Transformation

Regional projects have a big impact

January 27, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Western Bay

With the push for regional collaboration likely to gain impetus after the local elections, it’s great to see one of our regional projects is having a big impact.

On Tuesday I attended the Western Bay Regional Partnership Board to discuss progress on the regional population assessment, which is a massive exercise of data gathering and interpretation in care and support that all such partnerships in Wales are required to carry out. This will help to make sure future decisions are evidence-based and that services are tailored to meet the needs of the population. It’s a crucial piece of work and it was encouraging to see it’s nearing completion and will be accessible via the Western Bay website and through our own Council website.

A lot of people have been involved in this great project, which has been a genuine partnership effort in terms of contributions. Overseen by Sara Hayes, Director of Public Health Wales at ABMU HB, data coordination led by Bridgend CBC and editorial oversight and writing led by Neath Port Talbot CBC colleagues, there has been considerable input from within our social services teams, particularly John Grenfell (Senior Information and Development Officer) and thanks to Sara Harvey and the team for all the hard work that has gone into it.

The board was established to provide high quality services that protect children and adults from harm, promote independence and deliver positive outcomes for people in Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea. The local authorities in these areas are working closely with the ABMU Health Board and with third and independent sector partners. Its primary purpose is to provide a strategic mechanism for co-ordinating a programme of change made up of specific projects that the partners have identified as a common priority.

The agenda for the partnership board was lengthy but important and we discussed the digital strategy for ABMU, the common regional ICT programme (WCCIS) as well as updates on commissioning for care homes and young people.

I think that the Western Bay is making good progress and I fully expect that the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Finance will want to see this continue when he returns to the issue of local government reform. Robust challenge and heated debate are often signs of a maturing partnership and this was certainly the case on Tuesday.

City Deal

It’s been another busy week on the City Deal with further video-conferences and discussions with the UK Government. Yesterday Council received a presentation from the Leader on the City Deal and a report seeking authority for the Leader and I to sign on behalf of Swansea, should the Welsh and UK Governments agree the City Deal in the coming weeks.

It was an excellent debate in the chamber and Council enthusiastically gave its unanimous support. I thank all officers and members who have contributed to this, particularly Huw Mowbray and the Economic Development Team who have lived and breathed this for the last six months!

Similar Council meetings have also been held in Carmarthenshire and Neath and Port Talbot this week to agree the principles of the deal, and Pembrokeshire will meet shortly to follow suit.

eBay

The Facilities Team, supported by the Commercial and Web teams, has successfully implemented the corporate eBay account. This started when the Facilities Team requested an eBay account as they had a surplus of office furniture from Penllergaer and other satellite sites.

In the initial phase we’ve tested the financial end-to-end sales process which involves links between a PayPal account and the Council’s main financial system.

To date we’ve generated more than £10,000. The experience of using eBay has been a positive one and so the expertise gained to date will next be made available to some users across the authority to list items for resale, surplus goods and redundant office equipment. At first eBay limited our trading account to a maximum of £1500 of sales; due to our success in selling goods and receiving positive feedback from buyers the limit has continually increased and we’re now able to sell up to £10,000 worth of goods at any one time and this limit will grow as our use of this sales platform expands. It’s important to note that as well as the financial gains that have been made by using this system we have also reduced waste. This method of disposal is separate to the Council’s re-use scheme. The rules of that scheme dictate that surplus property of any description should first be considered for transfer within the Council before any other method of disposal is considered.

Director of Resources

The Appointments Committee met on Monday and agreed a shortlist of six candidates for the post of Director of Resources. The final appointment will be made by Council on January 31 following the assessment centre process.

Staff Engagement Event

We’ve almost finished reviewing the comments and ideas from the staff engagement event and I hope we’ll be able to publish them all in the coming weeks. This has taken longer than expected because there were a large number of submissions and some of the ideas require detailed consideration by the Corporate Management Team and Leadership Team.

St David’s site

Rivington Land, our development managers for the St David’s site, will be publishing a draft outline planning application next week. Providing the ideas and concepts for the site’s regeneration, the publication follows extensive consultation with residents and businesses. The submission of an outline planning application will follow by the end of March for a new development featuring shops, restaurants, an indoor arena and a new, broad pedestrian link over Oystermouth Road.

Twin town

We’ve got some visitors from our twin city of Mannheim coming to Swansea next week to find out how the Council is going about transforming our services in the wake of the unprecedented budgetary challenges we’re facing. It’s testament to all the innovative work being carried out by our staff that the visit is taking place, with public sector organisations overseas keen to find out how we’re tackling the challenge head-on here.

Drone

Ben George, from our highways and transportation team, is becoming quite the expert in the use of drones to take photos and record videos. Some of his images and footage of Swansea from different vantage points are stunning. Here’s an image of the Guildhall he took with a drone.

We all deserve respect

January 12, 2017 by Martin 2 Comments

Respect

One issue that continues to bother me is aggression and bullying of staff by people outside the organisation. It has festered ever since I spoke to Highways staff who told me that they thought it was just a normal part of the job when working on site.

Well, it isn’t!

Many of the things we do as an organisation are essential but often unpopular. Child and adult protection, civil parking enforcement, housing evictions and planning enforcement are just a few obvious examples but it extends to many other officers and councillors who have direct contact with the public. There is a mutual obligation that we should respect our clients and customers and we are entitled to be treated with civility in return.

Last Friday I met with the Innovation Community group which was set up last year to consider what can be done to tackle this issue. It is a complex one but over the coming weeks I’m optimistic the group will have some proposals that we can share and consult upon. I hope as many of you as possible will let us know your thoughts on this.

Staff views

At the recent roadshows in December staff asked a number of questions on a wide range of issues. We’ve now provided answers to all of the questions which are available via this link.

It’s great that staff came along and asked questions, but please don’t wait for the next round of roadshows to raise issues. You can post a question or a comment on this blog and I will respond to everyone.

Tidal Lagoon

Well it’s been a long time coming but we finally have the report from Sir Charles Hendry on tidal lagoons and it recommends to the UK Government that we proceed with the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay project.

In his report Sir Charles concludes that

“Moving ahead with a pathfinder lagoon is, I believe, a no-regrets policy. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, has rightly spoken about the obligation on policy makers to plan for the longer-term.

I don’t believe there would be any debate in decades to come about whether this was the right thing to do, even if it ended up as the only lagoon constructed – but I would expect it is much more likely to be seen as the decision which started a new industry, and all done at the cost of a small number of pence to consumers each year. This is not therefore just about how we decarbonise the power sector in the most cost effective way now; it is also about very long-term, cheap indigenous power, the creation of an industry and the economic regeneration that it can bring in its wake. If this is the conclusion, it also follows that we should start that process as swiftly as we can. After years of debating, the evidence is I believe clear that tidal lagoons can play a cost-effective part of the UK’s energy mix.

This is fantastic news for the city, the region and the economy. It will provide clean, carbon-free electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes for over a century. It will ensure that thousands of job opportunities are created for our citizens and help to attract even more investment and employment to Swansea Bay.

The UK government still needs to agree on a deal and a marine licence will also need to be approved and there will be much more to do and say over the coming weeks. For now I wish to put on the record my thanks to all the politicians and officers who have worked tirelessly on this project over the last five years. I have no doubt that the efforts of Swansea councillors, planners, economic development and other staff members have had a significant impact on Sir Charles and the review team.

Improving our reputation

CMT had an update this week on our social media activity and we’re really pleased with the progress we’re making. We’ve started using more videos online which are catching the public’s attention and helping to get messages to them. Technology and online services are also helping to significantly reduce the number of people coming into the Contact Centre. We also had the latest customer feedback that shows 72% of people are satisfied with the way we run things, which is a great endorsement of our staff and services.

Pentrehafod School

On Monday I visited Pentrehafod School to meet the head teacher, Jennifer Ford. Jennifer took over the leadership of the school in September and has a very clear vision for the future. We discussed the current challenges and future financial pressures as well as school performance and strengths. She also told me about the moving events that took place at the school to commemorate the Aberfan disaster.

We then discussed the rich history of the Hafod area and the importance of the school and the community working with the Council to interpret and celebrate that history through the Hafod Copperworks Cu@Swansea project. Following our successful stage 1 HLF bid our teams in Economic Development and Cultural Services continue to work with Swansea University and the community to regenerate the area whilst preserving the important heritage. It’s easy to forget what a difference the Council and its partners, particularly Swansea University, have made over the last five decades. It is one of the most remarkable regeneration projects in Europe. For those of you who can access YouTube here is a reminder of what the lower Swansea valley used to look like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCT1rFB9weU

I hope all the schools in the Hafod area will engage with us and I look forward to working with Jennifer and her team on this project in the future.

Corporate Health Standard – Platinum

Yesterday we had a visit from the Corporate Health Standard http://gov.wales/topics/health/improvement/work/corporate/?lang=en assessors following our submission for assessment of the Platinum award. The process was extremely challenging and focussed on the extent to which we’re embedding sustainability into our organisation and demonstrating community leadership. My “half hour” session with the assessors lasted an hour and they were keen to hear about everything the Council and the staff are doing. My thanks go to Craig Gimblett, Sarah Owens, Katja Davies, Deb Webb and all of the staff and service users who took part in the preparation and presentations on the day. Also thanks to Councillors Clive Lloyd and Erika Kirchner who have been supportive of the project and the Helping Hands initiative throughout.

I’ve just been advised that we will be recommended by Public Health Wales to the Welsh Government for the Platinum Standard. This is an achievement that everyone in the organisation can feel rightly proud of with the assessors describing Swansea Council as an exemplar organisation. I will be saying more about this great award in future blogs.

Christmas hamper raffle

Following my comments about the Charity Christmas Quiz I was contacted by Anne Furlong from the Benefits team who told me about the annual Christmas hamper raffle. A few years ago she suggested to her colleagues that we organise Christmas hampers to raffle for charity (choosing a different charity each year). Staff kindly donate an item and then sell raffle tickets around the department. This year they raffled seven luxury hampers and 47 individual prizes raising £720 and the money went to Macmillan Cancer Care in memory of our friend and colleague Debra Griffiths who sadly recently lost her battle with cancer. They will be looking for a different charity to raise funds for this year and hopefully will be just as successful. Well done to all who contributed.

Thanks and well done

A big vote of thanks must go to staff in Waste Management. Kerbside collection, HWRC, Baling Plant managers, supervisors, and crews have done a tremendous job over the Christmas period. Comparing the fortnight after Christmas with the fortnight before Christmas, the amount of recyclables collected at the kerbside increased by 41% with the residual waste only increasing by 21%.

Obviously we expect waste to increase over the Christmas period, but comparing Christmas this year with last year we’ve seen an increase in recyclables of 16%, pushing our kerbside only recycling figure from 58% last Christmas to 60.1%. As well as staff, the residents of Swansea should also be congratulated for this huge effort in recycling.

There have been media articles suggesting that the three-bag limit has increased fly-tipping but our recycling performance has increased from 52.8% in 2013/14, prior to the three-bag limit, to 56.5% in 2014/15 and to 59.5% for 2015/16 For 2016/17 we expect this to rise to 61%. These figures include fly-tipping. Well done to all.

Thanks to our public lighting and city centre teams for their work in designing and installing new lighting columns in Castle Square. Including colour change technology, the lights will be themed in different colours to mark events that could include St David’s Day, Welsh internationals and awareness-raising campaigns.

Thanks to all the staff who have taken part in our consultations on adult social care and domiciliary care. The plans aim to reshape services to give adults more choice, control and independence by ensuring they get the right support at the right time. If you haven’t already taken part go to www.swansea.gov.uk/adultsocialcarereview for more info and to complete the survey. The consultation runs until February 10.

Timber frames have now started to go up on land off Milford Way in Penderry for the first new council homes in a generation. The new homes will be constructed to innovative, super energy efficient standards, and will help other similar schemes in future as we look to tackle fuel poverty and Swansea’s lack of affordable housing. Thank you to everyone involved.

Staff views matter

December 9, 2016 by Martin 4 Comments

Following the recent staff survey and feedback from the Its All About You 2 event, the Corporate Management Team are determined to have staff views translated into action. We received a report this week on feedback from the survey and the recent event at the Marriott and we agreed that all of the feedback would be brought together under themes and that these will be developed into an action plan which we’ll share on Staffnet. We’ll attempt to respond to all the questions that have been asked and publish these too. Thanks to all those who contributed.

Hats off to the individual who complained that they were expecting to meet Bono at the Its All about U2 event. That did make me chuckle!

The Learning Tower of PISA

This week many of you will have read the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. These tests measure progression in maths, reading and science and are run every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They are taken by 540,000 15-year-old pupils in 72 countries. Wales scored lower than the other UK regions in all three subject areas. Given our economic development aspirations one area of concern is in science where Wales scored 485, England scored 512, Northern Ireland 500 and Scotland 497. The results didn’t make for comfortable reading but my view is they need to be placed in context and not considered in isolation from other important factors and indicators. I think they are only a part of the story but, given their profile, important in influencing perceptions.

The Minister, Kirsty Williams AM, stated that the “further drop in our score mirrors our own understanding of what has happened with science teaching and learning in Wales”. In response she’ll be announcing new ambitious plans to ensure young people can achieve the highest standards in science.

Swansea schools continue to buck the national trend in a number of areas, including science. For example, at GCSE level in physics, 92% of Swansea students attained A*-C grades (91.7% for Wales). In chemistry the results were 92.8% in Swansea (91.1% Wales). In biology the results in Swansea were 90.4% (92.0% Wales).

My understanding from talking to some teachers is that the Welsh Government has already developed strong proposals which need time to bed-in but we’ll await the Minister’s new ambitious plans with interest. In the meantime, we must continue with the excellent progress made by the education team and the schools in the city.

Knelston Primary School

Yesterday I visited Knelston Primary School to meet the headteacher, Phil Jenkins. Phil has been in post since September, having previously been the Deputy at Llanrhidian Primary School. In a very short time he’s developed a clear vision for the school and I was extremely impressed by his enthusiasm and clarity. Major improvements have been made to the school environment internally and externally in a very short period of time. The school has the advantage of a fantastic outdoor environment and there are ambitious plans to improve it even more. The staff team were enthusiastic and focussed on achieving the best outcomes for the children.

The highlight was, as usual, meeting the children who sang three rousing songs from their Christmas concert and then asked me some questions including to the old chestnut “how many schools have you been to and which is your favourite?” Fortunately, having been asked the question on a few occasions, I have now managed to develop a diplomatic response to it. Thanks to Phil, his team and the children for making me feel so welcome, but I was gutted that I had to leave before the Christmas dinner.

Knelston is a feeder school for Bishopston Comprehensive School which you may have read about in the media this week. Bishopston has been named the highest ranked state secondary school in Wales by The Times, with its pupils receiving more A* and A grades in their GCSEs than any other school in the UK. This is an astonishing result. Congratulations to Jeff Bird, his staff team and the pupils.

A New Head for PRU

I’m delighted to announce that, following open competition via a national recruitment exercise and a rigorous two-day interview process, Amanda Taylor has been appointed Head of Swansea Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). I visited Amanda a few months ago in her current role as headteacher of Trallwn Primary School where she has been since 2010. Before that, Amanda was headteacher at Cwm Primary School for five years and had previously gained valuable experience working as a teacher in a specialist teaching facility. As a former local authority adviser for special educational needs, Amanda also brings significant specialist knowledge to the role.

I know she’ll be sad to leave her current role which she’s taken on with great enthusiasm and drive. She’ll leave a foundation of improvement for the school to build on but Amanda will now play a key role in helping us realise our aspirations to make education other than at school (EOTAS) provision in Swansea sector-leading. Congratulations Amanda.

Wales Audit Office

This morning I’m being interviewed by the Wales Audit Office team who are conducting a review into our governance arrangements when making service changes. A number of you will already have taken part in the review. This is an important piece of work which will focus on our commissioning process, engagement with stakeholders and our track record in the delivery of changes to council services. It’ll be some weeks before the WAO produce a draft report, but my thanks go to Richard Rowlands and the team who have been co-ordinating the review for us.

From Chile to Wales

Tonight I’ll be attending a colleague’s book launch at Volcano Theatre on High Street. Jose Cifuentes, who works in our educational psychology team, has written an autobiographical novel based on his personal experiences as a refugee who fled Chile with his wife and baby daughter and came to Wales in 1977. Revolutionary Dreams: From Chile to Wales is a harrowing account of the events he witnessed and experienced as a young man and a timely reminder of the importance of the role Swansea continues to play as a City of Sanctuary. I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to others.

Congratulations

We’ve recently won two Fields in Trust Awards – a Getting Active Award for Brynmill Park and a Best Play Initiative Award for Maesteg Park. Well done to all staff involved for their joint efforts.

Congratulations to Josh Wells, currently in his fourth year of a plastering apprenticeship, for making it to the final of the Plastering Skillbuild UK competition. Josh was given a plastering challenge which he had 19 hours to complete, under incredible pressure with many people watching and passing by. Josh can be rightfully proud of reaching the finals, making him one of the top eight apprentices in Great Britain. Well done, Josh!

It was great to read in the most recent edition of State magazine the fantastic coverage about our re-opened Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Swansea’s diverse cultural offer. It reinforced our status as a City of Culture. This hugely positive, six-page article came about thanks to an invite to the magazine from our Tourism team. My thanks to all staff involved.

Our Whitethorns Intensive Day Service team for adults with learning disabilities has already helped Swansea Bay beach pick-up a Trip Advisor award this year thanks to their litter clean-ups. Now the Swansea Canal Society has nominated the team for an “Outstanding Volunteer” award from the Galaxy Hot Chocolate foundation for their work to keep the canal towpath spic and span. It’s great to see their efforts being recognised by other groups and organisations so well done to the team.

Pupils with excellent or improving attendance were invited to the Civic Centre this week for the first ever end-of-term awards ceremony. The Education Department teamed up with local businesses who donated some fantastic prizes for the incentivising school attendance programme. Youngsters around the city who achieved a 98 per cent attendance record or better during the first half of the autumn term or had shown significant improvement were entered into a prize draw and the winners and their families collected their goodies on Tuesday during a very successful event.

A turf-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday afternoon, marking the start of construction works for a new family centre and GP surgery complex in Mayhill. This will be the first fully-integrated facility of its kind in Wales, coming about thanks to a partnership between the council, ABMU, the Welsh Government and a health and social care specialist developer called Ashley House. This new complex will benefit many thousands of residents in one of Swansea’s most disadvantaged communities. I was involved in this project at its earliest stages and I know how challenging it has been to deliver so my thanks go to all staff who have worked hard to get us to this stage.

Farewell

A week today marks the last working day of Wayne Evans, or as a former Deputy Leader once described him “the Boy from Penclawdd”. Wayne has worked in a variety of posts in the organisation since 2002 and been involved in major projects and programmes to improve the physical activity of children and adults in the city. Happy retirement Wayne.

It’s All About You

November 25, 2016 by Martin 2 Comments

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the It’s All About You 2 event at the Marriott Hotel which was a massive success. Thanks to all the staff who attended and particularly those who spoke to me while I was wandering round or in the “Confidentiality Booth”. It was great to see so many people there, particularly from staff based at the depots as well as office based employees. We received a huge number of innovative suggestions about how services can be improved, how staff can be better involved and supported, and ways in which we can save money and generate income. A comprehensive list will be prepared for the Corporate Management Team to consider over the coming weeks.

The event may have appeared chaotic but was incredibly well organised and my thanks go to all involved including Leanne Cutts, Bob Fenwick, Ann Smith, Anne Sennett, Rebecca Tribe, Mark Gosney, Lee O’Hara and Katja Davies. Congratulations also must go to the former Swans striker Lee Trundle who outscored the entire Corporate Management Team in his knowledge of unusual council statistics, including what types of animals have been left in council houses and how many thousands of tons of sand had been shifted to create dunes at Swansea Bay. A report of the day will be posted on Staffnet shortly.

This event along with the staff survey feedback and the upcoming staff roadshows show our determination to engage staff.

We’ll be holding staff roadshows in the next few weeks to update people on the budget and Sustainable Swansea. There are roadshows next week for senior managers followed by a series of events for staff starting on December 5 for two weeks. I’d like as many staff as possible to go along so please make every effort to attend.

We’re improving

The Wales Audit Office Annual Improvement Report (AIR) was presented to Council by Steve Barry from the WAO last night. The report concludes the Council has continued to improve in its priority areas and its arrangements are likely to support future improvement. This is excellent news and the report was well received by the members of Council. This report reflects the work done by officers and councillors in this authority and I’m delighted that your efforts have been reflected and praised by the WAO. Having said this, there is still more to do and the WAO make further recommendations on how we might improve the effectiveness of decision making, the external reporting of performance, performance management, delivery of savings and service business planning. The Corporate Management Team have action plans in place to respond to these recommendations so that we can maintain the pace of progress

City Centre

The Leader was at Meridian Tower on Monday to give a presentation of the progress of plans to regenerate the city centre to to Swansea’s business community. He was joined by representatives of Rivington Land, the company managing the regeneration of the site. The was the launch of the first stage of pre-application consultation on the proposals for Swansea Central (the development of the St David’s and Oystermouth Road sites in Swansea city centre). This was an important part of the planning process and around 50 people attended.

A new indoor arena, new shops, restaurants, a boutique cinema, a hotel and a broad footbridge over Oystermouth Road are among the ideas and concepts, which have now gone out for consultation. All feedback received will help inform the submission of an outline planning application in March, 2017. You can have your say by visiting or by going along to a public exhibition next to New Look in St Mary’s Square on Thursday December 1 (10am to 8pm), Friday December 2 (10am to 4pm) or Saturday December 3 (10am to 4pm).

A second event is being held at the Grand Theatre on 16 December.

Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

This week’s budget statement contained a number of headlines but I think it was hugely significant that the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, recommitted the Government’s support for the Swansea Bay City Deal. The Leader and I will be visiting London in the next week or so to meet with the Secretary of State, Alun Cairns, along with the business leaders who are supporting our bid. Wales will also get an extra £400m over five years to spend on capital projects, although it is not yet clear what this money will be targeted on.

Corporate Health Standard Gold Award

Congratulations to all involved in the recent visit by the assessor from Public Health Wales who was inspecting our work on wellbeing and as part of the revalidation process under the new Wales Government criteria for Gold Awards. We were successful in this, receiving significant praise from the assessor for the all the pro-active work and innovation. They recognised our commitment, strategy, innovation and investment in the staff wellbeing. Helping Hands was also praised for the idea, growth, its quality, staff engagement, diversity and support it offers. A report will be submitted shortly highlighting our strengths, improvements and development points for the future. The Welsh Government will receive the recommendation to issue us with the new Gold Award shortly.

White Ribbon Day

Today (Friday November 25) is White Ribbon Day, where we’ll again be highlighting the issue of tackling male domestic violence against women. To mark the day, an event is taking place at the domestic abuse one-stop shop on Singleton Street, opposite the Grand Theatre, from 10am to 3pm.

Sparkle

Swansea Diversity Seminar takes place today to raise awareness of the diversity present within the transgender community and provide an opportunity for networking across a number of agencies. It’s held in the Guildhall Council Chamber from 9am-1.30pm. and Swansea’s fifth Transgender Sparkle Event will be held at the National Waterfront Museum tomorrow. There’ll be information and retail stalls and evening entertainment from 7pm, including local performers and a resident DJ.

Amazing staff stories

We all felt the terrible weather earlier this week but thankfully our staff responded magnificently. Our highways teams were worked through the night to keep our city moving and our call centre were kept busy across all services, with one member of the team taking 175 calls in a day! These are just a few examples so thank you to everyone who responded so brilliantly.

Talk about going the extra mile to benefit residents! Sue Walters in our registrars team was conducting a wedding at the King Arthur Hotel on Saturday when she slipped and broke her leg. But unaware of the extent of her injury, Sue soldiered on in great discomfort to conduct another two weddings after her accident. Well done Sue and I hope you recover quickly.

And finally, our events staff do a terrific job every year in organising the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k. Now we can help them get the recognition they deserve by voting for the race to be named the best 10k in the UK at the 2017 Running Awards. Please get your vote in for the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k here and vote by the end of the month.

The race came in second place earlier this year, so this is a chance to make sure it gets top spot next year.

Staff survey offers largely encouraging feedback

November 18, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

Staff survey

We’ve just received the initial results from this year’s staff survey and I’m pleased to say most of the issues are moving in the right direction.

Here are some headlines:

The overall response rate was 2% higher than last year and it’s encouraging to see the number of hard copy responses had more than doubled from last year, hopefully indicating that staff working in remote sites had a greater input than ever before.

No area performed worse than last year and in many areas staff responses were much more positive. For instance, awareness of safeguarding has improved significantly since the last survey which is really good news. The results indicate there’s still work to be done in this area but that we’re heading in the right direction.

The experiences of bullying and harassment have dropped compared to last year, but almost 60% of those who had experienced it did not report it. We need to understand why this is the case and I’ll be asking for views on this.

The full results are available on Staffnet by following this link www.swansea.gov.uk/staffnet/staffsurvey and I‘ve asked for the survey to be sent to the Innovation Community for analysis and observations.

Its_all_about_you_2_logo I’m hoping we’ll be able to use these results at the It’s All About You 2 event at the Marriott Hotel next week which I hope many of you will be able to attend.

In the meantime, I’ve asked CMT members to consider the results relating to their service areas and develop plans to address those areas which need improving.

CMT away day

There was a full agenda for the CMT away day on Wednesday this week. We started with a presentation on city centre funding from Phil Holmes and Huw Mowbray which set out the proposals for the next decade. Securing the funding will be challenging but doing nothing is not an option and further reports will now be brought to Cabinet and Council to progress this corporate priority.

Also on the agenda was a 178-page report on the Leading Learners strategy for the education service presented by our Chief Education Officer, Lindsay Harvey. The strategy sets out in detail the aims, outcomes and work plan for the future and this was debated at some length, given that pupil attainment is another of our key corporate priorities. The strategic aims focus on three areas: empowering schools, transforming central education services and improving learning environments.

CMT members emphasised the need to have clear links to other corporate priorities, particularly poverty, the economy and safeguarding, and supported the report which will now be discussed with the Cabinet and hopefully be formally endorsed.

Thanks to Lindsay and his team in education for this mammoth piece of work.

Budget

Our budget discussions have all but drawn to a close for now with the recent challenge sessions going well. It’s meant we’ve been able to propose a series of budget reductions to go to Cabinet on December 12. Following that we’ll be launching a public consultation and holding staff roadshows to get feedback on the proposals. Then in February we’ll report back on the feedback and Cabinet and Council will discuss the 2017/18 budget proposals. These discussions are never easy so thank you to everyone involved so far.

Spike

IMG-20161118-WA0000 Next Friday will be the last working day for Mike Davies in Unison, better known to the rest of us as Spike. Spike began work with us in March 1979 as a clerical officer with the City Treasurer’s Officer (Swansea City Council). He held a variety of posts in the Treasurer’s department, reaching senior officer level rapidly through a series of promotions. In May 2001 he started his Unison duties one day per week and in June 2004 he was seconded to Unison on a full-time basis. This was originally intended for a year but it was extended annually and he has remained in the post of Branch Secretary up until his last day with us! Spike and I have had numerous meetings and discussions since he took up his Unison duties. These have often involved difficult and contentious workforce issues and on many occasions management and the trade union did not see eye to eye. Throughout these negotiations and discussions Spike conducted himself professionally and appropriately, representing his members passionately and with great integrity. He has become an institution in the council and will be sorely missed by me and many others. I will, however, inevitably bump into him in future given our common love of the Swans and the Brunswick Inn. I wish him all the best for the future. He will be having his leaving do at the Bay View from 5.30pm on November 25 and all are invited.

Safeguarding

This week has been National Safeguarding Week and teams across the council have been showing their support online and attending events aimed at improving practice and developing networks. More than half our staff have done the mandatory safeguarding training and, if you’ve not done yours, I’d urge you to participate soon.

Community spirit

Our libraries are at the heart of our communities. A great example of this recently saw a man come into Morriston Library with an old paper copy of his CV. We work in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions Communities for Work team and a staff member was on hand to help him update his CV on a computer. His CV was sent to employers and he’s now been offered a job. It just goes to show the support our libraries and partnerships provide.

Christmas cheer

Waterfront Winterland will return to Museum Park in the grounds of the National Waterfront Museum from this evening, so my thanks to staff in events and marketing for its organisation and promotion. The Admiral ice rink, a children’s ice rink, Santa’s grotto and a big wheel all again feature.

A Christmas Market on Oxford Street and Santa’s grotto on Portland Street will be running from Thursday (November 24) until December 21. Thanks to staff in our city centre team for their work in helping arrange these attractions.

City centre

Representatives from Swansea’s business community will be at an event at Meridian Quay on Monday, where they’ll be updated on progress of plans to redevelop the St David’s site. Consultation with businesses and residents will follow over coming weeks as Rivington Land, the company we’ve appointed to manage the regeneration of the site, head towards the submission of an outline planning application in March.

Finally, you may have recently read about US basketball superstar Steve Nash’s links with Swansea. Our tourism team are making the most of these links by sending Steve a basketball-themed info-graphic on Twitter, encouraging him to visit Swansea Bay in future. A great idea!