Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Setting objectives

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I had my annual appraisal this week to review my performance and to set my objectives for the coming year. The appraisal is done by a cross party group of councillors (known as the Chief Executive’s Appraisal and Remuneration Committee) whose job it is to hold me to account for the organisation’s performance and the commitments I gave to them on my appointment.  You may remember that I published my objectives in the blog last year. Thanks mainly to the efforts of our staff I was able to give a good account of myself as we’ve maintained or improved performance in the majority of services, despite facing significant budget reductions. It goes without saying that I’m very grateful to you for this.  The latest telephone survey indicates that two-thirds of our citizens are satisfied with the way we deliver services, although only one-third are likely to speak highly about us.  This still puzzles me but our feedback compares well with most other councils in the UK. The Committee considered my objectives for the coming year and I’ll post them on my blog when they’re confirmed.  In short I’ve committed to making sure the Council takes a strong lead in regional working, to delivering the City Deal, continuing the transformation of the Council, managing the budget and reviewing the senior management structure. This will be a challenging year for all of us with a grim financial outlook, potential local government reform and a huge challenge in re-modelling our city.  I hope with your support I can demonstrate further progress when the committee reviews my performance next year.

Local Government Reform

At Corporate Management Team we discussed the principles behind the Council response to the Welsh Government consultation on Strengthening Local Government: Delivering for People.  You’ll remember the proposal is to reduce the current 22 local councils to 10.  We hope to bring a report shortly to make sure that the views of Council are set out very clearly to the Welsh Government.  I know that the scrutiny panel chaired by Councillor Lyndon Jones looking into this will shortly produce their report and this will also help to inform our response which might include the following points that were raised by CMT:

  • Swansea Council is open to the idea of merger.
  • A voluntary merger approach is unlikely to deliver what the Welsh Government has set out.
  • If there’s a will to do this then it needs to be done rapidly i.e. by 2022.
  • The best model is the one that would deliver sustainable services over parochial interests.
  • We must first have a clear vision for local government in Wales expressed in outcomes for the next 10 to 20 years and structures should follow this.
  • There is no guarantee that biggest is always best.
  • There should be a radical delayering of responsibilities and accountabilities in local government in Wales to reflect Welsh Government as policy maker, local government as deliverer and a single inspectorate.
  • The merger proposals will create confusion in relation to existing collaborations. If authorities were to agree to merge, they may have very different views on arrangements that could freeze decision making on some collaborations until there is clarity.
  • There’ll be a large financial cost associated with local government re-organisation during a time of severe austerity. In 2014, CIPFA estimated that up-front costs of reorganisation across the whole of Wales could range between £160m and £268m.

When the report to Council is published I’ll add the link to my blog.  My best guess is that nothing is likely to happen quickly when the consultation ends as the Welsh Government are focussed on other things.

On a similar note, the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales has started an Electoral Review of Swansea’s Boundaries.  The consultation runs until July 24 and can be found here.

Virgin Media

I mentioned last week that Virgin Media had announced the start of consultation on the proposal to close its Swansea operation.  On Wednesday the Leader and I met the company to better understand and challenge the rationale for closure.  Whilst it’s clear the nature of the business is changing to reflect the fact that better digital infrastructure has reduced the number of fault calls dealt with at the Swansea contact centre, we told them that we thought it was a short-sighted move in the context of our City Deal digital projects. We’re already working with the company and Welsh Government to soften the blow through redeployment but I hope the company will take our views, and those of the workforce, into account when finalising a decision.

Congratulations

I was delighted to see an email from Nicole Dummett in Corporate Building and Property Services following the two recent awareness campaigns on Domestic Violence.  Staff in the department raised £193.49 and £161.43 towards the campaign for which the staff at the Domestic Violence One Stop Shop were extremely grateful. The first donation was spent on a Christmas party for some of our service users and their children, confidence-building classes and three children’s craft workshops.  This time I understand the donation will be used to support the Shoe Box scheme, particularly for male victims of domestic violence as the numbers are increasing.

Summer ball

Last night’s Lord Mayor’s Summer Ball was a great success. A series of awards were given out in recognition of people’s contribution to Swansea. I’m grateful to Joanne Jones in Corporate Marketing and all the team involved for organising a great event.

Hoping for a miracle

It looks like the Swans’ stay in the Premier League is all but over, barring the ten goal turnaround required for them to stay up. It’ll be a real shame to see the Swans relegated, not just for fans like me, but for the city and the wider region. There’s no doubt that having a Premier League club has been a great selling point for Swansea. So here’s hoping for a minor miracle at the weekend or a better season next year!

Groundhog Day

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I have a sense of déjà vu. I mentioned in last week’s blog that the Welsh Government announcement on local government reform was imminent and sure enough we received the Green Paper, “Strengthening Local Government: Delivering for People” on Tuesday.   The main proposal within the green paper is that the 22 councils in Wales are reduced to 10 on the following footprint.

  • Ynys Mon (Anglesey) and Gwynedd
  • Conwy and Denbighshire
  • Flintshire and Wrexham
  • Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire
  • Swansea and Neath Port Talbot
  • Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil
  • Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff
  • Newport and Caerphilly
  • Powys
  • Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire

The new map would look like this:

The consultation suggests three alternative approaches to the transition from 22 to 10 authorities, namely: voluntary mergers; a phased approach with early adopters merging first by 2022 with all other authorities merging by 2026; a single comprehensive merger programme to be completed by 2022.

The expectation is that existing regional arrangements will continue around the education consortia, and the City and Growth Deals. Consultation on the proposals is now open and ends on June 12, 2018.

For Mid and South West Wales it really is déjà vu with a proposed return to the former county council footprints that were West Glamorgan, Dyfed and Powys.  We’ll be working closely with councillors to respond to the consultation and there’s a scrutiny exercise currently under way which will help to inform this.  It’s helpful the Welsh Government has set out the proposal clearly but it follows on from their previous assurance that no reorganisation would occur for 10 years.  You can understand that this has caused a degree of confusion.  My view is we have to keep the main focus on services to the public during this process.  It must be about what’s the best model for delivering sustainable and efficient local government services over and above parochial interests.  I also think a voluntary merger approach is unlikely to deliver what the Welsh Government has set out.  It remains to be seen whether these proposals survive intact following the consultation process. I’ll keep you posted on developments.

Gwyr visit

This week I met fellow ex-Olchfa School pupil Dafydd Jenkins, head teacher at Ysgol Gyfun G?yr.  We took a tour of the new sixth-form block on the site of the former Gowerton Infants School.  I’d visited the old Gowerton School a number of times before its relocation to the Elba, and Dafydd and his team have done a fantastic job working with our Corporate Building Services team to convert and modernise the buildings.  I also met a group of pupils who fired some well-thought out questions in my direction, including what are the most difficult challenges the Council faces and what is our commitment to the Welsh language?  And there was of course a question about the tidal lagoon! Diolch yn fawr iawn to Dafydd, his staff and the pupils for making me feel very welcome.

Sad news

I was saddened this week to learn about the recent death of former Councillor Nick Tregoning.   Nick served the Dunvant ward from 1999 to 2012 and also as a Cabinet Member for Social Services and Presiding Member. Nick and I worked closely together on many issues and projects and after he finished as a councillor I met him a few times to discuss credit unions.

Farewells

At the end of the financial year we say farewell to a number of our long-term staff so I thought I’d mention a few that have been brought to my attention.

Lee Morgan, our Head of Housing and Public Protection, is retiring next week after 31 years’ service, since joining Lliw Valley in 1987.  Lee and I have worked together for many years and she’s made a huge difference to the lives of tenants and residents in the city.  She must have been delighted that one of her final duties was to attend the official opening of the newly-built houses by the First Minister a couple of weeks ago.

Phil Thomas is another long serving colleague who finishes work today after almost 40 years’ service. Phil started in 1978 as a clerical officer in Finance and progressed into positions of greater responsibility and ending up as the Principal Benefits Officer responsible for a number of diverse teams.

Although I mentioned him recently, it’s worth saying again that Ian Whettleton, Group Leader Waste Management, is retiring after 44 years’ service.  Joining him is Ray Mitchell, Business Performance Consultant, after 38 years’ service. Ray’s worked in Accountancy, Internal Audit and Performance. He also acts as a presiding officer for the Council during elections and is a volunteer with Helping Hands.

Jane Tonks, our Local Area Coordination Implementation Manager, is retiring on March 28. Without Jane’s commitment, motivation and enthusiasm I don’t think we would have got the LAC initiative off the ground, and achieved the partnership support that we have.

After 39 years of dedication and commitment, Mark Rosser, DBA Team Leader in Digital and Transformation Services, is retiring.  Mark has been a fixture within IT since he left school and will be missed by many friends and colleagues.

Katherine Jones (income and finance officer and former member support officer) will be leaving the Council this month for pastures new in Oxford. And last week Tal Davies, our Fraud Team Manager, retired after long and distinguished service.

Thanks to all staff who are leaving the Council. I wish you a long and happy retirement or continued success in your future careers.

 

 

 

 

The shape of things to come

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The world is changing rapidly and technology increasingly shapes the way in which we live and work. We’re on the edge of fifth generation technology and we’re uniquely positioned to redesign and reshape our city through the City Deal and related projects.   The technology is complex but the principles are simple.  The benefits must be for our citizens, our businesses and to those we provide services to.  There’ll be impacts on every service area and we must understand and deal with the consequences of technological change on equality, security and privacy.

On Monday we held a seminar for senior councillors and officers on the subject of Smart and Connected Cities to increase awareness of policy advisers and policy makers. Mike Galvin, an expert in this field, is working on the digital strand of the City Deal and highlighted the potential of 5G technology.  Darren Topham, from our technology partner Gartner, described the top five most disruptive developing technologies including artificial intelligence, wearable devices, visual personal assistants and bots.  Infosys then explained the Internet of Things and the technology that supports it, how this might help to make a Smart City and what Swansea might look like five years from now.

Julie Snell, from Bristol is Open, explained how Bristol, the UK’s leading Smart City, is putting this technology into practice.  We’ll be having further discussions with colleagues over the bridge to embed their learning into our plans.

We’re hoping to roll-out this programme to more councillors, officers and our partners.  All the presentations can be found here.

Thank you to all who attended, but particularly to Rhys Curtis, our innovation officer, who worked tirelessly on this event.

Budget latest

The draft budget proposals are published in a report for Cabinet next week. We’ll be spending more than £400 million on services, including extra cash for social services and education as well as funding the national 2% pay award for staff. We’ve also had to identify savings of £28 million which will impact on services and staff. I know this is a really difficult time for staff who are affected, but I want to reiterate my commitment to avoiding compulsory redundancies where we can. That’s why managers are being urged to work with staff and workshops involving staff and the unions have been set up to explore options.  I am still involved in eleventh hour discussions on education grant funding !!!

This is the most difficult budget I’ve ever been involved in and although there’s no doubt over the challenges we face, I want to thank everyone for continuing to do a great job in very testing circumstances.

Music festival

The Brangwyn Hall hosted the Schools Day for the Abertawe Festival of Young Musicians.  The hall was packed and I managed to catch a few songs during the primary school showcase including my young friends from the Penyrheol School of Rock.  All the schools demonstrated the commitment to music and the arts that characterised our City of Culture bid, nurturing young talent and having fun.  Thanks to all involved in staging and taking part in this fantastic event.

Blaenymaes School

Children’s Commissioner Sally Holland visited Blaenymaes School following an invite from its Rights Respecting Ambassadors in Year Six. Sally asked them to launch an intergenerational group and last week she worked with the school council and ambassadors on a proposal for a gardening group with older people in the community.

Sally was impressed with a number of initiatives at the school and said, “It’s very exciting that Blaenymaes are starting an intergenerational project, which will offer a real opportunity to promote positive relationships between the oldest and youngest members of this community.”

Wellbeing

I mentioned last week that the Big Wellbeing Event on January 31 at the Brangwyn and George Hall for staff, councillors, partners and foster carers. It was a huge success and 627 signed into the event though we know far more actually attended. My thanks to everyone involved.

I’ve moved

I’ve moved down the corridor to Room 208 in the Guildhall.  Thanks to staff in Facilities and ICT who moved me rapidly and painlessly to the room I originally occupied 14 years ago!

Well done

Congratulations to headteacher Jeff Bird, the staff, governors, parents and the wider community at Bishopston Comprehensive School on their recent Estyn inspection.  The school was judged to be excellent in all five categories.  The inspectors commented, “Leaders at Bishopston Comprehensive School have established an ethos whereby pupils develop outstanding social, learning and life skills. Learning experiences meet the needs of pupils exceptionally well and teaching supports pupils to reach high standards.”

The Dylan Thomas Centre has been named in the shortlist of the ‘Best Family Venue’ category, of the Fantastic for Families Awards. The winner will be announced on March 1. Congratulations to the team and let’s hope it’s a double celebration on St David’s Day

Open Day

Swansea mosque is taking part in the national #VisitMyMosque to give the local community an insight on Sunday, February 18.

 

Hard Times

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The budget for next year continues to dominate CMT’s work and we’ve been wrestling with some emerging issues to try to finalise our proposals.

The removal of some grants and increased spending pressures, including unfunded pay awards, have made the task of setting a balanced budget much more difficult this year. Over the coming weeks the details will be finalised with Cabinet before we report to Council following consultation.

I know this is a difficult time for staff and decisions will need to be taken that we wouldn’t consider if the financial position was easier.  Where staff are under threat of redundancy I’ve asked for particular efforts to be made to ensure that our redeployment processes operate quickly and effectively.

I’m also conscious there’s been a good deal of misinformation circulating about the proposed funding for schools.  Our Section 151 Officer, Ben Smith, and I will be writing to head teachers next week setting out the facts clearly so that the record can be put straight.

Local Government collaboration.

Yesterday the Leader and I met Alun Davies AM, Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services in the Welsh Government to discuss local government reform.  I’m speculating but I think it’s possible that there might be a change of emphasis and it is always possible that the issue of merging councils might reappear over the coming weeks.  This would have an impact on the current collaborations we’re involved in, particularly those involving education and economic development.  We’ll find out more by mid-February and I’ll keep you posted on developments.  In the meantime large amounts of my time, and that of colleagues, is tied up with regional collaborations and below is an update on the three main programmes.

ERW

This week I’ve been speaking to the six education directors in the ERW region about what needs to be done to improve the governance and effectiveness of the regional consortium and I’ll be meeting Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams in a few weeks to set out the position and make some recommendations for the future.

Western Bay

Last Friday I chaired the Western Bay Leadership Team where we discussed the progress made on the proposed move of Bridgend CBC to the Cwm Taf health board area.  This will be a real challenge for all involved but it’s essential we retain a focus on services to the citizen, so I was pleased to hear about the excellent progress being made by the Western Bay partnership.

City Deal

The Leader and I, along with colleagues from our three partner councils, met the Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns, and the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Mark Drakeford.  We discussed the issues that remain outstanding before we can proceed to signing the Joint Working Agreement and I’m optimistic we can resolve these so that a report can be made to Council before the end of the financial year.

Over the past few months I’ve been working with our Corporate Innovation Officer, Rhys Curtis, on a seminar for lead members and officers on what a smart and connected Swansea will look like as we progress the City Deal projects.  I’ll say more about this in a couple of weeks but I’m anxious that we reach a wider audience of staff, councillors and partners so that the vision for the future can be shared and debated.  The seminar will be held in early February and I’ll report back and add links to the presentations as soon as possible.

Thanks and well done

Thanks to the staff in ICT who arranged the migration of CMT to Office 365 this week.  It was a smooth transition for which I’m very grateful.

Thanks to Mark Gosney and the High 5 team who this week organised a tea for this year’s winners with the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House.  This followed the kind offer that the Lord Mayor made at the High 5 Awards ceremony.

On Monday evening the Mansion House was the venue for a thank you event for all our partners in the City of Culture bid which gave the opportunity to remind everyone that we’ll continue to work with Welsh Government to make Swansea the Welsh capital of culture.

Our city centre rangers dealt with 21,015 incidents last year, ranging from enquiries from the public to working with the police to report and tackle anti-social behaviour. They also support city centre events and activities, help businesses with their questions and queries, and put safety and security arrangements in place. Well done to all involved.

Next week is the last working week for Greg Jones in our Communications team.  Greg is leaving to join the City Deal team so our paths will continue to cross frequently.  I’d like to thank Greg for all his hard work over the years and wish him well for the future.

Penblwydd hapus

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Today marks the first anniversary of the publication of Sir Charles Hendry’s report on the future of tidal lagoon energy with the clear recommendation to the Government to get on with the Swansea tidal lagoon project.  I acknowledge that the lagoon doesn’t have 100% support but the vast majority of people I’ve spoken to are in favour of it and it has cross-party support in Council.

We’ll continue to exert as much pressure as we can to secure this project and the massive economic boost it’d bring to the city and the region.  This week we had a Love the Lagoon birthday cake made to mark the anniversary. It’s part of our campaign and was shared with business leaders and visitors to Swansea Market. We also sent first birthday cards to the Prime Minister, Welsh Secretary and Business Secretary as a friendly nudge for them to make a decision.

You may have seen this week that the First Minister has now waded in to the debate with an offer of substantial financial support from the Welsh Government. It remains to be seen whether this will help unblock the project at UK Government level, but I know that the pressure of our Love the Lagoon campaign has been felt in Cardiff and London so thanks to all who‘ve joined with it.

On Monday I attended our Scrutiny Programme Committee along with the Leader where the subject of the lagoon was raised once again.  The committee heard from the Leader about progress on a range of issues from City Deal and the broader regeneration programme to the work of the Public Services Board and our corporate priorities.  Scrutiny is an essential function of local government and we responded to a range of challenging and important questions. The report is available here.  During the meeting we noted that Greg Clark, the current Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, had retained his post in the UK Government Cabinet reshuffle. During our recent meeting with him he said a decision would be made “shortly” so we hope he keeps to his word and we can leave the second birthday candle firmly in the drawer.

Homelessness

This week saw the publication of the Wales Audit Office report into how councils are managing homelessness.  The report presents a mixed picture on performance but acknowledges that many of the causation factors are outside the control of councils and Welsh Government.  For example there’s a general concern over the impact of welfare reform and a growth in the numbers of people finding themselves without a home.

Auditor General, Huw Vaughan-Thomas said: “My report today highlights that Local Authorities continue to focus on managing people in crisis rather than stopping them getting into crisis in the first place. To truly prevent homelessness public bodies need to take a long-term view and work with other organisations to really tackle the issues that cause homelessness. This requires a focus on, for example, better educational attainment, access to employment, well planned transition when leaving care and access to welfare benefits.”

We’re praised in the report for work on preventing homelessness through the creative use of Supporting People funding, its work with private landlords and its strategic approach to prevention.  This Council has led the way in Wales on tackling homelessness for many years and I was proud to read the comments of the auditor.  My thanks go to all those who work in this important and essential service area.

Sharing Information

On Tuesday I met with the Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner to discuss the effectiveness of information sharing protocols with housing following the introduction of new arrangements last year. It’s clear our council is also leading the way nationally on this initiative and although there are still some issues to resolve this is having an impact on community safety for our housing estates. Thanks to Dave Thomas and all in the housing team who’ve helped to make this a success.

Congratulations

The ‘Jig-so’ project has been shortlisted for prestigious British Journal of Midwifery Awards. It’s a Swansea-wide team of midwives, nursery nurses, family facilitators and early language development workers.  Well done to all involved and let’s hope the team get the right result on the night.

Our corporate building and property services team is carrying out works at council homes to help tenants save money on their heating bills. The team has taken on more staff to do the work in-house, leading to a 25% increase in turnover compared to 2016/17. This will help us reach the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, so well done to all staff involved.

Staff in a range of services have joined forces with businesses and organisations to help improve the appearance of St Phillips Community Centre in Sandfields. This will improve things for thousands of people who use the community centre every year, so my thanks to all involved.