Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Thanks for your support

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I’d like to thank everyone for the support I’ve received from so many people this last week. Since I announced earlier this week I was taking a three-month period of sickness absence I have been inundated with kind messages of support.

In the last few days we have been working on putting interim management arrangements into place which will be taken to an Extraordinary Meeting of Council on Tuesday next week. After that I will be handing over to Jack Straw and finishing work for about three months.

I am grateful to Jack for agreeing to stand in and I’m also grateful to those officers who have helped me to put the interim arrangements together at short notice. Jack has my complete confidence, he’s well-known around the council and he’ll be bringing experience and knowledge of the city and council from his many years of previous service here.

Over the next few days I’ll be bringing Jack up to speed on the key issues facing the council and the city, not least the Budget, details of which can be found here.

Many of you will already know Jack and I am sure you will offer him your full support in his role as interim chief executive. In the meantime thank you again for all your kind wishes and support which are much appreciated.

Budget latest

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Our latest public budget consultation comes to a close today and we’ve received hundreds of responses from staff and the public. It’s never easy going out with proposals to reduce services and change what we do. But we need to reduce our spending by more than £24m next year and by £60m in the next three years.

We’re doing all we can to reduce spending by being more efficient and modernising services but the scale of the cuts means we also have to stop doing things. Our spending restrictions are helping to reduce this year’s overspend and we need to keep the pressure on so that we only spend on essentials.

Many of you attended the recent roadshows and we’ve received lots of feedback since, which is encouraging and always welcome.  Our consultation with staff around the cross-cutting budget savings closes on February 7.  Please don’t stop giving your ideas; you can use the staff suggestion scheme or let your manager know.

Our colleagues in Finance and Access to Services are now busy assessing the consultation responses and preparing the budget reports that’ll go to Special Cabinet on February 14. CMT will be meeting Cabinet on Monday to discuss the latest information and agree the details to go forward. Thank you to everyone who’s participated in the consultation and to those officers now drafting reports for Cabinet.

Great news

Bishop Vaughan Catholic School have improved from Amber to Green

We’ve had some excellent news for our schools in the latest Welsh Government’s categorisation system results. It shows improvements across Swansea for the fifth year in a row with more than 95% of all our schools now rated green or yellow compared to a Wales average of 85%. This shows the sharing of expertise between schools and the support experienced teachers are providing to colleagues is paying dividends and is also tribute to the work of our head teachers and staff as well as our education department.

There was more good news for YGG Llwynderw yesterday as the results of its Estyn inspection last term judged it to be good in four of the five inspection areas and excellent in the fifth.

Skyline back

Heads of terms signed by Skyline and Swansea Council last Summer

Senior figures from New Zealand-based Skyline Enterprises will be back in Swansea on Monday. They’ll meet officers and Council Leader Rob Stewart as they continue to consider developing a world-class extreme activities attraction on Kilvey Hill and at the Hafod Copperworks site. They’re also due to meet high-ranking people at the Welsh Government.

Last summer we signed a heads of terms agreement with the business, detailing how we’ll work together to take this exciting project from drawing board to reality. There’s still much work to be done, of course, but we’re doing all we can to make things happen. Skyline would complement our ongoing city-wide regeneration and this well-regarded company’s decision to work with us is a great vote of confidence in Swansea as a tourist destination.

National award

We’ve received a national innovation award for health and safety from Rospa. Our work on managing falls in older people has led to the Stevenson shield for innovation in H&S, finishing third in the UK.  In partnership with ambulance and Western Bay colleagues, we’ve reduced falls and 999 calls by two thirds. And on top of the award, Rospa want to look at adopting the work as best practise across the UK. Well done to everyone involved.

Grit and determination

Thank you to our winter maintenance teams who’ve been salting main roads to help avoid disruption during the cold spell. They’ve been out throughout the night and each time they cover 450km of our road network. And although most of Swansea thankfully didn’t get the snow that other parts had, I know many staff travelled in through poor conditions this morning and I’m grateful for everyone’s efforts.

Safety first

The importance of our services and the staff who run them were highlighted by an incident in Gorseinon. A vulnerable resident was led to safety from a potentially dangerous situation thanks to a combination of equipment we had installed and quick-thinking actions by officers. Well done all!

We need your help

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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.

A promising year ahead

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A happy new year to you all. 2019 promises to be an interesting year.  I suspect Brexit will continue to dominate the news and the political debates but we’ll continue in our mission to improve the city whatever happens.

Following the holiday period the work to regenerate the Kingsway will gather momentum again as this critical part of the city infrastructure gets a long-awaited facelift.  I’m confident the plans Council approved will breathe new life into the city centre and the funding from UK and Welsh governments through the City Deal will supplement our own investment in this transformation.

At the same time we must maintain our focus on the other corporate priorities and we’ll be reinforcing this important message in the forthcoming staff roadshows – more on these below.  As some of you know I’m not a big fan of Christmas but if I’d made a list to Santa it would have included;

  • Greater clarity on Brexit from the UK Government at the earliest opportunity
  • A sense of direction from the Welsh Government on the future shape of local government
  • Some real evidence that austerity is over, including a fair financial settlement for local government

Sadly thus far Santa has been unable to find my house but let’s hope 2019 will bring these to us at some point.

Staff roadshows

As you know, Cabinet agreed to consult on our budget proposals for next year. The public consultation is already under way, which staff can take part in, but on top of this we’re holding a series of staff roadshows at various council venues this month.

I’ll be attending some of the roadshows, and Adam Hill, our Deputy Chief Executive, will be fronting many of them along with directors and heads of service. I hope as many of you as possible can attend these so we can get your views and thoughts on where we are and where we’re heading as an organisation. Here’s a list of the roadshows, please agree with your manager which session to come along to.

We’re also producing a staff survey next week for you to give your views on proposals that affect our workforce.

Care home fire

On December 21 I was alerted at about 6.30pm that there had been a serious fire at a private dementia care home in Gorseinon.  As you might expect the rest of the evening was spent on the phone as our emergency planning and social services colleagues worked tirelessly to relocate the 27 vulnerable people who needed to be rehoused immediately.  This was one of the toughest logistical challenges we have faced for a number of years and the response was simply amazing.

I must thank all our colleagues who responded brilliantly. The residents were all assessed at the scene and two needed hospital treatment. Our emergency duty team had to find temporary accommodation for the remaining residents who moved into the spare beds we have at Parkway. It was a real team effort as our staff worked with colleagues from the fire, police, health services in very difficult circumstances.

From our end it involved colleagues from emergency planning, transport and social services who are too numerous to mention by name. Many, even though they were not on shift, made themselves available at no notice and worked long into the night.  It really was a superb reaction. Thank you all.

Reverse advent calendar

Congratulations and thanks to all involved in the “Reverse Advent Calendar” in the run up to Christmas.  Four charities, the West Wales Poundies, Morriston Hospital Children’s Ward, Zacs Place Homeless Support and the Salvation Army church, were all supported by the efforts and generous donations of our staff.  Hats off to the organisers of this initiative which I hope will go from strength to strength in the future.

 

Brexit no clearer

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Well it’s been a busy week in Whitehall as the politicians share their differences over the nation’s withdrawal from the EU.  With only three months to go until the deadline it feels like there are still so many unanswered questions that the future is impossible to predict. We’re doing our best to plan for any eventuality through our corporate risk management process but the recent macro-economic predictions aren’t easy reading, irrespective of the form of Brexit. It remains to be seen whether the Prime Minister’s deal makes it through Parliament.  I know our elections team are watching developments with interest as some form of vote, be it another referendum or election, seems a possibility to which we’d need to react very rapidly.  We’ll continue to monitor the situation closely.

Budget

Cabinet will today consider next year’s revenue budget and the savings proposals needed to deliver a balanced budget. The proposals affect both the public and staff and we’ll be launching the online consultation later today. We’re also holding staff roadshows in January so that you can have your say. In the meantime, you can speak to your manager about any proposals affecting your area.

CMT discussed the delivery of the potential savings programme and how this can be done in a way that minimises redundancies and maintains services.  This will be a real challenge but we’re determined to work with staff and trade unions to manage the process fairly and transparently.  In the meantime, we continue to press the Welsh Government to improve the settlement, particularly around the unforeseen hit caused by the increased employer contributions to teachers’ pensions.

Cabinet reshuffle

New First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced his new Cabinet. We look forward to working with them.

Education

On Monday I met Geraint Rees, the lead officer for ERW, to prepare for January’s meeting of the ERW Joint Committee.  This will be an important milestone in the improvement journey for our regional consortium and I know Geraint has been in discussion with a number of head teachers in Swansea and West Wales.  We’re also due to appear at the ERW joint scrutiny meeting in early January to update on progress and respond to any concerns they have.

On Tuesday I joined the other three regional Chief Executive leads for the education consortia to discuss with Welsh Government and the WLGA the emerging national accountability framework for schools.  A lot of work has been done in liaison with the OECD to learn from global best practice and apply the lessons to Wales.  I‘ll say more about this emerging framework when I can but there are some proposed radical differences from the existing arrangements which in my view will require extensive discussion and consultation with schools and education colleagues.

I also managed to catch up with Paul Orders, CEO at Cardiff, to discuss the lagoon projects in Wales and our joined up approach to the emerging thinking on the Shared Prosperity Fund, the post-Brexit replacement for European Structural funding programmes.

On the topic of the lagoon, we’ve had a really encouraging response to our recently-published invitation for companies to express an interest in delivering the project. We’ve had responses ranging from multi-national companies who want to deliver the entire scheme to those who want to play a specific role in it. The task group led by our Leader Rob Stewart will now consider the responses before deciding the next steps.

City Deal

The Leader and I met Swansea University to get a better understanding of the current issues following press reports on the City Deal Delta Lakes scheme.  Although none of our joint projects with the university are affected by the recent events the Leader is commissioning an internal audit review into the processes involved and this will run alongside the recently announced UK and Welsh Government independent review.  We’re also continuing to engage with the governments on our city centre projects to ensure that they’re not held up by these events.

Well done

This week Estyn published their findings following their visit to Penyrheol Comprehensive and they rated the school good in all five inspection areas and praised the quality of teaching, the support provided to pupils and the behaviour and attitude of the pupils themselves. Congratulations to all involved.

Thank you to Ian Rees in Cultural Services who went the extra mile for the United States-based parents of a baby boy whose ashes they scattered in Bracelet Bay following his sad passing 14 years ago. Ian took time out on his day off to fulfil their request for a photo of his name written in the sand and sent them this picture. Needless to say they were overwhelmed with gratitude.

Christmas

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the staff choir’s Christmas event at the Civic Centre yesterday, though I hear it went very well. The staff choir is a great thing to be supporting and if you want to participate you can find out more here.

You can support JR Events’ ‘Together at Christmas’ event in the Brangwyn Hall on Wednesday, that includes a free, two-course dinner for people who are vulnerable, feel isolated or may be homeless. You can donate unused toiletries to Lindsay Sleeman in Room 152 of the Guildhall.

If you’re looking for a gift with a difference the council has a range of ideas from show tickets at the Grand to hanging baskets and adult courses. You can also adopt a bench or flower bed in a loved one’s name. Find out more at: www.swansea.gov.uk/giftideas