Swansea Bay City Region

City Deal – what it means

March 24, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

City Deal – what does it mean?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Penybryn School

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

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

The awards keep rolling in !!!

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

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

World Social Work Day

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

Wales National Air Show

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

City of Culture

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

Farewells

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

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

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

Our global platform

March 17, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Global platform

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

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

Lindsay’s leaving

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

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

Senior management review

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

Danygraig school

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

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

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

Learning needs

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

Purdah

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

Inspirational youngster

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

Film award

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

Awards

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

Pool rescue

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

Sports Awards

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

Farewell

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

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

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

Apprentice strategy launch

March 10, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Apprentice strategy launch

We launched of our Apprenticeship Strategy in the George Hall on Monday. It builds on the success of the apprenticeship scheme running in Corporate Building Services and is now a broader Corporate Strategy to run across all service areas. The aim is to provide apprenticeships, training and work experience opportunities including graduate placements and internships

This has been developed by a working group of representatives from across the council following the agreement in principle by Cabinet in July 2016.

Given our corporate priorities relating to poverty and safeguarding it’s essential we target opportunities for disadvantaged groups, particularly given our role as a corporate parent and we must reduce the barriers to allow access to these opportunities. I’ll be taking a personal interest in seeing this happens.

Apprenticeships are key to develop skills needed for the future and will help address skill shortages. I’m indebted to Martin Nicholls, Director of Place, and his team for their enthusiasm and drive in preparing the strategy. The team are preparing guides for managers to help provide a consistent approach to taking on an apprentice, trainee or offering work experience. We‘ll also work with other public sector bodies and learn from best practice available. We’ve already advertised 14 opportunities and we’ll be seeking to identify 30 to 40 more during the next few months.

Along with Martin, the Leader and Councillor Andrea Lewis, Cabinet Member for Next Generation Services, spoke at the launch to underline their commitment to the strategy. We must now make sure it’s delivered across the organisation as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This week I almost met Lord Heseltine!

It’s been a frustrating week for those of us involved in the Swansea Bay City Deal. I mentioned last week that following the pitch to the UK Government we had provided all the information requested and were optimistic the deal could be agreed and announced in Wednesday’s budget. The final meeting was arranged with Lord Heseltine here in Swansea on budget day but was cancelled following his sacking late on Tuesday evening. As a result we held yet another meeting with civil servants to go back over some old ground. The budget statement included the following words, which stopped some distance short of what we had hoped for:

“The government continues to make good progress towards city deals for Edinburgh and Swansea and is working constructively with local partners and the Scottish and Welsh Governments respectively to achieve this.”

The meeting with civil servants was followed by a session with representatives from the private sector who have given strong support for our bid. I detected a lot of impatience and frustration from many of these representatives who are struggling to understand why the Welsh Government considers the deal complete, but the UK Government does not. The Leader and I will be doing whatever we can to push this given that every day of delay is a missed opportunity for our citizens.

This week I did meet Sir Charles Hendry

On Tuesday evening the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress hosted a dinner for Sir Charles Hendry, author of the Government review into tidal lagoons. It was an opportunity to discuss the report and its findings and learn about the process of how the report was commissioned and delivered by Sir Charles. It became clear that Sir Charles has not only learned a lot about the city, he has also developed a fondness for it. He reiterated his conclusion that the lagoon must be built and that we must get on with it immediately so it was also frustrating that there was no mention of it in the Chancellor’s budget speech on Wednesday. We remain optimistic that an announcement is imminent.

Congratulations

Swansea has two nominations at a national film award ceremony next week. Our Child and Family Services worked with 15 young people to make a short film about being in care and it’s on a shortlist of three in the Best Animation: 13 and Over category at the Into Film Awards.

And Amy Parry, from Cwmrhydyceirw Primary School in Morriston, is on the shortlist for Teacher of the Year.

Into Film is a UK-wide charity that aims to raise standards of achievement and aspiration among youngsters through film and the awards take place at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square on Tuesday (March 14). Fingers crossed for both when the golden envelopes, hopefully the right ones, are opened.

Last Friday we took part in the Patient Choice Awards at Singleton Hospital. It was introduced by the ABMU Health Board back in 2015 to give patients, carers, relatives and visitors the chance to say thanks to a member of staff or team they feel have made a real difference and provided outstanding care.

The ceremony saw some of our social workers and care workers stand alongside district nurses, GPs and therapists in being recognised for the work they have done.

It was a terrific opportunity to celebrate the commitment they give to helping vulnerable adults to stay safe and independent and really demonstrated that our staff go above and beyond, showing professionalism, kindness and compassion to people at really difficult times in their lives. Well done to everyone involved.

The Swansea Bay 10k organised by our events team has been shortlisted in two categories for this year’s Running Awards: best 10k and best child-friendly event.

Voting closes on Monday March 20, so head to this link to get your vote in and make sure the event gets the recognition it deserves.

Info-Nation was re-launched this week, providing free and confidential information and advice on a range of subjects including sexual health, relationships, substance misuse and finding work.

It now includes the Bays+ service which provides services for young people aged 16 or older who are in need of care, support or accommodation. DrugAid Cymru also has its ‘Choices’ young people’s service based in the shop for a number of years.

Today is the last working day at the council for John Lewis, our Principal Design and Technical Officer, based in Cultural Services. John has worked for us since October 1974 when he started with Swansea City Council as a Draughtsman and then Graphic Designer. Since then he’s held a range of posts in Tourism and was instrumental in helping me with the first blue plaque in Swansea in tribute to Pete Ham. Since then he’s helped me with many other things – always with patience and good humour – and I’ll miss his knowledge, skills and innovation very much. I wish him a long and happy retirement.

Celebrating diversity

March 3, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Our Abertawe

On Saturday we’ll be staging our new “Our Abertawe – Celebrating Swansea Together” event. This is an opportunity to celebrate Swansea and what it means to us all as individuals and together, whether a Jack by birth or habit; disabled; young; or old; whatever our sexual orientation, beliefs, culture, language or abilities. Many communities make up our diverse City and the events will focus on bringing people together to celebrate Swansea and what it means to us all.

It will be held at Castle Square from 11am till 6.30pm, ending with a parade from Castle Square to the National Waterfront Museum. The main exhibition marquee will be located on Princess Way and will include various information, activity and cultural stands as well as an exhibition celebrating the history of Swansea’s cultural diversity.

There’ll be stages for performances at Castle Square and Portland Street, along with busking sites throughout the city centre. Cookery demonstrations and workshops will take place in a marquee on Princess Way and there’s a treasure hunt at our fantastic Swansea Market for children.

The Big Screen will show two special videos. ‘My Swansea’ – produced by students from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the second video has been developed by Chinese students from Swansea University capturing what Swansea is all about.

Also part of the event is the returning AberDewi festival which includes a Twmpath, St Davids Parade, choral sing along of Calon Lan and the rhythms of Samba Tawe.

Local schools are involved in the day with a number of junior schools entering the dragon competition to head the parade. The senior schools are taking part in an “Apprentice”-style competition, which involves raising money on the day for two charities for the homeless.

The Saturday event is unique which will celebrate both our Welsh heritage and Swansea’s modern, multi-cultural make-up.

I’m indebted to all who have helped to organise this fantastic event, but particularly grateful to Riaz Hassan, our Regional Community Cohesion Coordinator based in Poverty and Prevention, who has worked tirelessly on it.

For the latest information take a look at this link.

Pontarddulais School

A few weeks ago I visited Pontarddulais Comprehensive School for the first time. I was shown around the building and its grounds by four enthusiastic pupils who were excellent ambassadors and a credit to the school. I was impressed by the genuine respect for pupil voice at Pontarddulais and the commitment to working together as a team for the benefit of the whole school community. This was underlined in the discussion that followed with the pupils and the head teacher, Jan Waldron. Jan was very clear about how the approach had helped to create a positive learning environment for the school and this is certainly borne out by the excellent results being achieved by the students. Thanks to Jan and all at Pontarddulais for the warm welcome and a highly interesting and informative afternoon.

It came as no surprise, therefore, when I learned that Pontarddulais Comprehensive, along with Cefn Hengoed Community School, St Helen’s Primary and Penllergaer Primary schools received “Excellent” inspection judgements from ESTYN. I understand that on March 9 ESTYN will be holding an awards evening for schools, colleges and other providers who received ‘Excellent’ inspection judgements for current performance, prospects for improvement (or both) in the academic year 2015–16. This event will focus on the common factors that lie behind excellence and improvement and how inspection supports this. Congratulations and thanks to all.

Pentre’r Graig School

On Tuesday I attended the opening of the newly-refurbished Pentre’r Graig Primary School in Morriston. The school has undergone extensive remodelling under our 21st Century Schools Programme with £2.7m of investment funded jointly by us and the Welsh Government. The work was undertaken by our Corporate Building and Property Services team and I’m delighted to say they’ve done an excellent job in what must have been very difficult circumstances. It can’t be easy to deliver a complex refurbishment project whilst keeping the school running, but aided by our Education team and the patience and support of the school staff and pupils, the job is almost complete.

The pupils welcomed the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, local councillors and governors and conducted a whistle-stop tour of the new facilities, including the “Learning Street”. We also had a couple of songs and some highly entertaining discussions with the pupils.

I was sad to hear that the head teacher, Julie Tucker, will soon be retiring because she’s done such an excellent job not only seeing the school refurbished and transformed but also achieving “green status” in the schools categorisation in the process. Congratulations to Julie and her team.

Culture bid

We’re bidding for UK City of Culture 2021. After reaching the shortlist for the 2017 title, we hope to go one step further this time. A successful bid will provide a significant boost to the city’s regeneration as we set out a commitment to not only deliver a 12-month festival of world class arts and cultural activity, but also to create long-lasting benefits for residents, the economy and visitors to the city.

City Deal

Another bid hopefully coming to fruition is the City Deal. Following the Leader’s recent presentation to a team including Lord Heseltine it looks like we’ll have some positive news next week. Our officers have continued to supply extra information requested by the UK and Welsh governments and Lord Heseltine, and we’re now satisfied we’ve done everything asked of us.

Apprentice scheme

We’re launching our new Corporate Apprentice and Trainee Strategy in an event at Guildhall on Monday (March 6). To coincide with the launch and the start of National Apprenticeship Week, we’ll soon be advertising for new apprentices in our corporate building and adult social care departments. Other apprentice and trainee positions could also soon be made available in departments including IT, waste management, highways, economic regeneration and parks.

Some apprenticeship and work experience placements would be specifically targeted at young people, the long-term unemployed and disadvantaged groups. Opportunities would also link into our corporate parenting role for young people leaving care.

The new strategy is initially being launched as a pilot scheme to help us get a better understanding of realistic targets and sources of funding that may be available.

Recycling success

It’s great to see that changes made as part of the on-going commissioning reviews are having a positive impact. In Waste Management, changes to some of the city’s recycling centres have resulted in us now sending 800 tonnes less waste to landfill sites each month since the changes were made. Well done to everyone involved.

New competition?

leek Geoff Mellor in Housing took inspiration from our Christmas jumper competition for this week’s St David’s celebrations. He claims to have invented the worst St David’s Day leek-tie competition!! Despite his efforts, unfortunately, as the only entrant he won’t be getting a prize. However the bonus Geoff is that at least when it goes out of fashion he can eat it. Thank you Geoff, you made me smile!

Exploring our investment opportunities

February 3, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Swansea welcomes visitors

Major companies from the Northern Powerhouse were in Swansea this week to explore investment opportunities.

As part of a programme organised by the Welsh Government, representatives of the north of England companies met with us, Neath Port Talbot Council and Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon. These companies have shown an interest in establishing a presence in Swansea/South Wales, should the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project be given the “green light”.

Included in the programme was a visit to the Meridian Tower for our officers to set the scene for the proposed investments in the city.

This all follows Welsh Government’s visit to Sheffield last year, where during discussions, they learnt that many would consider expanding into Wales and all were keen to explore working with Welsh supply chain companies.

On the back of the news The Right Honourable Charles Hendry has approved the tidal lagoon plans, and with the City Region’s City Deal bid now with the UK Government for approval, this is yet more encouraging news in terms of potential investment in job creation in Swansea in future.

European partnership

It was also great to welcome a delegation from our twin city in Mannheim. It gave us a chance to share the differing approaches to strategic planning, the efficiency agenda and how we set and deliver our respective corporate priorities. There were also workshops on a range of key areas including sustainable Swansea, cultural services, youth and city of music, infrastructure waste management, finance and safety.

The sessions were very successful allowing us to share our respective best practice and learn a few lessons of how the two councils can work collaboratively on the wider European stage.

Both the Mannheim and Northern Powerhouse delegations were invited to the Swansea City FC match against Southampton which the Swans won after a hard fought contest. So I hope our visitors will leave Swansea with positive views of the city and its prospects as well as our club’s prospects for survival in the Premier League.

A great showcase

Wales’ top social services official, Albert Heaney, visited our Child and Family Services this week to look at some of the great work we’re doing. A number of staff made presentations and gave him an insight into our work with families and young people.

Afterwards I spoke to Albert to get his reflections on the afternoon. He is a tough man to impress but I think he was quite blown away by what he saw.

It’s clear that the Welsh Government, and many other councils, are struggling to get to grips with the pressures within children’s services, particularly with increasing Looked After Children populations.

Albert has significant influence in the Welsh Government and the ear of key ministers, so I’m hoping he’ll pass on his positive views of Swansea. I also hope that we will get the opportunity to showcase our work to the Minister at some time in the near future.

I’m so grateful to all the staff for the work they do every day in this really challenging environment.

And further congratulations to staff in Child and Family Services on a hugely encouraging report from the CSSIW. Based on an unannounced inspection of our flexible home support service, the report includes positive feedback from not only the inspector, but also from the families using the service. Well done to all involved!

Local Government Reform

The Welsh Government has this week published the ‘White Paper: Reforming Local Government: Resilient and Renewed’. This follows discussions with the Cabinet Secretary throughout the autumn and it includes proposals for regionalised services as well as proposals considered in the previous Draft Bill. The unexpected element for me, and I suspect many others, is that the Welsh Government is seeking views on electoral reform, specifically on the lowering of the voting age to 16 and options for councils to determine their own voting arrangements (including the Single Transferable Vote system) and an option to allow councils to return to the committee system.

We’ll be considering these issues in some detail and will bring forward a report to Council to agree our response to the consultation.

A useful background paper from the Welsh Local Government Association can be found here.

Evolve

Last Friday I attended part of the development day held by the Evolve service in Gorseinon. The event was organised to engage staff in considering the options arising from the recent commissioning review into Family Support, and specifically into services offered to young people aged 11-plus. After sitting in on a couple of the groups it was interesting to see people airing their views frankly and clearly about the various options for the service going forward. It’s very important these events are inclusive and I was really pleased to see everyone engaging with enthusiasm. The staff also made some important points about the commissioning process which I’ll share with Corporate Management Team as we seek to improve it in the next round of reviews. They also asked me some tough questions about the tidal lagoon and current regeneration plans.

Thanks to Gavin Evans and all the team for making me feel at home and I look forward to discussing the outcomes of the review with Leadership Team and Cabinet in the coming weeks.

Birchgrove School

On Friday I also visited Birchgrove Comprehensive School to meet with the head teacher, Andrew Owen, who’s been in post since September. Like many of the schools I visit Birchgrove faces a number of challenges but the approach of the head teacher and staff is very positive and the determination to improve education for the pupils is very impressive. We had an in-depth discussion about education inclusion and specialist teaching facilities which Andrew has a real passion about.

I also had a quick tour round the school which has some excellent facilities and Andrew explained future plans to me. I was particularly interested in the practical skills options for students, including work in textiles and construction trades. I hope we can work very closely with the school on developing these skills, particularly in construction, given the massive investment taking place in our housing stock and regeneration projects. I have asked our Director of Place to push this idea forward as quickly as possible.

School performance

Sticking with education, I was delighted to see continued improvement by Swansea’s schools following the publication of the National Categorisation System. The latest Welsh Government school colour-coded categorisation figures published this week show a record number of schools in Swansea in the best performing (green) category and none at all in the most in need of help (red).

Congratulations and thanks to all the teaching staff and those in the education service for their hard work and determination to secure a better education for young people in Swansea. A special thank you must go to Martin Franklin and his team at Morriston Comprehensive School who recorded the biggest improvement in GCSE results of any school in Wales. In 2015 the school had been identified by the Welsh Government as one of 40 secondary schools in Wales most in need of improvement. I visited Martin and his team last year and it’s great to see the hard work they are putting in and making a real difference. These are not issues that can be fixed overnight and the improvement journey is long and hard, but this really is a dramatic improvement in pupil attainment; a core priority for us all.

Senior staff recruitment

Unfortunately we were unable to put forward candidates to Council for the post of Director of Resources and I will be working with HR and the current director, Mike Hawes, to identify a way forward later this week.

We’ll be reporting to the shortlisting committee next week on the recruitment of a Chief Education Officer, as you’ll remember that Lindsay Harvey will be leaving us to join Bridgend Council in March.

Green school

Well done to staff and pupils at Craigfelen Primary for helping the school gain a Platinum Eco Award. In recognition of the school having won three Green Flags, the award shows the school covers topics like energy, litter, recycling and healthy living both in class and extra-curricular activities.

Congratulations

Well done to all staff involved in the upgrade of the Matthew Street blocks of flats in Dyfatty. This major project will boost the health and wellbeing of residents, while also improving the appearance of a key gateway in and out of the city centre. More than 2,400 council homes will also have new kitchens and bathrooms in the 2017/2018 financial year in areas including Cwm Felin Fach, Bonymaen, Llanllienwen, Caemawr, Clase, Birchgrove, Clydach, Craig Cefn Parc, Pontarddulais and Penllergaer. This follows on from similar works that have been completed in areas including Penlan, Gendros and Waunarlwydd.