Archives for January 2022

The long-awaited report into the riot at Mayhill and Waun Wen last year was published this week.  You may have seen some of the media coverage which carried some heavy criticism of the police’s response on the night. Whilst this issue, and the accompanying apology from the Chief Constable, took the headlines there were also a number of issues for us.  The report sets out the learning points for us very clearly:

• The myriad partnership arrangements need review. Assurance is required that all participants are fully committed, information sharing is robust, and arrangements are cohesive.
• Clarity on incident protocols is urgently required. A formal system of logging and recording activity should be implemented.
• A multi-agency approach to social media monitoring and intelligence gathering and sharing should be designed and implemented.
• The community should be engaged in the design and implementation of infrastructure schemes to replace the barriers. Such a scheme must meet both safety and environmental design needs.
• A council-supported, community-led community development programme should be developed that could provide an exemplar for other areas of the city. Creating and supporting community capacity, safe spaces, youth activity, and much more is required.

We’ll now need to address these actions but I’m conscious that a number of them are already in progress.  We need to rebuild confidence and trust within the community and work in partnership with residents and the police to address their concerns. Thanks to everyone who helped to provide the huge amount of information required in response and thanks to Adam Hill for pulling it all together.

It was coincidental that CMT met with the Chief and Deputy Chief Constables for South Wales this week.  It’s clear the police have had similar challenges to us caused by the pandemic, but it was heartening to hear about the investment in neighbourhood policing.  We also agreed to address the first action listed above from the independent inquiry report and rationalise and streamline our existing partnership arrangements as soon as possible.

Positive change

One of the reasons I’m confident about the impact we can make at Mayhill/Waun Wen is the huge difference we’ve made to Kingsway. There’s a tendency in Swansea for nostalgia and to look back at how things were better in the past, but some of the comments about how the Kingsway used to be are a little misplaced. When I look back I remember the former race track that it became for young drivers and an underpass I did not feel safe walking through. Anyone walking or driving along Kingsway now will see the results of our multi-million pound investment. There’s new paving and plenty of new greenery, 170 new trees, making it more welcoming for residents and businesses. The new Coppergate student development is open and a new “living building” scheme will bring more footfall. A new living wall is part of the Potter’s Wheel redevelopment and the former Albert Hall is being transformed.

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And work has started on the old Oceana site to create space for 600 jobs. And I’m delighted that the Kingsway scheme has received internationally-recognised CEEQUAL accreditation for its sustainability. There’s still more to do but what a great start. Well done to all our staff who’ve been involved.

Work from home if you can

The Welsh Government is today updating its Covid guidance which means a slight loosening of the work from home rules. It’s now guidance rather than a requirement, so for us it means we’re back to where we were before Christmas. We should continue to work from home where we can. Anyone who needs to go in should inform their line manager and continue to take the necessary precautions.

Appointments

After a series of interviews and Appointments Committee meetings the Council agreed yesterday to appoint Ben Smith as our Director of Finance following the recent senior management review.  Ben is currently our chief finance officer and has helped to keep our finances afloat during the pandemic.  I’m delighted with the appointment which is an excellent decision by Council.  Congratulations to Ben who I hope will continue to give his wise advice to us in his own inimitable and unique style.

Energy help

If you or someone you know is struggling to pay energy bills please contact our new city centre Energy Awareness Hub. It offers all households free, accessible and independent support. Opened with council funding and support, it’s being run by the Environment Centre Swansea with the help of specialist partners. More information: www.swansea.gov.uk/InfoHubOpens

It now feels like the Omicron wave is beginning to subside and some of the fears we had on service pressure haven’t come to pass.  That’s partly due to the excellent planning and proactive work done by many of our services so I’m grateful to everyone for once again going that extra mile.

Whilst we shouldn’t be complacent and we have to continue following the guidance and regulations, we’ll hopefully be able to maintain the pace of recovery and the announced easing of some Welsh Government restrictions will help our return to normality.

I’ve mentioned a few times in my blog the important work we do to combat homelessness in the city and it’s been an incredibly busy time for our staff at Housing Options.  They’ve continued to support and advise our citizens who live either in sub-standard housing or those at the sharpest end who are sleeping on the streets.  We’re receiving a massive number of calls for help so thanks to all the staff who help us deliver our legal duties with passion and commitment. 

This week has seen Cabinet consider some really significant reports that will impact on all of us.  I’ve previously mentioned how important the budget is for all of us in the council so it was refreshing to read such a positive report on our finances.   We do have some fears for the future, but in the short term we’re able to invest more in our services and protect jobs.  I’m confident there will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the decisions that Cabinet have taken.  Our finance team has worked tirelessly to prepare this key report and we should all be grateful to them for their support and expertise.  We will now report to Council which will set the budget in March. In the meantime, the proposals are going out to consultation so please take the opportunity to have your say.

A second report outlined where we are in terms of our Covid recovery plan, giving a comprehensive statement on our progress against the aims of the plan.  It documents a massive amount of activity by our teams.  I’d urge everyone to read it. Thanks to Adam Hill for pulling the report together and a huge thank you to all our staff and elected members for the efforts to help our communities to get back on track as we enter the next phase of the plan.  But we have to remember we’re not an island and the Regional Economic Regeneration Strategy, also agreed at Cabinet yesterday, is an important statement of our collaboration priorities with our City Deal partners. This will affect the work of many of you in teams across the council.

How to survive – an officer’s guide!

I had the pleasure this week of attending the Leadership Hub which develops our staff by giving them the opportunity to meet motivational and inspirational speakers. I’m not sure why they invited me as I didn’t feel particularly qualified on either account but I was really pleased to spend a couple of hours discussing the topic they had sent me.

The main topic was “How to survive in a Political Environment” so I suppose they thought that having worked in local government for 36 years I might have some insight or tips to share with them.

The thing is we’re not like a conventional business.  We’re a hugely complex organisation performing hundreds of different functions governed by a democratically-elected Council.  Unlike most businesses our services are vital to the public. We protect and safeguard the vulnerable, develop and educate our young people, improve the environment and the economy and support our communities.  They’re so vital they can’t simply be left to the market to deliver and the choices we make are of real public interest. That’s why we need the democratic process to support it and give what we do a mandate.

Many officers don’t come into direct contact with our politicians but we’re all affected by their decisions.  The relative priority given to services is determined by those that are elected rather than those that get appointed.  And that’s how it should be for public services.

Our induction processes for new staff don’t always cover this relationship but they should.  So when I was asked for a few tips by the Leadership Hub I tried my best to explain my view of this. 

I think the first principle we all need to understand is a simple one and is summarised by the phrase “officers advise and members decide”.  In short our councillors set out policy and strategy, but do so on the professional advice of their officers.  We appoint specialist officers with specific skills to make sure the advice is sound.  Elected members will consider this advice in making their decisions.  They may not always welcome or agree with our advice, particularly when it requires unpopular or difficult decisions, but our job is to give that advice. And we must give that advice impartially to all elected members.  We serve all councillors, not just a specific set or group.

The other principles to follow on from this and the two I shared with the Leadership Hub were firstly that we should operate on the “no surprises” basis.  What I mean is if there is news or there are issues that we officers have, good or bad, it’s better for our elected members to hear that directly from us first rather than any other source. The second is we should never bring problems without solutions.  We’re employed as advisers and if we’re doing our job properly we give that advice, no matter how difficult or challenging that may be.

The single most important factor in whether a council is performing well is the relationship between the elected members and their officers.  This’s not just my view but the considered opinion of many experienced observers of local government.  So the relationship between us is critical and this requires a degree of trust and empathy on behalf of both groups. And this needs some rules of engagement and a real sense of mutual respect for our different roles.

Our impartiality as officers is heightened as we approach local elections.  And not just for those of us precluded by law from expressing political opinion.  The system fails without it. 

For many of you this may be a statement of the obvious but it’s worth repeating as we head for the pre-election period and given that I was asked to do so directly, I have repeated it.  It was a great experience for me to talk with the Leadership Hub and if you have a couple of hours spare you can access it here.  My thanks go to Sarah McIlwaine who’s doing a magnificent job organising these development sessions.  At times it felt like I was being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman but that is just what was needed.

Thank you

Well done to City Centre Rangers Mike Cross and Ryan Williams who won rich praise after a city centre health emergency. They swiftly attended to a man who had collapsed, was unconscious and was being assisted by two student nurses during the wait for an ambulance.

We’ve now put the finishing touches to next year’s budget and the proposals will go to Cabinet this month and then out to consultation.

Next year will be relatively smooth because we’ve had an increase in funding from the government which means an extra 7% in funding for services. The majority of funding will go to education and social services. Thankfully, there should be only a minimal impact on jobs and probably no compulsory redundancies. Where posts are at risk managers will be looking at redeployment and retraining to support employees.

The Welsh Government has given an indication of our funding for the next three years and the outlook isn’t great. The extra funding we’ve had for next year is unlikely to be repeated and we’ll face challenges due to increases in pay and inflation. We’ll all be under pressure to take steps to ensure we balance the books in future years which may mean some difficult decisions.

Thank you to Ben Smith and his team for the fantastic job they’ve done in preparing the budget and steering us through choppy waters.

Covid latest

I hope you all had a peaceful break and stayed safe and healthy. I think we all know someone who’s had Covid recently because the picture across Swansea and Wales shows there’s been a huge increase in positive cases during the past few weeks. We’ve seen cases at record levels, but some experts predict that may tail off in the coming weeks. There’ve been some changes to things like testing and travel announced by the Welsh Government, but restrictions such as working from home still remain.

Only those staff who can’t do their job from home should come into the workplace. And if you do need to come into work please follow the guidance around testing, distancing, face masks etc.

My retirement

As you probably know I’m due to retire later this year. The plan is to appoint an interim chief executive at the end of February who’ll then shadow me for a few months. My official departure will be shortly after this year’s local government elections.

Fresh start

Good luck to pupils and staff at Ysgol Gymraeg Tan-y-lan as they start life in their new £9.9m school in Clase today. This latest new build has been delivered despite the restrictions of working through the pandemic so a big thank you to our education team, school staff and contractors Kier for completing the project which looks fantastic and will benefit thousands of children in the years to come.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Alison Williams, headteacher at Craigfelen Primary School, who was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.  I’ve seen at first hand some of the great work Alison has done over the years so it’s richly deserved and reflective of the great work done by all our schools to give young people the best start in life.  Well done Alison.