Archives for August 2025

I’ve written often about the importance of the work we do to protect and promote our reputation – and Swansea’s more widely. Major projects like Swansea Arena, the Mumbles sea wall and Castle Square matter to how the council and the city are perceived by outsiders as well as among the residents we serve. So do issues like the events we stage, the libraries, parks and beaches we care for and the scores of services we provide. We want people to see us as a well-run council which cares about our communities, operating in a city where they feel safe and are proud to call home. As such it’s important to try and understand residents’ views, and you may therefore have seen that Swansea is currently participating in a national survey across councils in Wales which you can join via the link. Once completed we will review if the all-Wales survey approach provides us with the level of detail needed or if we are better reverting to the previous local survey as part of our public engagement strategy.  

While I was on leave last week the latest GCSE results came in and, once again, Swansea students consistently out-performed their peers elsewhere in Wales. My congratulations to them, their teachers, schools and parents. The results reinforce our reputation for good quality education services that the survey shows residents appreciate.

If you’re on the Senior Management Group, make sure its next meeting on September 3 is in your diary. We have asked that if anyone isn’t able to attend, they arrange for a team member to attend in their place. This will ensure all parts of the Council are represented at this crucial forum. Doors open at Brangwyn Hall at 8.45am and, following feedback, it’ll be a half-day event finishing by 1pm. Also, managers need to complete their mandatory Management of Absence training and workshop as soon as possible. Many of you have, but all managers need to do it. Find out more here.

This week there’s been another phishing attack on our systems from people targeting us via emails claiming to be from our IT service centre. You can read more about it here. Thankfully, no harm has been reported, but it demonstrates how we all need to be vigilant when it comes to cyber security.

As you know, supporting the Welsh Blood Service is an issue that’s important to me on a personal level. So if you can give, please do. Click on the link for information about local donor sessions. I am also due to meet the service shortly to arrange a session in the Guildhall so more details of that in a future blog

Onto long service and Spencer Martin who works in our commissioning team reached the milestone of 40 years’ service this week. He has of course done his best to keep it quiet (not) and pretend he isn’t old enough but as he started out work as a YTS in Building services I have the evidence to prove otherwise. Congratulations Spencer on this great achievement and your continuing contribution. I am sure you have a few more good years in you yet.

It’s also time to say farewell to two long-serving members of our housing team. Doug Vonk is retiring after 43 years with the council, more than half of that time with the neighbourhood support unit. Independent Living Officer Sandra Brown retires after 26 years with the housing team, having started out as a sheltered housing warden. My thanks to both for their service and I’m sure we all wish them well for their next chapters. Finally, as a reminder, I am always happy to reference long service or retirees if managers send me the details.

This morning it’ll be my privilege to join the civic commemorations of the 80^th anniversary of VJ Day in the George Hall. In particular, we’ll be there to honour the diminishing band of local residents who served our city and country in World War II. It really is a debt we can’t repay. As a council we show our respect for those who have served – and still do – both at events like these and in practical ways with support provided by you on a day-to-day basis. I’d also like to thank for their service the veterans and reservists who work for us, as well as the civic and special events teams who’ve organised the George Hall event. Wherever you are, please observe the national two minute silence taking place at noon.

CMT’s latest update on mandatory training shows important progress, though there’s still much to do. But the key message is that there’s still a sizeable minority who have not completed the modules on cyber security and data protection. Inappropriate disclosure of residents’ personal data is not only deeply disrespectful to those who trust us with their information, it will also get us into serious trouble with the Information Commissioner. On cyber security, it only takes one error by a member of staff to let the hackers in, potentially causing enormous and expensive chaos, lots of extra work for everyone to fix problems and reputational damage too. If you’re among those who’ve not done the training, you must act now.

Our HR and OD team have launched a campaign to find out more about our staff so we can be sure our organisation reflects the needs and ambitions of the people who work here. You can play your part by going into Fusion and filling out your equalities data – it’s quick, confidential and will help make a difference.

Congratulations are in order to the thousands of Swansea students who did themselves, their families and their schools proud in yesterday’s A-Level results. Once again, Swansea students outperformed the Wales average in the key areas. Their success reflects the resilience and commitment of our education teams and all our schools and staff so well done to everyone. Together they enable our young people to make the most of their talents so my thanks to all involved. Next Thursday it’s GCSE results day and I’m confident there will be more to celebrate.

Speaking of endorsements for our work with children and young people, our youth services have earned strong praise for their innovative approach to supporting young people in our communities, ensuring their voices are heard in all that we do. Australian human rights lawyer Meg Tait is researching this issue in communities around the world and she had only good things to say about her visit to Swansea. My thanks to the teams who hosted Meg’s visit and for their hard work with young people day-in, day-out.

Well done also to our Partnership and Involvement Team who have been nominated for a South Wales Police award for collaborative working in our summer City Chill community engagement initiatives. Alongside our partners, including the police, we host City Chill events so young people have inclusive, relaxing, motivating, and engaging activities to enjoy during the holidays. A lot of teams around the council are involved in City Chill, so my thanks to all of them.

One of our digital champions, Laura Jenkins, has been shortlisted for a UK-wide Connected Britain award which highlights rising stars in the world of digital connectivity. The judges look for  evidence of outstanding performance, going above and beyond what would normally be expected, and the potential to make a measurable difference in the industry in the future. Well done Laura – and good luck in the finals.

My thanks to Roger Shaw who has just completed 40 years’ service with our grounds maintenance and cleansing team, based at Clydach. He’s doing a great job helping to keep our highways and communities clean. Thank you for your service, Roger.

Finally, I’m taking a few days’ leave next week, so my next blog will be in a couple of weeks. 

Some good news. After an agreement reached between national trade unions and employers this year’s pay award has been agreed at 3.2% across the board. In the past it has sometimes taken until towards the end of the year to get it across the line. This year it will appear in your pay in August, backdated to April. The pay rise applies to all our staff except teachers, whose arrangements are managed separately. Find out more here.

On Monday I joined up with Ness Young, Rachael Davies and Trade Unions and colleagues from across the council who are overseeing the Workforce and OD transformation programme. It’s been a busy few months with the introduction of the Management of Absence (MoA) policy and more updated policies being worked on for roll out in the autumn. The meeting noted that more than 400 managers have completed the MoA training, which is good news and allows us all to work together to try and reduce absence levels across the Council. My thanks to Ness, Rachael and the team for their hard work and to all the managers who’ve been engaged so far. We want to be seen as an employer of choice, recruiting and retaining the best talent possible so we can continue to improve services for the people of Swansea successfully and sustainably. Excellence in workforce and OD management is among the building blocks of that ambition.

Yesterday it was time to look at the overall transformation programme, Successful and Sustainable Swansea, at a joint Cabinet and CMT awayday. You can find more about the programme here and practical examples of the programme in action here. The board heard of the important progress being made across all our services. Fundamentally, we must continue to change and improve to meet the needs and expectations of our residents in the modern world, while balancing our budget and becoming ever more efficient. It means changes to what you do on the frontline as well as in the back office, such as our workforce and digital transformation programme, which was also discussed at the away day, are having a positive impact.

Next month we’re planning to launch the annual staff survey for 2025. CMT and Heads of Service are currently reviewing actions we’d said we’d take in response to what you told us in last year’s survey. It’s really important than when we receive feedback from our staff that we act on it. We can’t of course do everything that might be suggested, but we should always feedback on what we can or maybe can’t do and the reason why. You can find out about some of the actions taken so far here. We’re also looking at what we want to learn from this year’s survey as well. I’ll update you on that closer to the launch. If, in the meantime, you have any thoughts about what we should be asking, please let your manager know during your 121s which all services have committed to. Similarly, if you have ideas about how we can ensure more of our staff can take part in the survey – even if they don’t have access to our intranet or email systems – I’d like to hear from you.

One of the important things coming out of last year’s survey was your wish that there should be wider recognition for long service and staff achievements. I’ve always included those kinds of updates as often as I can in the blog. I’m pleased to say that this week there’s four more examples of long service to celebrate. So, congratulations to Gary James, fleet engineer in the Central Transport Unit (50 years) and our highways network manager Dean Howard (47 years). Also, a big thank-you to Kelvin Carpenter from our transport team (40 years) and Simon Kennedy (30 years), a supervisor in our ground maintenance team. Collectively, that’s 167 years’ experience and service to the people of Swansea which is something to be proud of, and my thanks to all of them.

And finally, like many people, I will be taking a few days leave next week so there will be no blog next week. It will return on August 15.