As someone who’s built a career in the council, I’m committed to ensuring our staff have every opportunity to learn new skills and develop. Staff training was one of the main talking points at this week’s CMT meeting. We reviewed our training programme which includes staff development opportunities, mandatory training and health and safety courses. It’s fair to say our training offer is comprehensive, but we always need to make sure we aren’t missing any obvious requirements within specific services. It’s also important to make it easier for staff to access and complete training online where possible, but recognise that some must be provided face-to-face where necessary. We’re discussing development needs with heads of service and senior managers. At the same time, colleagues in human resources are working with each service to understand their staff development needs and how we can support staff in their role to develop their skills as part of growing our own so that we can develop and promote officers from within. All staff can influence this during their appraisals and 121s and supervision, so please raise if you need to.
We had our regular Cabinet/CMT away day this week which gave us the chance to look at some major issues in detail. This month included looking at the budget challenges facing our schools and how best we can meet the needs of some of our young people in accessing our core support services in and around the city. Further work will continue in both these areas over the coming months. In addition, we also discussed the regeneration of the High Street and surrounding areas which historically have suffered from some issues. We are heading in the right direction with improvements but there is still more to do. In addition to the work the council is doing, we are working with the likes of Coastal to bring new life to old buildings and create a vibrant area where people can live and work. The proposals are exciting and we’ll be developing them further in the coming months with a view to a public launch early in 2025.
We also reviewed the success of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund where we’ve been able to invest £1.3m in 132 small businesses and gain £1m in match-funding from the private sector which has helped create around 90 jobs. It’s also seen £1m invested in securing the future of some of our heritage sites, £3.6m in developing skills locally, and more than £3m invested in third sector and community organisations and activities. It’s a great tribute to our officers, especially Paul Relf and his team, who have successfully applied for and distributed the funding to boost the local economy and have also led on the work for the region.
Linked to this, it’s great to see how two historic city centre locations have been transformed into modern venues. The refurbished Albert Hall is officially opening today, and the Palace Theatre will be re-opening on November 7. Across the Palace’s six floors, Tramshed Tech will offer versatile workspaces, including co-working, meeting rooms, office space, a podcast studio and a coffee shop. Both venues look fantastic, promise to add to our city centre offer and boost our reputation as a council and city. My thanks to all the officers who’ve been involved.
Perhaps a less exciting but equally important subject, I met with Audit Wales this week to discuss our arrangements for managing our finance, governance, risks and so on. Across Wales councils are facing similar challenges, but it’s an opportunity to share our plans with our regulators and to get an external view. It was a positive meeting and in January we’ll be catching up with Audit Wales along with Estyn and Care Inspectorate Wales for our annual review meeting to discuss how we’re delivering our priorities and meeting our key challenges.
Finally today we will see Chris Howell, our Head of Waste, Parks and Cleansing retire after 11 years with the council. I have worked alongside Chris for many years and he has been a great asset to the council, bringing his thoughts and innovation to these services. I have personally welcomed his input both to the service and corporately over this time and pass on my best wishes for the future. Going forward Nigel Williams will now oversee the waste service and Tracey McNulty will take on the parks and cleansing service while the council considers its longer-term options.
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