Virtually every year of my working life in local government I’ve heard colleagues describe the annual budget settlement as the most difficult on record. But 20 years ago we couldn’t have foreseen just how challenging things would get.
There’s been coverage of the problems facing Northamptonshire and East Sussex councils and last week the Municipal Journal highlighted the serious financial difficulties facing Birmingham Council. There are many more on the margins of financial viability and some who now only operate the minimum core statutory services. The situation in Wales has been slightly easier, given the Welsh Government’s relative protection for councils. But all 22 Welsh councils are now facing problems, as shown by the number of councils breaching the notional 5% council tax cap for the first time in their 2018/19 budget. The situation is compounded by growing demographic pressures, particularly in adult social care, and the agreement of unfunded national pay awards with councils ending up footing the bill. Public sector pay restraint during austerity has hit staff and their families, there’s a clear trade-off in all councils between the levels of pay and the number of jobs.
There’s no doubt in my mind next year will actually be the toughest on record and we’ll face some difficult choices. On Wednesday the Corporate Management Team considered our medium term financial planning ahead of the forthcoming budget meetings with Cabinet and Council. Once again the aim will be to protect services and jobs but this will be really challenging. We must continue our transformation journey through Sustainable Swansea and CMT are reviewing the programme for discussion with councillors over the coming weeks. We’ll share this with staff as soon as possible and your views will be important in shaping it.
Despite these difficulties our staff continue to work hard to improve performance. The first quarter performance monitoring report will show 76% of Corporate Plan performance indicators met their targets and 61% improved compared to Quarter 1 last year. Our staff deserve real credit and thanks for their commitment and efforts in making Swansea a better place.
Recruitment
The Appointments Committee met this week to agree the shortlist for the post of Deputy Chief Executive/Director of Resources. Council will meet next Tuesday to consider the recommendations of the Appointments Committee and I’ll keep you informed of progress.
Security
There have been a spate of car crimes in Swansea and our staff car parks are not immune to this threat. An employee’s car was stolen from the Civic Centre this week. Please be vigilant and take some practical steps to improve security such as not leaving valuables on display or leaving files, laptops etc in your car. Our security staff will be increasing patrols in car parks and stepping-up CCTV monitoring.
Exam results
Congratulations to all those pupils who sat A-Levels and other exams this summer. Our overall pass rate of 97.6% is the same as 2017 and above the Welsh average. And we have more pupils passing with either A* or A grades – an increase of 1.6% on last year. I’m grateful to everyone for the effort they’ve put in.
Tidal Lagoon
It’s been a couple of weeks since I mentioned the tidal lagoon but a lot has been happening behind the scenes. We’ve worked with Swansea University on the commissioning of a report by Holistic Capital which outlines the case for taking the lagoon forward. The Leader has convened a task force to drive forward the project. The task force met yesterday and agreed how it will consider options for delivering this project. I’ll update you as things progress.
High 5 judging
This week I chaired the annual High 5 awards panel to identify the winners of this year’s competition in preparation for the awards ceremony at the Liberty Stadium in October. As usual it was a difficult process as all the entries were worthy of recognition. Thanks to Mark Gosney for supporting the process and to those who submitted the 130 nominations. The resilience and achievement of our young citizens inspired all the judges.
Nant y Felin
Thank you to all the staff involved in moving our children’s home at Ty Nant Ty Nant to a new base in Pontarddulais. The new home offers better accommodation, while old site in Blaenymaes will be developed into a supervised contact centre, with services for children and families.
Welsh
We have still have some work to do in ensuring the recent Welsh Language Standards are embedded in our everyday work. But as a starter here’s a simple guide every member of staff should follow.
Armed forces
It’s great that our efforts to support the armed forces have been recognised with a gold award from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. We’re the only council in Wales to have received this award which is organised by the Ministry of Defence. Well done to everyone involved.
ParkLives
If you’ve not tried it yet you may want to make the most of our ParkLives scheme which is offering 36 hours of activities each week for adults and children in the summer holidays. Thanks to Sarah McCoubrey and the team for their hard work on this programme