Archives for August 2021

If we needed any reassurance that we’ve been there for the people of Swansea during the pandemic then we got it this week.

It came in the shape of the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) reassurance letter following their visit earlier this year. Although I had every confidence in the work our staff in social care do, these visits are challenging at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.

The visit looked at how people are being safeguarded and well-being promoted during the pandemic. So the exercise was a real test of how our social care services had performed during Covid.

A key part of this process is being aware of where your strengths are and where areas need improvement, and I’m delighted the findings of the review clearly demonstrated we had achieved this.  They found our staff are committed, loyal and positive, with good visibility of managers. The CIW noted our staff are under significant pressure in some areas and I’ll be discussing this with senior management over the next couple of weeks.

The CIW were also positive about our accessibility arrangements, our risk analysis, communication and partnership working.  I was delighted that the excellent joint working between social services and education was also acknowledged.  We still have some work to do on quality assurance and the implementation of WCCIS as a replacement for PARIS continues to be a challenge for us.

Even in normal times I’d have been pleased to have received this feedback on our social care services.  But in the current circumstances it’s even more welcome and a testament to the hard work and commitment of our social care workforce.  Thanks and congratulations to all who provide these essential services.

Whilst this report looks at social care, a number of our other services provide the department with vital support and I’m grateful for their efforts too. And during the past 18 months the response and commitment from our staff in all our services has been beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Once again, thank you for everything you do.

Have your say

None of us have seen anything like the past 18 months. The pandemic changed the way we work and, for many, where we work. What the future looks like still isn’t clear and I’m sure it’ll evolve our time. That’s why it’s important you complete the current staff survey. We want your views on working arrangements so that we can shape the future with your views taken into account.

Mayhill Review

On Monday I met the team who’ll be conducting the independent review into the events leading up to and following the recent disturbances in Mayhill.  The team is led by Professor Elwen Evans, one of the UK’s leading criminal barristers.  She sits as a Recorder at the Crown Court and was appointed Head of the College of Law and Criminology at Swansea University in 2015.  She’ll be assisted from the policing side by Martin Jones, a familiar police figure to many in Swansea, and from the local government side by Jack Straw, our former CEO, or as some call him “Boomerang Jack”. 

Adam Hill has been pulling together a comprehensive report which looks into what intelligence we had before the event, how we reacted during it, and what we’ve done since.  This is a mammoth piece of work and I’m very grateful to Adam and all who contributed to it.

The next stage will be to submit this report as factual context by the end of today and the police will do the same with their report.  The review team will then consider the facts and will develop their lines of inquiry.  I suspect a number of us will be interviewed by the team in the coming weeks.  The final report will help us to consider what we might do differently in such circumstances and it should be welcomed as a learning tool for both organisations.

Our response in the past couple of months has been outstanding and last week’s community event will go some way to strengthening the links we have with the community and partners so that we can improve services and support for the people of Mayhill.

Reaching out

Nobody could have failed to be moved by the harrowing scenes from Afghanistan this week. The country is in crisis and many people, especially those who’ve helped the UK and other countries, are fearing for their safety. There’s now a focus on how we can help those by offering refuge here. Swansea and our council has a proud record of providing sanctuary for those in need. We were already welcoming Afghan families this month, prior to this week’s crisis. But given the crisis, the Leader and I are discussing how we can offer support to more families in the coming weeks and months.

Well done

Last year we signed the Victim Support’s Hate Crime Charter as a public commitment to playing our part in tackling hate crime, providing support and information for victims and raising awareness of hate crime among our staff and communities.

We’ve now been awarded the charter’s Trustmark for demonstrating we’re delivering on this pledge and I’d like to thank our Community Safety Team for leading on this work.

Our response to the troubles in Mayhill back in May has been magnificent. I can’t thank or praise officers enough. Across all our departments, officers working alongside local ward members and Cabinet, have focused on making improvements to the community, our services and people’s lives.

The latest support came yesterday with a community day organised by our community safety team and the Safer Swansea Partnership. We had staff and stalls from a number of services including our local area co-ordinators, lifelong learning, sports development and school nursing. These were joined by the likes of the police and fire service as well as the local boxing club, the Wave radio station and numerous fun activities.

The event was superbly supported by families and all ages who turned out and had a great time.

This event is only part of our wide-ranging response to support residents in the area and there is much more to be done, but I’m sure it’ll go some way to building relationships between residents and the many agencies and organisations there to support them.

There are too many people to thank, but Paul Thomas and Paul Evans in our community safety team deserve a mention for the work they put into bringing partners together and making the day a huge success. Thank you to them and everyone involved.

However I was shocked to see the Leader’s new approach to group discipline.  For those concerned officers and members I understand that Cyril is recovering well.

New-look council website

Next Wednesday our web team is due to launch the council’s new brand new website. It’ll be attractive to look at and easier to use for the many thousands of visitors to our pages every week. The project is part of our digital strategy which will allow us to move even more services online to improve services for our residents. My thanks to all those involved. You can find out more here.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Swansea pupils and schools on this year’s GCSE and A-Level results.  Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic our schools and education colleagues have done their utmost to support learners and make sure they are not disadvantaged by it.

A special mention is deserved for our pupils at the Maes Derw pupil referral unit (PRU). Most of our PRU-entered pupils received a clutch of five A*-G GCSE grades with some achieving the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification that is rich in skills and emphasises both community and global citizenship. These are great results and all involved in these achievements should feel very proud

We have again been shortlisted in 3 categories’ by APSE in their 2021 Awards. The winning entries are due to be announced at this year’s annual AGM and award ceremony, taking place on September 9.  We have been selected for the following categories:

• Best Service Team Housing & Construction – More Homes Delivery Team –  Building Services & Housing
• Best Housing, Regeneration or New Build initiative – More Homes Swansea Standard/HAPS developments – Housing & Building Services
• Best commercialisation and Entrepreneurship initiative – Commercial Development Focus – Commercial services

We have continued to innovate during the pandemic and I hope our teams are successful next month. They are representative of the efforts and achievements of staff across the Council and specifically those involved in our housing, regeneration and commercial programmes.

And finally congratulations to our Events Team for bringing three concerts to Singleton Park with Foals tomorrow, Olly Murs on Sunday and Catfish and the Bottlemen next month.  It feels like another step back to normality for the city. 

The Welsh Government has confirmed that Wales will move to alert level zero from Saturday.  Despite the continuing spread of the third wave of the coronavirus, the change is based on the premise that the link between infections and hospitalisation has been broken.

Fully-vaccinated adults here in Wales won’t have to self-isolate after close contact with a positive Covid case.  There’s no limit on indoor meetings, but face coverings will be required in most public indoor places, including public transport, though not in pubs, restaurants or schools.  Social distancing rules will no longer be law, but venues will need to conduct risk assessments to decide on appropriate safety measures. 

This means we can start preparing for some of our activities as a council to take place in our offices, providing appropriate risk assessments are in place that are developed in partnership with the trade unions.  In doing so we must reflect on how digital communication and remote working has in some areas benefitted the organisation and customers.  The future working model will need to be a hybrid one and this transformation will be overseen by our Recovery and Reshaping Board and in line with our recently-agreed Agile Working policy. In any case we must be cautious about even a very limited return to our offices and a phased approach over many months is probably the most sensible option.  This is in line with discussions I’ve had this week with neighbouring authorities. We should also consider whether face-to-face meetings are genuinely essential because they have a cost in travel time, C0₂ emissions and the cost of providing meeting spaces.  And of course they carry a higher risk of infection.

It’s as important as ever that any of our staff contacted by TTP because they’ve been in contact with a positive case should follow the guidance.

From a personal point of view I’m most anxious that we reconvene Council as soon as it is safe and sensible to do so.  Political discussion and debate is one area that hasn’t really benefitted from remote working, despite the best efforts of our teams in democratic services and ICT.  The exception to this is the much improved collaboration at regional and national levels and we must continue that going forward.

Budget

CMT this week received the first draft timetable for budget setting from our section 151 officer, Ben Smith.  It’ll once again be a tricky process given the unknown factors like the level of continued funding support from Welsh Government and the likely pay settlement for current year let alone the lack of clarity on when the comprehensive spending review will take place to shape future years.

It’s likely the detailed budget discussions with Cabinet will take place between September and November, with staff and public consultation in December and January.  The final report to Council will be in early March.

I suspect our colleagues in finance are horrified by how quickly this has all come round again but at least we have got ourselves into as strong a position as possible through intelligent borrowing and prudent financial management in all directorates.  Thanks to Ben and his team for setting out the roadmap for us.

Congratulations

Even in the most difficult weeks there is always something that happens in this organisation which cheers me up.  This week it was the hardy stalwarts from Social Services Adult Services and H&T Client Transport who recently undertook a Sunrise Pen Y Fan walk.  Starting at 2am, fog and rain battered Suzanne Grady, Cathy Williams, Sian Corney, Melanie Vanstone, Keith Evans and Malcolm Cootes.  The team raised over £1,223 in aid of Maggie’s and the attached photo shows the cheque being handed over to Liz, fundraising organiser for Maggie’s Swansea.  Hats off to them all for raising this cash for this important charity.