Archives for September 2022

You’d probably have to be living on Mars not to have noticed the fall-out from last week’s mini-budget.

The financial turmoil that’s followed could be further bad news for the worrying budget situation faced by every council. Our current position is that for next year (2023/24) we could have a significant budget gap. That’s largely due to three main issues that have either emerged or worsened beyond anyone’s expectations in the past few months.

Firstly, inflation is running close to 10% which means everything we buy as individuals but also as a council is now far more expensive than we could have predicted. We’re expecting a 3% funding increase from the Welsh Government for next year, but with inflation at almost 10% you can see that’s nowhere near enough to cover our growing costs.

Secondly, the national pay discussions for council staff may result in a rise of about  7 to 8%. We budgeted for a 3% increase at a time when that seemed reasonable. The cost of living crisis means higher pay awards are now very likely. So the gap between what we budgeted for and what’s likely to be agreed could be an extra £12m next year, and possibly a similar amount the year after. We need the Government to fund the pay awards, but there is no guarantee of this.

And the third issue is the cost of energy. We’re all feeling the cost of gas and electricity at home, but the same applies to the council for heating our buildings and fuelling our vehicles. The extra energy cost alone is expected to be £15m. The Government recently announced support for councils with energy costs but, as things stand, this doesn’t save us any money this year and also it doesn’t extend beyond next April.

When we set the budget last March we couldn’t have predicted the turmoil that was to follow. The past five months have been unprecedented, and the last five days has seen further turmoil. There is a further risk with the current financial turmoil that Government will have to reduce public spending which would have a consequential effect on Wales, meaning even less money for councils and making our budget challenges even bigger.

All councils are facing these problems and will be pushing for more financial support to deal with these issues, but we can’t predict with any certainty how the Governments in London and Cardiff will respond to the situation, and how that would impact on our budgets.

So as things stand we have to be cautious and plan on the basis that the Government isn’t going to fund these extra costs. We’re discussing the situation and potential savings options with Cabinet next week. I can update you once we’ve had those talks.

Staff Engagement

Yesterday I met our staff engagement group to discuss the best ways to engage you and get your feedback which I think is particularly important when discussing the budget, our corporate plan and new transformation strategy and other key messages. Their ideas were really useful and due to diversity of our services and the working arrangements we have across the council, we’ll have different approaches for different areas. I hope to be able to finalise our overall engagement strategy in the next few weeks and I will share with you all as soon as I can.

Cost of Living

Linked to the cost-of-living, I want to thank the amazing efforts of our staff in supporting hard-pressed families. In the past three days we’ve had 14,860 applications for fuel payments plus more than 3,000 last-minute cost of living payment applications. Phone inquiries are up by 250%. By yesterday we’d paid £2.11m in fuel payments to 10,558 pre-approved applicants and we have a further 4,302 applications for people we couldn’t pre-approve. Similarly, since Monday we’ve paid £516,450 to 3,443 people who are eligible for the £150 cost of living payment. This is an incredible effort and I’m very grateful for everyone’s efforts, so my thanks to staff in all teams involved – from revenue and benefits, IT and poverty and prevention to housing, libraries and the contact centre.

Thank You

Sian Evans, who works in our elections team, is retiring today after 35 years with us. Sian has worked in many areas including legal and housing. Sian played a huge role during elections and selflessly baked to help feed the team into the early hours on election nights! She met her husband Noel in work and I hope they both enjoy a happy and long retirement together.

Our current mix of working from home and the workplace has shown us that one size doesn’t fit all of our staff or service delivery.

Those arrangements were brought in during the pandemic, but with that crisis largely behind us we want to formally agree our post-pandemic model to give colleagues clarity on their place of work. I think the current mix can be confusing for staff and the public, and the feedback I’m getting is that sometimes customers aren’t sure how to get hold of us in the way they could pre-Covid.

We’ve already had discussions with trade unions, and we’ll be engaging politicians in the coming weeks. The proposal is that each service will set out where and how their staff work. This will give the council the chance to decide what works best for each area, based on the past two years and future service needs and how these align with customer expectations. My guess is some will be in the workplace, some at home and some doing a mix of the two. In the meantime, if anyone working from home wants to go to their workplace due to concerns about the fuel crisis or other pressures, they can do so with the approval of their manager.

These new ways of working should also help reduce our costs as we’re likely to need fewer buildings once we clarify who’s needed in the office and who can work remotely. It comes at a time when we’re facing huge rises in energy costs, so it can only help us with our ongoing budget pressures. Along with this, we’re updating our transformation strategy that’ll continue to modernise our processes and services.

Our budget will be the focus of discussions in the coming weeks. We’re starting to see details of the help offered by the UK Government and how that impacts on us. For instance, the energy support may help us this year, but not next. Today we’ll have the Chancellor’s “mini budget” which may set out further help for public bodies. We’ve started discussing our own budget options for next year, but that’ll ramp up in the coming weeks as we face extra pressures. We’ll need to align the budget with the council’s priorities and then into our new corporate plan later this year.

Our staff engagement group meets next week to consider how we can better involve staff in discussions and decisions. As part of this, I want to meet senior managers in the coming months and I’ll be asking all heads of service to identify managers in their area to form this group. It’s a chance to engage managers on key topics such as the budget and the new corporate plan to help them engage their teams.

And finally, a thank you to those colleagues who worked through last Monday’s bank holiday to ensure our essential services were in place.

Swansea hosted more than 300 UK delegates at the annual APSE conference and awards this week, giving us the chance to showcase the city and celebrate success, with Deputy Leader, Cllr Andrea Lewis, being national chair and Chris Cutforth from our building services team as national secretary.

I’m delighted we won the award for the best commercialisation and entrepreneurship initiative, thanks to the work of our fantastic Swansea Market staff, who continue to improve the attraction for the benefit of traders and visitors.

Our re-use Tip Treasures shop scheme was also shortlisted in the same category, and we were shortlisted in a number of other award categories too. These included council of the year; best workforce initiative; and best housing, regeneration or new build initiative. Teams in housing, building services, street cleansing and streeetscene, and cemetery and crematorium services were also shortlisted for best service teams. That’s an amazing achievement for one council, and we can all be proud.

During the two-day gathering Cllr Lewis and I gave a presentation on Swansea and the changes made since the last APSE visit in 2015, and delegates from across the UK saw the city for themselves. Many told us how impressed they were with the changes and how clean the city centre was, and this was echoed by attendees at the awards. All of this helps our reputation and puts us on the map, so well done and thank you to all involved.

State funeral

The past week has been dominated by the passing of the late HM Queen Elizabeth. The council has joined the nation in mourning and has carried out a number of official duties, including last Sunday’s Proclamation ceremony. My thanks to colleagues for helping to organise events and guide us through these unique times, especially Joanne Jones and Dave Price-Deer. Monday is now a bank holiday and we’re suspending all non-essential services so our staff can pay their respects. However, there are colleagues who’ll be working to provide essential services and support vulnerable people, and we’re grateful for your efforts.

Ways of working

We’re making progress on a number of initiatives designed to help our staff.

Shortly, we’ll be promoting our new workforce strategy and post-pandemic operating model. Agreeing on our new ways of working will bring clarity for staff following the changes we had to quickly introduce during the pandemic. Many staff are still working from home or a combination of home and the office. I know many will have concerns about the cost of heating and electricity, but staff who need to be in the workplace can do so with agreement from their manager.

Notwithstanding the financial challenges we face, I’ve also issued amended new guidance on our spending restrictions, trying to reduce red tape to make it easier for staff to get things done within the constitution and financial boundaries. It’s important we have the right governance in place, but we also need to simplify the way we do things, and this work will continue. So if you have any suggestions, please let me or your manager know.

Linked to our workforce strategy, I’m delighted Corporate Building Services welcomed a record 30 new apprentices last week, taking the total number of apprentices recruited over the past 19 years to 271.  Our latest intake will help the service gear up for the new technology that’ll be installed in our buildings to help tackle fuel poverty and reduce energy bills.  Of those 271 apprentices, about 90 per cent still work for us, so my thanks to Nigel Williams and Chris Cutforth for continuing to drive this crucial agenda forward. I’m really proud of our track record, and I know there are other great examples across the council. So it’s my intention to harness that to ensure we maximise the opportunities across the whole council and align them with our future vocational training opportunities for our young people and future employees. It’s more important than ever that we invest in our workforce and grow our own.

Investment

Last week we met with Urban Splash, our regeneration partner, and representatives from New Zealand-based Skyline, who are planning an outdoor adventure park including zip-lines and luge runs at Kilvey Hill. Urban Splash visited a number of our development sites, including the Civic Centre, Hafod Copperworks and St Thomas, and we expect details of our next development to be announced shortly. These are further examples of major investors showing confidence in Swansea which will help deliver our ambitions for economic regeneration, tourism and employment. We also met the Welsh Government economic minister, Vaughan Gething, to discuss plans by Swansea University and health to further invest in the city’s campuses. The latest life sciences initiative will improve health care and hopefully create new jobs.

As always, if anyone wants me to discuss issues or invite me to meet their team, please let me know.

The nation is in mourning today following the death of Her Majesty The Queen.

On behalf of all our members and staff I would like to express our sincere condolences at this sad time.

As a council, there is a nationwide protocol to follow to ensure our business is constructed in the appropriate way during the coming days.

We will continue to provide services in the normal way, although we are waiting for further guidance today.

We’ve cancelled one council meeting (licensing) this morning, but all other services are carrying on for now. There will be a number of events and initiatives planned for the weekend and into next week. We will be reviewing these and making a decision on each of them and will try and provide as much notice on any decisions as possible.

We’re working closely with the Lord Lieutenant and the Welsh and UK Government during this period to enact a number of official requirements within the protocol.

We are inviting the public to sign books of condolence, available at the Civic Centre from 9am to 5pm (Monday – Friday) and 9am – noon on Saturdays. An electronic book of condolence has also been opened online at www.swansea.gov.uk/bookofcondolence  

Floral tributes can be left at the rotunda outside the Guildhall.

On Sunday at 1pm we will hold a Proclamation event at the Guildhall, attended by councillors, civic dignitaries and senior staff. The public can also attend. A book of condolence will also be available at the Guildhall on Sunday only.

I will keep you updated on any developments, but if you have any queries please let me know, and we will do our best to clarify matters.

We’re continuing to work on developing our culture, which will affect all our staff in terms of how we all behave and work.

Yesterday CMT and Heads of Service came together to discuss issues relating to culture, the challenges we face and how we can behave and work as individuals and across the council. Cabinet members held a similar session in the afternoon, and today we’ll all be coming together to discuss these issues. The sessions have been facilitated by a former council leader and local government expert, importantly not from Swansea, which gave all parties a chance to speak freely.

Following today’s session the plan is to agree on how we’ll work together to deliver on our agreed corporate priorities as we also enter one of the most difficult times in local government due to issues like the cost-of-living crisis and the squeeze on public finances, whilst continuing to support our residents.

Developing our culture is really important. It’ll give all of us in the council agreement on what we can expect from each other and how we act individually, as teams, as services and in the wider organisation.

At the same time, I want to hear how all our staff feel about these issues. Our new staff engagement group will be looking at a range of issues, including how we include all our staff in these types of discussions. Although we have an annual staff survey, I want to look at other options and see what works best for our staff so that more of you contribute your ideas.

The challenges we’re facing were discussed with directors and cabinet members earlier this week. Everyone is aware of the cost-of-living crisis. Our staff and residents are feeling it every day in their bills for shopping, heating and transport. These issues equally apply to us as a council, with everything we buy now costing much more than just a few months ago. It’s inevitable we’re going to see more people needing support from us, and this increasing demand will increase our costs even further. We’re hopeful of managing this year’s budget due to the plans we’ve put in place, but next year and beyond is probably the most challenging I’ve seen in my time in local government. We’ve started budget discussions with the Cabinet and we’re now going through the council’s priorities to ensure they’re fully costed and aligned with the budgets going forward.

Estyn report

Our education service has just had a glowing report from Estyn, which shows how strong the service is and how well we’re supporting schools and pupils.

It praises the council for prioritising and investing in education and says the well-being and welfare of pupils is a clear priority, along with a commitment to provide the very best education for every child.

It also highlights pupil performance as above the national average and the important work being done to support vulnerable young people to ensure they succeed and remain in school. It reflects a lot of hard work, and I’d like to thank and congratulate Helen Morgan-Rees and the education team, our school staff and wider stakeholders who’ve all contributed so much.

This is also a massive step for us as a council. Our reputation among inspectors and government officials continues to improve, and we’re seen as a well-run authority.

Director of Corporate Services

Our improving reputation has been part of the discussions I’ve held with people from outside the authority who are interested in applying to be our new Director of Corporate Services. The candidates have been attracted by our standing as a council and our track record of delivering and improving services. As interim chief executive, I’m really proud of what we are doing, but to hear it from those outside Swansea is pleasing for all of us. We’ll be shortlisting for this role early this month and intend to appoint in October.

Thank you

Thank you for all your efforts. It seems we’ve constantly been dealing with a crisis for the past few years, whether it’s the pandemic or the cost of living. But throughout all of this, you’ve been magnificent in meeting these challenges.