Chief Exec's Blog

I start this week’s blog with some sad news. As many of you will know, our Councillor for Penllegaer and Deputy Lord Mayor, Cllr Wendy Fitzgerald passed away recently. Many have paid tribute to Wendy’s character and commitment to her local community. I’d like to echo their sentiments as Wendy was certainly a force of nature and an outstanding ward councillor. Wendy’s funeral will be a small, private event for family and friends only but the family have advised that a memorial service will be taking place later in the year. I’ll let you know more when I have the details. In the meantime, my condolences to Wendy’s family, her councillor colleagues here and all her friends.

Public consultation on our budget for the next financial year officially opened this morning. Please have your say here and you can find the Cabinet report here. This is the latest stage in a process that started back in October with discussions between CMT, heads of service and Cabinet members. It’s a painstaking job and one feature is that we do all we can to protect jobs as well as the services our residents depend on every day. This year around 15 posts are affected across the Council and managers will be speaking to you if these changes affect you. Due to the devolved nature of school budgets, staff in these services would be dealt with separately within individual schools. Schools collectively have been involved through meetings with the Leader and all headteachers and school representatives through the statutory School Budget Forum. Public consultation ends on February 16.

This winter, teams from across the council have been pulling out all the stops for vulnerable people in need of support, food or a warm place to have a chat and a coffee. Yesterday, this important work was recognised by Welsh Government Minister Jane Hutt on a visit to the Swansea Spaces venue at Canolfan y Bont in Pontarddulais. It’s one of 80 Swansea Spaces to have received funding from our £650,000 #HereForYouThisWinter campaign that has seen thousands of people benefit from hundreds of grants. It is great for our reputation that a government minister sees first-hand how we support our communities through the cost of living crisis. I’ve no doubt Ms Hutt will share our best practice story with others. My thanks to all those involved, including Jane Whitmore’s team who’ve managed the campaign as well as all the council venues and staff for their assistance.

Congratulations to the Foster Swansea Wales team on a very positive Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) evaluation report published this week. The report highlighted how children are supported to have their voices heard and carers are well-trained and motivated to promote child wellbeing. You can read the report here. Fostering changes lives for good – as Alex Simpson’s story this week shows. If you’re interested in becoming a foster carer, please get in touch with the team here.

It’s goodbye soon to Diane Clatworthy from our Legal, Democratic and Elections team who is retiring after 42 years’ service. Diane began her career in Estates in 1983 and has worked in a number of services over that time. Good luck Diane and thank you for your support over the years.

Finally, as we start a new year I wanted to extend my usual offer to try and meet as many staff and teams as is possible over the coming year. If you want me to come along or have any staff recognition events or indeed any public engagement or stakeholder events, then please get in touch as I will do my best to attend even if it’s just to say hello. Please get in touch.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had an enjoyable festive period. This morning (Friday), Cabinet agreed a report on our budget proposals for the next financial year. The number of posts affected by the proposals is small this year and, as always, we will do all we can to minimise compulsory redundancies. Among the next steps will be discussions about the proposals with trade unions and other stakeholders. As staff, you’ll also be able to have your say as well when the consultation goes live. And if you live in Swansea, you’ll be able to participate in the consultation as a member of the public. Cabinet will then be updated on consultation feedback before it makes its final recommendations for a Council decision in March. I’ll keep you posted.

On Wednesday Senior Management Group (SMG) met at Guildhall for a busy day of discussions. With the next financial year coming into sight, we looked at service planning for the year ahead – a process that will affect everyone in the coming weeks and months. I also reminded managers of the importance of completing the annual appraisal reviews and provided an update on the arrangements for next year. I’ll issue some guidance shortly but if you’ve not had an appraisal, please speak to your manager On the staff survey, senior managers will now have their action plans for your area, so please ask them to update you.

One piece of feedback from the staff survey was about the importance of us getting out of our departmental silos and working together across the council on priorities so we can have the most impact possible on services and supporting our communities. One example is Tackling Poverty – one of our six corporate priorities. It’s everyone’s business and SMG received an update on our strategy from project lead Lee Cambule. We’re going out to consultation on the strategy in the coming weeks and you’ll have a chance to get involved, so watch this space. My thanks to Lee and the team for their work on this so far.

Similarly, community safety is a cross-council issue where collaboration can have more impact compared to teams working in isolation of one another. This week I was pleased to be part of the latest meeting of the new council-wide Community Safety Forum. It aims to share ideas, avoid duplication of effort and ensure we have a joined-up approach in implementing actions that benefit our communities in this vital area of our work. I’ll keep you updated on how this goes.

This year’s Swansea Grand Theatre pantomime – Jack and the Beanstalk – was yet another amazing success. The show broke its own box office record for the third year in a row with more than 35,000 people taking advantage of the traditional festive treat. The panto also raised more than £20,000 for the Lord Mayor’s Charities and other local good causes. As one season ends, planning for the next panto season begins and TV personality Joe Pasquale has already been lined up to star alongside our own Kev Johns in Aladdin in December. Congratulations to all involved.

Also well done to the Gower National Landscape team for securing coveted DarkSkies International status for the area. It’s a great achievement that has only been made possible through the work of officers, teams from a range of different services, Members and partner organisations. Find out more about what it means here, but it will undoubtedly be an important boost to our tourism industry, enhancing Gower’s reputation as a brilliant visitor destination.

Finally, it’s farewell in the next couple of weeks to Richard Stafford, our Swansea Bus Station manager, after 44 years working for the council in a variety of roles. Remarkably, Richard has not had to take a sick day in all that time. Well done Richard, thank you for your service and good luck in your next chapter.  

As this is my last blog of 2024, I first want to say thank you to you all for your support, resilience, and dedication this year. If the events of the last 12 months show anything they demonstrate that our reputation depends on you – and you have gone above and beyond for the people of Swansea. I wanted to close the year with some highlights. I can’t cover all of the good work, so apologies if I have missed something out.

We will soon be seeing the handover of 71/72 Kingsway, one of our landmark city-centre projects. We have seen major progress this year, including the Princess Quarter, Y Storfa, the opening of the Albert Hall and, of course, the Palace Theatre. We’ve also seen progress on keynote programmes like the tidal lagoon project, the Mumbles Sea Wall coastal protection project, and the Urban Splash City on the Beach renewal scheme. We’ve continued to take advantage of the City Deal. We have gained more than £20m of Levelling Up and Shared Prosperity funding to help renew communities with small-scale projects that have made a difference. We have also held two elections – Police and Crime Commissioner in May and the General Election in July.

In challenging times demand for our services has been greater than ever. We’ve responded by being there for the people of Swansea – the #HereForYouThisWinter campaign being the most recent example. These challenges extend to our social care, education services and our schools, who continue to respond brilliantly. Their responses, along with the council’s wider actions, are backed up by positive feedback from our regulatory bodies Audit Wales, Estyn and Care Inspectorate Wales.

We’ve been able to focus on regeneration projects that matter to our economic and social well-being and continue to make progress on climate change and nature recovery, although lack of government funding makes this difficult. But we’ve also not lost sight of our basics, including running cultural venues and libraries, filling potholes, collecting waste and recycling and dealing with the odd storm along the way. We continue to stage first-class events like the Wales Airshow, Ironman 70.3 and another brilliant Christmas parade, alongside seasonal attractions. My thanks this week go to the Brangwyn Hall team for enabling the BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ (NoW) Christmas Carols concert to be such a success.

Our continuing Successful and Sustainable Swansea transformation journey has seen our workforce strategy take important steps in developing our reputation as a learning organisation. This includes areas such as training, manager development and values and behaviours. Thanks to you, we’ve also secured many awards in the last 12 months – each enhancing our reputation.

Outcomes from our staff survey are helping improve communication and chart the next steps in our transformation programme. You are also making your voices heard in the new reward and recognition initiative, spotlighting staff achievements and long service. As part of this, Digital Services has just awarded 25 long service certificates to members of the team. 

So, there have been so many stories this year of collective and individual achievement, and they have been among the highlights of this year’s blog. My thanks to everyone involved for your continued efforts.

I’ve drawn attention to many retirements this year and I must mention Caroline Miller from the Cabinet Office, who is retiring early in the New Year after 43 years.  I also want to offer condolences and support to former colleagues of Rachel Davies on the sad news of her passing last week. We were all touched by Rachel’s story and staff around the council this week helped raise £2,700 for her family.

I’d like to offer personal thanks to all staff and councillors for your unwavering support for our residents and for demonstrating the continued excellence in service delivery. I remain in awe of the work you all do, day in, day out. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting many teams over the year and hope to continue to do so during 2025.

So I’ll close the year by saying thank you again, and wishing you all a happy Christmas and to those who will be working through the festive period I’d like to express my gratitude for your service and thank your families for their forbearance.

I want to add my appreciation to all the gratitude our teams have been getting this week from the public and elsewhere for their actions in dealing with Storm Darragh. When major events like this happen, people expect us to step up and we always do. Last weekend that included those who must continue with critical work such as providing social care support for vulnerable people. It also includes our highways, tree services, grounds maintenance teams and tractor drivers who also went above and beyond at the weekend. If you have time and access to Facebook, please have a look at our posts about Storm Darragh, the responses from the public and the praise they were offering which also included very clear and regular communications updates. There are too many to list in full, but I want to stress my thanks to all those who were working last weekend for their response to the emergency and for ensuring our reputation was enhanced in the eyes of the people we serve.

If you think someone involved in the response to Storm Darragh deserves recognition for what they did, please remember to nominate them through our new reward and recognition scheme. The scheme is open to all and in November a total of 15 nominations for teams and individuals were received. I look forward to browsing through them. My thanks to the staff engagement group for their role in setting up this important initiative and also the new long service awards. Services have also started rolling these out and we will see more over the coming weeks which recognise staff with 25 or 40 years service and it is great to see such dedication finally being recognised.

Among topics for Leadership Group this week was a discussion about refreshing our policy about unacceptable customer behaviour that can range from verbal or physical abuse of our staff to vexatious complainers. We have a zero-tolerance attitude to abuse by the public of our staff, so if it happens to you make sure you report it to your manager immediately. We’ll be going out to consultation with staff, trade unions and others on this so I’ll keep you posted. We will also shortly be reviewing the violence and aggression policy which will also give further protection.

Leadership Group also considered opportunities to improve our customer contact operating model. It may seem a bit dry but it is about how we use our resources best to respond to customers face-to-face, by phone or digitally. We will never stop offering a face-to-face service. But we should also look to update our options, including in areas like AI, so that our services offer more convenience to customers and are more efficient for us. My thanks to Sarah Lackenby and her team for their work and I will update you on developments.

You may have noticed in the news this week that the Welsh Government has unveiled its budget for the coming financial year. We are assessing what it means for us ahead of a report to Cabinet and consultation with you, trade unions and the public in the New Year. Look out for your opportunity to have your say.

This week I caught up with Lisa Wells, Sarah Lawton and our city centre team who, among other things, look after our award-winning indoor market, the Christmas Market, the Christmas lights and the city centre atmosphere at this critical time of year. As well as an update on how things are going during the festive period, we also discussed plans for next year. My thanks to them for doing a great job and please go along if you can and support our local traders. And don’t forget you can vote for us in the annual UK market awards here, though you’ve only got until midnight tonight, December 13.

And, finally, nominations for the Swansea Sports Awards close on December 31. So, if you know a club or individual whose contribution to their sporting community or success deserves to be noticed, get your nominations in now.

You know I am always keen to celebrate the achievements of our staff, particularly when they go the extra mile for our residents. A particularly good example of this is the annual Together at Christmas event in Brangwyn Hall, which I was pleased to be part of on Tuesday. By common consent it was one of the best ever, and you can read about it here. Alongside JR Events, many of our councillors and council teams made a contribution this year. The feedback as always was excellent and one example of what it can achieve was a gentleman who came to offer support because last year he was a homeless single parent, who had recently lost his wife, and didn’t know where to turn. In 2023 he walked through our doors, was greeted by our warm volunteers, and left with housing support and employment options. This year, he has a full time job and a safe and secure family home – all of which he says he can pinpoint to when he joined the event last year.

There are too many people to list here, but I want to thank everyone who took part for their contribution.

The event is just one part if the our #HereForYouThisWinter campaign which is helping support 1,000 families and individuals with shopping vouchers so they don’t go without the essentials on Christmas Day. Targeting those most in need of support is an important but challenging task, the turnaround time to meet the deadline was extremely tight and has seen various teams within the council work hard to deliver it. So thanks to the schools, ward members, social services, partner organisations and Cabinet members who were involved.

Also this week I am also indebted to our Cultural Services film unit and a number of other teams who’ve stepped up to answer the BBC’s DIY SOS call for help to transform a family’s home in Waun Wen. You can read about what our staff – including two apprentices who gave up their time to get the plastering done – contributed here.

Taken together what these three initiatives do is demonstrate how our staff and councillors are making a difference in our communities every day – and it’s boosting our reputation with the people we serve.

On Wednesday evening I was among the guests for the formal launch of City on the Beach by Urban Splash, our partners in ambitious plans for the next phase of our city’s regeneration. Urban Splash have a brilliant track record in helping revitalise and re-invent cities for the 21^st century – with tangible transformation delivered in places like Manchester, Salford, Liverpool and Plymouth, to name just a small number. We’ll be working with them to reimagine our City on the Beach at seven strategic sites, building on the success we’ve achieved so far. I’ll keep you posted in future blogs. 

Well done to all officers involved in creating the base for Penderyn at the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks. It’s been selected as a regional finalist in the 2025 Civic Trust Awards. Judges say the scheme contributes to the quality of the built environment, is sustainable, accessible and provides a positive civic contribution. It’ll now be considered for national Civic Trust Award recognition. If previous performance is anything to go by, it’ll be yet another win for the copperworks.

Our Chief Legal Officer, Tracey Meredith is retiring next week and the Appointments Committee has agreed to name Debbie Smith as interim Chief Legal Officer while the recruitment process goes ahead. I’d like to thank Tracey for her many years of service to the council and for the advice I have personally received over the years and want to wish her well in retirement. Also thanks to Debbie for stepping in to lead the team in the short term.

Finally, if you can, please join in the Christmas Hamper raffle being organised by the revenue and benefits team for a former colleague, Rachel Davies. They’re raising funds for Rachel so she can have secondary breast cancer treatment not available on the NHS. You can learn more and play a part in the fundraiser here.