on the work we have done with the university over the past decade to develop the Institute of Life Science and NHS health research systems in the Swansea Bay City Region. The aim is to create 1,000-1,120 jobs and generate a £150m additional contribution to regional GVA.
The project comes in two phases. Phase 1 will see development of Institute of Life Science innovation, incubation and office space at the Morriston Regional Hospital site and a dedicated research and innovation area at the Sketty Lane Sports Park. Phase 2 will include the development of a 55-acre Innovation Park at Morriston and a national centre of Sports and Sports Tech excellence at Sketty Lane.
It was a challenging session which focussed on the economic and strategic case for the investment by governments. The next stage will be to take the project through the formal City Deal governance processes.
Additional Learning Needs
From time to time I have mentioned the issue of the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Act in the blog. This is because the Welsh Government’s new legislative framework presents many challenges for the council, not simply in education and schools, but across the whole organisation and beyond. Health, social care, legal services, employment support and many other areas need to respond to the requirements of the Act. CMT this week received an update from Sarah Hughes, Improvement and Monitoring Manager, who gave an excellent presentation on a programme which is incredibly complex. It was very well received by CMT who now will need to monitor and support the work being done by all those involved in delivering it. Thanks to Sarah for working it through with us.
C’mon Wales
Following the enthralling game against Turkey I will be spending Sunday evening glued to the TV for a tougher challenge against Italy. Let’s hope for a similar performance from our national team.
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