Archives for November 2022

As we move towards December our budget discussions are stepping up a gear. We have started initial discussions with Cabinet members and we are working with them on options. As I have said in previous blogs, next year’s budget will be among the most difficult I have seen in my local government experience. The shape of our budget will be heavily influenced by the Welsh Government budget settlement we expect to be announced on December 14, which will be followed by a Cabinet meeting later in the month. Through the WLGA, we have been lobbying hard, urging ministers to recognise in the settlement the importance of well-funded local government services for both jobs and services at a time of a cost of living crisis. We’ve already kicked off discussions with senior managers here at the council and I’m looking to do another session with them next month. Along with the Leader, Joint Deputy Leader David Hopkins and our director of finance Ben Smith, I met with the Trade Unions on Tuesday. Our talks were very constructive and one issue we looked at was concerns about the impact of this year’s pay award on departmental budgets. I want to say that we all value our staff and fully support the pay award the trade unions have negotiated nationally. What we disagree with is that these awards have not been fully funded by UK Government. Alongside WLGA colleagues, we will continue to highlight that as unacceptable.

Congratulations

As I’ve said in previous blogs I want to welcome and celebrate your achievements. So it’s especially pleasing this week to hear about praise and support from external organisations and groups for a number of teams and individuals right across the council. My congratulations and thanks to all those involved. Click on the links to find out more about these stories:

• Last week our housing team won the Best Housing Story prize at the Welsh Housing Awards for the Bryn House scheme. In collaboration with our building services team, we delivered innovative new accommodation for affordable rent.

• Care Inspectorate Wales has praised the work our child and family team is doing at Ty Nant children’s home where we support some of our community’s most vulnerable children. One young person living at Ty Nant told inspectors: “The only place I’ve ever liked being is here.”

• Our Whitethorns Intensive Day Service which supports adults with learning disabilities has been honoured with a share of a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service alongside the Swansea Canal Society. The day service supports adults with learning disabilities and for many years it has worked alongside the society helping them restore sections of Swansea Canal back to their original glory.

• Yvonne Lewis, a member of our licensing team, has won the Institute of Licensing’s 2022 Jeremy Allen award for exceptional achievement, professionalism and commitment to licensing. It’s a special individual award offered by the institute whereby nominations can only be put forward by third parties.
• Education’s Capital Team has been shortlisted for the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Schools Challenge. If we are successful, the team will receive Welsh Government support to develop and deliver a cutting-edge net zero primary school build that will inform Welsh Government guidance on school builds in the future.

• The UK’s Theatres Trust, a group that campaigns to preserve the heritage of Britain’s theatre buildings, has praised the work we are doing to restore the Palace Theatre. It wants to use our story as a case study about how historic theatres can be given a new lease of life.

A big thank-you

As you will know I was appointed chief executive permanently on Monday, following a meeting of Full Council. As always, I am very grateful for your support and also for all the kind words I have received since being appointed. As I advised Council, I was truly honoured and humbled to be trusted with such an opportunity. I am keen to get around and see as many of you as possible, so if you want to invite me for a chat or to attend one of your team meetings, please get in touch.

Since the start of the pandemic we have seen enormous pressure on our social services teams. They have had to transform what they do, working under pressure and with intensity to make the changes while also delivering on their professional and personal commitment to those who need their support. I, and Phil Roberts before me, have frequently made clear our admiration and support for their amazing effort and achievement.

But it’s both impressive and moving to see what the people who use our services think. Director of Social Services Dave Howes has shared a list of literally hundreds of thank-you messages he’s received from grateful families and professional colleagues to individual members of staff in adult services and child and family services. One theme that shines through is how our staff keep going the extra mile for the people they work with, resulting in lives that are changing for the better. It is great to see and, again, I want to thank everyone in social services for the effort, resilience and commitment they bring to work every day.

I have always been keen to spotlight and celebrate good practice, so if you know someone who deserves credit for the work they are doing, please do get in touch.

Budget

Today, I, finance director Ben Smith and the Leader are meeting colleagues from the other Welsh local authorities to discuss our position ahead of budget discussions with the Welsh Government. It’s a cross-party event organised by the WLGA, and the idea is to agree on a consistent and collective approach to our budget process. As I’ve mentioned before, the months and years ahead for local government funding are likely to be the toughest we have seen and will have a big impact on the Councils’ services. So, a united approach by local government about what we need to deliver for our communities in the difficult times ahead makes good sense. I’ll report back in a future blog about how it goes and how the national autumn statement impacts on our assumptions.

City centre 

Yesterday we completed the latest gateway review of the brilliant work being done in the city centre through the Swansea Bay City Deal initiative. A gateway review is an essential independent check to assess our objectives against our targets for this key regeneration project and making sure the money is well spent. The independent assessors have been very positive about what they’ve found both at the Arena and at 71/72 Kingsway, a view supported by arena operators ATG and other private sector stakeholders who confirmed it’s already leveraging-in private sector investment. My thanks to all those involved with delivering the projects, including Huw Mowbray, Elizabeth Morris and Lee Richards.

Congratulations

Brilliant news last night for our corporate building services team from the UK Insulated Render and Cladding Association (INCA) Awards. They won the External Wall Insulation award for Architectural Excellence or Environmental Impact work on three blocks of city centre flats at Jones-Evans Terrace and Wilks Row. The award was given in partnership with our product supplier Sika for a home-cladding initiative that supports jobs and creates more comfortable homes for tenants by reducing emissions and their energy costs. Congratulations to all involved.

Thank you

Sunday’s colourful Christmas Parade signals the official start of the festive season in Swansea. A further bonus is that this weekend also sees the return of the free bus ride service – on every weekend till the New Year. News of both have already been really well-received, so my thanks to teams in special events, the city centre and transport. You are helping make a real difference for families and putting smiles on faces during these difficult times.

Let me know what you’re thinking

Regular followers know there’s an option to comment on my blog or ask me questions. Recently, I’ve replied to questions about our financial position, the pay award and ways to save on our energy costs and these answers are in the sidebar of the blog. So, if you want to ask me a question either openly or privately, just drop me a line in the blog replies section or send me an email.

It was great to meet more than 100 of our managers from across the council this week.

It’s the first time for quite a few years that we gathered our senior managers’ forum via a Teams meeting. The last time this group met was face to face so it just goes to show how long it’s been, given our reliance on Teams meetings since the pandemic.  The main topic of discussion was inevitably our budget and the anticipated shortfall in funding for next year. It was a chance to tell managers the latest position and what we’re doing about it. There are no easy answers or magic solutions, it’s going to mean us having to reduce services and staff from current levels. We’re doing everything we to keep both of those to a minimum, but the council is going to look very different in future years as a result of the funding crisis.

Managers will now be holding team meetings with their staff to pass on the information and give staff a chance to give their views in the coming weeks. This is all part of our staff engagement efforts and is based on how staff have told us they want to be involved – they want to get information from their managers face-to-face. So if your manager hasn’t updated you on the budget within the next few weeks please ask them for a meeting.

We’re now preparing the budget saving proposals put forward by heads of service for discussion with Cabinet members throughout November. Once these meetings have happened we’ll have a better idea of the proposals which will go forward for consultation with staff and the public. As part of this we’re drafting Integrated Impact Assessments which are required to assess the effects of potential changes. We’ll also be holding meetings with trade unions to update them and discuss our options. I hope to hold another senior managers’ forum during December.

If you have any questions or want me to cover an item in the blog please let me know.

UK first

I’m delighted we are the first organisation in the UK to be given the new One Planet Standard Bronze Level. It comes as we aim to deliver Nature Recovery and Climate Change as one of our key well-being objectives. The One Planet Standard | The One Planet Centre (theoneplanetlife.com) The assessor complimented us on how we’ve set up council-wide governance and monitoring of this agenda and how we’re making it everyone’s business to help reduce the council footprint. Thanks to our staff who were involved in the assessment interviews and especially Rachel Lewis, Suzy Richards and Jane Richmond who drew the submission together and already carry out a lot of the work behind the scenes.

Cyber safety

We all need to stay alert to cyber scams and cyber crime to help keep our systems safe, protect them from hacking and look after the data we use every day to provide services to our communities. There’s some useful information here and here about how we can all maintain awareness of the potential threats that can come in through our inboxes.

When you see emergencies like the Manchester bombing, Grenfell fire and Salisbury chemical weapon attack it may not be obvious that among the first responders were the local council. Alongside emergency services council officers have to respond in some of the most harrowing situations.

Closer to home over two years we’ve had the Covid-19 crisis to manage and also during lockdown the flooding in Skewen where colleagues in Neath Port Talbot were involved in the response. It’s a stark reminder that we could be called upon at any time to respond to any emergency in Swansea. Last week Mark Wade, interim director of Place, and I attended a two-day course focused on strategic emergency planning/resilience and the importance of being prepared for almost any eventuality. Thankfully Craig Gimblett and our emergency planning team, along with officers across our services, have plans in place. What last week showed us is that we probably need to test those plans more regularly to make sure they work in a near-real situation.

Linked to this, a big thank you to our highways team who’ve been working hard to minimise flooding across the city due to high winds and very heavy rain. Our drain clearing programme has really made a difference in reducing flooding. The really heavy rain on Wednesday afternoon and evening saw our teams respond to up to 200 calls, particularly in the west. At one point they fixed issues around Morriston Hospital which was cut off briefly due to road flooding and there were also almost a dozen other incidents of road flooding dealt with in Gowerton, Gorseinon and Penllergaer.

Staff engagement

Next Tuesday I’ll be meeting our senior managers’ forum to discuss the budget and other issues. It’s the first time the group will have met since before the pandemic, so it’ll be good to catch up. This is another way of improving staff engagement by encouraging managers to meet and engage their staff. On the issue of the budget, heads of service have submitted their savings proposals for next year. They’ll be discussed by Cabinet Members later this month and I’ll update you on developments and the emerging situation from Welsh and UK governments as soon as I am able.

Priorities and budget

Our new corporate plan will probably be the most important in our time as a council. Every corporate plan is important as it sets out our priorities, but the latest version which will be developed in the coming months takes on added significance. The reason is we face unprecedented financial challenges. Inflation, energy costs and unfunded government commitments make our situation extremely difficult with many tough choices to make. So, it’s crucial that our corporate plan is linked to our budget planning and that it continues to reflect what’s important for the council and our residents. We have to ensure each priority can be funded and, similarly, that our funding links to our priorities.

City awards

We were pipped at the post by Birmingham for the UK City of the Year title at the EG Awards 2022 on Wednesday evening, but there’s still a lot to be proud of. Being shortlisted for that award alongside cities like Birmingham and Newcastle shows how far Swansea has come, with schemes like our £135m Copr Bay district creating jobs and world-class entertainment for local people, while also attracting the private sector to invest in Swansea. With regeneration specialists Urban Splash now on board to redevelop other sites in the city centre and on the waterfront, the future is bright. Well done to everyone involved.

Building our own

As part of our Workforce Strategy we’re offering managers the chance to develop their professional skills in a training programme starting in January. The Management Development Programme (MDP) is aimed at our grades 8 to 11 who are looking gain more leadership and professional skills that will leave them well-placed for career progression. It’s being delivered in collaboration with Gower College Swansea. If you’re interested go to Management Development Programme, for further information and to apply.

Listening to others

We’re committed to consulting and involving our employees, residents other stakeholders and employees in our decision-making process. Our Consultation and Engagement Strategy and Public Participation Strategy,  are out for public consultation so take a look and give your views.