Many of you will know that we had to close Bishopston Comprehensive School just before half-term after ground movement was discovered, forcing us to switch off all the utilities to its buildings. I’m delighted to say that thanks to the incredible efforts of our education and building services teams and, of course, the school plus many others, Bishopston re-opens on March 6 to all pupils. Working every day since the discovery, often in atrocious weather conditions, building services and our contractors have completed the hugely complex job of re-routing water, electricity and gas mains to make this happen. While this has been going on, our education teams and the school staff have pulled out all the stops to maintain learning online for more than 1,000 pupils. Among other things, re-opening means pupils due to sit vitally-important GCSE exams using equipment only available at the school will be able to carry on. I want to pay tribute to Nigel Williams, Louise Herbert-Evans and their teams for their perseverance, professionalism and can-do attitude under pressure. I’d also like to thank Bishopston headteacher Jeff Bird, his staff, governors, pupils and parents for their resilience and patience at a very challenging time. Our response to this incident shows Swansea Council at its very best.
I had a very productive catch-up with the staff engagement group on Wednesday. We discussed a range of topics, focussing particularly on ways we can consult effectively with staff on the issues that matter to them. We all recognised that meaningful consultation must include an effort to ensure everyone has the opportunity to have their voice listened to – and that action on concerns and interests raised are seen to take place. The plan is to carry out some further staff engagement from April to understand how effective these processes are across the Council.
We have also approved our reward and recognition scheme which will now be discussed with our trade unions and councillors before being launched shortly. If you’ve ideas you want to share on this subject, please feedback via your staff representatives or let me know directly.
It’s International Women’s Day next Friday and we’ll be marking the event in a number of ways. It’ll include announcing that the coastal park next to Swansea arena is being named for renowned Swansea businesswoman and writer Amy Dilwyn. Staff events include an online drop-in session on Teams providing advice and support for women. My thanks to Tracey McNulty for pulling together the relevant details and arrangements for the naming event.
Our final budget proposals go to Full Council on March 6 for its decision. It has been a challenging process over a number of months. But if you follow any of the local and national news you will see many other councils facing the same or more difficult choices and challenges. My thanks to all of you who took part in the consultation and to Ben Smith, Sarah Willis and the finance team for their effort in getting us to the finish line. Also on a finance issue, Cabinet and CMT met on Thursday and one of the things discussed was around grant visibility and how announcements from Welsh Government impact on the services we are delivering to our communities. We will be carrying out some further work on the grant process and visibility during this year.
Finally, I can’t let the day pass without wishing you a very happy St David’s Day. If you want to get into the spirit of the occasion there’s three days of our Croeso Festival still to enjoy. Well done to the team in cultural services and their partners for making the festival such a colourful annual event.
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