Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Turbulent Times

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I’ve always had a keen interest in politics but can’t remember a week quite like this one. Nor can I remember an issue so divisive as Brexit.  I’ve previously commented that leaving the EU without a deal was predicted to have a number of unpleasant consequences for the economy, let alone unanswered questions about trade in medicines, foodstuffs and numerous other commodities.  Our Brexit Steering Group has continued to grapple with the issues throughout.

The prospect of a possible October election has meant that our electoral services team have had to prepare for every eventuality.  Thanks to the team but also to the staff from across the Council who have helped out given that we’re in the middle of the Annual Canvass process and that the need to ensure the electoral register is up to date is of paramount importance. 

Amongst the staff drafted in to assist were two of our apprentices; Cally Blake (3rd year Multi trade apprentice) and Alex Eades (2nd year Carpentry apprentice).  Thanks to all of you for your help.

Many commentators believe we’re heading for a general election on October 15 but this changes daily as a result of the twists and turns of the political fracas.

At CMT I described the events at Westminster earlier this week as being akin to an episode of the Borgias and as Parliament reconvened this Tuesday the political temperature was at an all-time high.  So on Tuesday it was with some trepidation that the Leader and I weaved our way through the chaotic crowds outside the Houses of Parliament to attend and give evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee Inquiry into regional growth deals.  The inquiry session was productive and we were able to reassure the committee about progress on the City Deal as well as raise the issues of the tidal lagoon and proposals for a South Wales rail metro.  I’m encouraged by the current heightened level of interest in the tidal lagoon in Westminster and the Leader and I will be discussing how best to capitalise on this opportunity.

However, the continuing uncertainty over the future of our economy caused by Brexit needs to be resolved quickly.  The task of regeneration is hard enough for our councillors and officers to deliver without additional risks for developers and investors.

It’s also fair to say the continuing uncertainty also confuses our budget preparations.  Over the next fortnight CMT will be sharing with the Cabinet our best understanding of the assumptions that underlie the settlement for 2020/21 along with some initial suggestions on how to balance the budget.  Recent pledges of financial injections into the public sector would provide some welcome relief from continued austerity but at this point in time the implications for this for local councils in Wales are impossible to evaluate.  Given the need for us to take continued remedial action on this year’s budget through spending restrictions my guess is that we’ll be facing another £28 million gap next year.  We will continue to press home to the Government this is an unsustainable situation and that essential services are under threat here in Swansea and across Wales.

Appointments Committee

Yesterday the Appointments Committee met to determine the appointment of a permanent Deputy Chief Finance Officer.  The Committee agreed the appointment of Jeff Dong, who has been undertaking the duties on an interim basis so congratulations to Jeff.

Swansea 50 years a City

Congratulations to Karen MacKinnon at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery for some excellent coverage of the forthcoming opening of the exhibition to celebrate 50 years of Swansea receiving City status. I was particularly impressed by the Papier-mâché statue of Diego Maradona made by children in Penlan School in 1986 which was far superior to the ghastly version unveiled back in 2017.  I’ll leave you form your own judgement.  

The exhibition opens on Thursday September 26th and I hope many of you will find the time to visit it. And a great effort from our Comms team to get such coverage for this.

Congratulations

Well done to all.our officers involved in opening a new changing places facility at Caswell Bay. This will improve access for all at one of Wales’ best-loved beaches.

It was great to see 15 new apprentices start with us this week. We have a proud record of working with trainees and I wish the latest group all the best for a long and successful career.

Ben Thomas

Well done to Ben Thomas in our facilities team who was recently crowned Welsh singles bowls champion.

There’s been a great start to the new school year for two of our primaries who’ve received very good Estyn inspection reports.

Crwys Primary is rated excellent for wellbeing and attitudes to learning and good in all other inspection areas.

Portmead Primary is rated good across the board. This achievement is all the more impressive given it has more than double the Welsh average of pupils eligible for free school meals.

Sad news

This week I learned that we had lost two colleagues. 

Councillor Byron Owen was a committed and hardworking member of our Council.  As a Cabinet Member he oversaw some of the most important projects of the time, including of course the Liberty Stadium build.  I worked with him in his capacity as ward councillor on numerous housing and regeneration schemes in Clase and his support at difficult times was invaluable to me.

Councillor John Hague passed away this week.  John was one of life’s original characters.  His irascible style did not always make him the easiest person to work with but this was just a reflection of how committed he was to his ward and his work.  As deputy leader and cabinet member there was rarely a dull moment when John was around and he too leaves an impressive legacy, not least of which is his beloved bowls hall. On the rare occasions we fell out with each other his peace offering would usually be a pork pie and a cup of tea. 

I will miss both these colleagues who have made a massive contribution to the City and the Council.

Hub open for your ideas

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I’ve always believed that no one individual has all the good ideas and given the challenges we face as a council we need all our staff coming up with ideas to help us work better and save money.

I’m really pleased to see we’re today launching our new Ideas Hub to replace the former staff suggestion scheme. The hub gives us a new online platform for staff to put forward their ideas. All ideas will go to the relevant Head of Service who can assess the idea with the aim of responding within 10 working days. Although it’s PC-based, it gives the option for those staff without a PC to get their manager to submit an idea on their behalf. Please use the platform as often as you can because the more ideas we have the better. You can even anonymise ideas if you prefer. You can link to the hub here. Thank you to Rhys Curtis for all his work in developing the hub.

Regional working has been a big focus in the past week. Work is now under way on establishing new governance arrangements for the City Deal to ensure this major programme moves forward to the subsequent phases. Steve Thomas, the former chief executive of the Welsh Local Government Association, is helping the region to put in place these arrangements and recruit a managing director, from existing funds, which should remove any conflicts of interest in the current structure. The region’s joint committee has signed-off the business case for stage one of the city centre project and we expect the UK and Welsh governments to fully sign-up in the next few weeks. Towards the end of June Scrutiny and Cabinet will be reviewing and considering the business case to allow the project to proceed.

ERW, our regional education service, this week agreed its working model for the next 12 months. I’d previously said that Neath Port Talbot were pulling out and refusing to pay their contribution, but they’ve now agreed to pay which avoids another financial issue and more importantly allows us to concentrate on delivering better outcomes for children rather than continue the distraction of internal wrangling.

It was important that Corporate Briefing (a meeting of Cabinet Members and CMT) received a report this week to establish a Swansea youth offending team following a very poor inspection report of the existing regional service. We need to get on with this change at pace and have a clear action plan for delivering this. Whilst this change is on-going we also need to support the staff to continue working with clients. The report will now move onto Cabinet.

Leadership team (CMT and Heads of Service) had their monthly meeting and discussed a range of items including staff travel, mandatory training and a new staff benefits scheme. I was particularly interested in the discussion of flexible working. We’ve been running a number of pilots in areas including Corporate Property and HR/OD and we now need to assess the outcomes. Personally, I’m all for flexibility but as we review the pilots we need to develop hard evidence that this approach is in the interests of the employee and the employer. I also want to ensure all areas of our workforce are equitably allowed and encouraged to participate, not just our office-based staff.

Lots of staff have been asking me about Phil’s progress and without going into personal details I’m pleased to say Phil has had the major part of his treatment and is now at home recovering. I’m in quite regular contact with him and I delighted in taking the mickey when Nottingham Forest recently beat his beloved Swans. Phil is really grateful for all your good wishes and, although there’s still some way to go on the road to full recovery, I’m hoping we can see him in the not too distant future.

Many of us will have visited Plantasia over the years and it’s fair to say the council realised it wasn’t reaching its full potential. Officers in Cultural Services have been working in partnership with specialist operator Parkwood to run the attraction. Officers had a tour this week and they were delighted with the new-look attraction. It has a number of new features including tree-top walks, a waterfall and new café. It opens at Easter and can become a major attraction for the city. Thank you to our officers who’ve spend many months working on this.

This week more than 300 free events have been taking place in venues across Swansea as part of our first ever Learning Festival. It’s taken a huge amount of work by our lifelong learning team to organise and coordinate but hundreds of people of all ages have d taken part. Other services delivered free learning opportunities including libraries, archives, museums, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and adult services. Thank you to our staff involved.

Finally, I refuse to comment on Brexit any further because with each passing day I become more confused. If local government ran its business like Westminster we’d all be in special measures!

Coping with austerity

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This week CMT reviewed the financial outturn for the second quarter of the year and collectively agreed the need to further reinforce the current arrangements for budget monitoring through a range of corrective actions, targeted immediate spend reduction and further increased spending control on all vacancies and contracts. On top of the in-year budget overspends we currently face we know the provisional local government funding settlement falls far short of covering the cost of our pressures.  The comments of the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government this week were less than encouraging for us but I’m grateful to the Leader and colleagues for continuing with vigour to press the case for a better financial settlement for councils.

The combined effects of the in-year overspend and likely budget gap for next year means we have to take immediate steps to mitigate this. One of those steps is a temporary vacancy freeze across the council.  The budget situation gets more and more difficult to manage each year. To date, we’ve largely been able to redeploy staff where roles have been lost and services have reduced, while avoiding compulsory redundancy. However, that has got more and more difficult each year and this year will undoubtedly be the hardest year given the settlement, so by taking steps now not to fill vacant posts we hope to be able to maximise redeployment opportunities for our staff in the future. CMT will continue to determine whether any posts are essential or exceptional, but it’s expected that only compelling cases will even come forward to CMT, as the starting presumption is simply to not fill the post.  We know not filling posts will in some cases cause extra pressures, but we hope you understand that we’re taking these steps now to help minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.   It’s not a decision that’s being taken lightly and we’ll keep it under review, but I cannot overstate the extent of the challenge that’s facing us.

There may be some further news on Monday in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, but what that means for local government, and particularly us in Swansea, may not be immediately clear. Adam Hill, our new Deputy Chief Executive, starts on Monday and one of the first things he’ll be working on is the budget consultation. We need to engage staff and the public to help understand the reductions we have to make and the implications for staff and the public. Thank you for your continued support and dedication, we’ll keep you updated on further developments.

Tidal Lagoon

Our efforts to deliver the lagoon project have hit the headlines this week with the publication of an official notice seeking private sector partners and investors to express their interest in it. The Leader and some officers are part of a taskforce that’s concluded this has to be a private-sector led development, unlike the previous proposal that relied on government subsidy. We’ll see what interest there’s out there and then decide the best way to proceed. Council also backed a motion last night supporting the lagoon.

Fire in Mount Pleasant

You may have seen news coverage of the fire that happened in the city centre this week.  What you don’t see is how well the Council dealt with it and worked alongside the first responders.  My personal thanks go to Craig Gimblett for his calm but measured co-ordination of our response to the emergency.  Thankfully no-one was injured and the displaced residents were assisted by our teams.

Have your say

There’s just a week to go for you to give your views in the staff survey. Thanks to everyone who’s responded so far and for those who haven’t please try to make time between now and Friday, November 2.

Congratulations

Well done to our highway maintenance teams for reaching a landmark 10,000 pothole repairs since we launched the scheme in 2016. This has had a really positive impact in terms of residents having faith in us maintaining roads.

 

It was great to see the Lord Mayor host a reception for our Helping Hands and Bully Buddies volunteers on Wednesday. They do great work in supporting staff in their own time and this was recognition for their efforts. Well done and thank you.

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery needs your vote

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is shortlisted in this year’s Heritage Angels Awards for ‘Best major regeneration of an historic building or place for projects in excess of £5m’. The redeveloped building is an excellent architectural example of combining the old and the new building elements. Since re-opening, it’s been able to offer a wide-ranging exhibition programme featuring Welsh, UK and international artists which is accessible and open to everyone. We now need your vote for the public award. Please vote here (voting is limited to one vote per person) before midnight on November 4.

 

Dead in the water? No.

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Another week passes and the future of the tidal lagoon looks in severe doubt following the announcements from the UK Government this week.  Following the decision to press ahead with the nuclear power facility at Wylfa, the Secretary of State for Wales has clearly stated his concerns over the forecast cost of energy from the Swansea Bay project.  Personally, I feel this would be a short-sighted decision by the UK Government and based on criteria that do not reflect the long-term nature of large scale energy infrastructure projects.  We’ll continue to work with the Welsh Government and Tidal Lagoon Power to deliver this scheme along with other renewable projects, given our commitment to sustainable development and future generations.

Skyline

This week we welcomed Skyline, our partners from New Zealand who are working on our scheme at Kilvey Hill.  We were able to formally agree the heads of terms and the company spent the week appointing consultants and advisers to manage and deliver the project.  Huw Mowbray and the property team have been working hard to secure this investment for the city and if we can deliver it we’ll have an attraction that is unique to the UK and a potentially massive boost for our tourism sector.  We we’ll continue to work closely with Skyline on pre-application for planning, land assembly and logistical support. We held a dinner at the Mansion House yesterday evening to review progress and agree the actions we’ll each undertake over the coming months.

Local Government Reform

On Monday afternoon the Leader and I travelled to Llandrindod Wells along with our counterparts from the other 21 councils in Wales to meet the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government, Alun Davies.  The meeting was arranged by the Welsh Government to share views on merger and transformation of public services as councils prepare to respond to the recent Green Paper.  This was never going to be an easy discussion and it’s clear there are some very strong and conflicting views on the subject.  My personal prediction, and it’s just that, is that it’s highly unlikely that mergers will take place on a national level, if at all. The debate has been underwhelming and the case for a reduction to 10 councils has not been convincingly made.  I met group leaders this week to get their views on the Green Paper and we’ll be reporting our proposed response to Council in a fortnight.  I’ll add a link to my blog so you can see it for yourself.

University meeting

We recently established a joint Executive Board with Swansea University to help manage the delivery of joint projects including the regeneration of the city centre, the provision of accommodation, digital infrastructure and energy strategy.  The Leader chaired the meeting and it was pleasing to see agreement on these as priorities for collaboration, which will now be developed into specific projects.

Western Bay

On Tuesday I was interviewed by IPC about progress made on the Western Bay Health and Social Care collaboration.  Given the impacts of austerity on public finances, the confusion over regional collaboration footprints and the lack of clarity over funding responsibilities between councils and the NHS it’s a difficult backdrop for partnership working. However, I think some very good progress has been made but we need to focus on better joining up of services.  We await the decision of the Welsh Government on the future geography for ABMU Health Board, with or without Bridgend Council following consultation, but I hope the review by IPC will come up with some positive recommendations that all partners can subscribe and commit to.

Congratulations

Well done to staff at the Glynn Vivian which has been awarded a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence. The Gallery has undergone a major refurbishment and is one of Wales’ leading venues. This follows hot on the heels of five other council venues receiving the same accolade.

Thank you to staff in Finance who’ve been working for months on closing our accounts. It’s a painstaking task which has to be done every year. I won’t mention everyone by name, but well done and thank you for all your efforts.

I was delighted to see former Cefn Hengoed Community School headteacher Sue Hollister at Buckingham Palace this week to collect the MBE for services to education. During her 10 years at the helm the school’s fortunes were transformed and rated excellent in all 15 aspects of its last Estyn inspection.

It couldn’t have happened without us

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Last week I mentioned that there would be no blog this week as I have been on leave but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to thank everyone involved in organising the BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend music festival in Singleton Park last Saturday and Sunday.  60,000 people from across Swansea and the rest of the UK descended on Singleton Park to enjoy the event.  All our major hotels were fully booked as over 10,000 people from all corners of the UK joined the UK’s biggest music festival this year. The Biggest Weekend contributed a massive £2.4m to the local economy.

The media coverage of our city on BBC Radio and BBC IPlayer has been fantastic and Swansea is still being talked about on air today, with millions more watching online, firmly placing Swansea on the map as a destination which works together to deliver major events. Our own websites of www.enjoyswanseabay.com and www.swansea.gov.uk received a massive 90,000 page views for this event alone. I attended for a while on Saturday and was thrilled by the comments of Radio 1 Controller Ben Cooper and his praise for our teams.

 

The Singleton Park setting, the weather and the obvious enjoyment had by all those lucky enough to have tickets was perfect and I am delighted with the One Council approach to delivering this major event. My sincere thanks goes out to the team of staff who helped to make it a huge success, both inside and outside of the park. The BBC and the reporting national media have been singing our praises and we hope that this relationship will bring many more events to Swansea in the future.

2018 is proof that Swansea is the biggest stage this summer and we still have so much more, music, sport and cultural events to look forward to, so please check out www.enjoyswanseabay.com

Trip Advisor

I was delighted to hear that five council-operated venues –  Brangwyn Hall, Oystermouth Castle, Dylan Thomas Centre, Grand Theatre and Swansea Museum – have each been recognised with a Trip Advisor 2018 Certificate of Excellence, based on the consistently great reviews on the world’s largest travel site.

Only select businesses receive a Certificate of Excellence so it’s a great achievement by our staff.

Thanks to all of them.