City centre – Page 3

Improving children’s lives

June 23, 2017 by webmaster Leave a Comment

I met Sally Holland, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, to discuss progress on the delivery of services to children and young people. Sally is visiting every council in Wales and picking up good practice. Our staff gave a number of presentations on the BAYS project, accommodation pathways, Info-Nation, young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET), employability and apprenticeships. I think Sally was impressed by what she saw, including videos recorded by some of our looked after children.

We had a constructive discussion about getting young people into work. It’s a deep concern that only 1.3% of school leavers in Wales went into workplace training programmes, such as apprenticeships, last year. One in three children in Wales live in poverty and this has to be an area where we can make a significant impact through the co-ordination of services and creation of clear and consistent pathways to employment. I’ve previously stressed the importance of getting this right for our looked after children, which must be a priority for us.

I discussed some of the issues with Councillor Jen Raynor, the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, and I’ll be asking our directors to work on this. We’ll also need to work with the Regional Learning Partnership to address this challenge.

Seaview, NEAT team and the MJ Awards

In my blog on 16 September last year I wrote;

On Monday I visited Seaview Community Primary School and met the head teacher, Julie Dunn, and her team. Julie explained the challenges the school faces and the determination of the team to improve the lives of the children in Mayhill. I was taken on a visit to all the classes and different year groups to see the children learning and they were eager to show me what they were doing. For those who are not familiar with the school it’s an unusual circular design that in itself presents a lot of challenges and needs investment. The lack of green space for the school restricts what can be done and I promised Julie that I’d try to help deal with some of the environmental issues and the spaces available for the children to play and exercise. I’ve asked colleagues to help with this.

Since then I’ve been delighted with the way our teams have responded to this challenge, and in particular our NEAT team, Debora Webb, our Service Project Manager for the Work Development Service, Sue Reed, Kevin Webb and Martin Bignall. I’m sure there are others who I should thank and I hope to get the opportunity when the grand opening takes place. It‘s been a real team effort and they’ve made a huge difference to the school environment and so I was delighted to see the work development service shortlisted for the recent national MJ awards. A huge thank you from me to all involved for their hard work.

We were also shortlisted in the workforce transformation category for our work on Sustainable Swansea. Thanks to all who were shortlisted for showcasing some of our most innovative and creative services on the national stage.

Where next for scrutiny?

I gave a short presentation to the Annual Scrutiny Work Planning Conference. Scrutiny is an essential function in developing and reviewing policy and it‘s important it its inquiry panels and performance panels focus on the right issues. This week’s discussion included transport and parking, social care, City Deal, anti-social behaviour, community cohesion and schools admission policy. Thanks to all the councillors and officers who attended. This work will be critical in planning the scrutiny programme.

Welsh Audit Office

On Tuesday I had my quarterly meeting with the Wales Audit Office, including how the Council manages risk, progress on the establishment of the City Deal governance framework and the effectiveness of our commissioning process.

I look forward to the WAO feedback on commissioning, although they only looked at the early reviews and we will need to make sure they are up to date on how we have streamlined and improved the process more recently.

CMT Awayday

Wednesday was uncomfortably warm for most of us and particularly for CMT who spent the day at the Mansion House considering the budget, future transformation, the Band B schools programme, city centre delivery strategy and the performance report for adult social services.

We also agreed the performance indicators for recommendation to Cabinet which will help us monitor progress on corporate priorities and the Corporate Plan 2017 – 2022. The coming weeks and months will be exceptionally busy for us all as we agree our work programmes and performance targets.

Please wear your sunglasses

RNIB are asking people to wear sunglasses next week as part of a national campaign. Wearing sunglasses protects your sight, so they are asking if we can all show our support by posting a #ShadesForSight sunglasses selfie on National Sunglasses Day on Tuesday 27 June 2017.

I had no idea that there was a National Sunglasses Day but it is an important message so let’s show our support.

Good news and congratulations

Steve Sheriff, our civil parking enforcement manager, is retiring after 37 years’ service. One of his last acts will be a charity haircut and dye on his last day which is being performed by colleagues in his team and for which he’s been growing his hair since March. I wish him well with that and his much-deserved retirement.

Well done to the Dylan Thomas Centre for being shortlisted for the UK-wide Family Friendly Museum of the Year award. We’ll know in October if we’ve won so I’ll keep you posted.

For the third year running, the Brangwyn Hall has received a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, based on reviews by visitors to the Brangwyn. A great combination of good management and having a great catering partner in JR Events & Catering. Thanks to all the staff involved.

Congratulations also to Lyn Hovvels who has won the Gower College Swansea Apprentice of the Year award.

This is an outstanding achievement for Lyn who is a plumber in our Corporate Building Services and it is the first time one of our apprentices has won the award. Well done Lyn and keep up the good work.

In the election spotlight

June 9, 2017 by Martin 2 Comments

This has been another long 24 hours for me and the team who help me to run the UK Government Parliamentary election. I cast my vote as soon as my polling station opened and was greeted by an amazingly cheery and bright-eyed polling station team of Mal, Geraldine and Rebecca. Like all the other polling station staff they faced a long day and I am hugely indebted to everyone who helped run this election. Thanks for the warm welcome from the staff in the polling stations I was able to visit.

The elections team once again exceeded expectations, despite only just recovering from last month’s council elections. This time we faced heightened security concerns following the dreadful events at Manchester and London Bridge and the support from our security staff and special events team was outstanding. I was also grateful for the work done by our resilience team working with the Police.

Congratulations to Dean Howard, the first presiding officer to deliver his ballot papers to the election count. Dean came second at the local government election count but beat his personal best by arriving at around 10.15. As you can see from the photo Dean was pretty pleased with his performance. Mind you his polling station was only 100 yards from the count.

We had a lot of attention on the Gower constituency given the closeness of the 2015 result; a margin of only 27 votes. This wasn’t just from the local and national media companies. Gower was one of eight constituencies across the UK to be visited by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association team led by Callum Forster and made up of politicians from the governments of Bangladesh, South Africa, St Lucia and Ghana. Each of the eight constituencies is the subject of an election assessment to consider the conduct of the electoral process, and make recommendations for improvement. On Tuesday Huw Evans and I met with the CPA team and answered a range of questions about the electoral process and how it operates here in Swansea. They also visited the postal vote team and a number of polling stations in the Gower constituency. I look forward to their feedback and any suggestions on how the process could be improved in future. Huw and I made a few suggestions of our own which would require changes to national legislation and hopefully the CPA team will take these on board.

Congratulations to the MPs who have been elected to represent our three constituencies;

Swansea West – Geraint Davies

Swansea East – Carolyn Harris

Gower – Tonia Antoniazzi

Appointments

This week the appointments committee met to shortlist candidates for the post of Director of Resources. Interviews will be held on 26^th June and I am confident that Council will be able make an appointment the following day.

On a different note a number of people have asked me why the post of Chief Executive has been advertised. When I was appointed to the post last year it was on an interim basis for one year. Under local government rules interim appointments of the most senior staff should only be for a year. It was my view, and the Leader’s view, that an interim appointment would be the best way forward because it would allow the newly elected Council to choose their own permanent Chief Executive.

Approval of Swansea Central planning application

On Tuesday Planning Committee considered the planning application for Swansea Central. I have mentioned the project a number of times in previous blogs but the approval by Planning committee was a significant milestone and a green light to proceed with the regeneration plan for our City Centre. Comments at the committee reflected the quality and detail of the application. This has required a mammoth effort from our staff and a lot of people deserve to be thanked for their contributions not least of which are Phil Holmes, Huw Mowbray, Lee Richards, Katy Evans, Ryan Thomas, David Owen, Liam Smith and Stephen Smith.

The next phase is delivery and will be equally challenging but I am delighted that the key milestones have been met and confident that we can progress this apace.

Trading Standards

A Trading Standards case in Crown Court earlier this week has determined that a local shop owner jailed for selling dangerous ‘legal highs’ must now pay back more than £120,000 of the money he gained during the years he traded. This is great news and a further example of the hard work by Trading Standards and our Legal Team who have vigorously pursued the case, ensuring individuals do not profit from harmful trading activities.

City Centre

Demolition of the former Oceana building on Kingsway is now about 50% finished. Experts from Cuddy Group, who are demolishing the building for the council, are continuing to dismantle what remains of the building with a high-reach excavator. Scheduled for completion this summer, the demolition will pave the way on site for a new office development accommodating tech businesses.

High 5 Awards

Nominations are starting to increase for this year’s High 5 awards but we want more. The High 5 awards are open to any child, young person or group in three age ranges – under 13s, aged 14 to 19 or 20-25 year olds. We’ve also added a schools award this year which looks to recognise and reward larger school groups, even whole classes, years or teams.

All nominators need to do is fill in a nomination form here where they get the chance to explain why their choice of nominee should get a High 5, whatever the reason might be.

We’ve made it even more accessible to answer any query you have about High 5 this year with a new phone number we’ve set up. If you have a query or would like to leave a voice nomination call (01792) 635699 and leave a message.

UNESCO

Next week we will welcome visitors from across the UK and Europe who are keen to find out how Swansea is encouraging children and adults alike to learn about enterprise.

We were the first city in the UK to become a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and are hosting a two-day meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

Visitors will hear how we have worked with schools, colleges and universities to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), and see at first hand the extensive efforts to inspire young people to think about setting up their own businesses.

More than a dozen delegates are expected from as far afield as Scandinavia. I hope we will all give them a warm welcome.

Agile working

In the Civic Centre it’s great to see our new Agile Working area expanding. It’s encouraging to read the positivity coming from staff already there. I particularly like Marlyn Dickson’s observation in her case study: “Business conversations are so much easier … every working day feels much more human and personable.” Still wondering what it’s all about? Pop in and chat to some of your colleagues there!

Congratulations

It was great to hear that Burlais Primary School will soon be home to a garden from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show after their success in the Greening Grey Britain project. The new school which was completed in 2015 will soon have a courtyard filled with plant life and colour. There was great coverage on the One Show last Monday as well. Congratulations to Alison Bastion and her team.

Congratulations also to transformation officer Gemma Whyley, who helped lead a Welsh team to glory at a major global cheerleading championships in the USA. Gemma was one of two coaches involved with the Welsh Paracheer Unified Freestyle Pom team that won gold at the ICU International Cheerleading and Dance World Championships held in Orlando, Florida. Twenty-five per cent of the team – the first ever from Wales to win at the championships – is made up of young athletes with physical disabilities.

And finally….

Are you going to the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening (June 14)?

If you are, then all the info you’ll need on car parking, taxi tips, drop-off points, pick-up points and road closures is here. My thanks to staff in special events and transport for all their work in the build-up to the event to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible.

A more agile council

March 31, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Agile working

We’re setting out on our agile working project and we’re creating a pilot office in the Civic Centre with a variety of new-look desks to suit different working needs, more open-plan and better natural lighting.

The first staff to try it out will be our Estates and Facilities team followed by roll-out to others in the coming months and years. Staff due to go agile will be invited to visit the pilot office before they receive laptops and other new technology which will give them the flexibility to work away from their main office.

As part of our new ways of working, software improvements will allow all our IT users to access their council work anywhere on any digital device.

Skype for Business, for instance, will mean that staff can connect internally with each other over the IT network without the need for an external phone line; its instant messaging will reduce the reliance on email. It allows video conferencing with colleagues at any time from any digital device. We’ll roll-out digital devices to staff over the next two years.

I know some staff have concerns about the move to agile working but I’m confident you’ll find the new approach, with its new look and IT solutions, really refreshing, professional and welcoming. Prior to any staff moving to agile, there’ll be drop-in sessions with project staff and training is being provided for the new technology.

Incidentally, to help plan our new workspaces small sensors will be fitted to some desks in the Civic for a short time. They’ll help us understand how frequently space is used and will not gather data on individual personnel or on teams.

There’s lots more information on our Agile FAQs page.

Bed (un)blocking

Many of us will be familiar with the term “bed blocking” which can be caused due to patients waiting for home care support or their homes being adapted before they are discharged from hospital.

But for the past three months there has not been a single case of bed blocking at Morriston Hospital due to social services-related issues.

This is a fantastic achievement for those working both in our hospital social work team and our integrated health and social care community teams who go above and beyond to ensure that delays are minimised.

Milestone

An outline planning application for the redevelopment of Swansea Central has been submitted with proposals for the north site (St David’s Shopping Centre, Oldway House and St David’s Car Park) for new retail, commercial, residential, leisure, non-residential institution and a multi-storey car park. On the south site (LC car park) there are proposals for a new arena, hotel/residential building, food and drink, car park and potential energy centre. It includes new public open space and the two sites would be connected by a wide pedestrian bridge across Oystermouth Road.

During the consultation there was overwhelming support for the proposals.

The full application will be considered by Planning with the aim of reaching a decision in June. It can be viewed here. If planning is granted work could start on the arena early next year.

I’m grateful to the large number of colleagues from various teams who’ve contributed significantly to the project.

Commissioning

On Monday I met Councillor Clive Lloyd and officers involved in the development of the next round of commissioning reviews. The cross-cutting reviews will be complex and we will need to progress them rapidly so that they can feed into budget considerations for 2018/19. I‘ll be saying more about the review programme over the coming weeks.

Apprenticeships

This week we received 450 applications for our 12 recently-advertised apprentice positions. We have also recently advertised for two apprentices in adult social care and we hope that other work areas will shortly follow suit, including ICT, waste management, highways, economic regeneration and parks. I’m grateful for the enthusiastic response from staff to this important initiative.

Great job

Congratulations to Peter Williams, one of our gardeners based at Cwmdonkin Park, for all the work he did with Joshua Dimaline, a young man with learning disabilities.

Joshua was so pleased with his work placement that he wrote a letter thanking Peter and staff who showed him the ropes. Joshua’s placement is one of many we organise for people with learning disabilities alongside Gower College Swansea.

Farewells

Today will be the last working day for a number of long-standing colleagues. Leanne Cutts is joining the DVLA and I’m indebted to her for driving the great work done by the Innovation Community. It’s been a real pleasure working with Leanne whose constant enthusiasm has motivated everyone involved and helped us to change the culture of the organisation and in my view has helped to make working for the council a better and happier experience. Leanne will be almost impossible to replace but we are in the process of recruiting to fill her post.

Richard Porch, Regeneration Projects Officer, is retiring after 31 years. Richard is a talented author and led the way on the SA1 art projects, but more recently he has been working on the Hafod Copperworks project and he was instrumental in establishing Swansea’s fantastic Blue Plaque scheme.

I’ve enjoyed working with Richard on these projects and will miss his enthusiasm, extensive knowledge of our city’s history and his dry wit.

Wendy Parkin, our senior lawyer, was appointed as temporary conveyancer with West Glamorgan County Council in 1995. She was appointed to her current post in 2011. Wendy has helped me personally on a large number of very complex commercial projects and I really appreciate her patience and professionalism whenever I’ve given her impossible tasks to do.

Thank you also to Joe Kiley, fitter’s mate at the Central Transport Unit who is retiring in next month after 38 years’ service with us.

Last, but by no means least, Lynda Moulson, word processor operator and clerical assistant in the Council Tax team joined the council in April 1986 as a part-time cleaner. She later became a typist. I’ll miss Lynda’s lovely nature, bubbly personality and tendency to cuddle me whenever I bump into her.

I wish them all the best for the future and thank them for their contributions.

Also thank you to 80-year-old Kingsley McCarthy who’s saying goodbye to being a volunteer with our Road Safety team. He’s been helping teach young children how to cross roads safely for the last 15 years and I wish him a well-earned rest!

Red Nose Day

I met Trallwn School council last Friday. It was Red Nose day so Batgirl, SWAT police and various other costumed children were on the panel interviewing me. It was a challenging session and I was relieved when they voted I’d acquitted myself respectably in answering questions. They were also celebrating their Eco Schools Award having secured it for the third time. Congratulations to the school.

Our HR operations team held a bake-off last Friday to raise money for Red Nose Day. Congratulations to Alison Summers whose cake was voted the winner.

Congratulations to Helen Carter from Pensions who won the Marks & Spencer’s Hamper in the Guess the Buttons competition. Thanks to all who contributed.

City Deal – what it means

March 24, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

City Deal – what does it mean?

So we finally got the City Deal signed. So what? Why is it important? For what it’s worth here are my thoughts.

The City Region of South West Wales has faced a steady decline in its economic performance for more than 30 years. In comparison with the rest of Wales and the UK our productivity has worsened since 1996 in nearly every sector, bar the public sector. The economic conditions for regeneration have not been in our favour and despite our best endeavours and a significant amount of European funding we have not been able to halt that decline.

The City Deal is different. It represents a massive commitment from UK and Welsh Governments to helping local authorities tackle our challenges. It is a long-term plan to invest in our infrastructure, both physical and digital. The plan is evidence-based. The Team Swansea approach is a genuine one and the partners in the city are strongly behind it. It has a total value of £1.3bn, including a UK and Welsh Government contribution of £241m, and £673m of private investment. It will be invested in an area with a population of 680,000 and will create 33,000 jobs.

We have the opportunity to exploit a 15-year funding stream. Add this to the massive investment in housing following the Housing Revenue Account settlement with the Treasury and the strong possibility that the Tidal Lagoon will be approved, then the programme becomes truly ambitious.

The arena, office and health campus proposals will be the essential trigger for a more vibrant City Centre with an improved leisure and retail offer resulting from increased footfall.

There will be many challenges in the delivery of these projects. We must align the work we do in schools to the opportunities presented by the City Deal. In my discussions with primary head teachers at Ysgolion Cynradd Abertawe (YCA) this week there is clearly much enthusiasm for the City Deal, but a concern that without a focus on investing in education our children could miss out on the opportunities ahead. Changes to the curriculum must be given time to bed-in, key skills developed and we must identify clear pathways to employment for all our citizens. We must retain a focus on those who face the most challenges and break down the barriers that prevent them from achieving their potential. We must use our investment profile to secure social benefits for citizens, increase our apprenticeship programme and support local supply chains.

The work done by our staff to date is something that I will always be proud of but the future will require departments and staff to work together in an unprecedented way and with absolute focus. Anyone with an interest in skills and education, health and social care, energy, housing, transport, streetscene, sustainable development, tourism, culture, business support and technology will have an essential role to play in this ambition.

We must ensure that governance arrangements for the joint committee that will drive the City Deal are appropriate and that the resources for delivery are in place. Businesses will need a voice and democratic accountability must be transparent so the City Deal is subject to effective scrutiny.

As regards 5G technology I don’t know exactly what it will look like, nor do I yet fully understand its potential to transform the lives of our citizens or how it can help cities to operate. No-one does, or at least I haven’t met them yet. However I am confident that the City Deal will put us at the forefront of these developments.

The most important point is that the City Deal will open up new opportunities for our citizens and it is our responsibility to do all we can to make sure that they get the full advantage of them.

Penybryn School

Last Friday I visited Pen-y-Bryn Special School to talk to the head teacher, Gethin Sutton and the Chair of Governors, Huw Vaughan. Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn has a unit for autistic pupils and educates pupils, aged 3-19, who have a wide range of additional learning needs.

Gethin had recently helped us in the assessment centre for the recruitment of our Chief Education Officer, Nick Williams, and during the process he kindly invited me to the school. I was pleased to hear how well the school and the pupils were progressing and seriously impressed by the quality of the publications and audio books that the school produces. I visited all the classes to meet the children and had the pleasure of attending the weekly awards ceremony which was highly entertaining and a lot of fun. Thanks to Cerys, one of the school’s star pupils for showing me round.

The awards keep rolling in !!!

Beyond Bricks and Mortar has this week won the UK National GO Awards Excellence in Public Procurement for the Best Employment initiative. This is great recognition for the Council’s innovative approach to embedding community benefits in all we do. Including community benefits has never been more important with the opportunities that can be created through the forthcoming city centre regeneration, the City Deal and hopefully the Tidal Lagoon. My thanks to the Beyond Bricks and Mortar team who have put us on the map with this exemplary initiative.

I hope to bring you news about our entries in the MJ awards in the next couple of weeks.

World Social Work Day

Earlier this week our social workers celebrated World Social Work Day which aims to recognise the contribution they make to supporting some of the most vulnerable adults and children in society. Safeguarding is the council’s top priority and, alongside our partners, the work our social workers do makes a significant contribution to the wellbeing of our communities offering support, guidance and a listening ear. Over the past few years I’ve seen the service go from strength to strength, earning praise from the CSSIW and internationally for their pioneering work in areas like dementia and Signs of Safety. I’d like to thank our social workers for their continuing commitment.

Wales National Air Show

Congratulations to our events team after the RAF Red Arrows were again confirmed to take part in this year’s Wales National Airshow on July 1 and July 2. Swansea University has also now come on board as the main sponsors of this year’s event, with further aircraft taking part to be announced over coming weeks.

City of Culture

Thanks to Amanda Hegarty, our Residential Services Manager at Llanfair House, for sending me the photo of this fantastic art work created by the facility’s occupational therapist and service users from recycled material. The City of Culture is obviously alive and well at Llanfair House.

Farewells

There are a number of people leaving the organisation at the end of March and I will be paying tribute to some of them next week.

Yesterday our Staff Choir put on an excellent performance in the Civic Centre Foyer to raise £170 for Comic Relief. It was a lot of fun but sadly a farewell event for the Choir Director John Mills, a performance specialist in Education Effectiveness who is retiring this week after 33 years of service. John has given his free time to sort out the music and tutor the choir for over a year and he will be greatly missed. Thanks John from us all, but particularly the choir members who will miss your guidance and infinite patience.

Today is the last working day for Steve Phillips, Economic Development Team Leader. Steve and his team worked tirelessly on the delivery of our economic regeneration strategy which has formed the evidence base for, amongst other things, our European Funding programmes and our City Deal bid. I have enjoyed working with Steve and wish him well for the future.

Our global platform

March 17, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Global platform

On Monday I travelled to France with the Leader and Huw Mowbray, our Property Development Manager, to attend the international property conference, MIPIM. This is the biggest conference of its type in the world, attracting 23,000 people from 90 countries and gives local authorities a platform to present their proposals for regeneration and development to funders, developers, agents and retailers. We’re conscious of the spending restrictions so we were delighted to be invited by UK Trade & Industry department in Whitehall to present our City Deal and City Centre proposals in the Downing Street pavilion, along with colleagues from Belfast and Glasgow. It was a whistle-stop 24-hour tour which involved a number of discussions with funders and businesses and a presentation by the Leader on the opportunities on offer in Swansea.

Sharing the platform with two other major UK cities has raised awareness of our ambitions as a council worldwide and I’m confident the contacts we made and discussions we had will bear fruit in our quest to secure the City Deal and all that it brings. An announcement is imminent. Dozens of UK councils attended but very few could compete with the quality of work done by our officers, as reflected in the fly-through we commissioned to illustrate the proposition. I’m grateful for all their efforts which epitomise the Team Swansea approach we have been fostering.

Lindsay’s leaving

Today is the last day at the council for Lindsay Harvey our Chief Education Officer.

Anyone who has met Lindsay will know he’s a larger than life character and brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and commitment. He has done a fantastic job and some of the progress we’ve made in our schools has been outstanding. I’ll miss Lindsay but I also wish him well in his new post at Bridgend. Nick Williams will be taking over form him and I wish him well.

Senior management review

A report is going to Council on March 23 setting out proposals for restructuring corporate services. The proposals give us a strong platform to progress our business support plans and improve efficiency across the council. If approved by councillors the proposals will be subject to consultation when staff can give their views. The report is available via this link.

Danygraig school

On a visit to St Thomas and Port Tennant I received a warm welcome at Danygraig Primary School. Headteacher Stuart Davies gave me a tour of the school, along with pupils Danushan, Carlo, Ruby and Poppy.

It’s a very old building and I saw the improvements being made by our team in Corporate Building & Property Service. This included a window replacement programme which is helping to keep the building wind and weather proof. This probably shouldn’t include replacing one of the windows which was knocked skew whiff during the three nights blitz and has sat at an unusual angle ever since; a historical legacy that tells its own story!

The teachers are really committed and this school is a real hub of the community. Of course the history of the area is entwined with Swansea docks and overlooks the SA1 district and the location of the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon. I’ll speak to the Tidal Lagoon company about cementing strong links with the school, along with St Thomas primary, and to make sure that the children are properly engaged in these proposals. The enthusiasm of Stuart and the staff was impressive, reflecting the level of commitment to empowering the pupils to achieve their potential that I see every week in our schools.

Learning needs

The Corporate Management Team received a presentation on the Commissioning Review of Additional Learning Needs (ALN) in the city. Mark Sheridan gave an informative presentation about the work carried out by his team and the challenges the service faces. This is a really important issue for us all and it was encouraging to hear about the corporate commitment to supporting ALN and the great work being done by teaching staff inside and outside schools. The review will be carried on beyond the second gateway report and whilst much remains to be done the rate of progress and analysis is impressive.

Purdah

A reminder that today marks the start of the Purdah period. The restrictions relate to social media as well as general publicity so please read the guidance and help us to ensure a fair and transparent election. For the electoral anoraks amongst us the word “purdah” is a derivation of the Persian word “pardeh” meaning curtain, or veil.

Inspirational youngster

Alfie Walters was recognised at an awards ceremony this week. The 16-year-old from Dylan Thomas School was on a shortlist of three from across the UK for the Educational Achiever Award at The Prince’s Trust annual celebration at the London Palladium. Alfie’s mum passed away when he was just 11. Less than three years later, he also lost his dad, and along with his sisters, he was taken into care. Despite this and with support from the school, our Looked After Children team and The Prince’s Trust he achieved a Level 2 Award on The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme. His skills have made him an excellent ambassador for the trust and he has been invited back to the school to motivate and encourage younger pupils. Well done Alfie.

Film award

This part of the world is well known for its big screen connections and now we can add our own Child and Family Services to the list. They worked with 15 youngsters between the ages of 11 and 19 to create a short film which was crowned Best Animation: 13 and Over at the Into Film Awards in London this week. Judges at the ceremony at the Odeon Cinema in London’s Leicester Square described it as “wonderful and imaginative” and “technically highly accomplished”. Having watched the film I agree with their sentiments. Congratulations to all involved. You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/201657295

Awards

We’ve been shortlisted in two categories of the iESE Awards – Transformation Through Support Services and Transformation in Waste & Environment. Well done to all the staff involved and good luck at the awards ceremony.

Pool rescue

Staff at the Wales National Pool saved a male swimmer suffering heart problems. Mark Jones, the duty manager, and his team responded magnificently. The swimmer was taken to hospital and has since contacted staff to thank them. The nurse who attended the scene paid this tribute: “They clearly saved a gentleman’s life today. Mark and the team should be highly commended for a calm, well-practiced Resuscitation.” Our water safety team train the pool staff so well done and thank you to everyone involved.

Sports Awards

Three employees were honoured at last night’s Swansea Sports Awards. Karen Gibbins (Libraries) won the Volunteer of the Year award and Adam Thomas (Cultural Services volunteer) was named Young Volunteer of the Year. Sam Richards (Cultural Services) was runner-up in the Volunteer of the Year category. Well done to all three who are great ambassadors for us.

Farewell

Aeron Kirczey is retiring from the Highways Service after 40 years’ service. Aeron has been a major contributor in advising on highways issues during the planning process and I’m grateful for his input into many of the major schemes he’s worked on.

Also Graham Williams is retiring from Child and Family Services after 42 years’ service. For the majority of his career Graham worked principally within the Child Protection Conference Unit where the model of practice and policies developed were considered innovative and enabled Swansea conference process to be valued as leading the way in policy development. Graham’s commitment to the service over the last 42 years has been really impressive and he’ll be greatly missed.

I wish them well in their retirement and thank them both for their many years in public service.