Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Our performance is improving

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Amazing achievement

Once again I want to sing the praises of our staff who continue to do a great job despite budget pressures.

The latest Local Authority Performance Bulletin published this week shows just how good a job staff have done.  The all-Wales bulletin compares all 22 councils on a broad range of indicators, from the condition of roads to the performance of schools. Last year:

  • 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.

We’re performing in the top quartile in 32% of the indicators compared Cardiff’s 24% and Newport’s 12%.  Given the financial pressure and as an urban area we face tougher challenges, this improvement is really impressive.  You can view the bulletin here.

On top of this, our own quarterly performance report shows 80% of our corporate plan indicators met their target and 60% showed improvement compared to the first quarter last year.

We can’t be complacent; only yesterday a report warned that services like libraries and leisure centres could become unaffordable because about 56p in every pound spent by the Welsh Government on public services could go to the NHS.

We already knew the financial outlook is difficult as we need to save tens of millions of pounds again this year, but I’m inspired by the way our staff continue to meet these challenges and provide great services.

Thank you to everyone, I really appreciate your efforts.

More than one way to skin a cat

I attended a presentation about an alternative approach to improving rail connectivity to the city and the region.  Professor Mark Barry from Cardiff University, who was instrumental in developing the South East Metro plans, believes his latest proposal can achieve more than electrification would have given us. He proposes the creation of a direct rail link from Port Talbot to Swansea via the new Bay Campus and SA1, and a Swansea Bay Metro connecting Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot. It could reduce travel times to Cardiff by 30 minutes and reach London in just over two hours.  This would greatly benefit West Wales. It’s at a very early stage but we hope to work closely with regional partners and Welsh Government to develop the business case and engage with UK government to explore how it could be funded.

Schools

My week started on a high note with a visit to Brynmill Primary School where I met Jo Simons, headteacher, and her team.  I know the school well as my children were educated there and my granddaughter is currently in the reception class.  Jo highlighted the specific challenges that face this landlocked school, its Victorian design and lack of safe play space.  The team and the children have done a great job of making the environment colourful and welcoming but more remains to be done and in the current financial environment any improvements will require an innovative approach.  I promised to give this some thought.

Mike Penrose, Chief Executive at UNICEF, visited us to see how we’ve embedded UNCRC into everything we do.  So far almost 50,000 children and young people have been engaged in the Rights Respecting Schools programme. Mike was clearly impressed, citing Hafod Primary as possibly the best example he had seen across the globe for the Rights Respecting approach.  Thanks to all the schools and staff involved in driving this initiative forward.

I met YCA, the Primary Head teachers Association, to update them on the budget, local government reform and the plans for the city, including a plea for all schools to engage with our City of Culture and Tidal Lagoon campaigns.   Schools and pupils have a very important role in helping to promote the opportunities our regeneration plans present for the young people.  Thanks to the YCA for such a warm welcome and I look forward to our next meeting.

Congratulations to Donna Caswell and her team at Llanrhidian Primary School for their recent Excellent/Excellent Estyn inspection result.  The report is a great reflection of the school, its staff and pupils.

Farewells

Thelma Maguire, Performance Management Officer in our Housing team is retiring after 41 years. Also Jennifer Griffiths, Capital and Revenue Monitoring Officer in our Education Service, is leaving after 45 years fantastic contribution to the work on our schools estate.  I wish them both well after such outstanding service.

Being more commercial

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

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

APSE award-winners

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

Love the Lagoon

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

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

Culture

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

Passing the baton 

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

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

High 5s

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

Crest

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

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.

In the election spotlight

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This has been another long 24 hours for me and the team who help me to run the UK Government Parliamentary election. I cast my vote as soon as my polling station opened and was greeted by an amazingly cheery and bright-eyed polling station team of Mal, Geraldine and Rebecca.  Like all the other polling station staff they faced a long day and I am hugely indebted to everyone who helped run this election. Thanks for the warm welcome from the staff in the polling stations I was able to visit.

The elections team once again exceeded expectations, despite only just recovering from last month’s council elections. This time we faced heightened security concerns following the dreadful events at Manchester and London Bridge and the support from our security staff and special events team was outstanding.  I was also grateful for the work done by our resilience team working with the Police.

Congratulations to Dean Howard, the first presiding officer to deliver his ballot papers to the election count.  Dean came second at the local government election count but beat his personal best by arriving at around 10.15.  As you can see from the photo Dean was pretty pleased with his performance. Mind you his polling station was only 100 yards from the count.

We had a lot of attention on the Gower constituency given the closeness of the 2015 result; a margin of only 27 votes. This wasn’t just from the local and national media companies.  Gower was one of eight constituencies across the UK to be visited by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association team  led by Callum Forster and made up of politicians from the governments of Bangladesh, South Africa, St Lucia and Ghana.  Each of the eight constituencies is the subject of an election assessment to consider the conduct of the electoral process, and make recommendations for improvement. On Tuesday Huw Evans and I met with the CPA team and answered a range of questions about the electoral process and how it operates here in Swansea.  They also visited the postal vote team and a number of polling stations in the Gower constituency.  I look forward to their feedback and any suggestions on how the process could be improved in future.  Huw and I made a few suggestions of our own which would require changes to national legislation and hopefully the CPA team will take these on board.

Congratulations to the MPs who have been elected to represent our three constituencies;

Swansea West – Geraint Davies

Swansea East – Carolyn Harris

Gower – Tonia Antoniazzi

 

Appointments

This week the appointments committee met to shortlist candidates for the post of Director of Resources. Interviews will be held on 26th June and I am confident that Council will be able make an appointment the following day.

On a different note a number of people have asked me why the post of Chief Executive has been advertised. When I was appointed to the post last year it was on an interim basis for one year.  Under local government rules interim appointments of the most senior staff should only be for a year.  It was my view, and the Leader’s view, that an interim appointment would be the best way forward because it would allow the newly elected Council to choose their own permanent Chief Executive.

Approval of Swansea Central planning application

On Tuesday Planning Committee considered the planning application for Swansea Central. I have mentioned the project a number of times in previous blogs but the approval by Planning committee was a significant milestone and a green light to proceed with the regeneration plan for our City Centre.  Comments at the committee reflected the quality and detail of the application.  This has required a mammoth effort from our staff and a lot of people deserve to be thanked for their contributions not least of which are Phil Holmes, Huw Mowbray, Lee Richards, Katy Evans, Ryan Thomas, David Owen, Liam Smith and Stephen Smith.

The next phase is delivery and will be equally challenging but I am delighted that the key milestones have been met and confident that we can progress this apace.

Trading Standards

A Trading Standards case in Crown Court earlier this week has determined that a local shop owner jailed for selling dangerous ‘legal highs’ must now pay back more than £120,000 of the money he gained during the years he traded. This is great news and a further example of the hard work by Trading Standards and our Legal Team who have vigorously pursued the case, ensuring individuals do not profit from harmful trading activities.

City Centre

Demolition of the former Oceana building on Kingsway is now about 50% finished. Experts from Cuddy Group, who are demolishing the building for the council, are continuing to dismantle what remains of the building with a high-reach excavator. Scheduled for completion this summer, the demolition will pave the way on site for a new office development accommodating tech businesses.

High 5 Awards

Nominations are starting to increase for this year’s High 5 awards but we want more. The High 5 awards are open to any child, young person or group in three age ranges – under 13s, aged 14 to 19 or 20-25 year olds. We’ve also added a schools award this year which looks to recognise and reward larger school groups, even whole classes, years or teams.

All nominators need to do is fill in a nomination form here where they get the chance to explain why their choice of nominee should get a High 5, whatever the reason might be.

We’ve made it even more accessible to answer any query you have about High 5 this year with a new phone number we’ve set up.  If you have a query or would like to leave a voice nomination call (01792) 635699 and leave a message. 

UNESCO

Next week we will welcome visitors from across the UK and Europe who are keen to find out how Swansea is encouraging children and adults alike to learn about enterprise.

We were the first city in the UK to become a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and are hosting a two-day meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

Visitors will hear how we have worked with schools, colleges and universities to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), and see at first hand the extensive efforts to inspire young people to think about setting up their own businesses.

More than a dozen delegates are expected from as far afield as Scandinavia. I hope we will all give them a warm welcome.

Agile working

In the Civic Centre it’s great to see our new Agile Working area expanding. It’s encouraging to read the positivity coming from staff already there. I particularly like Marlyn Dickson’s observation in her case study: “Business conversations are so much easier … every working day feels much more human and personable.” Still wondering what it’s all about? Pop in and chat to some of your colleagues there!

Congratulations

It was great to hear that Burlais Primary School will soon be home to a garden from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show after their success in the Greening Grey Britain project. The new school which was completed in 2015 will soon have a courtyard filled with plant life and colour.  There was great coverage on the One Show last Monday as well.  Congratulations to Alison Bastion and her team.

Congratulations also to transformation officer Gemma Whyley, who helped lead a Welsh team to glory at a major global cheerleading championships in the USA. Gemma was one of two coaches involved with the Welsh Paracheer Unified Freestyle Pom team that won gold at the ICU International Cheerleading and Dance World Championships held in Orlando, Florida. Twenty-five per cent of the team – the first ever from Wales to win at the championships – is made up of young athletes with physical disabilities.

And finally….

Are you going to the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening (June 14)?

If you are, then all the info you’ll need on car parking, taxi tips, drop-off points, pick-up points and road closures is here. My thanks to staff in special events and transport for all their work in the build-up to the event to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible.