Chief Exec's Blog

This week CMT had an update on our continuing review of our HR policies. There’s a lot of them and they influence our working lives every day. They’re there to support you in your work and they need to comply with current legislation, reflect our values and behaviours and support our corporate objectives, including wellbeing, equality and effective delivery of services. The policies provide a robust framework for managing key aspects of employment, including recruitment, performance, and employee relations. They ensure clarity for managers and employees, promoting best practice across all service areas. CMT’s briefing included a schedule of what’s coming up over the next six months or so. It includes a refresh of policies ranging from capability and secondary employment to family friendly and early retirement and redundancy. It was really good to hear about the momentum behind the overall review and the positive engagement there is with trade unions on these issues through the joint consultative committee. My thanks to all involved, particularly Amy Hutchings and the HR team. This is valuable work demonstrating our determination to be a modern, forward-looking organisation people want to be part of that’s fair and consistent with its workforce. I’ll keep you posted on progress.

Homelessness is a major issue for communities right across the UK, and it’s no different in Swansea. However, alongside our partners, we are helping lead the way with innovative approaches that support homeless people taking steps towards a more secure, hopeful future and a permanent home. The latest example is the opening this week of Llys Glas, a 68-room temporary accommodation on Orchard Street that offers a real chance for change, compared to dispiriting bed-and-breakfast places. Read more about it here. We’re also working with Codi (formerly Pobl) on developing the former Sun Alliance building on St Helen’s Road into similar accommodation in the future. As a council, we should be proud of our commitment and expertise supporting vulnerable people to make the most of their lives. My thanks go to our housing and homelessness teams for their work in this challenging environment.

On Monday evening I attended the Swansea Area Committee of One Voice Wales. I presented an overview about our priorities and how they link with the valuable work committee members do at the heart of their communities. It was a very good session and an opportunity for me to understand a little more about their priorities too. I was also very pleased to hear direct such positive feedback about our frontline services and the support we provide to our communities. My thanks to all involved.

Later this month our climate change and nature recovery teams are launching a recruitment drive for staff to join our growing band of Climate and Nature Champions. You can be part of it by going along to an information event on January 28 in Committee Room 3A at Guildhall between 10am and noon. Email Jane Richmond, our Project Manager for Strategic Climate Change for more information.

Congratulations to the hard-working team at the Grand Theatre for another brilliant effort with the festive panto that took its final curtain-call on January 4. The panto attracted more than 34,000 theatre-goers, which is a great result. If you are into forward planning, tickets for next year’s show are already on sale!

Finally, don’t forget our budget consultation has started. As a resident or a member of staff, please take time out to have your say. Thanks.

Happy New Year to you. I hope you enjoyed the festive period and my thanks, as always, to those who were on duty so that our services were maintained for our communities.

The annual consultation on how we fund vital services has started, so please make sure you take the chance to have your say as a member of staff and as a resident if you live in Swansea. Although more than 40% of our costs are staff-related, we always try to keep the number of jobs affected to a minimum and this year is no different. As the report to Cabinet says, a dozen jobs may be affected and we’ll be working with trade unions to find ways to reduce that number over the coming weeks. Thanks to prudent financial management of our resources over the years and a 5.2% increase in Welsh Government funding, we’ll be spending around £980m on essential public services in the coming year – the equivalent of around £4,000 per household. My thanks to Ben Smith, Sarah Willis and the finance team for their work on the budget so far. Final decisions on the budget will be made by Full Council in March.

The weather has been a dominant feature for some service areas over the last week or so. A big thank-you is due to all our teams who’ve gone the extra mile to keep services on track through the snow and icy conditions. Our teams were out for several days in succession gritting major roads and responding to requests from residents for support. The weather also impacted other teams including waste collections and the recycling centres who are also continuing to work hard to catch up with all the additional seasonal waste being presented by residents. My thanks to all the staff who are out and about delivering wider services in such difficult circumstances as its truly appreciated.

On Wednesday, the latest meeting of senior management group – our middle managers, heads of service and directors – discussed a number of issues that affect what you do every day. One session was dedicated to looking at business continuity and how resilient we’d be in the event of a  major cyber-attack on our operations. The session considered the potential costs incurred in terms of stolen confidential information and our ability to provide critical services. It also looked at the time and money needed to recover from a cyber-attack, figures which were very sobering. I cannot stress enough how important you are in preventing those who would do us harm from getting access to our systems. Of course, prevention is better than cure and as such please go here to refresh yourselves on what you can do to help. My thanks to Craig Gimblett, Ben Cromie, Sarah Lackenby and Jo Harley for arranging the session and to the wider digital services team for their work keeping us safe from the criminals.

SMG also looked at our debt recovery programme and the significant progress that’s seen most debts more than a year old now paid up. Making sure we’re paid in a timely way what we are owed by people who’ve had a service from us is critical. If we don’t do it, we’ll have less money to spend on services and if there’s a write-off needed, then the money comes directly from the budget of the department concerned. So, if you are involved with managing budgets, please make sure you do all you can to follow our Accounts Receivable rules. If you need advice, speak to the team. My thanks to Michelle Davies and her team for their achievements over the last year and for the presentation to SMG.

Also on Wednesday, I was extremely pleased to be at the launch of the Swansea Pledge, an innovative collaboration led by our Education team. The pledge encourages local business to work with us to offer real-world experiences that inspire young people and help them to develop skills for work and for life. We want our young people to be as well-placed as possible to take advantage of the new jobs and other benefits being delivered by our £1bn regeneration programme and wider opportunities across the city. By linking in with partners including Gower College, the Swansea Pledge will help us do that and my thanks to Dave Bawden and Rachel Rimmer and the wider team for leading the way on this important initiative. The council, as well as facilitating the initiative, has also signed up in its own right as an employer so we will also be exploring how our services can look to continue to create further opportunities for our young people and the future workforce for Swansea.

And finally, well done to the Revs and Bens team on the success of its Christmas raffle organised by Anne Furlong. It raised £570 for one of our local charities, Zac’s place. 

As we approach the end of the year, I want to begin by saying a heartfelt thank you to every one of you. Your commitment, creativity and resilience have once again defined what it means to be part of Team Swansea. Whether you’ve been delivering frontline services, supporting colleagues behind the scenes, or helping us shape the future of the council, your contribution has made a real difference.

This year has been full of challenges, but also full of progress. We’ve delivered on major projects, responded to national scrutiny with confidence, and continued to put people at the heart of everything we do.

Time and again this year, I’ve seen examples of colleagues going above and beyond – not just in their day jobs, but in the way they support each other and our communities. Whether it’s responding to emergencies, helping residents through difficult times, or simply offering a kind word to a colleague, your actions reflect the very best of public service. Our values and behaviours – people focus, working together, innovation – are more than words on a page. The latest example is news this week that Rachel Healion from our HR team has been named Gower College Swansea’s Apprentice Employer Champion of the Year for her work supporting our staff gaining skills with the college. My thanks also to our highways and emergency planning teams who continue to be busy round the clock dealing with weather-related flooding issues, particularly in Cwmbwrla. Please carry on sharing your stories of achievement and going the extra mile with me and I’ll share them with everyone else.

This year saw the delivery of some of our most ambitious transformation projects to date. Chief among them was the completion and opening of two city centre landmarks, 71/72 Kingsway and Y Storfa which got its official opening this week. Together they’re already making a difference in our determination to deliver city centre transformation, drive the local economy forward and enhance our reputation and the city’s as a business and people-friendly place. Looking forward to next year, today (Friday) the Leader and I are getting an update on the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon renewable energy project, which continues to make good progress. Earlier this week we also attended the Great Western Cities collaboration in Bristol which also promises to support continued economic regeneration for our region in 2026 by improving linkages and opportunities across the cities of South Wales and the South West of England.

One of the other standout moments of a standout year was the Panel Performance Assessment (PPA) in June. This independent review of how we work as a council was an important undertaking and the panel’s feedback was overwhelmingly positive. They described us as a good and ambitious council with strong leadership, a clear sense of purpose, and a workforce that is motivated, compassionate and committed to public service. They praised our ‘Team Swansea’ culture, our inclusive political and officer relationships, and our ability to deliver transformation at pace.

This  was a powerful endorsement of the way we work together. It also gave us valuable insights into where we can go further, particularly around managing workloads and prioritising our efforts. We’ll be using that feedback to shape our plans for the future and you will hear more about this in future blogs.

The staff survey returned in the autumn, and once again you responded strongly. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their views. Your feedback is essential in helping us understand what’s working, where we need to improve, and how we can support you better. We will analyse the results and share them with services areas so that any action can be followed up in the coming year.

As we turn the page to 2026, we know there will be both challenges and opportunities and one of our first actions in the new year  are our budget proposals for 2026-27 which will go to Cabinet in early January and on which you’ll have an opportunity to speak during the consultation period.

Of course, while most residents will be enjoying time off with friends and family, our teams will be on stand-by to step in with support when needed. My thanks to all those who will be here for the people of Swansea over the festive period, as always.

So, to conclude 2025 I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and happy new year and thank you again for everything you’ve done this year

This week I met up with the trade unions alongside our director of finance, Ben Smith, to give them an update on our budget. At the moment, the position looks encouraging, thanks to continuing prudent financial management by the Council  and following this week’s statement from Welsh Government about a planned 4.5% increase in funding for Welsh councils overall. Budget proposals will be going to Cabinet on January 9, after which you and our residents will have the chance to have a say before Full Council considers the final proposals in March. It’s a detailed process to get to this stage and I’d like to thank Ben and his team for leading the way so far, as well as to everyone who’s made a contribution.

Work is progressing on developing a new online app to make our service planning simpler and more efficient. Over the last six months we’ve been building the app on our Inphase system which is already used for managing our performance and risk and issues. Several services have been testing the app in the past few weeks and we’re aiming to complete the build during January. The plan is to then roll-out the new app to services in February in time for them to input their 2026/27 service plan using the new platform.

It will modernise our annual service planning and reduce duplication by linking service planning, performance and risk on a single system. It’ll also give us quicker and better information to monitor progress throughout the year. After Christmas we’ll be producing guidance and helpful videos to support users during the transition to the new app. My thanks to all the staff involved in developing the app, particularly Suzi Richards and Leanne John who’ve done great work in getting us to this point.

In readiness, the service planning process begins in January when Heads of Service will be working with their managers to undertake an in-depth review of what has happened in the past year to help establish their service objectives for 2026/27 and beyond.

On Monday I had a quarterly catch up with the local Audit Wales team, discussing our current position and the work programme we’ve agreed to follow. While Audit Wales is a regulatory body, it’s important we maintain positive working relationships so any reviews of council activities accurately reflect the position and areas for improvement are acted on. I also attended Wednesday’s Audit and Governance committee meeting which, similar to Audit Wales, is there to provide scrutiny and insights on our arrangements to ensure services are delivered efficiently and effectively. My thanks to our internal Audit team and all those who continue to support this important activity.

Along with our director of social services Dave Howes, and cabinet members I caught up with the Regional Partnership Board this week. These exist across Wales and bring together health boards, local authorities and third sector organisations so we can work together to meet the care and support needs of the people in our area. The board may appear high-level and strategic, but the decisions the it makes have a direct impact on the important work we do supporting vulnerable people who need health and social care with a  focus this time on the great work being done around dementia care.  In addition we continue to work closely with our partners in the health board to deal with winter pressures, bed blocking and rising numbers of flu cases needing hospital treatment. I want to thank our social care teams for their continuing commitment helping patients and their families experiencing difficult times.

On Monday the leader and I met with the Police and Crime Commissioner Emma Wools, for discussions of issues of common interest that helps our residents feel safe at home and in our communities. We saw some really encouraging trends on the continuing and significant decline in crime statistics in our area. One of the key factors in this is the ongoing partnership approach we’re taking to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, an example of which was the positive effect on young people of City Chill events in the city centre and further events are planned over the winter period.

A big thank you to our Brangwyn Hall staff, cleaners, councillors and many other volunteers from around the council for their contribution to yet another hugely-successful Together at Christmas event. More than 700 people attended, enjoying a hearty festive meal, music, entertainment and much more besides. It’s a firm favourite in our annual calendar of events and the positive lift it gives to vulnerable people at this time of year is great to see.

Next week our digital services team will be saying farewell to Dave Smith, who is retiring after 31 years in local government. Dave has been a key member of the education and schools support team and I want to wish him well in his next chapter.

It’s always a pleasure to celebrate staff and council achievements in the blog, especially when it’s an endorsement of what we do by influential people and organisations. The final report of the Panel Performance Assessment certainly fits that bill. Last night’s Full Council meeting added its support to the panel’s recognition of the hard work you do every day delivering vital services to our residents. You can read more about the PPA final report here. But this in-depth study by experts in their field concluded that we are a well-run council of committed, engaged people with excellent officer-member relations and good prospects for continued improvement in the years ahead. It’s not an endorsement casually applied or one that everyone gets. I am proud of everything you all achieve day in day out  and I hope you are too. There are a few actions that we will be following up in the coming months so you will see more updates as these items progress.

The PPA adds to our reputation among our peers and today our city’s growing status as a great place to invest is also being celebrated at the landmark 71/72 Kingsway venue developed by our regeneration team. Top people from Amazon UK are visiting to officially open the headquarters of their latest tech start-up company, Veeqo. That a company as influential among its peers as Amazon can see our potential and want to invest in a council-led development is a huge vote of confidence in us and in our city’s reputation.

The Leader and I also attended the Wales Investment Summit in Newport on Monday, which was another opportunity to share our story with a range of other potential investors and influencers. All this is happening in the same week as Y Storfa opened to the public to great acclaim. The city centre is a corporate priority, and people can see we are leading the way in its revitalisation. My thanks to all our teams involved for their work delivering change for good.

Our Leadership Group of directors and heads of service met on Wednesday. We covered a range of topics, including news of Oracle updates such as the new manager and employee self-service systems. We also had a briefing about improvements to the appraisal management system which will make the process more user-friendly by next year’s round of reviews.

The leadership team had a presentation  about our education service’s draft Designing Destinations Strategy – our ambitious plan to enable every young person to design and develop the skills and experiences they need for the future they want for themselves. A key part of it is the Swansea Pledge, where businesses and organisations step up to offer work experience, mentorship and career events that inspire young people to make the most of their talents. Those who know me will be aware that it is an area I feel passionate about and fully support so it’s great to see such excellent progress being make and my thanks to Rhodri, David Bawden and Rachel Rimmer for their work in this area.

Well done to everyone involved in the Sandfields Active Travel and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) project which has been named an Ystadau Cymru Award 2025 winner. Why not pop over from Guildhall or the Civic Centre and take a look yourself. It’s pretty impressive.

Congratulations to Andrew Dulley, our head of West Glamorgan Archive Service, who’s just notched up 30 years’ service with the council. His latest contribution has been to help organise the service’s transfer from Civic Centre to Y Storfa – no small feat. By all accounts the first week in its new home has been really busy, which is great to hear.

A big thank-you too to Paul Leyshon (pictured left) who is retiring this month after 43 years as a gardener, maintaining parks and open spaces in the Morriston area. I wish Paul and his family all the best in their next chapter.

Finally, well done to our teams who were out in the terrible weather earlier this week when we had a rare Met Office amber warning for rain. Much preparation had gone on beforehand to reduce its impact on our roads, helping to keep disruption to a minimum.