Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

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

 

Education changes and budget blow

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Yesterday I travelled to Cardiff to attend a conference on the future of education in Wales and the delivery of the National Mission. The Cabinet Secretary, Kirsty Williams, introduced the event which was particularly focused on accountability through the new evaluation and improvement framework. The main message for councils was that the drive to increase regional working will continue through the education consortia but there’ll be changes to how they function and how Estyn operates. I hope to circulate the presentations to schools and education colleagues when they are available. It’s clear the emerging accountability system will be based on self-evaluation, peer review and a wider range of evaluation indicators.

Earlier in the week we had even more difficult news elsewhere on the budget when we learned that council contributions to teachers’ pension costs will likely rise from 16.48% to 23.8% in 2019, a sum far greater than previously indicated. This will add a further £4 million to the budget gap with no sign of help coming from Westminster at this stage. CMT will discuss the implications of this next week but it seems inevitable that more savings will need to be identified.  Here’s the latest warning from the WLGA.

Leisure staff

Next Monday six of our community leisure centres and the LC will be operated by not-for-profit trust Freedom Leisure. This is an exciting new partnership for us. The facilities will remain council venues offering council services – and the same friendly staff (transferring from the council and Bay Leisure) will help customers stay healthy and active. This change will help contribute towards our budget challenges. Freedom Leisure has a proven track record and the ability to deliver leisure services effectively and sustainably. Thank you to everyone involved for making this a smooth transition.

Great effort

Corporate Building Services came to the rescue when Penllergaer school was forced to close due to a burst water main. They got the call on Tuesday and completed the repairs on Wednesday. The school re-opened on Thursday which meant pupils only lost one full-day of education. My thanks to Andrew McFenton, Barry Morgan and Mike Boat for their great work.

Guildhall transformed

The Guildhall has been transformed into a scene from World War One as part of an exciting production. Created by Swansea-born artist Marc Rees, Now the Hero is the headline piece for the 2018 Swansea International Festival. The production uses three interweaving stories of war inspired by an epic poem, an intimate portrait of a serving Swansea soldier and the Brangwyn Hall’s British Empire Panels. The production has spread across the Guildhall as you’ll see from these photos. Well done and thank you to everyone involved.

   

On a similar note, a true story about a team of young rugby players from India who took the under-14 Rugby World Cup by storm is being filmed in Swansea in November and December. We’ve been involved in supporting the production from the outset and it’ll showcase our city to huge new audiences across India, the world’s biggest movie market, so my thanks go to the team who’ve made it possible. And if you want a walk-on part in ‘The Jungle Cry’ you can to sign-up as an extra in the movie.

Awards

Congratulations to our highways and transportation team for winning the Value Award at this year’s Construction Excellence Wales ceremony. The award is linked to the development of the Morfa distributor road which opened last year.

Retirements

There are a couple of notable retirements this week, including Jenni Spencer Davies who’s leaving after 18 years’ service as the curator at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. Jenni successfully oversaw the £8m gallery refurbishment and established partnerships with Tate Britain, The British Council and Artes Mundi. Also, Julia Incebel who’s worked at the Grand Theatre as an usherette for 42 years. Julia started on Boxing Day with her mum because they were short-staffed and stayed ever since! Best wishes to both Jenni and Julia and all our other retiring staff.

Acting on your concerns

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Following last week’s car theft at the Civic Centre and the comments I’ve received from staff, I’ve asked for a review of security at the site.

I’m grateful to those staff who’ve already contacted me and raised their concerns. I want to reassure everyone that I’m taking this issue very seriously and will act upon concerns and the findings of our security review. We’ve already taken steps to increase patrols in the car parks and to step-up our CCTV monitoring.

We’re also in the process of going out to tender for a new CCTV system. This will replace all the current cameras with high-spec equipment which should increase and improve CCTV coverage of the site. In the meantime, please take some precautions by not leaving any valuables or documents etc in your vehicle. But this isn’t only about cars, if you’re travelling by either motorbike or bike please take steps to secure it. In the meantime, please feel free to respond to this update with any comments or ideas you may have regarding security. I’ll keep you updated.

Agile update

Swansea University has signed a lease with us to rent space on the third floor of the Civic Centre.  The first staff from the university’s school of management moved in on Monday and will be joined by colleagues in the coming few weeks.

This lease agreement generates important extra income for the council and has been made possible thanks to the work of our Facilities and IT teams in helping 441 staff in the Civic Centre to become agile in the past year.

Next to make the move to agile are our Housing colleagues in September, when a further 95 staff will join the second floor agile area.  This move will enable refurbishment of the central area of the first floor into further agile workspace to be occupied by IT and accountancy teams.

All of the furniture in the agile area is up-cycled to reduce costs and be environmentally-friendly.

Exam success

Congratulations to all the young people who sat GCSEs this summer. Despite the fall in grades nationally, results in Swansea have again held up well, with the main indicators all being above the average for Wales, and most subjects showing results which are better than the national picture. The figures show 22.4% (21.5% in 2017) of city pupils gained A* and A grades in their WJEC exams, which is significantly better than the 18.5% in Wales as a whole. More than 75% of students achieved the higher grades of A* to C in 29 different subjects. Meanwhile, the top grades of A* and A were awarded to over a third of all entrants in 18 subjects.

These results are a great tribute to the pupils, their families and school staff. Well done to everyone!

Schools’ praise

Our schools have achieved some excellent Estyn inspection reports in the last few years and Pentre’r Graig and Pontarddulais Primaries have kept that run going. Pentre’r Graig benefitted from a £2.7m upgrade as part of our 21st Century Schools Programme and that investment is clearly paying off as it was rated good in all five inspection areas. Pontarddulais achieved the same with inspectors praising the work of the Foundation Phase, which is particularly pleasing as the school is sharing its success in that area with others in Swansea. Congratulations to all the staff, pupils and families at both schools.

Staff Pride

Pride Cymru takes place this weekend and staff from our LGBT+ group will be joining colleagues from other councils as part of a ‘Proud Councils’ group marching in Cardiff city centre. Our Staff LGBT+ Group will be joined by Cllr Elliott King, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services (Early Years) who is LGBT champion for the council and organiser of this year’s inaugural Swansea Spring Pride.