Archives for October 2023

A little delayed, but last week I’m pleased to report Cabinet approval for two major plans that will influence our work over the coming years, our city’s environment and the health and wellbeing of our communities. The Swansea Local Nature Recovery Action Plan (LNRAP) and the Destination Management Plan (DMP) will both make a valuable contribution to delivering on our priorities, particularly those around economy and infrastructure and nature recovery and climate change. You can read the Cabinet reports here. But both influence our day-to-day activities across services in ways we might not always appreciate and the plans link to each other because it is the coast, beaches and landscape our LNRAP seeks to support that many of our four million visitors last year came to see.

The LNRAP was developed by the Swansea Local Nature Partnership (LNP), of which we’re a key member and it contains advice and ideas for what families, individuals, schools, and businesses can do to help nature thrive in Swansea. It’s being published shortly, but there are a few ideas you can get involved with here. My thanks to Christina Derrick and Mark Barber in the Council’s Nature Conservation Team for their work on this. The DMP highlights how tourism contributes £500m a year to the local economy, protecting thousands of jobs. One of its key aims is to help our services and partners work together to ensure local visitors and tourists alike enjoy their trip, encouraging them to stay longer and increase their spend. My thanks to all those involved in developing and implementing what is an innovative plan that seeks to support continued sustainable growth in the sector. You can download a copy of it here and watch the latest campaign videos here.

Last Friday I went to visit the team delivering our child and family services. It was an opportunity to find out more about how they work, the challenges they face and their commitment to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. I found their insights informative and thought-provoking and has helped me gain a greater understanding of this crucial part of the council’s services. If you would like me to visit your area, please do get in touch as I find them really valuable.

On November 14 we will be hosting at the Civic Centre a visit by the Welsh Blood Service. It’ll be the first time we’ve done it since before the pandemic and it’s happening because we want to make it as easy as possible for staff to give generously. As you know, I’m a big supporter of the service because I’ve benefited personally from its life-saving work. But they need a constant supply and people like you can make a difference, so please book your spot here either at the Civic or one of the other venues listed over the coming weeks.

Welsh Government legislation to change the default speed limits from 30mph to 20mph on most of our urban roads was introduced just over a month ago. Although Welsh Government is fully funding it so councils don’t have to pay from their own resources, we are obliged to implement the changes and that’s what our highways teams have been doing. It has been an enormous task and the traffic and highways team have shown great commitment in responding to the challenge. There are still some more changes to be delivered over the next few months but the majority has been done. I know there are differences in opinion of the scheme which I won’t go into but It is a long and sometimes challenging job, so my thanks to all those involved working in our communities now and in the coming months to complete the work.

Congratulations this week to the Dylan Thomas Centre for being shortlisted in the annual Museums Change Lives Awards run by the national body the Museums Association. It is co-shortlisted with Your Voice Advocacy (YVA) in the best small museum category for their Our Museum, Our Voice initiative. The honour reflects the collaborative work carried out by the centre and YVA, a user-led organisation for adults with learning disabilities.

Last week in my blog I talked about how Safeguarding is at the top of our list of six corporate priorities and how important it is that we all do the new training modules that have been set up. This week at Leadership Team we received a presentation from Julie Davies, our head of child and family services, about the significance of our Corporate Parenting role within the safeguarding agenda. Staff might be surprised as it may seem a long way from our day-to-day work. But, as Julie explained, we all have a role to play in being corporate parents for the care experienced by children and young people – those in the care of the council and those who have left our care. They are young people with diverse needs and will often come into contact with staff when they or their families are accessing services like education, culture, sports, housing, libraries and other services. There is more work being done in the coming months about this, in the meantime please have a look at Julie’s presentation here.

Leadership Team also had a discussion about the challenges around recruitment across the council. I know a prolonged absence of new recruits where vacancies need to be filled increases work pressures on remaining staff, so it was good to hear about actions being taken to address the problem via some short and long-term actions. We also picked up on the new Manager Monthly Brief, an information newsletter to help your manager keep you informed about key corporate initiatives and activities. Please ask your manager about it – I would certainly appreciate any feedback you might have.

Another way I try to stay in touch with staff is through face-to-face visits. Please do invite me to come and see you. This week I went to Morriston to meet the teams at the East Area Housing Office, where the Rents collection team is also based. We discussed some of the challenges they encounter every day including the cost of living crisis and how we balance a sympathetic approach to tenants struggling with rent arrears while also recovering what is owed for the benefit of all tenants, and dealing with some challenging issues on our housing estates. My thanks to them for their commitment to our residents, their insights and their hospitality. Today I’m catching up with the children’s services team in Guildhall and I’ll report back later.

This week I was encouraged to hear of a new report showing we are the best-performing council in Wales at tackling climate change and delivering on our climate emergency commitments. Tackling climate change is a journey, not a destination and the report coincided with the completion of a new toolkit for our premises managers to help reduce energy consumption in our buildings. At a time when our budgets are under pressure and energy costs are rising for us like everyone else, we can all play our part in tackling costs. Money saved on the energy bill frees it up for spending on frontline services and protecting jobs. We piloted the toolkit in the Gorseinon Library/DHO and produced some fantastic results by doing a small number of easy changes to the daily routine like switching off lights and unplugging devices when not in use. My thanks to all involved. Find out more here.

Finally, a big thank you to Hywel Lewis and his team for their outstanding work in helping keep Wales safe during the pandemic. After 30 months of masterminding the Welsh Vaccine Certification Service, producing more than 400,000 paper certificates, managing the digital app and dealing with thousands of queries, the service closes on October 31. It enabled people to travel in compliance with international Covid regulations and is probably the final legacy service of the Covid Contact Tracing procedures that helped save many lives. As the Welsh Government Minister for Health and Social Services said in her letter of thanks, it was a unique service and I add my thanks to Hywel and all those involved in the last three years.

Firstly, my apologies for the delay in sending out my blog which normally goes out on a Friday. But last Friday the 13^th proved to be a bit challenging with a few issues arising so it’s been delayed until today. Hopefully, normal service will resume this week.

Safeguarding is our top priority. No matter what job we do we all have a part to play in keeping vulnerable people in our communities safe, and free from harm and exploitation. In our day jobs and in our personal lives we will all come in contact with many different people so it is vital that we know what to do if we are worried about someone’s safety.

That’s why this month our Corporate Safeguarding Steering Group has launched new safeguarding training for all council staff, as well as elected members. It is mandatory training because it will equip you with the information and confidence you need to act appropriately if you spot a concern. The new modules take into account recent Welsh Government guidance, so even if you have only recently completed the previous eLearning courses on safeguarding, you must do this new course. You should be able to find all you need to know at this link: https://staffnet.swansea.gov.uk/NewSafeguardingTraining

For this staff without work-based computer access toolbox talks will be arranged via the normal team briefing process.

Also, as October is Cyber Security Month, please take some time to update yourself about easy steps we can all take to protect ourselves and council data from attack by criminals. Our IT team already do a great job at protecting us from those who would do us harm. But it only takes a click on an innocent-looking but malicious link to accidentally let in the criminals and severely undermine our systems.

Budget discussions are never far away from the agenda this time of year. CMT started discussions with directors and heads of service a couple of weeks ago and last week I met with trade unions to have an initial dialogue about the challenges ahead. It was a very useful meeting and feedback from it and further talks with the unions over the coming weeks will form part of Cabinet deliberations. While there will be a formal budget consultation later on in the process, please don’t forget you can inform Cabinet’s thinking about the choices they have to make by participating in the ongoing residents’ survey here.

As I mentioned in my last blog, climate change is a massive challenge and we need to plan for how we work together to ensure we do all we can to mitigate its consequences. The Welsh Government wants all local authorities to draw up a comprehensive strategy to address the issues and to understand what we may need to do differently to protect and continue vital services. Jane Richmond, our strategic manager for climate change, is leading the work in the council on this. But we’ll also be engaging with partners in the Swansea Public Services Board, including the police, health authority, fire service and universities, as well as businesses and the public. There will be internal workshops and we’ll be asking representatives from different services to take part and we will also be launching a residents’ survey in the coming weeks to which you can contribute. I’ll keep you posted as this develops.

Looking ahead to Christmas, you can now install a free app that aims to boost city centre businesses and save money. It’s being launched on Monday but you can download it to your mobile device now by visiting app.bigheartofswansea.co.uk  The app, which has been developed by the council in partnership with Swansea BID, gives access to exclusive offers for Swansea residents, with more offers being added in the coming weeks and months. It also includes a searchable directory of city centre businesses and Dining Out and What’s On sections. My thanks to all the staff involved.

What’s the single most important issue facing us today? People will of course have different opinions including tackling poverty, economic well-being or hoping for world peace.

One thing that’s clearly becoming more important to us all is the survival of our planet. Experts can argue over the causes and rate of climate change, but the facts are stark. We’ve just had the warmest September on record, on the back of the hottest summer ever recorded. And extreme weather conditions are becoming more commonplace. Yes, it’s a global issue, but as a council, we’re doing all we can to become carbon neutral by 2030 and for the city to achieve this target by 2050. As you’ll recall one of our corporate priorities is climate change and nature recovery. This week I attended our climate change and nature recovery steering group which is overseeing our council action plan. I also attended our housing futures steering group that helps guide our More Homes initiative to build modern, energy-efficient homes and how we meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard by renovating and upgrading existing council homes.

Linked to this I visited one of our local employers, South Wales Transport, located close to our baling plant to discuss the hydrogen-powered bus trial they recently held in Swansea and to see how we can learn from their experience. As you may know we’ve introduced an increasing number of electric vehicles to our fleet, but EV isn’t always the best option for heavier vehicles, so hydrogen may help us reach our net zero target. I also visited DST, the Bridgend-based company behind proposals to create a tidal lagoon and related green energy initiatives including hydrogen in Swansea. Hopefully, you already know about our net zero efforts, but please take every opportunity in work and at home to reduce your carbon footprint.

I’m delighted we’ve got a contractor in place to manage the unfinished works at Copr Bay following the unfortunate demise of previous contractor Buckingham. Wilmott Dixon have a great track record and we expect them to be on site very soon to oversee the completion of this important project. My thanks to officers, especially Lee Richards and his team, for working through a huge number of issues to get the contractors in place.

I’m also delighted the Copr Bay bridge linking the city centre to the Arena has won an award at the Structural Steel Design Awards with judges praising the dramatic new gateway to Swansea.

Dave Howes last night gave his annual report as director of social services to Council and it highlighted not just the challenges faced in the past year but also the great efforts of staff to support some of our most vulnerable residents. We’ve made huge strides across the directorate despite the growing pressures, and one great example of our staff going the extra mile recently was, three of our social services staff responded brilliantly when one of their clients collapsed in their own home and suffered a severe head trauma. They kept the gentleman alive until the emergency services arrived, but sadly he subsequently passed away. My thanks to Natasha Cole (Senior Community Care Assistant) and Francine Savory and Mandy Cullum (both Community Care Assistants) for their calm and caring response in such traumatic circumstances.