This week CMT and I joined the latest Induction meeting for our new starters You might recall the revamped induction programme was informed by your feedback to last year’s staff survey. There were 70 people there and it was a really useful session with each director introducing their area of the council and attendees having the chance to ask questions at the end. The kinds of questions we were asked were around workforce development, career development and the challenges we face. We’ve done three or four of these sessions so far – all of them on Teams –and we are looking now at staging similar events for wider staff networks. The idea is still in its initial stages, so if you have views or suggestions, please let me know. My thanks to Rachael Davies, Rachel Healion and Angela Griffiths in the HR team for developing and delivering the Induction programme and these quarterly sessions.
Yesterday I caught up with our Community Safety Forum, a cross-council network dedicated to supporting our work with partners in areas such as anti-social behaviour, crime, crime prevention and community cohesion. At its heart is our ambition to ensure there is a cross-council approach to doing all we can to help our residents feel safe in their homes and communities. Yesterday’s meeting included a briefing from Rhys Harries, our Trading Standards lead, who highlighted action they’ve taken recently on seizing illegal products including tens of thousands of vapes and dangerous toys. My thanks to Rhys and the team and to all our teams around the council who are playing a role in this important area of work. Your successes are being noticed and they’re helping improve our reputation with residents and further afield.
Blog readers will remember last week I briefly mentioned my meeting with Kelly Fountain, the new Chief Executive of Gower College Swansea. Part of our discussion was about the Swansea Pledge. The pledge is our joint commitment to support local businesses to go into schools to collaborate with pupils on real-life career, jobs and skills development opportunities that will help students prepare for the world of work. We are leading the way in transforming our economy to create thousands of jobs in Swansea in the years ahead thanks to the work we’re doing through initiatives like the City Deal. The Swansea Pledge helps us to do all we can to make sure it’s local young people who get those jobs when the time comes.
Luke Riley is a brilliant example of how we’re recruiting local young people into jobs that make the most of their talents. Luke joined the Swansea Market team straight from school and he’s become a TikTok sensation thanks to his work promoting the venue to new audiences and new customers on social media. Well done Luke – and my thanks too to the market team who’ve helped him flourish at this much-loved institution.
Well done also to our Nature Conservation team who have been developing a new generation of 16 local nature reserves (LNRs) for our communities to enjoy in the years ahead. They’re the first LNRs we’ve created in more than 30 years and, if adopted, they’ll aim to bring communities together to enjoy local wildlife as we protect and promote biodiversity for future generations. Have your say on their consultation here.
My thanks to our special events, highways and other teams who will be making sure this Sunday’s Admiral Swansea Bay 10k goes well. Some of you are running for charity, including our deputy leader, Cllr Andrea Williams which is great to hear. I want to wish you all well and do hope the weather is better than it’s forecasted to be. Good Luck to you all.
Leave a Reply