Archives for October 2021

The pandemic is bringing so many new challenges for us, it’s often hard to keep up! But one issue that’s always been top of my list is staff well-being and safety. Throughout the pandemic this has been a key issue, whether it’s providing PPE, ensuring staff can work from home, having safety measures in the workplace or providing some 1-2-1 support to ensure colleagues are OK.

We’re all aware of the recent killing of MP Sir David Amess, and thankfully tragedies like this are not common. However, we recently had an incident in the Civic Centre where a member of the public’s behaviour towards our staff led to the police being called.

This type of incident is totally unacceptable and I want to make it clear we won’t tolerate behaviour of this kind towards our staff. Wherever necessary we will work with police to prosecute people who behave in this way. Our staff are doing the very best they can every day and they deserve better.

Fortunately, incidents like this are also rare, but that doesn’t mean we’re not taking it seriously. Far from it.

The feedback I’m getting from our staff is that members of the public are increasingly frustrated, sometimes because they can’t access some of our services in the way they could pre-pandemic. And some things like reaching staff or getting responses are taking longer than they used to, which is adding to their frustrations. This isn’t excusing their behaviour in any way, I’m just making us all aware of the kind of backdrop we’re facing so that we’re better prepared to deal with it.

In response we’re looking at our procedures and how we are letting the public know that our services aren’t yet back to normal. Also, I’ve asked for a review of our buildings, and especially public contact and access points, to ensure we have the right safeguards in place so that our staff feel safe and confident when dealing with the public. We’ll also ensure these measures are put into our new city centre offices. For me, staff safety is paramount.

Congratulations

Our Pension fund has been shortlisted in this year’s LAPF Awards (The Local Government Pension Scheme LGPS Oscars) for three awards – Pension Fund of the Year (assets over £2.5bn), Best Climate Change Strategy and Best Investment Innovation. The Swansea fund is solely flying the flag for Welsh pension funds this year. The nominations reflect the hard work by the team and builds on the exceptional financial returns and full funding position achieved for 2020-21.

I mentioned we could expect some good news about the lagoon development and hopefully you saw the media coverage this week. Some of our staff played a key role in the development and announcement of the new £1.7bn Blue Eden project for Swansea. Martin Nicholls, our Director of Place, working with the Leader and Cabinet Members, helped develop the project with DST Innovations, the Wales-based company who’s leading the project. It’ll be entirely funded by the private sector and includes a tidal lagoon, floating solar farm, high-tech battery manufacturing plant and storage facility, data centre and many other facilities that will place Swansea at the forefront of global renewable energy innovation. These include an ocean and climate change centre, and about 150 floating eco-homes to be anchored in the water. Well done to everyone involved.

Sad news

I was saddened to hear that former councillor, Honorary Alderman and Lord Mayor of Swansea Susan Waller Thomas has passed away.  Sue was a committed and hardworking councillor who represented her ward in Newton diligently for almost 25 years, after being elected to Swansea City Council in 1986.  Her gentle disposition and humour endeared her to many of us.  I’d been in correspondence with Sue recently and she was in typically high spirits and full of praise for the way we’ve dealt with the challenges of the last 18 months.  She will be greatly missed.

Yesterday I joined councillors and officers in the Council Chamber for our first multi-location cabinet meeting.  It’s amongst the first formal meetings to be run using this new hybrid approach.  It felt good sitting again with colleagues in the Chamber, albeit with limited numbers.  The meeting went very smoothly thanks to the efforts of Darren Richards, Huw Evans, Nerys Williams and Councillor Andrew Stevens.  I hope this form of meeting will become commonplace as we take cautious steps forward in the coming months, but it couldn’t have happened without the commitment and skills of our officers and elected members.

The highlight for me was the report on our Annual Review of Performance 2020/21.  If you haven’t had a chance to read this report I’d strongly recommend it.  I’ve worked in local government for 36 years and I think it’s the best summary of our collective efforts I’ve seen during that time.  At the very least a simple reading of the case studies will reinforce our understanding of the breadth and importance of our services to the public.  Huge thanks go to Richard Rowlands, Jo Portwood, Suzy Richards and Simon Jones along with all others who’ve contributed.  And a massive thanks to all of you for the efforts you’ve put in during the past year.

Education

One of the things I’ve missed during the pandemic is my visits to Swansea schools.  So it was with some anticipation I turned up at Llanrhidian to see the work being done by this pioneer school. It’s set in my favourite part of Gower, but the issues here are no different to other schools and are made particularly acute by the age and layout of the main building.  Headteacher Donna Caswell explained the challenges the school has faced, including the response to the pandemic.  The level of innovation by our schools is impressive and this is particularly true in Llanrhidian.  Space is precious and the school has made the most of it and overcome some real difficulties to provide an outstanding learning environment.  And the outdoor facilities were even better, giving the children a number of areas for outdoor learning and play.

My visit coincided with Shwmae Day so the tour was punctuated by every child saying “SHWMAE” to me.  I had a very helpful discussion with Donna over coffee and the welcome shown by her, the staff and the young learners was fantastic.  Thanks to Donna and her team for taking time out of their hectic day to help me understand better the reality of teaching during the pandemic.

Staying on the theme of education some important milestones were reached this week in the transformation of our regional education consortium from ERW to Partneriaeth.  We’ve now had in-principle agreement from the councils in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire to the final elements of our legal agreement for Partneriaeth.  This has been a huge amount of work and I’m very grateful to our officers, in particular to Debbie Smith and Helen Morgan Rees.  I met with the current ERW managers last week as part of the consultation exercise on the changes and it’s clear many people are seeing a much brighter future for our regional consortium given the slightly chequered history of ERW.  There’s a real enthusiasm and a refocus on supporting our schools regionally to secure the best outcome for all our learners.  We’ll be asking Cabinet to approve the legal agreement in the next few weeks.

Security

We were all shocked by the recent killing Sir David Amess MP.  Following from the murder five years ago of MP Jo Cox, it highlighted once again the dangers many politicians face in carrying out their duties.  We’ve been reviewing our own policies and procedures and will be presenting a report to our Democratic Services Committee in the coming weeks.

Great news

I mentioned last week that news on the lagoon was not far away and now it looks like there’ll be an announcement on Monday. If so, this could truly transform our local economy and put Swansea at the forefront of renewable energy technology.  It’s very exciting and I’m grateful to our officers and members who’ve been working so hard on this since before the pandemic.

Plans are well underway for the city’s main Christmas events and attractions. Thanks to all staff involved so far! It’s a major undertaking in normal times and even more so right now. We’ll be doing all we can to keep visitors safe as they enjoy the city centre parade, lights switch-on, Christmas market and trees, new lights, Grand Theatre panto and Waterfront Winterland.

Thank you

Pupils and staff from YGG Tan-y-lan joined the Leader and members of the Cabinet for a tour of the new build which is nearing completion and it’s safe to say they were hugely impressed with what they saw. This £9.9m development has been built during the pandemic and it’s a huge credit to our education team working with contractors Kier that the school will be ready for next term.

Thanks to our highways team who had another busy time on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning when storms and wind brought flooding to some of our communities. The team was busy clearing culverts and unblocking drains to help keep traffic safe and on the move.

Managers and elected members have been holding talks with our trade unions about how we support staff as we continue to work through the Covid crisis.

The pandemic may not be the lead item on the news any longer, but the number of cases is very worrying. We’re getting 200 new cases a day in Swansea alone and the majority of other areas in Wales have increasing rates of infection.

The strain on our services is increasing with demand is rising and the number of staff available is affected by illness and having to isolate. Our schools are struggling with many staff and pupils having to stay at home.

Despite this, we’re still providing fantastic services but I’m concerned about the strain on our staff, whether they’re working in the community, at our offices and venues or at home. This blended way of working has been essential for the past 18 months and will continue to be for some time yet.

There’s no “one size fits all” due to the nature of our work and services we provide. Some of our staff are unable to work from home in areas like refuse and waste, our cleaning teams, social care and at our venues that have re-opened.

On the flip side the Welsh Government advice is to continue to work from home where you can and for many of our staff this has had to become the norm. You’ll recall we recently said there’d be no large scale return to the office this year and that hasn’t changed.

At the moment we have pockets of staff working from offices for a few days or more because their job demands it. We also have some coming into the office for their own well-being.

So faced with all these issues, we’re looking at when the time is right to start returning to the office and how we prioritise a return for some teams. My thoughts are we should prioritise those staff who really need to be working in a team environment due to the nature of their job. I know we all work in teams and could benefit from seeing colleagues, but there really are some areas of our work where staff need to come together to do the job effectively.

In the coming weeks I’ll be speaking to heads of service and our facilities team to see how this could look. I need to stress it doesn’t mean everyone returning to work now or this year, it’s more a case of recognising that some staff need to return sooner than others and putting in place the right support and safety measures for them to do so. The safety of our staff is paramount and we won’t compromise on that.

I’ll keep you updated in the coming weeks. As always thank you for everything you’re doing and please take all the necessary steps to stay safe.

Senior management restructure

I’ve been looking at our CMT and heads of service tiers to ensure we have the right structure in place to meet new demands facing us and other councils. We’ve reached the point of having a proposed structure and I’ve been discussing it with those directly affected. There’ll be further talks this week with Members and unions before I’m due to take a report to Council in November.

Good news

Even in these difficult times staff are continuing to pull out all the stops across the board.

Our new arena is making remarkable progress and now we could be on the verge of announcing a major step forward on the lagoon project which would help transform our economy and waterfront.

Well done to our special events team who’ve put together what promises to be a spectacular fireworks show. The annual event will be held on November 12 to allow more people to attend along the beach and prom during low tide.

It’s great to see six of our main parks have once again been awarded green flag status, recognising the vital role they play in boosting residents’ wellbeing and improving the natural environment. Clyne Gardens, Singleton Botanical Gardens, Brynmill Park, Parc Llewelyn, Cwmdonkin Park and Victoria Park have all gained the prestigious flag status. This is an outstanding achievement during the pandemic and all our staff involved should be really proud.

Finally, it’s Shwmae Su’mae Day today, a national initiative to encourage people to have fun and use Welsh. Why not give it a go?

Throughout the pandemic we’ve had heroes right across the council, staff who’ve gone way beyond expectations to keep services running and help vulnerable people.

I’ve mentioned many teams and individuals during the past 18 months, and this week CMT heard about the efforts of our Child and Family Services staff. 

The work they’ve done and the support they’ve given to families during the most turbulent of times has been outstanding.

During 2020/21 they had 9,309 contacts for children and our social care staff made decisions on 9,079 of them by the end of the next working day. That is a staggering achievement. They gave advice and support to 4,789 children and completed 4,306 assessments during the year. More than 6,100 visits were made to children who were on the child protection register.

These are just some of the figures, but they only tell part of the story. Behind each of these figures is a real life story and our staff have done everything they can to get the best outcomes for families and children who are often in crisis.

Our staff in these teams have been truly outstanding during the pandemic. Let’s be honest, social work is a tough job even in normal times, but during the pandemic they’ve had to face things that nobody could have prepared them for.

On top of this we’ve had inspections at Ty Nant children’s home and our Youth Offending Service which have brought extra demands.

To say CMT were impressed by what we heard is a huge under-statement.

We can’t thank the staff enough and we reassued Julie Davies, the head of service, that child and family will continue to be a huge focus for CMT and we’ll continue to do whatever we can to support staff.

There are many others across the council performing heroics, but this week I wanted to praise and highlight the work of our child and family staff and I’m sure you’ll join me in recognising their efforts.

Covid latest

It’s good to see the number of Covid cases locally has started to fall this week. The rate is still very high so we need to take steps by wearing face masks and distancing where we can. The Welsh Government has announced a new Covid passport scheme which will bring even more pressures for some of our teams! i’m going to raise this with Ministers during our next 21-day review with them because the extra work and demands is taking its toll on staff.

Congratulations

Our efforts to regenerate the city centre took a step forward this week when we appointed contractors R&M Williams to revive the Palace Theatre. Well done all our staff involved in this important project.

Our support for the homeless has impressed judges in the UK Housing Awards. The Ty Tom Jones project has been a huge help for homeless people and is in the running for an award next week. Well done to everyone involved and good luck at the awards! 

Huge respect to our head teachers and others who completed the London Marathon to raise funds for charity. Julie Dunn, Helen-Marie Davies and David Thomas completed the 26 miles and did Swansea schools proud!

One of the things I’m most proud of is the way we support human rights in Swansea and especially as a council.

In recent years we’ve signed the ‘European Charter for the Safeguarding of the Human Rights’, adopted UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Schools Programme, signed the Dublin Declaration of Age Friendly Cities and Communities and adopted Victim Support’s Hate Crime Charter.

And now we’re about to build on that proud record by signing a Statement of Intent with our partners like the police and health board to become a Human Rights City. York is the only one in the UK and we want to become Wales’ first. The SoI gives us the platform to work with organisations across the city to embed human rights into everything we do.

This is really important because it sets out how we’ll promote people’s human rights in the years ahead. And it’s important to our staff because it’ll impact on you and your family as citizens, but also in your day-to-day work by ensuring our policies and services consider people’s human rights.

This can’t and won’t be done overnight. We see it more as a journey for us as a council and a city. We’ve already got our main partners signed up and it really needs to be a team effort, so over the coming months we’ll be working with organisations and groups to gain as much support as possible.

We’ll be asking the public and our networks what’s important to them and then draft an action plan based on their priorities. We hope to launch that plan on December 10 which is International Human Rights Day.

You’ll all be vital to making this a success and in the coming months there’ll be more discussions about the role you can play.

Regional working

Colleagues in our legal team have been working around the clock to complete the legal agreements which will underpin our new regional education collaboration with Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.  Thanks to all who’ve helped to support Helen Morgan Rees and me in creating a better and more effective consortium in the form of the South West Wales Education Partnership.  We’ll shortly be seeking formal approval for the agreement from our councillors.

Work on the City Deal continues apace as the final tranche of projects head for approval by the Joint Committee chaired by our Leader, Rob Stewart.  All projects are wrestling with the challenges of materials shortages and rapid price inflation as well as issues with labour supply.  The fact that all projects have progressed in the face of pandemic, Brexit and inflationary pressure is a credit to all the officers and councillors across the region who’ve devoted their time and effort to economic transformation.

Discussions continue on the establishment of a corporate joint committee for south west Wales and we’ll soon be in a position to take formal reports through our governance processes to establish one.   Again thanks to all involved.

Covid update

Our services continue to be under immense pressure as the number of positive cases rises further. Our region, along with Neath Pot Talbot, has some of the highest figures in the UK. The impact on our staff, services and schools is huge and we’re doing all we can to support you in these testing times. Please take precautions by wearing face masks and socially distancing to keep yourself safe.

Great work

Congratulations to Megan Stevens who’s been highlighted by the Municipal Journal for her talent and outstanding work. Megan is our Practice Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls and Sexual Violence Partnership Development. Throughout the pandemic Megan has led on the delivery of the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) strategy which covers a vast range of projects across children and adult services and the third sector. She’s also set up a group to ensure co-production of VAWDASV services and secured funding for a number of projects across the Western Bay region.

I was delighted to hear this week about the annual Primary Schools Enterprise Challenge. Twenty-five schools and more than 1,000 pupils from Swansea took part and were challenged to come up with products they could sell that would encourage the use of fruit and vegetables. Judges were blown away by the results with a huge range of products produced from vegetable pizzas to games and jewellery. It’s also a great example of partnership working, but I do need to thank Craigfelen Primary School headteacher Alison Williams who made it all happen.

It’s been another outstanding week for the council on the awards front, this time at the Welsh Housing Awards. Our housing team picked up the award for Excellence in Housing Innovation for the Craig Cefn Parc homes as power stations project.  As well as that the amazing work we did at Ty Tom Jones to create a safe place for rough sleepers during the pandemic earned us the Working in Partnership award. This was alongside The Wallich, Pobl Housing Association and the Goleudy charity. Well done to all those involved with these innovative projects.