Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

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My last blog of the 2017 is a chance to reflect on some of the major issues of the past year and to look ahead to our challenges in 2018.

We started the year in fine style by being awarded the Platinum Corporate Health Standard after excelling in corporate social responsibility and innovation. January also saw the Hendry Review say the Tidal Lagoon was a “no regrets” policy. Almost a year on we’re still waiting for a government decision!

The Welsh Government unveiled its ‘White Paper: Reforming Local Government: Resilient and Renewed’ including regionalised services and electoral reform.

Spring brought the City Deal signing which promises a £1.3bn transformation of our economy and we built on our track record of investing in young people by launching our Apprentice Strategy – more than 170 apprentices have come through since 2003.

April showed there were no fools in our waste team when they cleaned up at the IESE (Improvement and Efficiency South East) Awards.

In May we stood united with Manchester following the horrific terror attack which served as another reminder that we all have to be vigilant, particularly at our major events. And our elections team and volunteers pulled out all the stops to deliver yet another election with huge effort but minimum fuss.

The tragic events of Grenfell Tower threw the spotlight on high-rise flats across the UK and our Housing and Corporate Buildings teams led the way in Wales, acting quickly and professionally to reassure our residents. Another election, this time the General, once again saw our staff pull-out all the stops.

The summer brought a mixed bag of news – I was delighted to be permanently appointed Chief Executive and for us to be shortlisted for City of Culture. But this delight was dampened with the shelving of the rail electrification to Swansea and the worrying budget indications from the Government.

The annual local government “league tables” in September showed that despite budget cuts and service pressures:

  • 29% of all our performance indicators were in the top quartile, up from 17% in 2014/15
  • A reduction in lower quartile PIs from 22% to 14%.
  • We’re ranked 9th among all 22 councils, up from 15th last year. Considering we are an urban authority this is a major achievement.

We launched our Love the Lagoon campaign to unite the community in telling the Government we want and need the project.

October is always a highlight for me because of the High 5 Awards and this year a record number of young people were recognised. Autumn also sees the real work on our budget get under way and Corporate Management Team and Cabinet were locked in meetings to plug the budget gap due to government cuts. Each year is getting more difficult.

 

November was a month for lobbying in London when we took both our City of Culture and Love the Lagoon campaigns to Westminster. Closer to home our Christmas Parade was met with great feedback from the public.

Peter Blake

Despite a fantastic effort, our City of Culture bid fell at the final hurdle in December. Since then we’ve had encouraging talks with the Welsh Government on how we can take culture forward. Our annual staff survey showed the vast majority of areas improving. However, there’s more work to do, particularly on appraisals. And just before the Christmas break I was delighted to hear primary school attendance was 95% for the 2017-2018 academic year, compared to 94.9% for each of the two previous years.  The five-year trend since 2011-2012 has an improvement of 2% which is the highest rate of improvement in Wales. Congratulations to all our school and education staff for this impressive result.

So what does 2018 have in store for us? Hopefully a positive decision on the Tidal Lagoon with the clock running at 350 days since the Hendry Review recommended the government gets on with it.  We’ll  see some significant developments taking place around the Arena and Kingsway sites as the city centre regeneration gathers pace.  This will involve major changes to the city centre road network and the development of the infrastructure for a Smart City.

I suspect we‘ll see a restatement of the Welsh Government approach on local government reform, possibly with greater emphasis on mandation unless the pace of collaboration between councils increases.

We’ll set a budget following the consultation process and hopefully continue to deliver excellent services in increasingly difficult circumstances. Our work on modernising and transforming the Council will continue, increasing our agile, digital and commercialism programmes to help us to combat future cuts in the revenue budget.

Above all I hope 2018 will be a healthy and happy year for you and for your families and I want  to thank you once again for the fantastic work during 2017.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.

Exciting times for city

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On Monday we welcomed the panel judging the UK City of Culture 2021 competition.

It was an opportunity for the panel to ask questions and see the city for themselves. The panel is chaired by Phil Redmond the creator of Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks.  He was keen to know the city’s story and how the UK City of Culture might make a difference to our fortunes.  He didn’t give us any assessment of our chances, although he told the press about how they’re better this time round.  The visit ended with a meeting in our fantastic Glynn Vivian Art Gallery with Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, who’s been hugely supportive of our bid.
We’ll now be working on our presentation to the panel which will take place in Hull in December.  Thanks to all involved in arranging the visit and the developing our bid.

The Leader and I then hot footed it to the Liberty Stadium to meet the representatives of Skyline, the developers behind the Kilvey Hill gondola and luge project.  Our teams in Planning and Economic Development are offering advice and support to try and secure the project.  We’re not the only site in the running but they’re clearly impressed and interested in the potential the city offers.  We’ll continue our negotiations and keep you updated.

Budget

On Tuesday we continued discussions with Cabinet on the budget following announcements by Welsh Government on grant reductions in the coming year.  This followed a week of discussions last week which were challenging but necessary. Again we made good progress and we’re close to having a detailed set of proposals for consultation.

Meetings with Ministers

On Wednesday the Leader and I were in Cardiff for discussions with Ministers on the City Deal and local government reform.  It’s becoming very clear that councils need to come up with a workable proposal for regional collaboration or the Welsh Government will likely impose change. There’s consensus emerging in our region for the retention of two “growth deal” footprints – Swansea Bay and Growing Mid Wales – for economic development, transport and planning.
For education and skills there’s consensus over aligning skills to the two regional learning partnerships and the growth deals. We also want to better connect our skills ambition to school improvement collaboration.  Health and social care collaboration is less clear, apart from our support for the change to the ABMU boundary, but we’ll have to do more work to understand the issues relating to the region’s three health boards.  I hope to report to the next WLGA regional partnership board in November.

Making Waves

The Leader and I met with Mark Shorrock, CEO at the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon to discuss progress, or the lack of it, with the UK Government.  The Love the Lagoon campaign is having a real impact at a national level and my thanks go to everyone who’s helped to organise it and contribute to it.  Our Communications team has done an excellent job and the next few weeks will see us push even further to get the project delivered.  On Monday the Leader and I will be heading to London to meet UK Government for some critical discussions.  In the meantime, you can make your voice heard through the Love the Lagoon campaign.

Tony Colburn

Sadly, former Councillor Tony Colburn passed away this week. Tony had previously served as Oystermouth councillor for nine years and was a dedicated ward member who served on a number of committees and boards.  Tony will be sadly missed and my best wishes go to his wife Mary and family.

Hillary Clinton 

Hillary Clinton received an Honorary Doctorate at Swansea University in recognition of her commitment to promoting the rights of families and children. So it was really appropriate the former First Lady met children and staff from Blaenymaes Primary, one of our Rights Respecting Schools.  Ethan King-pill and Courtney Hurford (Rights Respecting ambassadors) and Lola Poole (an Anti-Bullying ambassador) presented her with the school mascot, Rhodri.  They told her she could talk to Rhodri if she had any problems and, whilst Hillary may have been thinking that the current President needs it more than she does, she was clearly delighted by the gift. The staff accompanying the pupils were Helen Spencer, family inclusion officer, and Mark Dennis, headteacher and they sent me my favourite photograph of the year.

Congratulations

Llanrhidian Primary School has been recognised at an awards ceremony celebrating the very best in education in Wales. Head teacher Donna Caswell and deputy head Rebecca Jones were at the Estyn Awards where the school was highlighted for developing a culture of continuous improvement that offers all pupils the very best opportunities. The award follows a rare double excellent inspection report achieved by the school earlier this year.

Farewell

We’re saying goodbye to several long-serving colleagues this month. Dave Picken, Divisional Trading Standards Officer, is retiring after more than 30 years. Dave’s expertise and support for vulnerable people will to be missed. His pursuit of lost causes is also demonstrated by his unswerving support for Shrewsbury Town FC.

Suzanne Collins started working with us as a receptionist in 1998 and was also part of the first customer service agents to welcome customers to the new Contact Centre.  Suzanne moved to the Democratic Services team in 2008 and has been working more recently in Income and Finance.

Barbara Cameron, unit manager at Llanfair House, is leaving after 27 years and will be sorely missed by service users and colleagues. Happy retirement to you all and thanks for your long and dedicated service.

I am on leave for most of next week so my next blog will be on November 10.

A new relationship with citizens

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Councils are an easy target for criticism and humour.  You know the old chestnuts like:

  1. “How many people work for the Council?”
  2. “About half of them”.

In reality we deliver services that are fundamental to people.  We protect and educate children, provide essential care for our older citizens, stop people getting poisoned through food safety and air quality monitoring, collect and recycle refuse, keep the city moving, house the homeless, help people find jobs, provide entertainment and events and provide people with a final resting place.  In short, we offer cradle to grave services and most of these perform very well.

80% of our citizens are either satisfied or very satisfied with the services we provide for them.  Yet only 40% would be willing to speak highly of us or recommend us to a friend.  This is a puzzling fact and one that we need to address.

Part of the answer may be how we promote and market the organisation.  This is how many organisations in other sectors protect and enhance their reputation.  There’s little understanding among the population generally about the breadth of services councils deliver, many of which are below their radar.  I could have added dozens more important and essential services to the list above.

But perhaps it’s also about how we engage and communicate with our customers.  In future the delivery of some services will need to be with our citizens, rather than to them.  Lee Wenham and I are discussing how we best allocate resources and people to do this. I‘ll be discussing the issue of reputation with colleagues over the coming months and asking the innovation community to help me with this.

Lagoon update

On Monday I was part of a delegation of Cabinet Members and senior officers that met with Mark Shorrock, CEO of Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, and his team.  We discussed the proposal to set up a turbine assembly plant in Swansea when the lagoon is finally given the go ahead.  We also discussed the current situation with the UK Government and what more needs to be done in terms of persuasion.  Mark and his team are also keenly interested in working with us on our bid and programme for the UK City of Culture 2021 and they have some innovative and exciting suggestions about how they might be involved.

We’ve now had the feedback from UK Government on our City of Culture bid and we have a lot of work to do between now and the end of September.  I hope staff and councillors will continue to engage in our campaign to demonstrate that the whole city supports this ambition.

Mandatory training; domestic violence

I mentioned last week the Domestic Abuse Hub and the need for all of us to be aware and respond to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV).  One in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic violence in their lifetime and one in five children have witnessed it, with devastating impact.

Under the VAWDASV (Wales) Act 2015, the local authority has to:

  • publish a local authority five-year training plan with annual targets
  • undertake a local needs training analysis
  • ensure 100% of the workforce undertake the Group 1 training by March 31, 2018
  • provide annual reports in respect of each financial year on the progress made regionally or locally

Corporate Management Team agreed to address the training requirements via a combination of e-learning and face- to-face sessions.  It’ll be a massive challenge to train all staff before April and I’ll need your help and commitment to do so.  The training will be a combination of eLearning and face to face sessions for those who do not have access to the on-line offer.  The link to the online course can be accessed via logging in to the Learning Pool here.

All councillors will receive Group 1 training as part of their induction.  One session has already been held and another session is planned in the autumn. CMT and the Leadership Team will undertake the training as soon as possible and we’ll be asking each service area to nominate champions.

Innovation

On Wednesday I met our new Corporate Innovation Officer, Rhys Curtis, who takes over the post vacated by Leanne Cutts.  Rhys brings with him his experience in the private sector here and in the USA and will be spending the next few weeks navigating the organisation, getting to know people and offering to engage with services to support them.  I know you’ll all give him a warm welcome and I look forward to us all working together to further embed innovation in our culture.

Congratulations

Well done to our Access to Services team for their work with our Disability Liaison Group, which has been recognised by other Welsh councils as an example of great practice. The group is led by representatives from Swansea’s disabled community to ensure their views on council services and schemes are considered and addressed. Anyone wanting more information on the Disability Liaison Group should contact Sherill Hopkins in Access to Services.

Our Sport and Health team is continuing to do great work to encourage more girls to take up sport. A well-attended event was held at Penyrheol Leisure Centre earlier this week, with more following this summer. Well done to everyone involved.

Blog

I’ll be trapped in a tent with three small children for the next couple of weeks so my next blog will be on August 25.

 

Electrification Plans Derailed

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Rail electrification – a personal view

The UK Government’s announcement to scrap plans for rail electrification between Swansea and Cardiff has been met with widespread dismay and condemnation.

Having met government ministers and officials to present the original case for electrification some years ago, I was very disappointed by the U-turn.  The economic case is no different now than it was then, although clearly the huge overspend on other parts of the UK-wide electrification project has contributed to the rethink.

South West Wales has struggled with its peripheral location and any reduction in travel time is a real benefit.  The switch from diesel would have major environmental benefits and be much more energy efficient; the trains would have more modern facilities and greater safety measures.  It felt like we were going to be a part of a new UK rail infrastructure, squarely on the map and fit for the future.

In the last few years I’ve travelled by rail in Europe which was all electrified with modern, energy-efficient trains and heavily used by the public.  A modern economy requires not just digital connectivity but also the most efficient, clean and accessible rail network.  The announcement felt like a real kick in the teeth for our city.

City of Culture – what next?

We’ve been shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2021 – along with Paisley; Sunderland; Stoke and Coventry.

We’re expecting feedback from the DCMS next week and we’re working with partners and funders to nail down the core structure and details required for the final bid on September 29.

The format has changed since our previous bid, with the emphasis on confirming the partnerships, funding, programme content, venues and social, economic and tourism impacts.

The DCMS team and panel members will visit Swansea and our team will travel to Hull in December to present our final bid – before a recommendation is put to Ministers.  The announcement will be made shortly after that.

The city will be dressed with banners, posters, window dressings etc and events will engage the community. Our partners will be working on the programme details and we welcome any support you can offer to raise engagement among groups and communities that you work with and represent. Congratulations to Tracey McNulty and her staff along with all the councillors, officers and partners for getting us onto this shortlist.  Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter #Swansea2021

Public Service Board

Last Tuesday I joined 40 officers and councillors from across Swansea’s public services to identify where we might work together for a better Swansea. The Swansea Public Services Board event was the last in a series of workshops held with citizens, the community and voluntary sectors and public service leaders. We identified trends that will shape Swansea’s future and areas where we can work together to overcome challenges and make the most of opportunities.

Topics discussed included celebrating pride and belonging, developing social capital and tackling climate change. These will be used alongside evidence from the Local Assessment of Well-being to develop Local Well-being Objectives for Swansea.

There will be opportunities to feed into the development of the Local Well-being Plan in the summer before consultation in the autumn.

Director of Resources

I’m delighted Sarah Caulkin, our Chief Transformation Officer, has been appointed interim Director of Resources following competitive interviews.  Sarah’s been instrumental in progressing the transformation programme and helping us to plan our future council.   With digital transformation, regional collaboration and financial challenges on the horizon this will be a busy and exciting time for us all.

Eid in the Park

Thanks to Riaz Hassan and all the team for organising this year’s Eid in the Park event, which attracted more than 3,000 people.  These events promote community cohesion and cultural awareness and lots of people gave their time to make it a success.

Awards

Congratulations to our Corporate Building and Property Services team for winning the Integration & Collaborative Working Award 2017 at the Constructing Excellence Wales (CEW) awards.  We’ll be going forward to the National event in November.  Let’s hope we win that one too!

Our parks’ staff work has been recognised by Keep Wales Tidy. Victoria Park, Parc Llewelyn, Cwmdonkin Park, Clyne Gardens, Bynmill Park and Singleton Botanical and Ornamental Gardens were all awarded Green Flags. The organisers tweeted this week: “Amazing work by all the team down at Swansea Council – your parks are a pleasure and a joy to visit”

Last week I mentioned the Swansea Life Awards, including the winning teams from Parks Operations and Development and Outreach for the work at Clyne Gardens – here’s a photo of them with their award.  Well done.

Farewell

Dr Julie Sheppard, Head of the Education Strategic Planning & Improvement Group, is retiring at the end of the month after 14 years. Julie came to Swansea following a successful career in the private sector bringing with her years of international experience. I’d like to thank Julie for all her work and wish her well in her retirement.

 

Improving children’s lives

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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.