Grenfell Tower
I watched in shock and disbelief as the dreadful events unfolded at Grenfell Tower. The impact on the community has been devastating and our thoughts go to the families of friends of all those who lost their lives or suffered injury as a result of the tragic fire.
Our Housing and Corporate Building teams responded immediately to reassure our high rise residents through letters hand-delivered on the day of the fire. We have 11 high rise blocks and 672 tenants living in them. Every flat has a hard-wired smoke detector which is tested annually as part of the gas service inspection. In addition, all communal areas have a full annual risk assessment by us and Mid and West Fire Service, to make sure that all the blocks are to the highest standard and to ensure that any issues identified are addressed immediately. We will review our procedures as further information emerges.
Although it’s too early to determine the cause of the fire there’s been some speculation about the cladding on the buildings. We’ve been carrying out improvement works to a number of the high rise blocks and this includes cladding the buildings’ exterior. Our schemes have only used non-combustible products both as cladding and fixing frames with a series of full fire breaks. However, there’s no room for complacency and our teams are conducting further investigations to provide absolute reassurance to our residents. Thanks to all involved for the rapid and comprehensive response.
Corporate Management Team
CMT has been working closely with Cabinet on the arrangements for resourcing the new Policy Development and Delivery committees. It’s important we align the work programmes for the committees to the council’s policy commitments and priorities. There’ll be a report to Council next Thursday which will define the remit of the committees and I‘ll expand further on this next week.
CMT discussed a number of reports including the progress being made on adult safeguarding and the finance and performance outturn reports for 2016/17.
We also agreed proposals for a new self-serve switchboard for staff. In future staff will be able to call the switchboard and use voice-activation to get through to a colleague elsewhere. Last year our switchboard answered more than 255,000 calls and 18% of these were from staff so this initiative will improve efficiency. To help with this, it’s essential staff update their contact details on Oracle.
Better communications
We’re making Skype for Business available to staff in the next few weeks to help improve communications. It can be used on PCs and other digital devices to talk to council colleagues via instant messaging, voice calls and video calls. It allows us to work more agilely and end the reliance on phone and email, which many of us complain about. We’re rolling-out more digital improvements and I’d encourage you to give it a try.
Ambition Week at St Helens
On Tuesday I was invited to meet the Year 6 pupils at St Helens Primary School for a Q&A session as part of their ambition week. They asked me what councils do, how do you get to work for them, where their money comes from and our plans for the city? This was followed by questions ranging from my “typical day”, to terrorism and whether I’d been on TV!
The ambition week is a great opportunity for pupils to think about their futures and to learn more about the world of work. Congratulations to head teacher Mark Thompson for organising the event and Jack Branford, the teacher who facilitated it excellently.
Race Council Cymru
On Thursday I met with Uzo Iwobi, chief executive of Race Council Cymru which is an umbrella body bringing together key organisations in Wales to cooperate on promoting integration, championing justice and race equality in institutions and society. The RCC are asking us to work with them on the celebrations for Black History Month which is held every October and to work with us on our UK City of Culture 2021 bid.
Vigilance in our buildings
The on-going terror threat needs to be kept into perspective, but at the same time we all need to be vigilant. As part of this, councillors, staff and the public may be asked to open their bags for our security officers to carry out checks. We should also wear our ID cards at all times and politely challenge anyone tailgating at security doors or not wearing ID. These small steps will help improve security for us all.
Take That
It’s not my cup of tea but I understand the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium was a resounding success. There were a number of complaints about long queues that resulted from enhanced security checks but I guess that’s something we are all going to have to get used to whilst the UK threat level remains at severe.
Thanks to all the staff who helped with the logistics for the concert. It’s not an easy job when 32,000 descend on the stadium and it was very well co-ordinated by the Council.
Congratulations and thanks
Our Registration team has received glowing report from the General Register Office. The team is responsible for recording all births, deaths and marriages in the city. The team’s improved customer service has also been praised and is very welcome in a service that can often be dealing with difficult circumstances. Well done to everyone involved.
Many of you will know Jane Guy who’s retiring next week after nearly 44 years’ service. Jane was the first clerical officer appointed to West Glamorgan County Council in Nov 1973 (prior to the 1974 local government reorganisation) and during her career Jane’s worked for eight chief executives. Well done Jane, have a lovely retirement.
We were shortlisted for two honours in the annual MJ Achievement Awards which concluded with an event in London last night.
Our Social Services Work Development Service was acknowledged for its excellence in community engagement. Also our Sustainable Swansea: Fit for the Future initiative was saluted for its achievements in workforce transformation. Well done to everyone involved because getting shortlisted in these UK awards is a huge achievement.