business support programme

Season’s Greetings

December 16, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

In case you haven’t seen it, the Leader and I have written a joint message to all staff which has been posted on Staffnet – here’s the link. We’re both grateful for the huge effort made by staff across the Council and in all our schools this year. We’ve been presented with many challenges in 2016 and staff should be proud of their achievements in these tough times. The Christmas spirit broke out in technicolour glory yesterday evening at Council with councillors and officers donning a variety of Christmas jumpers ranging from the fashionable to the completely tasteless.

Today is Christmas Jumper Day so I hope to see as many people as possible taking part, again for charity. If you send a photo to the communications team – Maxine.Bromfield@swansea.gov.uk – we’ll award a prize for the most tasteless one and put the photo in the next blog.

Together at Christmas

A free Christmas dinner with all the trimmings will be served up to homeless and vulnerable people in Swansea next Tuesday. This event has been organised by our Brangwyn Hall caterers, JR Events and Catering, led with incredible energy by their director Jessica Rice. Jess has worked tirelessly on this with the Leader and staff from across the authority and I’m grateful for the efforts of everyone who has contributed.

City regeneration

Over the last two weeks staff from the Economic Regeneration team have worked with our development partners, Rivington, to hold a number of consultation events on the proposals for the redevelopment of the St David’s shopping centre. This is a necessary and important part of the planning process recently introduced in the Planning (Wales) Act 2015. An event was held in the Meridian Tower and this was followed by a three-day consultation in the city centre. The Council website remains open for comments and there was a full day for key interest groups in the Grand Theatre on Tuesday. So far there’s an overwhelming level of overall support for the scheme. It’s difficult to gauge the relative popularity of each of the potential uses at this stage but it already appears that the arena will come out as the most popular use, closely followed by sufficient parking, the bridge and restaurants. More than 700 people have visited these events and we‘ve received more than 100 feedback cards. In response to the key question “What is your overall opinion of our initial ideas for the development?” so far 78% are in favour, 5% against and 17% are undecided.

This has been a major consultation programme and I’m grateful to Huw Mowbray, Katy Evans and the Rivington team for their hard work.

Huw and I spent Wednesday afternoon in Carmarthen on the latest of a series of video conferences with civil servants from the UK Government. We were responding to a range of technical questions about the City Deal bid, on this occasion focussing particularly on the economic outputs of the proposed City Digital District. The session went well and we hope to hear some positive news about it in the New Year.

Blaenymaes School

Last Friday I visited Blaenymaes Primary School following an invite from the head teacher Bev Phillips. Bev and I discussed the excellent progress the school has made and the recent Estyn inspection which produced a good/good judgement. The school faces many challenges but has a clear direction and excellent leadership. I then had a tour of the school accompanied by the Head Boy and a Rights Respecting School Ambassador. This close to Christmas there’s an atmosphere of anticipation in the schools I visit, with children undertaking activities related to the festive period. Blaenymaes was no exception and there was a sense of excitement bubbling all around. I also visited the excellent Flying Start provision which is delivering great outcomes in getting the younger children ready for school.

I then took the opportunity to look around the Blaenymaes/Portmead estate which I worked on many years ago. On every council estate I visit there’s work under way on the Welsh Housing Quality Standard programme and this is always an encouraging sight. Sure enough the scaffolding was up on houses in Woodford Road. The massive investment in our housing stock is making a real difference, although there’s still a lot to be done.

Budget

On Wednesday Cabinet agreed the revenue budget proposals for 2017/18 and these will now go out to consultation. The Leader proposed an amendment which related to the scrapping of burial fees for children and we’ll need to ensure this is incorporated in the final report to Cabinet following the consultation period. This follows a high profile campaign by one of our local MPs, Carolyn Harris, sadly based on personal experience.

Business Support

As part of the Business Support Programme and our commitment to modernising working practices, employees and managers are now able to undertake the following functions using Oracle (ISIS):

Appraisals.
Qualifications recording.

For managers with staff currently unable to access Self-Service we’ll continue with the current paper-based process for appraisals. The Business Support programme team is also looking at options to enable colleagues who don’t have access to a council PC and Self-Service, to access all online facilities – including payslips, eye test requests and appraisals – using a mobile device. For online appraisals, please see www.swansea.gov.uk/staffnet/appraisals for further advice and guidance.

Delegation

If you see a delegation from South Korea at the Guildhall on Wednesday I’m sure you’ll make them feel welcome. The visitors from the city of Siheung are on a fact-finding mission about the great work being done in Swansea to encourage children and adults alike to learn about enterprise and what we’re doing to reduce the percentage of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET). They’ll be meeting with officers, Cabinet Members, teachers and pupils. Their visit follows a presentation made by Cabinet Member Cllr Clive Lloyd to the First Meeting of UNESCO Global Cities Network held in Hangzhou, China last month.

Only staff Aloud

The Staff Choir sang in the Civic Foyer last Thursday – it was their first “public” performance and whilst they were very nervous, there was a large audience of colleagues and public watching and supporting them who all seemed to enjoy their performance! It’s a year since a handful of council staff formed a choir following the first ‘It’s all about you’ event last December. Since that time ‘Only Staff Aloud’ has grown in popularity and last week they were able to perform a selection of favourite Christmas songs and carols. The choir has staff from the Guildhall, Civic and Clydach and are happy to welcome newcomers – the more the merrier.

The choir is part of the Helping Hands wellbeing workshops and they practice in the Civic Centre every Thursday lunchtime. Contact Ann Smith for more information: 635031 or ann.smith@swansea.gov.uk

Farewell

Today marks the last working day for Sonia Hansford, PA to the Leader and Deputy Leader and Cabinet Support Officer. On leaving Olchfa School Sonia was employed by the former City Council as a typist in the Environment Department in July 1974. Since 2008 she has worked in the Cabinet Office.

We lose a wealth of knowledge and experience as Sonia leaves, but also a colleague with a great sense of humour who has always been willing to help and support colleagues over the years.

We have a photo of Sonia from her school days – she’s second from left, back row, in the photo below. I hope she has a long and happy retirement.

Thanks Sonia, you’ll be missed by many.

Another colleague who’s leaving is Kim Green, an administration officer in the housing service, after a remarkable 42 years with the council. Kim started work as a 17-year-old in the housing general office on Orchard Street in 1974. I wish her a long and happy retirement!

Thanks and congratulations

Thanks to staff in water safety for their help with the on-going Royal Life Saving Society UK ‘Don’t Drink and Drown’ campaign. As part of the partnership campaign leaflets have been delivered to university accommodation sites across the city, reminding people of the dangers of drinking too much alcohol close to areas of water. An event is also taking place at Castle Square tomorrow evening for pub and club-goers. Also thanks to staff in community safety for their work alongside South Wales Police in putting Christmas cards together with crime prevention tips.

Well done to our Trading Standards Team for their efforts to remove £1 million of counterfeit goods from the streets recently. This goes a long way towards our aims of protecting consumers.

Business Support pressing ahead

December 2, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

At Corporate Management Team this week we received an update on the Business Support Programme, which is making excellent progress. I was particularly pleased to see that we’ve made great strides in reducing the number of abandoned calls in our call centre, implementing employee services and dealing with payments and debt management. Now 95% of calls are being responded to directly, without the need for back office assistance. Thanks to all the staff who are working so hard on our drive to modernise and transform the organisation. There’s still a lot to be done but there’s real momentum at the moment.

CMT also agreed the draft Cabinet report on the budget and this will be released today in time for Cabinet on December 12. If Cabinet agree the report the consultation process will start immediately so that we can present the final proposals in February. We’ve also started the roadshows on Sustainable Swansea and I hope as many staff as possible will attend them. For details of all the roadshows please follow this link.

CMT also had a discussion with Jon Townley, Head of International Sustainable Development and the Wales for Africa Team at Welsh Government, about the international work that the Council is undertaking. Jon explained the role of the Welsh Government and some of the projects they are involved in. This will help us to develop our strategy for promoting the City and feed into our work through the Healthy Cities and UNESCO Learning Cities programmes. We need to ensure that effort is put into those areas which help us with our five corporate priorities and deliver real and tangible outcomes for the city and its citizens.

Staff engagement

I promised last week that following the successful It’s All About You 2 event that further details of what happened on the day would be available. Please follow this link for further details.

Innovation

On Tuesday afternoon I met with Jennifer Clay, CEO of the TechHub based on Wind Street. TechHub creates spaces around the world for entrepreneurs in technology-based businesses to meet, work, learn and collaborate. They provide physical and virtual spaces that enable technology start-ups to work smarter, develop faster and increase their chance of success. It is a global network with bases in Bangalore, Bucharest, London, Madrid, Riga, Warsaw and Swansea.

TechHub are supporting our City Deal bid and Jennifer will be joining the Leader and me when we meet the Secretary of State for Wales in London again this coming Monday. However, I think there’s also a major opportunity for the Council and TechHub to collaborate more generally on innovation and I’ll be arranging meetings soon to explore how we can work together.

Regionalisation

This morning I’m attending a regional workshop on local government reform at the Brangwyn Hall. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government made a statement to the National Assembly in October, setting out broad proposals based on the discussions over the summer with all 22 local authorities. The emerging proposition for structural change is as follows:

The 22 Local Authorities would remain, subject to any voluntary mergers, and would act as the democratic tier which councillors would be elected to and be the front-door for citizens to access services.
Welsh Government would offer support to enable voluntary mergers to take place.
There would be an enhanced level of regional working which would be systematic and mandatory, and include a rationalisation of the multiple footprints on which current arrangements operate.
Two footprints emerged from the summer engagement as having particular relevance: one based around the City Regions and other economic development groupings, which was relevant to functions like strategic transport, strategic land-use planning and economic development; and the other based on the Health Board footprint, which could be relevant to functions like social services, education and public protection. The City Deal discussions will need to address the governance issues and agree a model that is acceptable to UK and Welsh governments.
Welsh Government expect a greater development of shared services.

I’ll keep you informed of how this develops but it is clear the Welsh Government will be encouraging and driving change more quickly than many people were expecting.

Building success

Engineering works have now started on site at Milford Way in Penderry to pave the way for the construction of our first new council homes in a generation. Built to innovative energy efficient and lifetime homes standards, these new properties will inform similar construction projects in future as we look to tackle Swansea’s need for affordable housing and help people cut down on their fuel bills. Thank you to everyone involved in the project.

Great effort

It’s not often our staff get a cake baked by a member of the public as a thank you. But that’s what’s happened recently for our waste staff at Clyne after helping a 73-year-old customer who had an accident on site. The chap is fine thankfully and has shown his appreciation by baking a cake in the shape of a recycling waste skip. Well done to all involved.

Goodbye Kevin

Kevin Anderson, Operations Manager in the Housing Service, is to retire this month after 37 years in the Authority. Kevin started working in Housing in Orchard Street as a temporary rent collector way back in June, 1979.

I have known and worked with Kevin for over 30 years, since I joined the Authority. In that time much has changed, however I know he is proud of the contribution he has made to Housing in Swansea since becoming a housing officer in 1986 in our first decentralised office in Townhill.

Kevin has a passion for football; some of you will know Kevin from his days playing football for the then Union team NALGO, and as a dedicated Swans fan, being an old Vetch field stalwart like myself. I am sure you will join me in wishing him all the very best in his retirement,

I personally would like to thank him for his support and commitment. I know he will be missed by his colleagues. I am sure Kevin will be more than fully occupied with the highs and lows of the Swans and his favourite pastimes of cycling and photography. If he still has his football boots I am pretty confident he could get a place in the Swans defence against Tottenham tomorrow.

Panto season

It’s the time of year when Christmas decorations and trees come out, along with a visit to the panto at the Grand. Sleeping Beauty starts next Friday and runs until January 8.

Among the cast are this year’s Britain’s Got Talent winner Lance Corporal Richard Jones stars, Channel 4 Coach Trip’s favourite Brendan Sheerin, and Kevin Johns in his 19^th Grand panto. I’m not sure if I should say good luck or break a leg but I’m sure everyone will have a great time!

Our transformation programme is making good progress

August 26, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

Transformation

Yesterday the Appointments Committee met to consider applicants for the post of Chief Transformation Officer. This is an important new job in the organisation and a key member of the Corporate Management Team. Following assessment centres and interviews I am delighted that Sarah Caulkin, who is currently acting up in the role, has been made permanent.

Sarah will initially focus on the continued implementation of the business support review but will be responsible for leading the Sustainable Swansea programme and the important work on modernising the organisation and optimising our use of technology to support staff in their jobs.

We are making good progress on the Business Support Programme, a significant part of our efforts to transform the way we deliver services for our residents.

Implementing the programme is a major milestone in transforming council services. By taking a fresh approach to the way we do things we’re able to focus on our priorities cost-effectively and improve performance at the same time.

The team is on schedule to launch the new operating model for the new Service Centre in September and good progress is being made in ICT, particularly with the automation of previously manual processes, self-serve, agile working and telephony technology.

You can find out more about the programme’s four priorities here and if you want to get more involved in the programme email the team at sustainable.swansea@swansea.gov.uk

Staff survey

The annual staff survey is one of the most important consultation and engagement documents the council produces. Its findings have a direct impact on what we do; the innovation group and the anti-bullying network were set up as a direct result of what you said in response to previous surveys.

This year’s staff survey is officially launched early next month but staff members who receive pay slips at home will have received information this week. I very strongly endorse the survey and I’d urge you to get involved now by filling it out at home on www.swansea.gov.uk/staffsurvey or in work on Staffnet – you’ll also see where you can pick up paper copies.

Olympics

Congratulations to the GB Olympic Team, and particularly to the Welsh representatives. By my calculations Wales, which stands at 137 in the population tables, would have come 20^th in the medals table if it had not been a part of the GB team. Our staff in special events and sports development did a great job during the Olympics with the fanzone in Castle Square. The fan zone didn’t just give people an opportunity to grab a seat and watch the action on the big screen – it also allowed visitors to try out various sports. Let’s hope this will encourage more people than ever to join local sports clubs, visit our Active Swansea leisure centres and sign up for the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k. As a keen walker, I know exercise is a great way of boosting people’s health and well-being.

Wuhan

The council has now signed an agreement with a visiting delegation from Wuhan, China, that will see both cities co-operating on areas including economy and trade, transport and logistics, culture and sports.

The agreement was signed during a Chinese delegation visit to Guildhall. Other areas of common interest Swansea and Wuhan will co-operate on include health, medicine, education and tourism.

Wuhan, the most populated city in central China, is the capital of Hubei province. The visit was also organised to mark the 150th anniversary of Union Hospital in Wuhan, which was founded by Griffith John, a 19th century Swansea missionary.

Resilience

I mentioned resilience in a recent blog. The Strategic lead at CMT for resilience is Martin Nicholls, Director of Place. We remain equally committed to the joint agreement with NPTCBC as part of the Joint Emergency Management Service (JEMS) but are reinforcing our arrangements locally. The Resilience & Business Continuity service is now being directly managed by Craig Gimblett, manager of the Corporate Health, Safety & Wellbeing Service Their role is to provide specialist technical support to the authority in building and improving business continuity, resilience and wider emergency planning for the organisation and the communities of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot.

Exam results

Another year’s exam season came to an end this week with the GCSE results which showed that the pupils of Swansea continue to out-perform their peers across Wales. The headline figure of 72.7% of entrants here scoring A* to C grades – well above the comparable figure for Wales of 66.6% – is something to be particularly proud of. Our Olympic medallists are always saying they might be the winners but it’s the support teams that get them to where they are. The pupils are rightly congratulated for their fine achievements but I’d like to add my thanks too to the teams in our Education department and in city schools themselves for the work they do every day supporting young people to achieve their potential.

Bank Holiday

There is a lot going on this weekend in Swansea, not least the Swansea Beer and Cider Festival at the Brangwyn Hall and the F18 catamaran sailing championships taking place in Swansea Bay over the three days of the Bank Holiday. I hope you get time to enjoy the extra day off. But I’d also like to thank those who will be working over the holiday period for their continuing commitment.

Farewell

I’d like to thank Steve Protheroe, our specialist parks manager, whose last day at the council after a staggering 46 years’ service is today. Steve started with the parks service on August 3, 1970, and has worked his way up to become responsible for the Botanical Gardens, Clyne Gardens and the plant displays at Plantasia. Steve’s passion for horticulture is second-to-none. He’s very well-respected, having also developed an excellent working relationship with the Friends of the Botanical Gardens, who are also very sad to see him leave.