Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Leadership team discusses our priorities

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I went to the first Leadership Team meeting since my return and it was a chance to meet our heads of service and set out my priorities.

I mentioned my priorities last week in my blog so I won’t repeat them now. It was good to see some familiar faces as well those Heads of Service that have been appointed in the past couple of years. It was also the last Leadership meeting for Rachel Moxey, Head of Poverty and Prevention, who is taking up a post in Pembrokeshire. I’d like to thank Rachel for all her hard work and wish her well.

Gower College came along to present their ideas for closer working with us on a training and apprenticeship programme. There’s potential for them to second a member of staff to us to better understand our needs and to deliver a programme for us. We all know how important apprenticeships are so this could be a really productive partnership.

The importance of this was highlighted this week at Gower College Apprenticeship Awards where a number of our staff were rightly rewarded with an Apprentice of the Year award. These are:

Aaron Redden – Bricklaying

Ingrid Parker (St Thomas Community School) – Childcare

Iestyn Thomas – Information, Advice and Guidance

Cameron Lewis – IT

Elizabeth Jarvis – Leadership and Management

Luke Evans – Apprentice of the Year

We also won the Employer of the Year award for organisations with more than 250 employees.

This is a great achievement by all of our staff and they should be rightly proud and I wish them well in their careers. It’s also recognition of our strong track record with apprentices. University isn’t for everyone and it’s crucial that we give people a choice. I’m sure our work links with Gower College will further strengthen this and create even more opportunities.

This week’s Corporate Management Team meeting looked at the issue of mental health services and a new strategy being developed by ABMU health board and local authorities in the region. Those of us living in Swansea may already be aware through personal experience that services are pretty weak, particularly around prevention and early treatment and out of hours support. The strategy is designed to get all the partners to agree a model for future services which set out the shape and scope of services. This will be going to Cabinet in the coming months, but the big challenge is the need for major investment in these services which will not be possible without national funding. That will be an interesting debate in the coming months.

When I was appointed Chief Executive in 2011 one of the first meetings I attended with a range of officers from across the council was about the Local Development Plan. At the time we were looking at candidates sites and it was clear then that this was a huge and complex task. So it’s quite amazing to be back at a time when the LDP has been approved by Council eight years after that initial meeting. It demonstrates the professionalism, determination and stamina of those officers involved. Following comprehensive public consultation and engagement including a rigorous independent examination by the Planning Inspectorate, the LDP was approved by Council. It’s the most up-to-date plan of its kind in Wales and the primary strategy and policy document against which the Council will make decisions on development proposals. The LDP is based on a strong ‘Place-making’ agenda and seeks to address the need for new homes, jobs, infrastructure and community facilities to support economic growth and raise standards of living. It also includes policies that require proposals to respect and promote cultural heritage, important landscapes and sensitive environments. My thanks to Paul Meller, Tom Evans, Rachel Willis, David Rees, Ruth Henderson, Sarah Jenkins, Andrew McTaggart and Lisa Roberts for all their hard work. It’s much appreciated.

Promoting Swansea in Cardiff

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I’ve been in Cardiff quite a bit this week raising our profile and trying to secure some commitments from the Welsh Government.

On Monday I met our Skyline colleagues from New Zealand to further develop the proposals for their leisure scheme at Kilvey Hill.  Work continues apace and I hope we can give the project the final push towards delivery.  It would have a major impact on Swansea as a tourist destination but given the financial climate we’ll very likely be dependent upon grant support from Welsh Government to secure it. Councillors Stewart and Francis-Davies also attended and I know they’re doing everything they can to get that support.

On Tuesday I was with the Welsh Government to discuss the future funding for ethnic minority language support to our schools.  I was joined by the chief executives of Cardiff and Newport councils and they feel as strongly as I do about this subject.  It’s essential the Welsh Government recognises that councils can’t provide these essential services without the necessary funding and I pressed the case as forcefully as possible.  Whilst funding is secured for the next financial year we need firm commitments beyond that and I hope sense will prevail.

We continue to work with colleagues in Cardiff and Newport to promote our cities and to highlight to the Welsh Government the particular challenges faced by urban authorities and I think they got the point.

I also met with Geraint Rees who’s taken over the helm at ERW, our regional school improvement consortium.  I’ve mentioned previously there have been some problems at ERW and one year on since my appointment as lead Chief Executive for the consortium I’m now confident real progress is being made.  I emphasised the need for better engagement and stronger partnerships with schools to make sure we secure the best possible outcomes for our learners across the mid and southwest Wales region.  Geraint and I will be working on a report to the ERW Joint Committee in January that will chart the future and hopefully ensure all regional councils engage fully in the organisation.

Swansea Central

Cabinet yesterday approved an extra £3m to progress phase one of the Swansea Central project including the proposed digital arena. This is a major step forward and couldn’t have been possible without tremendous efforts of Huw Mowbray and his team along with many others such as finance, legal, planning and communications.

Swansea University

I was concerned to learn of the current issues at Swansea University and the suspension of four members of staff.  As major partners in our regeneration projects, the University has a key role, and I hope the current difficulties can be resolved quickly.  The Leader and I have sought reassurance that the progress we’re all making on the City Deal will not be hindered by this.  In the meantime I must thank the economic regeneration team and Deputy Chief Executive, Adam Hill, for their work on pushing the case forward with Welsh Government officials this week. Hopefully in the next week or so there’ll be some definitive statements on the first projects to be approved under the Swansea Bay City Deal.

YGG Lon Las

On Thursday I was at Lon Las School for the official opening with TV news presenter Huw Edwards.  Huw is a great advocate and promoter of Welsh medium education so I was delighted when he agreed to officially open the new £9.8m school. It has over 500 pupils and it’s a huge improvement with all the classrooms under one roof. There’s also a lovely new flat play area and a sports field.  Huw spoke eloquently about the importance of quality in education and choice in language.  Both Huw and I were impressed by this magnificent facility and the team responsible for delivering it should be rightly proud of their work.  Huw was brilliant with the children and has promised to return. Thanks to headteacher Karen Thomas and her fantastic team for making us all feel so welcome. And congratulations to the school on their very positive inspection report.

Additional Learning Needs

CMT considered our approach to implementing the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 – to support children and young people with additional learning needs (ALN). It replaces existing legislation for special educational needs and the assessment of children and young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities in post-16 education and training.  There are major implications for us and the NHS, and the recent commissioning review of ALN has resulted in the development of a new strategic approach which will be taken to Members in the coming weeks.  Thanks to Mark Sheridan and Gemma Whyley for explaining this to CMT.  The financial implications of the new requirements give me cause for concern and I feel further discussions with Welsh Government over funding will be necessary.

Spending controls

CMT also discussed the need for re-enforced efforts to reduce ‘discretionary’ spend given our projected financial overspend for 18/19 and beyond.  We’re anxious not to create unmanageable levels of extra bureaucracy and bottle-necks in the approval process which frustrated previous implementation of enhanced spending controls.  But we must find a way to provide extra scrutiny of expenditure.  Ben Smith and I will shortly be meeting staff involved in purchasing to talk through the issues with them.

Awards

Well done to our Building Services team who won a gold award at the Careers Wales Valued Partner Awards.  It saluted their work on activity such as careers fairs and talks, work experience and mock interviews with school pupils.

The awards recognise the contribution made by those who support Wales’s workforce of the future.

 

Continuing to make the case

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This week I responded to a call for evidence on the budget settlement by the Welsh Assembly Petitions Committee.  I want you to have the opportunity to read my statement which is printed in full below:

Thank you for your letter and the opportunity to comment.

Clearly the allocation of resources by the Welsh Government is a matter for them and one driven by policy and politics. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on many of the aspects of the petition, as worded, but nonetheless I do recognise the broad concerns raised and would draw the Committee’s attention to the following matters.

The draft budget from Welsh Government has clearly given lower priority to local government as evidenced by the headline figures;

  • Health +7%
  • Economy and Regeneration +13%
  • Local Government -0.3%

The contrast is stark.

This Council did slightly better than many others in cash terms, as there was an increase. An increase driven predominantly by population growth skewed towards the cities.  Yet this was a cash increase in the provisional settlement of £18k on a £434m budget with pressures of over £20m to contend with. That £18k pays for less than one job, half a social worker, one care package, or pays for less than 6 primary school places, less than 5 secondary school places, one special school place, one tenth of one out of county placement, one half of a modestly complex care package.

It makes no inroads to the pay and price pressures administered on this council by decisions out of its control: the national local government pay award, the teachers’ pay award and the larger than anticipated increase in administered teachers pensions costs. These costs are not funded from £18k. Nor does the settlement make inroads to meeting the needs of a growing City, changing demography, the increasingly elderly population, the fragility of the care sector, the pressures on both adult and child social care. The list could go on.

The WLGA and individual councils are already making clear what the consequences are as they publish their draft budget strategies for 2019-20 and beyond.  Swansea is yet to publish but the position will be the same as others; substantial cuts to services, significant increases in council tax likely, substantial staff reductions, inevitable compulsory redundancies and further strain on an already overstretched workforce and Council finances.

We are moving inexorably as a sector to an era of significant reduction in services to a more core offer, higher taxes, less local council employment opportunities, substantial redundancy costs, dwindling reserves and limited time before one or more councils find themselves in an unviable financial positon.

As the petition makes clear there is an opportunity for the Welsh Government to reconsider its priorities and its allocation of resources. I am sure this Council would support that reconsideration wholly, to ensure a settlement that it better recognises especially the interlinked and intertwined nature of health and social care as well as the wider pressures facing the sector.

The Committee is right to explore urgently the terms of the additional £30m for Social Care. We all need to know if this is genuinely new money, relief money, or a prioritisation programme for pending on new things and thus not “free money” that might alleviate real spending pressures we have in social care now. For Swansea, a share of £30m new money would simply help us reduce our overspending on current social care.  It would not pay for any new spend.

All of us in local government await news of the final settlement now due on 21 December. We expect some additional resources but also expect that to go nowhere near to addressing the scale and severity of funding pressures and the consequences that will inevitably flow at local level.

Standards Committee

This morning I’m attending the Standards Committee to discuss relations and behaviours between officers and members in the Council. In general I think the relationships between members and officers in Swansea are positive, although in any organisation there will be exceptions.  The one thing I’m convinced of is that the main characteristic of high performing authorities in the UK public sector is a team-working ethic between officers and members, built on mutual trust and respect.  All the evidence supports this and the Leader and I are committed to promoting the highest standards of behaviour.  I’m really grateful to the Standards Committee for their work and for listening to my views.  They are doing an excellent job.

Awards

Congratulations to our legal team who were awarded the highly prestigious People Team Award by the Lawyers in Local Government. They were praised by judges who were “hugely impressed by the value placed on the team’s bespoke service by headteachers across Swansea”, who describe it as a vital extension of the school community and praise the sheer professionalism and courteous approach of the specialist lawyers involved.

Our Street lighting and Highways teams have both been shortlisted for APSE’s “Most improved performers” award. Our Building Services team have been shortlisted for the “Best performers” award. With so many finalists we’ve also been put forward for the “Best Performing Authority” at this year’s UK awards.  These awards are recognition for the excellent work our frontline teams carry out. Well done to everyone involved.

Congratulations to apprentice plumber Luke Evans for picking up our Apprentice of the Year award. Luke is among dozens of apprentices in our building services team who are making a huge contribution to services carrying out repairs, maintenance and upgrades to homes, civic buildings, schools and community centres.

Following their High Five award, the Diamond Project has won the prestigious Diana Award. The project is run weekly by Emma Jones and Allan Davies from the Looked After Children Education team in partnership with Helen Davies at Swansea University.  I’m grateful to the staff involved in generating these opportunities for young people.

Fund-raising

Many staff will be raising funds for Children in Need today. There are lots of activities so good luck to everyone.