Archives for February 2023

CMT and Cabinet met on Tuesday for one of our regular informal face-to-face away days. There were a number of items on the agenda, including an initial presentation by Geoff Bacon about our emerging capital funding strategy. It’s a complex and important area because decisions taken will have long-lasting effects on our city’s future. We are initially arranging our strategy discussions around clusters of projects in areas such as regeneration, education and highways and infrastructure. It’s important for us to make the most of available funding and maximise the ability to lever-in 3^rd party funding via governments and grants as well as private investment. My thanks to Geoff and the team for their work so far.

Net zero

We also had a discussion on our net zero ambitions. One aspect is considering how we can continue to expand our own green fleet, already the largest among local authorities in Wales. Another is our role in growing the number of public EV charging points in the city. Mark Barrow and Chloe Lewis are helping lead this work and I’m grateful for the presentation they gave which set out issues and challenges ahead.

Delegated powers

The away day meeting also looked at potential changes to delegated powers, one of the council’s policy commitments. My thanks to Stephanie Williams and Stephen Holland for taking us through the issues so, among other things, we could see what a protocol for officers and members taking delegated decisions might look like and how actions would be recorded. I’ll keep you updated.

CMT

At CMT on Wednesday Simon Cockings, our chief internal auditor, took us through the Draft Audit Charter and the internal audit plan for the coming financial year, due to be finalised at Governance and Audit committee in April. Geoff Bacon also updated us on the progress of the draft Contact Strategy for the new city centre community hub. Matters like opening times and staff roles were looked at and they’ll be subject to further discussion with members and consultation with staff and unions before any final decisions are taken by Cabinet.

Budget

The final version of the 2023/24 Budget proposals go to Full Council next week for a decision. You can find a copy of the agenda here.

Ukraine

Today is the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I want to express my gratitude to Helen Clancy and all our teams, including housing and education, who’ve been supporting scores of Ukrainian refugee families seeking sanctuary in Swansea. The warmth of the welcome Ukrainian families have received is in no small way due to the work our teams have done and continue to do.

Well done

This week Swansea city centre celebrates eight years of having a Purple Flag for its safe, vibrant and diverse evening and night-time economy.  Council officers and partners have been working closely together to ensure that tonight’s visit by assessors means we can fly the flag for another year. Good Luck to all.

Two members of our Facilities team have been applauded for their outstanding work supporting our projects and programmes. Our Welsh Government partners have praised energy manager Tony Moss for helping get an important energy efficiency programme in our buildings on track. While Kevin Webb’s been thanked by a school’s new head teacher for helping them through their further role as a building landlord.

If you’re in the city centre today or tomorrow don’t miss the Croeso Festival, our annual celebration of all things Welsh. Congratulations to the teams who make sure this vibrant event is a brilliant success.

The way we work following the pandemic has changed and continues to change for many of us.

Home working and agile working have become the norm for many, and we no longer spend our working week in the office. However more traditional office or depot-based working will continue to be the default position for many staff also. The new agile working policy has helped give us a clear steer on how we can work differently now and in the future and how the council can accommodate the wide range of services it delivers. One thing that is clear is that these changes mean that our existing flexi-time policy is outdated. Unless you are going into the office you cannot physically clock in and out any longer, so it makes sense to rethink our approach. We are starting with a blank piece of paper and in the coming months we will be engaging staff, members and unions to get your feedback so that we can draft a new policy that’s fit for purpose, given the changes that were initially prompted by the pandemic.

We discussed the issue with managers and Heads of Service this week and there was a range of views. It was good to get that broader view across our services because we know one size probably will not fit all, due to our different services and working arrangements. We will need to balance flexibility with robust underpinning service standards for each part of the council so there is no ambiguity around customer expectations and availability of our staff, however they work. As such, how services are delivered is really important and we need to get your views. So please take part in any opportunities in the coming months through the various consultation sessions that will take place or feed any initial thoughts back via your managers

Our Oracle Fusion project which is replacing our back-office systems is due to go live in April and it will mean changes for all of us. Those who use Oracle will need to take some actions straight away. The manager self-service function will not be available from March 17 and may have an effect on managers and staff – so managers will need to take action now to minimise any impact. We also need to prepare for the new system. More details are available here.

The annual budget report, subject to a range of amendments, was approved by Cabinet yesterday which means it will go to Council for agreement on March 2. It has been a long and difficult process and I know many staff across the council have either been affected by the proposals or contributed to them, so please ask your manager if you need clarity over anything in the final proposals. It looks like we’re in the final stages now, so I’d like to thank everyone involved, especially Ben Smith and Sara Willis in Finance for their tireless work in pulling together all of the proposals and forming a balanced budget. This year has been particularly hard, and I have committed that we will review the annual budget process to see how we can make it easier for everyone. We will of course seek input on this when the review commences in a couple of months.

A big thank-you to our officers who responded to the Llangennech rail wagon derailment, fire, and diesel spill back in August 2020. Natural Resources Wales announced the outcomes of their investigations this week and thanked the council officers involved for their response to the incident. My appreciation, therefore, goes to Tom Price and his team and everyone involved for their efforts.

We’re currently out for consultation on the next round of the Corporate Plan and we’re inviting staff to have their say. Guided by the six corporate priorities, it is a major piece of work setting out the vision and road map for our work delivering services and supporting residents over the coming years. My thanks to Richard Rowlands and his team and to Rhian Millar for pulling the survey together. You can have your say here: https://www.swansea.gov.uk/corporateplansurvey

On Monday night Gower College Swansea staged its annual awards ceremony and I’m really pleased to say our staff and the council featured prominently. Five of our apprentices picked up awards for their hard work and commitment and, in addition, the council also won the Apprentice Employer of the Year (250+ employees).

Congratulations to the individuals I have listed below for their accolades; I know they are richly deserved:

·       Cieron Redden            Bricklaying

·       Louise Rigby               Digital Application Support

·       Christopher Davies     Leadership and Management

·       Iestyn Thomas            Supporting Teaching and Learning

·       Jemma Davies            Social Services Practitioner

The council has been a strong supporter of apprenticeships over many years because, as the biggest employer in Swansea, offering services in so many areas, it’s important to support future generations with training to get on the ladder to good jobs. This year is no different as we have just launched a recruitment drive for 17 more apprentices to join our teams in building services with other new opportunities for apprentices and trainees’ graduates being progressed in a number of areas. In addition, we are also offering apprenticeships to staff. Please share with anyone you think might be interested in applying and find out what your service is doing to grow our skills base across the Council.

Budget

As you may know, Cabinet is meeting on February 16 to consider its proposals for next year’s budget. Any report will go to Council for a final decision, including the setting of next year’s council tax, on March 2.

Shared Prosperity Fund

Also going to Cabinet next week is a report about the Levelling Up agenda, looking at how best to implement our share of the Shared Prosperity Fund. The fund is one of the UK Government programmes that is replacing European funds that are no longer available after Brexit. Worth £38.4m to Swansea, a variety of projects including a series of grant schemes are being proposed to boost communities and places, local businesses and people and skills throughout Swansea. Take a look at the report via the link. A huge amount of work has gone into this, with Swansea also the lead council for this fund in South West Wales. My thanks to Paul Relf, Elliott Williams, Clare James, and their team.

In addition, Swansea has been successful in securing a UK government Levelling up bid. It is disappointing that 3 other bids were not successful, but we will look to resubmit in the next round of levelling up later this year. Some conceptual images showing how parts of the copperworks, The Strand and Swansea Museum could look in future have now been released, following on from the successful £20m bid to the UK Government levelling-up fund for a Lower Swansea Valley improvement project.

Protecting local heritage

Swansea’s heritage has been given another boost this week, with news that the Palace Theatre has been taken off the Theatres Trust’s Theatres At Risk Register.

This is a testament to all the effort the council is making to restore the building and bring it back into use. This success story has been widely recognised in the media, including a report on ITV Wales. My thanks to Elliott Williams, Tracy Nichols and all staff involved.

Appeal

We have all heard news of the devastation caused by the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria and I am aware groups and organisations are arranging for collections of items locally. The Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) is urging people to donate money so that agencies operating in Turkiye and Syria can support those affected quickly. If you can, please give here: https://www.dec.org.uk/

Safeguarding is the council’s top priority and at CMT on Wednesday we had a really good discussion about where we are with this most important of duties, looking at the training we offer for staff and how we can build on what’s been achieved so far. We discussed our guiding principle that safeguarding is everybody’s business, it’s not something that only our social services teams do. As a council, CMT agreed we are very strong in this area, but it’s always very important to keep an issue as significant as this under constant review and look at the ways the wider council beyond social services remains up to speed on the latest training opportunities online and face-to-face with those staff who don’t have easy access to Staffnet. This overlaps with the work I’ve asked the staff engagement group to do in seeking out ways that we can improve communication and engagement across the council, including those groups and areas which are harder to reach and are without council IT access. Safeguarding is about identifying and supporting vulnerable people, especially those at risk of harm. Many of our staff interact every day with members of the public on many different issues. Safeguarding training helps give you tools to spot risks of harm and how you can appropriately report and act on them. If you’ve not looked recently, please take some time to look at the current training pages here.

Swansea Bay City Deal

Yesterday, the leader and I met with colleagues from Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Neath Port Talbot councils for one of our regular joint committee meetings about the overarching Swansea Bay City Deal. We all have projects to deliver in our respective communities and the Joint Committee meeting is an opportunity to share ideas, challenges and good practice. This session included an update on the Swansea projects from Huw Mowbray which was very well received and shows Swansea in a very positive light. The session will be available online via the council’s committee agendas under this link. I’ll also keep you posted on developments in future blogs.

Partneriaeth Joint Committee

This morning I’ll be attending the regional meeting of the Partneriaeth Joint Committee with colleagues from Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. It’s the successor organisation to ERW, which was the joint arrangement created to drive improvement in education across our region. Today’s agenda is looking mainly at governance issues like audit, risk and who will be the lead director and chief executive for the new consortium.

Budget proposals

Public consultation on our budget proposals closed earlier this week. Responses from the public will now be analysed and fed back to Cabinet who will take them into account when finalising their options. A report will go first to Cabinet on February 16 with final recommendations to Full Council for a decision on March 2. Any staff who may be directly affected by the proposals will be kept informed as the report progresses through the approval process.

Congratulations

Well done to our partnership and involvement team who have been creating various social events and activities to support older people at risk of loneliness or isolation. Their weekly walk and coffee catch-up at the Marina have attracted more than 100 participants and the interest of ITV Wales, who were there yesterday filming the initiative for their news programme.  It is always great to see good practice by our teams in Swansea shared with a wider audience.