Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Penblwydd hapus

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

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

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

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

Homelessness

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

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

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

Sharing Information

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

Congratulations

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

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

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

 

 

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.

It’s All About You

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Chief ExecYesterday 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.