Archives for August 2024

Regular blog readers will know that the staff survey is something I’ve mentioned frequently over the last few months. I’ve always said it’s important because it’s your chance to tell us what you think of the work we’re doing, particularly on communication and engagement. I encouraged as many of you as possible to participate so we could get a good idea of what you’re thinking and because we pledged we’d act on the survey’s findings.

I’m pleased to say the initial feedback we’ve had has been very positive with a response rate of around 38% – higher than for any staff survey we’ve done for many years. But this still means two-thirds of our staff either didn’t wish to complete the survey or wasn’t aware of it. This remains a concern to me and I need to understand why this is. The next thing to do is share its findings with our wider managers later in September so we can start work on an action plan to address what you’ve told us and be clear on our actions.

In the meantime, one positive statistic is that 88% of teams and 80% of individual respondents felt very or fairly well-informed about the changes and developments in the council that affect you. Of course, that also means we now have to look at potential solutions to the problem of why those who feel uninformed feel that way. The survey also tells us that, among teams, the top ways you are kept informed is via team meetings, your manager and colleagues. Among individuals this blog was the most popular route to being kept informed – just a little bit higher than team meetings.

Although the survey may now be closed, we still want to keep the communication and engagement conversation going. So please do let feedback via your managers or you can always let me know what’s on your mind about these or any other issues. I’ll report back in the autumn about the actions we intend to take as a result of your feedback and in the meantime thank you for taking the time to respond.

Linked to the staff survey is the launch of our new Values and Behaviours initiative. You can read more here. They’ve been developed over a number of months with help from staff, our employee engagement group, trade unions and others. We all agreed that the values we’ve embraced for a number of years don’t need to change.

So, People Focus, Working Together and Innovation remain the basis of our approach as a council community to the work we do every day. But what the revised Values and Behaviours do achieve is a refresh of what our behaviours look like in action and how we conduct ourselves. They demonstrate how we expect people to treat others, how we expect to be treated and the way we should react to others.

Please take time to have a look at them. Let me know if you’ve seen any colleagues setting a strong example to others by displaying our values and behaviours in action so I can share their story with everyone else.

Finally, farewell to Paul Jones, who has worked for the Council for 46 years and has spent the last 19 years in the Call Centre, providing advice to residents on environmental issues. Before this he worked for our Trading Standards team. Goodbye also to Dylan Jenkins, business manager at Pontarddulais Comprehensive School, who retires this week. Dylan joined us in 1979, back in the days when education was managed by West Glamorgan County Council. Thank you both for your service and for your contributions to our communities over the years – and best wishes for your next chapters.

Congratulations to all the young people from Swansea who got their GCSE results yesterday as well as those who picked up their A-Levels last week. Our young people experienced real challenges during the pandemic when they had to work from home for extended periods, helping keep our communities safe. So it’s a great testimony to their resilience, hard work and talent that the results they’ve achieved out-performed the Welsh average. My thanks also go to our education department, the schools, teachers and parents who’ve supported our young people to be the best they can be. Good luck to all the young people in the next chapter of their lives and their future careers.

Of course, our role in supporting young people doesn’t end when they leave school. That point was very much on my mind on Wednesday when I went to Pembroke Dock to see the latest developments in our regional Swansea Bay City Deal initiative. You can find out more about that here. Pembroke Dock may seem a long way away. But the impact of the city deal on our growing reputation and drive to transform our economy and create jobs, potentially for the young people gaining their results this summer, can’t be understated.  It’s also why it was great to see Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor, Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens and First Minister Eluned Morgan joining the chair of the region, our council Leader Rob Stewart, at Wednesday’s event. Their presence recognises the importance of what we are doing here and reflects the growing confidence the UK and Welsh Governments have in our vision for our communities. Thanks to what they heard from us they will take back to Cardiff and London some great stories about the region and Swansea, enabling them to endorse our reputation, spirit and aspirations to influential people and businesses in ways that will benefit us in years to come.

Another example of how delivering successful regeneration projects generates wider confidence was on show earlier this week when I visited the Princess Quarter development in the city centre. Alongside the Leader and the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary Jane Bryant, we saw the impact of millions of pounds of private sector investment in our city centre. Princess Quarter is just one instance of how the success of Swansea Arena – along with 71/72 Kingsway and Palace Theatre due to be completed shortly – is now helping build our city centre’s reputation among businesses. They have been crucial in attracting private sector investment, so it’s great to see that investors have witnessed our ambition and want to be part of it, creating jobs and improving viability for the city centre.

Congratulations are also due this week to David Lloyd from our building control team who celebrates his 50^th year of service to the council. Thank you David, yours is quite an achievement. And it’s farewell to Kim Collis, who leaves us after 32 years. Kim retired in June as County Archivist but stayed on a little longer to support us with data protection projects.

Thank you to our team at the Quadrant car park who came to the rescue of visitors whose vehicle experienced a flat tyre. Their actions were so exemplary that the couple, one of whom was heading to hospital for dialysis treatment, contacted us to praise the team’s calm, reassuring presence and their tea!

And, finally, thank you to all those who joined the Welsh Blood Service’s advice day at the Civic Centre on Wednesday about giving blood and registering for stem cell donation. It’s a service that matters to me because it saves lives and one you all know I feel passionate about supporting. If you couldn’t attend the event you can find out about further sessions here.

Our city centre’s reputation is continuing to grow. A lot is going on with new developments, both public and private sector, making good progress. I visited the Palace Theatre yesterday with the Leader to discuss plans with Tramshed, the operators we’ve appointed to look after the building. Formal handover from our contractors to Tramshed is taking place soon, so I’ll keep you posted, but the transformation continues to impress. Also this week I took a tour of the new biophilic building in the city centre and nearby Princess Quarter. Both these developments are being delivered by the private sector and the millions of pounds of investment they are injecting into the local economy is testimony to the growing confidence there is in the future of the city centre and Swansea. Coming on top of our continuing work at Y Storfa and the recently unveiled proposals for the city centre public sector hub, things are looking up.

The staff survey closed on Wednesday and in the coming weeks we’ll analyse the results and come back to you about the actions we’ll be taking. I know that thousands of you participated in the survey individually and, for the first time, as part of the team. Thank you all for your support and ideas. Your views will make a difference and I’ll feedback as soon as I can.

While our reputation is impacted by our performance on what some might call the big ticket items, it’s pleasing to know that the day-to-day effort by our teams to keep services going and in great shape is positively praised by the public as well. This week we had some very complimentary feedback about our Cleansing team and team leader Stuart Willingale in particular. His work in dealing with issues ranging from litter to vandalism in public spaces was described as awesome, proactive and professional by a resident. Well done to Stuart and the team for their efforts and for going the extra mile. If your teams or individuals are being praised for their work by members of the public do let me know and I’ll share it in the blog.

Congratulations to our Parks team for securing Green Flag status, recognising the vital role they play in boosting residents’ wellbeing and improving the natural environment. Simon Lydiard, Team Leader for Parks and his team spend considerable time preparing for the independent inspections and hosting the judges, it is also Simon’s 40^th anniversary with the council next week, congratulations Simon.

Next month our climate change team and our external partners are launching a series of workshops to generate public interest and ideas in the next stage of our work to tackle climate change and support nature recovery. It’s called Resilient Swansea and you can find out more about them here and sign up to attend a workshop. This issue is one of our top priorities and it already affects our work as we continue to aim to be a net zero council by the start of the next decade.

Congratulations to six members of our housing team who have just completed professional qualifications through Gower College Swansea. You can find out more about them here. Their continuing commitment to professional development reflects our own ambition to drive transformation at the council by investing in the skills of our teams. Find out more about learning and development with us here.

Farewell to Kath Thomas in our taxi licensing team and housing rents team leader Peter Morris who are retiring after giving a combined 84 years of service to our communities. Thank you both for your commitment over the years and we all wish you well in your next chapter.

Like many of you, I’m taking a couple of weeks leave, so the blog will return in a fortnight. Do keep your emails, ideas and news for the blog coming, ready for when I get back.