CREST

All change for Lord Mayor

May 17, 2019 by Jack Leave a Comment

The Lord Mayor of Swansea is appointed at a Ceremonial Council annually and the changeover occurred this week. Tradition has it that the longest serving Member who has not already held the office is appointed. Councillor David Phillips has done an excellent job this year and will be succeeded by Councillor Peter Black and I wish him well in what will be a very busy year.

Whenever I mention money in this blog it seems to have negative connotations as we continually strive to meet ever more challenging savings targets. So it’s great this week to have some positive financial outcomes! Cabinet approved the award of two key contracts – one for local bus services and one for park and ride buses. In both cases not only were services maintained or improved but significant savings were achieved. It was great to hear Cabinet Members praise the officers involved not only in terms of the outcome but also the hard work that goes into such tasks.

Personally, I was also pleased to see Cabinet adopt a policy on “Pupil Development Grant”, formerly known as “Pupil Deprivation Grant”. This money is allocated to schools on the basis of the number of pupils in receipt of free school meals (FSM). Whilst we can be rightly proud of our schools relative performance it remains the case that FSM pupils do not perform as well as others in general, the position being worse for boys. This Policy requires us to monitor the effectiveness of the use of the grant, learn from best practice and undertake research to drive up achievement. A continued focus on FSM pupil attainment is a key priority for us.

It is also good to see that this week a clear policy promoting the rights of people with learning disabilities and mental health issues to live supported in the community was endorsed. Supported living has been very successful in Swansea for many years, the issue here is that this policy binds officers and councillors together in advocating for this important provision.

At CMT we discussed the staff survey again. Each Head of Service is tasked with addressing issues in their area of responsibility. It is for CMT to drive forward change in a small number of key issues that are identified across the Council, three were selected. Firstly, bullying and harassment. The policies relating to staff are being reviewed and updated assisted by specific feedback from some individuals. The issue that is very worrying is the increasing trend in allegations relating to members of the public.

Secondly, Safeguarding. This has been our number one priority for many years and much positive work has been done. It is very concerning therefore that the survey returns low result on, for example, people’s awareness of the key lead. The third issue related to staff reporting lack of knowledge in terms of their work area and plans for change. This raises yet again challenges in relation to staff engagement.

All three issues have arisen previously so clearly CMT is not only going to have to refresh what has been done previously but also come up with some new approaches to affect these key issues.

Three years after we launched our specialist mental health resource centre Crest in the former Cwmbwrla Day Centre the service is about to take the next exciting step in developing the services we provide.Working with partners it is to become a Recovery College providing formal education programmes as a route to recovery for people with a lived experience of mental distress. Crest will continue to provide the employment and day services it already offers but this addition will enhance the work and educational opportunities available at the centre.

Many of our schools have been working closely with the Show Racism The Red Card for a number of years now and they were very well represented at the charity’s creative competition awards. Winners came from St Helen’s, Cwm Glas and Terrace Road Primaries as well as YGG Llwynderw and Olchfa Comprehensive.

A word of thanks to the Emergency Management Team who were called out late last night to support the fire service to evacuate local residents due to the wildfire on Kilvey Hill. All the residents found temporary accommodation with friends, but this is another example of the great work being done by our teams to support local communities.

A whole blog without mention of Brexit or the EU election? Well, not quite. Staff have been dealing with postal votes this week and making preparations for polling day. Much of my next week will be taken up with the election so the blog would be more boring than usual!

Finally, colleagues may wish to be aware of two forthcoming funerals:

Dave Gill, Monday, 20^th May – 2:30 p.m. Siloam Baptist Chapel, Goetre Fach Road, Killay, Swansea. SA2 7AL and then 4:00 p.m. Llanelli Crematorium.

Jamie Parsons, Thursday 23^rd May – 2:00p.m. at Morriston Crematorium – if you are attending, the family would like you to wear something colourful.

Being more commercial

September 8, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

A common response to austerity from councils across the UK has been to become more commercial in carrying out their business. We’re a large organisation that commissions and delivers a broad range of services to our citizens and we must ensure we properly charge for our services, procure efficiently and manage contracts effectively. Every penny generated through these efforts will help to maintain services and jobs.

We also need to become more commercial in finding new income opportunities. This week the Leadership Team of Directors and Heads of Service held a workshop to develop our commercial strategy. The aim was to generate ideas and create the right culture across the council for increasing income. We heard about examples from across the UK such as councils charging companies to dispose of their confidential waste, providing commercial catering and offering funeral services. When you think about it, we’re already involved in this kind of work so it’s not a huge step for us to develop our existing services and offer them to new customers to bring in more money. And Richard Mears, our car parking manager, explained how he’s been working with our commercial team to sell city centre parking spaces to local firms. We know we face declining budgets in the coming years so we want to raise new income to replace the reduced funding from the government. The next stage is for us collectively to develop the Commercial Strategy and to feed into the up-coming budget discussions. Further workshops with be held with Leadership Team and Cabinet in the coming weeks and months as we complete the strategy and action plan.

APSE award-winners

Last night we picked up two national APSE awards for our waste management service and our highways team, winning service team of the year. We narrowly missed out on the overall council of the year and our building services team was also shortlisted in two categories for service team and workforce development. Well done to everyone involved.

Love the Lagoon

The Love the Lagoon campaign has taken off this week with more than 25,000 views of our online videos. Thousands of people have engaged on Facebook (which shows it is generating interest). MPs raised the issue at Welsh Questions in Parliament and one MP directly mentioned our campaign.

Now we’ll be putting more focus now onto getting people to post videos of support. I’d encourage staff who support the project to post either directly or through our communications team.

Culture

Another major campaign we’ve launched is to get support for our City of Culture bid. Banners are popping up to generate support. Winning the title would generate millions of pounds for Swansea’s economy, also attracting a year-long programme of top quality events, activities, exhibitions, concerts and shows. With the winner due to be announced at the end of the year, we need to show the independent judging panel just how much Swansea wants and needs this title. Head here to see how you can help.

Passing the baton

It might have been a wet and windy Tuesday morning but Swansea provided its usual warm welcome for the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton’s Relay. Swansea had the pleasure of welcoming the baton into Wales where it had travelled from the Isle of Man. Making the most of our coastal assets the Baton made a dramatic entrance by sea when it was delivered to Knab by the Mumbles RNLI. The baton was then passed, by the Deputy Leader, Cllr Clive Lloyd, to the first of our celebrity Baton Bearers, boxer Enzo Maccarinelli.

I was considering running a caption competition for the photo of the Deputy Leader and Enzo but it would probably not be a good career move! Our teams within Cultural Services – Events, Marketing and Sports Development did a great job of setting the standard for the Welsh leg of the relay.

High 5s

On Tuesday the judging panel for the High 5 Awards met to assess this year’s entries. I wasn’t looking forward to chairing it given the 156 nominations, all of which deserve recognition, and was expecting a long and fractious meeting. To my surprise and delight there was strong consensus among the judges and the winners were eventually agreed unanimously. The awards ceremony will take place next month at the Liberty Stadium.

Crest

Last July I wrote about my visit to CREST (Community Recovery Education and Skills Training) in Cwmbwrla. There’s an open day next Thursday and Friday where the service will be exhibiting the work of people who attend the centre on the themes of recovery and stigma.

We can all play a safeguarding role

July 15, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

Safeguarding

I mentioned previously that I will occasionally use my blog to focus on corporate priorities. This week the topic is safeguarding.

In 1985 I started working in the Housing Department of Brent Council, shortly after four-year-old Jasmine Beckford was starved and battered to death in the borough by her stepfather. She had been in the care of Brent Social Services department for two-and-a-half years during which time she was seen only once by a social worker.

But who knows how many other council staff might have been in contact with them but either did not understand what they were seeing or didn’t know what to do if they did think something was not, perhaps, quite right? It was a question we asked ourselves at the time.

I have personally witnessed the impact of safeguarding failure on individuals, families, communities and organisations. It is catastrophic and overwhelming.

Safeguarding means protecting people’s health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, neglect or maltreatment. It applies both to children and adults. Safeguarding is everyone’s business and we all have a personal responsibility to report concerns. As the phrase goes: “If you hear something or see something then say something”.

Guidance is available here about what to do if you want to report an issue. Staff should also be aware of their departmental leads for safeguarding which can be found here.

All staff are required to complete mandatory safeguarding training as part of their induction process and training is also mandatory for councillors. More than 3,500 of our staff and councillors have completed mandatory face-to-face or e-learning training on safeguarding so we are making progress but not quickly enough. I have asked the Corporate Management Team to speed up efforts to reach our target of 100% as soon as is possible. Councillor Christine Richards, our lead councillor on Safeguarding, has sent a similar message to councillors.

If you have access to a PC in work you can complete your training through the Council’s e-learning portal at swansea.learningpool.com . Speak to your manager or to your area’s designated lead for safeguarding. If you don’t have access to a PC in work you can book face-to-face mandatory training. Speak to your manager or to the training team at ODCorporateTraining@Swansea.gov.uk or on Ext: 6232.

Also in relation to safeguarding two members of our Child and Family Services team, Sarah Ford and Claire Lloyd, recently made a presentation to an international conference and demonstrated how this Council effectively uses the Signs of Safety framework to build safety and resilience in partnership with families. They also used the opportunity to advertise the ‘I am me’ practice handbook, developed by Vanessa Chambers from Social Services, to provide guidance for social workers to help children understand their life journey. This has been copyrighted and the team also demonstrated their commercial thinking by selling 53 copies with a profit of £530. It is encouraging to see Swansea Council leading the way in this crucial area of work.

There has also been a huge effort in Adult Services in managing safeguarding concerns and in particular the challenges faced by the Deprivation of Liberty Standards (DoLS) which have significantly increased workloads.

Poverty and Prevention

Appointments Committee earlier this week appointed Rachel Moxey to the Head of Poverty and Prevention. Rachel is currently self-employed, working on a range of social regeneration projects in Wales and the South East of England. Prior to this she worked in a number of local authorities, including Merthyr and the City of Salford. Rachel will be taking up her post in the next few months.

JCC

On Tuesday I attended the Joint Consultative Committee with the trade unions. I had been invited to make some comments by way of introduction so I explained the state of play with our corporate priorities and the challenges that face us over the next few years. I also mentioned the importance of the Sustainable Swansea programme in helping to modernise the organisation and the need to consider new models of delivery in financially challenging times. I look forward to a positive and constructive relationship with the trade unions as we move forward.

CREST

On Thursday I visited the Community Recovery Education and Skills Training (CREST) facility at Cwmbwrla which is part of our Social Services operations. This is an innovative specialist resource centre which aims to support people with serious and complex mental health problems to recover by equipping them with skills and develop relationships. The service was recently relaunched (previously CREATE) at an open day which I unfortunately could not attend as it clashed with the EU referendum.

The manager of CREST, Gary Sheaf, explained the wide range of activities that are available at the resource centre and how they help people to become more independent and take control of their lives. According to MIND one in four people will suffer some form of mental health problem each year ranging from depression and anxiety to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, OCD and panic disorder.

The centre is doing excellent work and I wish them continued success.

Rugby Sevens at Ashleigh Road

Last weekend Swansea staged the Rugby Sevens 2016 FISU World University Championships at the Ashleigh Road sports village. Our Leisure team has worked with the University to secure the championships, the first time it’s been in the U.K. since 2002 The opening ceremony saw teams from all over the world parading across the sports village with nine women’s and ten men’s teams participating.

The Lord Mayor, Councillor David Hopkins, officially declared the WUC Rugby Sevens open and the ceremony ended with a rousing performance from the Morriston Orpheus Male Voice choir. The event demonstrated some real sporting excellence but more significantly it reminded me what a friendly and welcoming City we are to people from all over the World. Once again the logistical support from the Leisure team was excellent and my thanks go out to them.

Also busy this month are our trading standards team who are doing their bit to prevent residents from getting caught out by scammers in Scams Awareness Month. We’re letting the public know what to look out for in terms of scams and how not to fall for them. It’s worth checking out the latest on our web pages so you know all about the latest scams and can avoid being out of pocket for something that’s not quite what it seems.

Pupils from Lon Las have been visiting the site of their new school this week to inspect progress on how their £9.8m new home is getting on. They’re due to move in in the autumn of next year. Lon Las comes on the heels of new schools for Burlais and Gowerton and is testimony both to the importance we place on education and the amount of behind-the-scenes work is done by our education team to make these success stories happen.

From Fanzone to Eid

Last Sunday Singleton Park lacrosse field was due to host the celebration of Eid, an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. Unfortunately the weather put paid to the event which is now rescheduled, provisionally for 24^th July. However the fact that it was possible at all is miraculous given the challenge of cleaning up after the match. A big thank you to the staff of Waste Management & Parks for their efforts. The before and after photos are attached below.

High 5 Awards – the deadline approaches.

We are now only a week away from the deadline for nominations for the High 5 Awards so it is the last chance to vote for that inspirational young person who you think has made a real difference. You can nominate here.

Brave the Shave

Finally this week I must mention that Fran Williams, (Waste Management Team Leader) and Yvonne Lewis (Senior Licensing Officer) are going to take part in the Macmillan Brave the Shave. Yvonne is having her head shaved at 12.30pm today, Friday 15^th, in Committee Room 1 at the Civic Centre. Fran is scheduled for the morning of August 1st 2016 at the Baling Plant. The link to the giving web site is here and the names on the site for sponsorship are Frances Williams and Yvonne Lewis. They would both like to thank those that have already generously donated and further donations are gratefully accepted. Fran and Yvonne will both have to come and see me personally for my donations as I want to get value for my money. Good luck to Fran, Yvonne and anyone else taking part.