Archives for April 2025

Every year we review our spending restrictions guidance for staff, in line with the budget agreed at Full Council, and with our prevailing budget situation. Naturally, the restrictions apply more directly to managers and budget-holders, but their impact is felt by all our staff because how our budgets are spent affects the work you do. This year, thanks to an improved budget situation, we’ve been able to relax some of the restrictions including some of restrictions on recruitment. Our budget is kept under close review, and we might need to tighten the restrictions again if the situation deteriorates in-year changes, but I think its important to be able allow greater delegation where funding permits. I will keep you posted as we move through each quarter.

Appraisal season is now officially underway. Everyone must have an appraisal, and the process must be completed by mid-July. They are part of our commitment to you because they enable you and your manager to identify progress and personal development opportunities that contribute to effective delivery of our services and ultimately deliver what Council has asked us to do. Guidance has been published for managers, and they should share the details at your  team meetings, and start arranging dates with you over the coming weeks. There are more details here.

At our Cabinet and CMT awayday yesterday, we had an update about our digital services strategy and considered the conclusions of our review of public access to our services via our phone services. Both are part of our Successful and Sustainable Swansea Transformation Plan. They are about supporting you to deliver services more efficiently and effectively; while also ensuring we continue to ensure the public benefits from access to those services in the ways they want. My thanks to our head of digital and customer services Sarah Lackenby for the updates and for all those who are inputting into the crucial work across the council. Further details will be made available as we finalise the agreed way forward

I’ve often spoken in the blog about the regeneration of our city centre, its impact on us, the reputation of the council and of the city more generally. And, as part of the staff survey, you asked for more stories about what our teams do and what impact they have on the communities we serve. If you click on this link, it’ll take you to a story that brings these two issues together, featuring insights from our regeneration team about what it’s like to deliver change in the city centre. My thanks to Lee Richards for being the first to do a Q&A like this. But I’d also welcome contributions from you if you’d like to do similar articles that go behind the scenes on how we deliver services that have real impact in our communities.   

Staying with that thought – if you were in the Quadrant Centre this week, you won’t have missed the very busy Spring Jobs Fair. My thanks to Joanne Thomas and employment and skills team for organising this valuable event that aims to support our residents and, ultimately, improve their lives. More than 20 organisations showcased scores of job opportunities, alongside experts offering top tips on CV and interview techniques.

And, in a similar vein, well done to cultural services’ sport and health team who have been running hugely popular physical activity sessions at local Flying Start centres, private nurseries and schools. Their project is aimed at encouraging pre-schoolers to develop positive wellbeing habits and a passion for sport, exercise and play that last their lifetimes. It’s going down really well with youngsters and their adult helpers, whose appreciation you can read about here. My thanks to all involved.

You may remember I mentioned in a previous blog about the sad passing of our colleague Gareth Hughes after a long battle with cancer. For those planning on attending, his funeral is taking place on April 30 at Noon at the Llwydcoed Crematorium, just off the A465, near Aberdare (Satnav: CF44 0DJ).

One of the most interesting responses to come out of last autumn’s staff survey was your feedback about where you get your information about the work we’re doing at the council. It was pleasing to see that more than 70% of respondents said that my blog was one of those places – please continue reading, and make suggestions for items for me to include. I think it’s really important that I try and cover topics that interest you as well as the ones I think you need to be aware of.

As you will recall, we have a very high response rate and as such all of our Leadership Group is determined to act on what you’ve said. You can find the latest update on actions we’ve taken so far here, and I’ll continue to keep you updated in the months ahead. In the meantime, one of the Leadership team’s commitments following the staff survey was to be more visible. I’ve already done a number of staff visits over the last few months, and if you’d like me to come and see you to listen to your ideas or attend any events you are arranging, please get in touch. Heads of service and directors are also arranging visits so again, get in touch with them also.

In June, we’ll be welcoming a Panel Performance Assessment (PPA) team to Swansea to review the way we operate on things like effective use of resources, governance and meeting statutory and strategic goals. It’s a legal requirement that all councils do once every five years, and team members will want to meet some of you to find out directly from the front line how things are going. Among the areas we’ll be asking them to pay special attention to are digital services and AI, as well as workforce development improvements, including recruitment and retention. I’ll keep you posted.

This week, I had one of my regular catch-ups with the Swansea Business Improvement District board. We saw a presentation of our emerging Placemaking Strategy for the city centre. It’s a hugely important document because it sets out how we want the area to look and feel in the years ahead, building on the great success we’ve achieved so far. Our ambition includes creating more and better green spaces and more play, heritage and event opportunities to help reinforce a thriving retail and leisure destination. So, watch this space. My thanks to Gail Evans and the team for the work on the strategy so far.

As all our budget holders will know, the 2024/25 financial year has ended. In a large and complex organisation like ours, getting the accounts sorted is not just a legal requirement, but a challenging exercise. So, I’m really pleased to report that Accounts Receivable (AR) has balanced its accounts to the penny for 2024/25. When you consider the team handled £106,383,946.32. and more than 6,000 invoices, you can see that theirs is a significant and important achievement. My thanks to all involved for their commitment.

Well done to our parks and cultural services teams for preparing our parks for the summer season, starting with the Easter Holidays this weekend. It’s a year-round effort that really pays off this time of year in places like Clyne Park and Singleton Park, where this week four dinosaurs have taken up residence. Their arrival, also aided by corporate building services, has met with acclaim from the public, so good news for our reputation too. Pop along to the Singleton Park boating lake – they really are unmissable. My thanks to all involved.

Some sad news today for the many people who knew the regeneration team’s Gareth Hughes, who passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. My condolences to Gareth’s husband, David and to all his colleagues and friends at this difficult time. Gareth was a popular and much-loved figure among the team and in the wider council community. He was our eyes and ears among city centre businesses and a great ambassador for the council, working on a number of key projects, including personally helping me when we delivered the DIY SOS Surfability project in Caswell during Covid. Gareth’s professionalism, patience, and charm helped us see through some of the projects that are making a difference in today’s city centre. He is missed.

On Tuesday, it was great to visit the former Brondeg House in Manselton to catch up on the progress of our More Homes building project. It’s no secret that in Swansea our residents are in great need of more affordable homes for rent, and our housing and building services teams continue to do great work in this area. The project, due to finish next year, will include eight one-bedroom flats and five three-bedroom houses – types which are in high demand locally. The energy efficiency technology behind them is impressive and will help tenants keep their bills low. But one of the best things about the project is that it’s being built by council staff, learning and improving their trade skills. And one of the properties is being built almost entirely by apprentices, helping set them up for life in new, valuable careers. We’re rightly winning awards for achievements at Brondeg House and our More Homes programme, and I want to offer my thanks to all involved. In bricks and mortar, Brondeg House is a great example of how we are delivering for our employees and the people of Swansea.

Another example of how Swansea is helping to deliver for our residents is the restoration of the former JT Morgan department store in the city centre as an arts and culture centre. It’s a private sector scheme being supported by us through Shared Prosperity Fund grant funding and the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns initiative, with support also from our Cultural Services team as part of our overall cultural and arts strategy. Yesterday, Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary Jayne Bryant visited the site to see progress for herself. She also took time to see the headway we’re making at Y Storfa. It’s great for our reputation that Welsh Government ministers can see how we are making the most of their support, revitalising the city centre and increasing footfall. I’d like to thank all the council teams involved.

There was also time to meet up with our housing team and the Wallich, a Wales-wide homelessness charity who were awarded the Housing First standard by the Cabinet Secretary. The standard demonstrates the principle of prioritising housing over all other issues and is especially relevant when dealing with individuals with perhaps more challenging or complex needs. The Wallich team were very complimentary about our Housing Options and wider housing teams in how they have supported the initiative. The Wallich say they don’t experience that same support across Wales, so well done to everyone involved.

Also great for our reputation was news this week that the Sunday Times has put us in the UK’s top three cities for property investment. Our initiatives like Swansea Arena, ongoing city centre development and our cultural offer, were all cited as reasons to invest here. Being rated so highly by independent outsiders will only encourage the investors we want to encourage to come here to take a serious look at how they can benefit from our ambition.

Leadership Group this week saw CMT and Heads of Service review our service plans for the year ahead. It was a very useful and interactive session. It certainly added value to the service planning process, which is vital to ensure we deliver quality services effectively and efficiently on the front line. In the staff survey you said you wanted there to be less silo working and more collaboration across services. This review is helping achieve that goal as well, by identifying opportunities for departments to work together and ensure there are no gaps in delivery.

On Wednesday Brangwyn Hall was in good form for this year’s 25th anniversary of the Swansea Sports Awards, masterminded by our cultural services team. It was a grand occasion celebrating sporting achievement and the unsung heroes who make grassroots sports happen. My thanks to the team for their efforts.

On the retirement front,  I want to bid farewell to Gary Lloyd and Mike Carter, who are leaving us after 38 years and 32 years, respectively. Mike joined us on a temporary bricklaying contract in 1993 and decided to stay. He’s retiring now as a site manager with corporate building services. I worked with Gary when we delivered Bryntawe Welsh School on the site of the former Penlan school in 2003, and still remember laying flooring with him at 6am before all the guests arrived on the opening day.  Gary was also the project manager who helped deliver the pandemic Bay Hospital field hospital against the clock and in demanding circumstances. My thanks to them both for their commitment to the council. I have worked with both of them for many years, and they will both be a huge loss to the team and council and I want to wish them all the best in their retirement.

And finally, many of you will be aware that I helped arrange a charity Walk for Blood Cancer last Saturday on one of the few days it’s rained in weeks. Just my luck. I wanted to thank everyone for the support and for the 130 people, including staff and councillors, who came along despite the weather. I also have to pay tribute to our events team, who were there in an official capacity. Seeing the work done behind the scenes on a small event has given me an even greater appreciation of how difficult a job they do week in week out for Swansea. My thanks particularly to Kingsley Thomas and Keith Morris, as well as Nerys and Heath from our facilities teams, for their support.