High 5 Awards – Page 3

Fingers-crossed for City of Culture bid

July 14, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

City of Culture

We’ll learn at about 10.30 tonight if Swansea has been shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2021 competition. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed as this would open up some great opportunities for the city and its citizens. My thanks to Tracey McNulty and her team who have put all their effort into getting our bid over the line.

Dragon’s Den

I attended the Grand Final of Moving Towards Successful Futures, which promotes entrepreneurship among children. It’s an important part of the new curriculum and Alison Williams from Craigfelen Primary School invited me to the event after reading my recent blog comments about Be the Spark.

Each school group had to design a product, develop a pitch and sell their goods to the public. They took over the central tables in Swansea Market for a day, selling products ranging from notebooks and soap to pots of slime, mostly from recycled materials. I spoke to all the groups and the enthusiasm of the pupils was impressive.

This was a fun event with a serious purpose and my thanks to all the teachers, pupils and staff who have worked so hard on this and particularly to Alison for inviting me.

The winning schools were:

Craigfelen Best Financial

Pontybrenin Best Idea

Craigcefnparc Best Marketing

Clase Best Customer Service

Terrace Road Best Research and Planning

Ynystawe Best Brand

Llwynderw Best Environmental

Christchurch Best Sales

Pentregraig Best Team Work

Blaenymaes Best Display Stand

Trallwn Best Social Media

Oystermouth Best Pitch

Take Care

We’re one of only two councils selected to work with Save the Children as part of the “Take Care Project” which aims to understand the issues relating to children in emergency or disaster situations. Year Six children from Trallwn Primary gave a presentation and wrote a song giving advice on what to do if you were caught up in a fire. They also made a video, which covered how they’d feel and what they’d want following an evacuation, which certainly provoked thought. The event will help change the way we plan and manage emergencies, such as including children in some exercises which was something they specifically asked for.

High 5s

Don’t miss the deadline of July 21 for nominating for the High 5 awards for inspirational children, young people and young adults. Staff can nominate staff as the age limit is 25 so have a think about the younger members of your teams, volunteers and apprentices you work with and consider if they are worthy of a High 5 Award. Swansea City FC star Leon Britton is our High 5 Ambassador again this year. All details here

Awards

We won three awards at the Swansea Life Awards. The Airshow was named Best Event so thank you to our Special Events team, Tourism Marketing, Highways and Transportation, Street Scene and Cleansing for ensuring a safe and enjoyable event. Clyne Gardens won the Best Tourism and Leisure Attraction thanks to the efforts of our Parks Operations and Development and Outreach teams, Tourism Marketing and the park’s Friends. The LC won Best Health/Gym/Spa. Well done to everyone involved.

We’ve been shortlisted for four national APSE Awards for the following categories; Highways, Waste Management, Building Services and Construction and the Best Workforce Initiative, which includes our apprentice scheme. The awards take place on September 7.

The Constructing Excellence Awards are being held today and we’ve been shortlisted for Health and Safety, Client of the Year and also for Project of the Year. Well done to everyone involved and it’s great to see your work being recognised by others.

Farewells

A number of school staff are moving onto pastures new or retiring – Catrin Pugh-Jones, Trui Williams, Jonathan Mead, Gareth Widlake and Sue Hollister. I’m very grateful for their dedication and commitment to children and young people.

I haven’t met them all but they have all made a real difference to their schools. I’ve met Sue Hollister who’s leadership and community engagement at Cefn Hengoed has had a huger impact on its improvement. The school has been judged twice to be an excellent school by Estyn and attendance rates have risen by 10% to over 94%. For the last four years, every single child has gained at least one qualification before leaving school and a range of other results have risen significantly. I’m grateful for her massive contribution. Diolch Sue.

Sad news

I was sorry to hear that one of our former councillors, Mair Gibbs, passed away this week. Mair was an excellent ward councillor who made a major contribution to the well-being of Bonymaen and Swansea. I worked with her on a number of projects and admired her tenacity in pursuing the interests of her constituents. Mair, a former Lord Mayor, was a great ambassador for our city and she will be sorely missed.

In the election spotlight

June 9, 2017 by Martin 2 Comments

This has been another long 24 hours for me and the team who help me to run the UK Government Parliamentary election. I cast my vote as soon as my polling station opened and was greeted by an amazingly cheery and bright-eyed polling station team of Mal, Geraldine and Rebecca. Like all the other polling station staff they faced a long day and I am hugely indebted to everyone who helped run this election. Thanks for the warm welcome from the staff in the polling stations I was able to visit.

The elections team once again exceeded expectations, despite only just recovering from last month’s council elections. This time we faced heightened security concerns following the dreadful events at Manchester and London Bridge and the support from our security staff and special events team was outstanding. I was also grateful for the work done by our resilience team working with the Police.

Congratulations to Dean Howard, the first presiding officer to deliver his ballot papers to the election count. Dean came second at the local government election count but beat his personal best by arriving at around 10.15. As you can see from the photo Dean was pretty pleased with his performance. Mind you his polling station was only 100 yards from the count.

We had a lot of attention on the Gower constituency given the closeness of the 2015 result; a margin of only 27 votes. This wasn’t just from the local and national media companies. Gower was one of eight constituencies across the UK to be visited by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association team led by Callum Forster and made up of politicians from the governments of Bangladesh, South Africa, St Lucia and Ghana. Each of the eight constituencies is the subject of an election assessment to consider the conduct of the electoral process, and make recommendations for improvement. On Tuesday Huw Evans and I met with the CPA team and answered a range of questions about the electoral process and how it operates here in Swansea. They also visited the postal vote team and a number of polling stations in the Gower constituency. I look forward to their feedback and any suggestions on how the process could be improved in future. Huw and I made a few suggestions of our own which would require changes to national legislation and hopefully the CPA team will take these on board.

Congratulations to the MPs who have been elected to represent our three constituencies;

Swansea West – Geraint Davies

Swansea East – Carolyn Harris

Gower – Tonia Antoniazzi

Appointments

This week the appointments committee met to shortlist candidates for the post of Director of Resources. Interviews will be held on 26^th June and I am confident that Council will be able make an appointment the following day.

On a different note a number of people have asked me why the post of Chief Executive has been advertised. When I was appointed to the post last year it was on an interim basis for one year. Under local government rules interim appointments of the most senior staff should only be for a year. It was my view, and the Leader’s view, that an interim appointment would be the best way forward because it would allow the newly elected Council to choose their own permanent Chief Executive.

Approval of Swansea Central planning application

On Tuesday Planning Committee considered the planning application for Swansea Central. I have mentioned the project a number of times in previous blogs but the approval by Planning committee was a significant milestone and a green light to proceed with the regeneration plan for our City Centre. Comments at the committee reflected the quality and detail of the application. This has required a mammoth effort from our staff and a lot of people deserve to be thanked for their contributions not least of which are Phil Holmes, Huw Mowbray, Lee Richards, Katy Evans, Ryan Thomas, David Owen, Liam Smith and Stephen Smith.

The next phase is delivery and will be equally challenging but I am delighted that the key milestones have been met and confident that we can progress this apace.

Trading Standards

A Trading Standards case in Crown Court earlier this week has determined that a local shop owner jailed for selling dangerous ‘legal highs’ must now pay back more than £120,000 of the money he gained during the years he traded. This is great news and a further example of the hard work by Trading Standards and our Legal Team who have vigorously pursued the case, ensuring individuals do not profit from harmful trading activities.

City Centre

Demolition of the former Oceana building on Kingsway is now about 50% finished. Experts from Cuddy Group, who are demolishing the building for the council, are continuing to dismantle what remains of the building with a high-reach excavator. Scheduled for completion this summer, the demolition will pave the way on site for a new office development accommodating tech businesses.

High 5 Awards

Nominations are starting to increase for this year’s High 5 awards but we want more. The High 5 awards are open to any child, young person or group in three age ranges – under 13s, aged 14 to 19 or 20-25 year olds. We’ve also added a schools award this year which looks to recognise and reward larger school groups, even whole classes, years or teams.

All nominators need to do is fill in a nomination form here where they get the chance to explain why their choice of nominee should get a High 5, whatever the reason might be.

We’ve made it even more accessible to answer any query you have about High 5 this year with a new phone number we’ve set up. If you have a query or would like to leave a voice nomination call (01792) 635699 and leave a message.

UNESCO

Next week we will welcome visitors from across the UK and Europe who are keen to find out how Swansea is encouraging children and adults alike to learn about enterprise.

We were the first city in the UK to become a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and are hosting a two-day meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

Visitors will hear how we have worked with schools, colleges and universities to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), and see at first hand the extensive efforts to inspire young people to think about setting up their own businesses.

More than a dozen delegates are expected from as far afield as Scandinavia. I hope we will all give them a warm welcome.

Agile working

In the Civic Centre it’s great to see our new Agile Working area expanding. It’s encouraging to read the positivity coming from staff already there. I particularly like Marlyn Dickson’s observation in her case study: “Business conversations are so much easier … every working day feels much more human and personable.” Still wondering what it’s all about? Pop in and chat to some of your colleagues there!

Congratulations

It was great to hear that Burlais Primary School will soon be home to a garden from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show after their success in the Greening Grey Britain project. The new school which was completed in 2015 will soon have a courtyard filled with plant life and colour. There was great coverage on the One Show last Monday as well. Congratulations to Alison Bastion and her team.

Congratulations also to transformation officer Gemma Whyley, who helped lead a Welsh team to glory at a major global cheerleading championships in the USA. Gemma was one of two coaches involved with the Welsh Paracheer Unified Freestyle Pom team that won gold at the ICU International Cheerleading and Dance World Championships held in Orlando, Florida. Twenty-five per cent of the team – the first ever from Wales to win at the championships – is made up of young athletes with physical disabilities.

And finally….

Are you going to the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening (June 14)?

If you are, then all the info you’ll need on car parking, taxi tips, drop-off points, pick-up points and road closures is here. My thanks to staff in special events and transport for all their work in the build-up to the event to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible.

Another election!

April 28, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

I returned from a week’s annual leave to discover we’ll now be running two elections within five weeks following the announcement of a general election on June 8. I have mentioned previously that unless you are involved in the process you have no idea of the volume of work that’s required to run an election. The prospect of a general election was a bit of a shock for the elections team who are currently up to their necks opening postal votes and making all the necessary arrangements for the council elections on May 4. Despite a few technical hiccoughs they’ve made excellent progress and will be working over the bank holiday. Thanks to all of them who’ll probably be sick of the sight of me before too long!

Another point I have made in previous blogs is to ask that you exercise your democratic right and cast your vote next week.

Digital progress

This week the Corporate Management Team discussed the progress made in our aspirations to become a digital business by 2020. Sarah Caulkin, Chief Transformation Officer, presented the report which covered the four strategic layers that underpin our work People Communities and Businesses, Organisation and delivery, Platforms and interfaces and Infrastructure and technology.
We reviewed the excellent progress made since we brought the ICT service back in-house and agreed the priorities to recommend to Cabinet for the coming year. Thanks to all the staff involved in this.

High 5 launch

On Wednesday we launched the High 5 awards at Dylan Thomas School. The head teacher Rob Phillips agreed to host the event and the school hall was packed with pupils who gave us a fantastic welcome.

The plan had been for Leon Britton from Swansea City FC and me to announce the opening of the nominations process. Five minutes before we were due to start we got the message that Leon was unable to attend so we had to change the arrangements. The Lord Mayor attended and we were nearly decapitated when Cyril the Swan menacingly launched a football with a ferocious volley that flew over our heads. Other than that the event went very smoothly!

Curtis Cana, a former pupil of Dylan Thomas School and previous High 5 winner took to the stage and explained what the award meant to him. Curtis is now a youth worker with our Poverty & Prevention service and he gave a great speech in front of a huge number of people. Good job Curtis!

This year’s awards promise to be the biggest and best yet as the team led by Mark Gosney who do such a great job organising the event have secured more sponsors and developed a number of innovative ideas to improve it. Thanks to everyone involved in the launch. Keep those nominations coming in and give those of us on the judging panel a big job of work to do.

Appointments

This week Nigel Williams and Geoff Bacon have been appointed to the posts of interim Head of Corporate Building Services and interim Head of Property respectively, following interviews. Congratulations to them both.

Regeneration

On Monday evening I spoke at the Built Environment Network, along with representatives from Swansea Bay Tidal lagoon and the University of Wales, Trinity St David. It was to raise the profile of regeneration projects to the architects, planners, engineers and surveyors. The presentations were followed by a Q&A session which focussed on connectivity, the need for more residential development and the challenges of procurement. Those in attendance had travelled from all over the UK to attend the event and it’s clear that the development activity in Swansea is generating a lot of interest across the UK.

Sad news

I was deeply saddened to hear that Terry Whomsley, who many of you will know, passed away this week. Terry and I worked together for many years. He was a highly valued and well respected member of our ICT team. I lost count of the number of times he sorted out complex and difficult technical issues that have faced us, and me in particular. He was a true public servant, dedicated and professional throughout his career. His loss has hit everyone who worked with him very hard and our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Congratulations and thanks

Well done to staff involved in the organisation of the Clean Air Roadshow in Castle Square last Saturday, showcasing electric and hydrogen vehicle technology to 6,000 visitors. We’ve already got electric vehicles in our fleet and more electric cars will be arriving to cut our costs and our carbon footprint.

Thanks to Tracey McNulty and her team in Cultural Services for all their work on the UK City of Culture 2021 bid, being submitted today. If we win the status, it will celebrate our rich culture through a world class programme of events.

Staff in Events are celebrating after the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k won two awards at the UK Running Awards 2017. The event won silver for best 10k in the UK and gold for the UK’s best child-friendly event of its kind.

Congratulations to David Walker who has clocked up 40 years’ service with us. He spent 10 years with Parks before becoming a HGV driver at the Bailing Plant.

This is a magnificent achievement and I’d like to thank David for his outstanding service.

Big Boots

June 2, 2016 by Martin 6 Comments

Welcome to my new blog. I think it is only appropriate that I start my first blog with a note of thanks to our previous Chief Executive, Jack Straw, and to wish him all the best for the future. A huge number of staff turned out last Friday to say farewell to Jack and to hear me describe his major achievements (and a few less positive stories of course). I owe a great debt to Jack for his leadership and friendship during the 27 years we have known each other and I wish him well in whatever he chooses to do in the coming years. He has certainly left big boots to fill!

The leaving party was an emotional event. Jack was certainly quite “emotional” by the end of it. The highlight of the evening for me was the video message from Swansea City FC midfielder, Leon Britton, Sue Hollister, the head teacher at Cefn Hengoed School and most importantly from some of the young people who had won High 5 awards. Although he was grateful for all those messages I know the words of thanks from the young people meant more to him than anything Leon, Sue or the rest of us could ever have said. One of the roles I most look forward to inheriting from Jack is the leadership of the High 5s.

Lee Wenham gave Jack a bound copy of all his blogs as one of his leaving gifts and he really appreciated that. A number of colleagues have asked me to continue to write a weekly Chief Executive’s blog and, although I cannot promise that it will be on a par with Jack’s, I am committed to continuing to do so. So here goes.

Following the Senior Management Review I am pleased to announce that Mike Hawes has been appointed as our Director of Resources from 1^st June. I have known Mike for many years and his appointment will help to stabilise the management of the organisation following the departure of Jack and Dean Taylor. On Tuesday Mike and I attended the Budget and Performance review group where, along with senior councillors, we consider the main issues relating to finance and service performance that face the Council. It’s certainly a challenging time for everyone and Mike’s knowledge and experience will be essential in developing and driving the budget strategy for us. I will keep you up to date with developments.

Yesterday I received a briefing on the Counter Terrorism Local Profile along with Chris Sivers, Director of People and future Chair of the Western Bay Contest Board. The board is charged with making sure all agencies plan and work together to combat the threat of terrorism and make sure that appropriate arrangements are in place.

A related issue is the impact and disruption of the recent school bomb hoaxes in the region. There have been many examples of this across the UK and the police take hoaxes extremely seriously because they divert police resources and cause disruption and alarm to the public. Last week saw the evacuation of 400 pupils from Gwyrosydd Primary School. All reports indicate that this was handled in an exemplary way by the head teacher, Jonathan Atter, his team and the pupils. A big thank you to all involved in the evacuation and in helping to reassure the children and parents. Guidance has been sent to all schools in the city and this includes the procedures that must be followed in the event of any future incidents.

The coming weeks and months will be critical for Swansea. The crisis in the steel industry is a major concern. Although Tata’s major facilities are not within Swansea’s boundaries most of us know at least one person or family that would be affected by closure, many of whom live in Swansea. The steel industry contributes 5.8% of the output of the Welsh economy and many other businesses in the city and the region will suffer if the rescue package currently being prepared is not successful. The Leader and I have been supporting the Swansea Bay City Region Board, led by Sir Terry Matthews, to do what we can to help shape the case for continued steel production in Wales.

On a similar note the Leader and I will be meeting the Chairman of the Government Independent Review into tidal lagoons, the Rt Hon Charles Hendry, next week. Our job will be to explain the importance of the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon to our city and the local economy. More on this in future blogs.

It’s always nice to have some good news, so I’m delighted to offer my congratulations to County Archivist Kim Collis who’s been awarded the prestigious Distinguished Service Award by the Archives and Records Association of the UK and Ireland for services to archives in Wales.

Similarly, a number of our attractions and events are up for a Swansea Life Award next month. They include the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k, Swansea Museum, Christmas by Candlelight at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea Market, the Wales National Air Show, Proms in the Park, Waterfront Winterland, Singleton Botanical Gardens, Clyne Gardens, Plantasia, Penyrheol Leisure Centre, Swansea Grand Theatre and the Swansea Library Service. Well done to all the staff involved in these.

Go to SLVOTE16 to vote by Wednesday June 8. Please encourage as many people to vote for these as possible. Our recent customer feedback shows how highly these events are thought of by the public.

The Brangwyn Hall has again been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, the world’s leading travel website. Brangwyn customers have given the venue a 93% average satisfaction rating on TripAdvisor. Over 65% of visitors also gave the attraction the top five-star rating, making the Brangwyn Hall Swansea’s favourite venue for concerts and shows. Thank you to all the staff.

And finally thanks must go to all the officers and councillors who have worked tirelessly on the Hafod Copperworks Project. Earlier this week the Heritage Lottery Fund announced that the Council has been successful in the first round bid for a £3.75m funding bid that could see restoration of historically significant buildings and the Penderyn whisky company invest £4.2 million in the expansion of their business into the city with a new distillery and visitor centre at the former Hafod Morfa Copperworks site. Judging by the amount of whisky people bought Jack on Friday night it will not come a moment too soon.