Red tape is an issue faced by almost every large organisation any of us come into contact with, either in our work or personal lives. Put simply, red tape is official rules and processes that need to be in place to comply with our obligations but may seem unnecessary and get in the way of delivering results. In Swansea we need to constantly look for ways we can be more efficient so that we can deliver services for councillors and customers more effectively and sometimes red tape can impact on this. On Wednesday Leadership group reviewed progress on our efforts to remove red tape by simplifying the way we do things. A good example is the way we write reports. Lots of officers have to write them on a range of topics for audiences including councillors, senior officers and the public. To help save time, simplify the process and achieve more consistency in the way they’re written we’re going to look at the process involved and also put some new guidance together for officers. We’ll discuss with councillors before implementing it and I’ll keep you posted on that. In the meantime, if you know of any examples where our processes are a bit clunky and could be simplified by cutting out red tape, do let me know.
I was very pleased to be taken on a tour of our new IT data room at the Guildhall this week. It’s undergone a major £1m upgrade, transforming it into a cutting-edge facility with advanced backup and disaster recovery systems. The aim was to improve security, reliability, and backup systems while also reducing energy costs. Digital Services are in the process of transferring systems from the Civic Centre to the new facility, as well as to our Cloud environment. This upgrade means better, more resilient IT systems for our staff to benefit from now and in the years ahead, which is critical to ensure all our services can be delivered. My thanks to Jo Harley, Andrew Morris, Richard Jones and Brian Morris for the tour and the wider digital teams who delivered the project.
I caught up with my staff engagement group this week where we had a good discussion about the upcoming staff survey. We’re finalising the questions now and we’ve agreed that it’ll be part of our ongoing staff engagement programme. Look out for it as it’s expected to be published by early May and the more who take part, the more impact its results will have.
The Police and Crime Commissioner elections are due on May 2 and our elections team will have some new rules to deal with – one of them is about postal votes. You can find out more here. But the main message is that if you want to make sure your postal vote counts the best way to do it is to post it in a Royal Mail post box. Any other method runs a risk of it being rejected.
Good news this week – our work to transform Hafod Copperworks and education facilities at Bishopston Comprehensive has been recognised by the prestigious Constructing Excellence in Wales awards scheme. They’ve been shortlisted in the regeneration and retrofit categories respectively, so good luck to the teams who’ve made these important projects happen.
It’s goodbye this month to David Walker after an entire career of service at the council. David joined the parks team 46 years ago straight from school before moving to the baling plant. There, his dedication and flexibility over 36 years have helped ensure, among other things, we’ve been able to operate a seven-day-a-week service for our residents. Thank you David, enjoy your retirement.
Leave a Reply