Get ready to have your say in our staff survey

The staff survey for 2025 will be launching shortly. I’ve always said in my blogs that it’s a really important opportunity for everyone to share their views on working for the council, our communication with you, and ways we can improve. As we did last year, the survey will gather both individual and team responses. I’d ask managers to make sure all staff are encouraged to take part, whether that’s by completing individual surveys or joining in team surveys at their next team meetings. For colleagues without IT access, please make sure hard copy surveys are available so that everyone can have their say. This is very important as it helps us understand detail within the survey but also gives us insight on how good our wider communication is with staff across the council so please make every effort to participate. If you’ve not yet had your say in the separate residents’ survey please act now as it closes tonight.

This week our Leader, Cllr Rob Stewart, announced some changes to the make-up of the Cabinet. Councillors Rebecca Fogarty and Andrew Williams will share the new post of Corporate Services in a mini re-shuffle that will continue during a temporary leave of absence by Cllr Robert Francis-Davies. I’m sure you will join me in welcoming them both to their new roles and wishing Cllr Francis-Davies well in his recovery.

Earlier this week I was involved in Exercise Pegasus, an ongoing UK-wide Government-led exercise testing public sector resilience in the face of a pandemic-level event. Although it’s a relief to say such things are tremendously rare, the lessons learnt from the Covid pandemic taught us that we need to be ready and prepared to deal with major incidents hence such exercises are crucial. This week’s test engaged teams from around the council and my thanks to them for their involvement and to Tim Kingham and Ben Cromie for facilitating our participation in this important work.

In the same vein of responding to incidents, it’s great to see progress being made after last week’s issues at Cwmbwrla roundabout. I’m pleased to say that thanks to the work of our highways team, the situation is now largely stable, the road into the city is partially open and plans are in place to deal with further flooding risk although this will take a while to resolve given the issue is on private land and there are several complicating factors involved. Elsewhere our parks and cleansing team have been very busy clearing blocked gullies, watercourses, and culverts to help prevent flooding as we move into the winter period. My thanks to all involved.

The Y Storfa transformation is gathering pace as the countdown to its initial opening towards the end of the year continues. This week we announced the current Central Library at the Civic Centre will be closed from Monday 20 October to allow staff to prepare for the move. This will include the relocation of more than 60,000 books and thousands of other items like maps and microfilm reels, as well as setting up library services and spaces at Y Storfa. When fully open Y Storfa will bring together a wide range of other services including the West Glamorgan Archive Service, Lifelong Learning, Housing Options, the Contact Centre and Revenue and Benefits. My thanks to everyone overseeing the Y Storfa development, and to our Facilities and library teams for all their hard work in getting this vital project into the home stretch.

A key aspect of our workforce development strategy is around maximising the opportunities for personal development of our staff. I was really pleased to see a great example of this in our Housing and Public Health team who have made excellent progress in career coaching and staff development, with support from Elaina Brutto. Coaching sessions are helping staff secure job offers, and training and development opportunities are being picked up through appraisals. There’s been a noticeable increase in staff confidence and skills, and managers are benefiting from support sessions and toolkits. The service has also welcomed two apprentices, with two more starting soon. Congratulations to the team for their success so far. Such initiatives are available across the council, albeit locally tailored to suit service needs, so please take the opportunity to find out what’s going on in your area.

Well done to the housing team on the success of their biggest-ever tenants’ drop-in event at the Brangwyn Hall on Wednesday. The feedback from tenants, councillors and participants has been very positive. Also, congratulations to the occupational health team for their efforts at Wednesday’s staff Macmillan Coffee Morning at Guildhall. More than £200 was raised for a great cause and my thanks to all those who contributed to the event.