ABMU

The debate on Brexit went much as expected this week and the Prime Minister is now seeking to develop a compromise proposal from the ashes of her proposed agreement for the UK to leave the European Union. This will require her to present a new plan for EU withdrawal to Parliament by 21 January prior to a further debate on January 29. It remains to be seen whether this can be achieved and those who were hoping for a greater sense of certainty by Wednesday would have been disappointed.

Closer to home we have been working on Brexit issues for many months having identified it as a key corporate risk. A working group has been considering the possible implications of the various outcomes that are possible and a number of contingency plans have been developed to ensure that disruption to services is minimised. I have also had direct discussions with NHS colleagues and other partners to make sure that our approach is joined-up.

Next week I will attend the Welsh Government EU Preparedness Advisory Panel as one of four chief executive representatives and I hope to provide further updates on Welsh Government actions after this.

There are a number of possible outcomes. Let’s see what happens on Monday but I have a sneaking feeling that the certainty that many of us would like to have will continue to evade us.

Winter pressures

Discussions with our health board colleagues on coping with the pressures that winter brings to health and social care continued this week when Dave Howes and I met executives and clinicians from what will now be called Swansea Bay University Health Board, rather than ABMU. We agreed a number of practical steps to reduce the impact of bed blocking by better joining up our community services and adapting our facilities to cope with the demand for reablement.

ACEs

Cabinet yesterday considered a report from the People Policy Development Committee on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). This is a really excellent piece of work led by Councillor Ceri Evans and supported by a number of our staff who work with children. Cabinet agreed that we will now work on a “statement of purpose” and raise awareness of the issues involved in ACEs across the organisation and beyond. Thanks to Ceri and our team who supported this work.

Operation Timmia

Thanks to those members of staff who worked closely with the police on Operation Timmia which was launched after a high number of burglaries and aggravated burglaries were reported in the area in the past year. The operation involved raids to a number of properties in the City and was successful thanks to some excellent joint working.

Lagoon

The announcement that Hitachi have stopped work on the proposed nuclear plant at Wylfa will be a disappointment to many in North Wales. Considering that plans to build a nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria were halted by Toshiba in November and there are cost issues at the third plant at Hinckley Point there is room for concern about UK energy policy. All the more reason then to continue with our work to deliver tidal power in Swansea Bay and our team, led by Rob Stewart and Martin Nicholls, have made significant progress over the last few weeks as we seek interest in the project from the private sector following a Prior Information Notice being issued. The options are being considered for its delivery with a recommendations being submitted to Welsh Government by the end of March.

Brondeg House

Towards the end of 2018 Brondeg House, home to our Key Stage 4 Pupil Referral Unit had to be closed due to serious issues with the building. Corporate Building and Property Services have worked tirelessly over the past few weeks to ensure that the staff and pupils can return to their improved setting as quickly as possible. A big thanks to all those involved and to the PRU staff for their patience whilst the issues were addressed.

Congratulations

Well done to all those from the Waste Management and Parks Operations team (in their Christmas Jumpers) on passing their nine-month Waste Traineeship and NVQ Level 2. All the Trainees were presented with their well-earned certificates by Cabinet Member Cllr Mark Thomas.

Panto

This year’s pantomime, Cinderella, at the Grand Theatre was, as ever, a huge success – oh, yes it was.

Around 40,000 people flocked to the theatre to enjoy the festive treat starring Welsh singer, dancer and actor Ian H Watkins and Swansea’s very own Kevin Johns.

It was a brilliant occasion and it was particularly pleasing to know that 900 complimentary tickets were distributed to local groups and individuals who might not otherwise have been able to attend and join in the fun. My thanks to the Grand Theatre team for yet another successful Christmas run.

The team are now looking to make the all year round programme even more accessible, as they get ready for the 2020 panto Peter Pan.

You’ll all be aware of our difficult financial position we’re in and we need your help to reduce spending this year. The spending restrictions and vacancy freeze are already in place and now we’re controlling discretionary spend. You can take some easy steps by asking yourself, do I need to spend, can this purchase wait, are there other options and, if I need to buy, can it be done cheaper?

It sounds basic, and it is, but it’ll really help to pull back on spending this year so that we reduce our current and stubborn in-year overspend.

We’re also changing some of the formal procedures including reviewing and removing all non-core items from our i-purchase catalogues, new controls on spending restrictions, CMT will review non-compliant purchases and reviewing purchasing approval limits.

These are sensible and necessary changes and are aimed at savings jobs and protecting services. Please follow this link for more details.

Have your say

The budget has been a key theme of the on-going staff roadshows. We’ve been pleased with the turn out and response from staff so if you’re able to please come along to one of them to find out more about the budget, our plans for the future and to have your say in what we do.

On the Road Again

This week I’ve once again spent a lot of time on regional work. On Monday I met the ERW Joint Committee to discuss the way forward for regional collaboration in school improvement as we work to deliver the National Mission for education in Wales. After a difficult couple of years the way forward is becoming clearer and a broad consensus on future strategy is emerging.

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that some months ago I drafted in Geraint Rees, an experienced head teacher and education expert, to help me get ERW back on track and in his role as Interim Managing Director for ERW he presented the proposals to the members of the committee.

On Thursday I was invited to the regional ERW scrutiny committee along with the Chair, Ellen Ap Gwyn, and Geraint to answer questions about the performance and status of the regional consortium. I explained that we have had to deal with some difficult issues but we were now confident the future was clearer and brighter. Geraint repeated his presentation and the response of scrutiny was generally positive.

Bridgexit

On Tuesday I chaired with Western Bay Leadership Team as we prepare for the meeting of our Regional Partnership Board next week. Bridgend will formally leave the partnership at the end of March in a move that’s sometimes referred to as “Bridgexit” and we received an update on the progress of uncoupling that council from our regional arrangements. We also signed off the future direction of the Western Bay collaboration and will now be making a number of recommendations to the regional partnership board about how we’ll focus on a transformation programme for the future delivery of health and social care services in the region.

On Wednesday the Leader and I met with our counterparts from AMBU to discuss a number of issues including our joint response to winter pressures, ICT and information sharing, and the increasing profile of housing issues in health and care delivery. There’ll always be tensions between councils and the NHS, particularly over those areas where responsibilities are blurred, but we’re building a more positive and productive relationship with ABMU and this is recognised by both parties. Thanks to all the staff who have worked hard to achieve this as I’m conscious the real test of partnership arrangements is at the coalface rather than the boardroom. Retaining that focus on jointly providing seamless and excellent care services for our communities is the real challenge.

Brexit

Next week promises to be an interesting one as the House of Commons finally gets to vote on the PM’s Brexit deal. This will be a historical moment in UK politics and the strength of public feeling has been evident in the media with some disturbing and unacceptable behaviour towards politicians who are generally attempting to simply reflect the views of their constituents. But the divisions are clear and growing and we should be concerned about the consequences of this.

Whatever the outcome of the vote I hope we’ll be clearer on the future direction so that we can attempt in the next 80 days to properly prepare for the most significant event in UK politics for decades. I’ve been invited to join the Local Government [EU] Preparedness Advisory Panel which will meet later this month and I’ll share as much information with you as I can about the challenges and issues that Brexit presents. We’ve already responded to the Wales Audit Office request for information on preparations in Swansea and you can see the response here.

Bravery award

Darran Kiley who works in our waste management team has been nominated for a St David Award for Bravery. He helped South Wales Police apprehend a man with a knife in the city centre whilst on duty. The awards recognise and celebrate the exceptional achievements of people from all walks of life in Wales and will be held at the Senedd on March 21. Well done Darran, and good luck!

Charity efforts

Thanks to Building Services staff who recently raised more than £2,000 for charity.

Those to benefit included the Mr X Appeal, Mind Swansea and organisations supporting work with Alzheimer’s and cancer. Well done to all involved.

The uncertainty continues

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