Agile

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on Monday announced an end to austerity but I have to say it doesn’t feel like that for councils in Wales. A simple analysis by respected commentators has made clear that once the promises for future funding for the NHS are taken into account most of the rest of the public sector faces longer-term continued real terms reductions. The harsh reality is austerity for local government seems to have no chance of going away any time soon. However, in the short term there were a few glimmers of light:

Extra cash for capital and revenue coming to Wales, totalling £550m over three years.
Local government is a stated Welsh Government priority if extra cash becomes available, specifically for schools, potholes and social care.
It’s too early to tell the amount and it depends on the specific priorities for Welsh Government

However, the announcement on business rates may be a negative one for us. If they are reduced by a third, as in England, this will impact on our core funding.

More fundamentally there are serious issues about the way national pay and pension decisions are announced without being fully-funded. It’s going to cost us £10m next year, yet we’ve only been given an extra £18,000. And tucked away in the budget was a technical announcement on UK government’s one-off reserves to smooth the pain of the cost of applied employers’ pension increases totalling some £4.7 billion. We’re continuing to lobby along with the WLGA and I know colleagues in the trade unions are doing the same. We have to make sure some of this comes to Welsh authorities facing real spending pressures, not just for use in England. We’ll know more from Welsh Government on our final share of funding on December 19. Hopefully it’ll be Santa rather than Scrooge that delivers the definitive message!

New Deputy starts

Adam Hill, our new Deputy Chief Executive, has started with us this week. He has valuable experience in a number of local government roles as well as working in senior positions in other sectors. It’s really good to have him in CMT and he’ll be getting around to meet as many of you as he can in the coming weeks and months. I’m sure you’ll join me in welcoming Adam to Swansea and wishing him all the best.

New ways of working

We know some of our working practices would benefit from a new approach so we’re going to test some new ways of working in a 12-month pilot scheme. We’ve chosen three teams where the focus will be on work output rather than the number of hours worked. This will mean changes to the current flexi and core hours’ systems with staff in the pilot areas no longer being required to record time. They’ve already taken part in workshops over the last few weeks to discuss how new ways of working will work in their area and to ensure services are not adversely affected. Participation in the pilot is voluntary and affects only Human Resources, the Service Centre and Corporate Property Services teams. I’m really interested to see how it goes, but also to ensure we assess the full picture so that we’re clear about what works and what doesn’t and where these kind of changes may work elsewhere.

Staff survey

You’ve got just a few more hours to have your say in our latest staff survey. The shortened survey is quick and easy to complete so please take some time to do so. It really is important we have your views so that we can take actions and make further improvements based on your feedback.

Deputy finance chief

Congratulations to Jeff Dong who’s been appointed as the Deputy Chief Finance Officer and Deputy S151 Officer. Jeff will lead on a number of strategic finance projects including pensions, treasury and capital. In line with spending restrictions and vacancy management the post is on an interim basis until March 31, 2019.

Good news

It’s great to see we’ve short-listed three bidders to take over the former 360 site on the prom in front of St Helen’s. It’s a prime site and we want to create a vibrant and exciting facility on the beach-front. We’re also expecting some good news on the Hafod Copperworks scheme with Heritage Lottery Funding hopefully being confirmed shortly. Thank you to all the officers working on these schemes.

Western Bay

Our Regional Partnership Board for Western Bay met this week to consider a number of important issues and projects to transform the way social care and health are delivered across the region. This included a review of the Integrated Care Fund by the Wales Audit Office, an update on the National Strategy for Autism, the Strategic Framework for Mental Health and the first bids to the All Wales Transformation Fund. We were also reassured progress is being made on Bridgend’s transfer out of the ABMU health board area and into Cwm Taf. I think this collaboration is making real progress but there are still too many meetings and a cumbersome governance regime. I hope we can work with partners to simplify this as I’m conscious a huge amount of officer and member time is devoted to attendance and participation.

Award

Congratulations to John Chappell, one of our social services drivers at Client Transport (ITU) on being nominated for an ABMU Health Board Patient Choice Award. John has been nominated by the public for going the extra mile during a medical emergency. He’ll be attending a celebration event on December 4, where he will be presented with his certificate.

Following last week’s car theft at the Civic Centre and the comments I’ve received from staff, I’ve asked for a review of security at the site.

I’m grateful to those staff who’ve already contacted me and raised their concerns. I want to reassure everyone that I’m taking this issue very seriously and will act upon concerns and the findings of our security review. We’ve already taken steps to increase patrols in the car parks and to step-up our CCTV monitoring.

We’re also in the process of going out to tender for a new CCTV system. This will replace all the current cameras with high-spec equipment which should increase and improve CCTV coverage of the site. In the meantime, please take some precautions by not leaving any valuables or documents etc in your vehicle. But this isn’t only about cars, if you’re travelling by either motorbike or bike please take steps to secure it. In the meantime, please feel free to respond to this update with any comments or ideas you may have regarding security. I’ll keep you updated.

Agile update

Swansea University has signed a lease with us to rent space on the third floor of the Civic Centre. The first staff from the university’s school of management moved in on Monday and will be joined by colleagues in the coming few weeks.

This lease agreement generates important extra income for the council and has been made possible thanks to the work of our Facilities and IT teams in helping 441 staff in the Civic Centre to become agile in the past year.

Next to make the move to agile are our Housing colleagues in September, when a further 95 staff will join the second floor agile area. This move will enable refurbishment of the central area of the first floor into further agile workspace to be occupied by IT and accountancy teams.

All of the furniture in the agile area is up-cycled to reduce costs and be environmentally-friendly.

Exam success

Congratulations to all the young people who sat GCSEs this summer. Despite the fall in grades nationally, results in Swansea have again held up well, with the main indicators all being above the average for Wales, and most subjects showing results which are better than the national picture. The figures show 22.4% (21.5% in 2017) of city pupils gained A* and A grades in their WJEC exams, which is significantly better than the 18.5% in Wales as a whole. More than 75% of students achieved the higher grades of A* to C in 29 different subjects. Meanwhile, the top grades of A* and A were awarded to over a third of all entrants in 18 subjects.

These results are a great tribute to the pupils, their families and school staff. Well done to everyone!

Schools’ praise

Our schools have achieved some excellent Estyn inspection reports in the last few years and Pentre’r Graig and Pontarddulais Primaries have kept that run going. Pentre’r Graig benefitted from a £2.7m upgrade as part of our 21^st Century Schools Programme and that investment is clearly paying off as it was rated good in all five inspection areas. Pontarddulais achieved the same with inspectors praising the work of the Foundation Phase, which is particularly pleasing as the school is sharing its success in that area with others in Swansea. Congratulations to all the staff, pupils and families at both schools.

Staff Pride

Pride Cymru takes place this weekend and staff from our LGBT+ group will be joining colleagues from other councils as part of a ‘Proud Councils’ group marching in Cardiff city centre. Our Staff LGBT+ Group will be joined by Cllr Elliott King, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services (Early Years) who is LGBT champion for the council and organiser of this year’s inaugural Swansea Spring Pride.

None the wiser!

Acting on your concerns