Penyrheol Primary School

The horrific events at the Manchester Arena shocked us all. Whilst it’s hard to identify what the authorities could have done to prevent the attack, it’s important that we redouble our efforts to mitigate against such dangers. We’ll continue to work with the police and other organisations on security for major events in the city. We’d urge everyone to continue to be vigilant and report anything suspicious.

In paying our respects to those caught up in the bombing, flags have been flown at half-mast and a vigil took place on Tuesday evening in Castle Square. I’m grateful for the staff who helped to arrange this at short notice.

On Wednesday parts of the city centre were evacuated due to a suspicious package, which seems to have been a “hoax”. I’m really angry about this because one of the purposes of terrorism is to inject chaos, disruption and paranoia into communities. Hoaxes compound this and assist those who commit acts of terror.

However, I’m grateful to all our staff and others who helped in the quick and safe evacuation. They were praised by the police for their efforts.

Unsurprisingly, CMT this week discussed emergency and civil contingency planning. We’ll be reviewing procedures and carrying out a practice exercise to test our readiness for a major emergency. I hope we never face the situation that confronted the authorities in Manchester, but if we do I want to make doubly sure that we, along with our community, are all prepared for the critical roles that would be required of us.

Council AGM

The annual General Meeting of Council took place last night. Councillor Rob Stewart was re-elected as Leader and Councillor Clive Lloyd was elected Deputy Leader

The Cabinet Members and their portfolios are:

Economy & Strategy – Leader – Rob Stewart

Service Transformation & Business Operations – Deputy Leader – Clive Lloyd

Education & Children – Jen Raynor

Health & Well Being – Mark Child

Housing & Energy – Andrea Lewis

Stronger Communities – Will Evans

Culture Tourism & Sport – Robert Francis-Davies

Commercial Opportunities & Innovation – David Hopkins

Future Generations – June Burtonshaw/ Mary Sherwood (job share)

Environment Services – Mark Thomas

Scrutiny programme committee – Mary Jones

Council also appointed chairs for the Policy Development and Delivery Committees, which replace the Cabinet Advisory Committees. The PD&D Committee chairs will be councillors Robert Smith, Mandy Evans, Erika Kirchner, Ryland Doyle and Paulette Smith. Councillor Penny Matthews will continue to chair the Licensing Committee and Councillor Paul Lloyd will carry on as Chair of Planning.

Congratulations to all.

A new Lord Mayor

The inauguration of the new Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress takes place this afternoon. Councillor Phil Downing is taking over from the current Lord Mayor, Councillor David Hopkins. David and his consort, Beverley, have done a magnificent job for the city over the last year. It’s been an incredibly busy year for them and I know they’ve enjoyed it. Thanks both for a job well done.

Election

Preparations for the General Election are continuing with just over 34,500 postal votes going out this week – the highest number we’ve ever had.

The elections team has added over 7,500 people to the register since the May election, and processed 1,600 postal vote applications on Monday and Tuesday. A great effort, well done!

Bishop Gore

Last week I visited Bishop Gore School to meet the head teacher, Ryan Davies, and his team. The school has over 1,200 pupils. It is a “green” school with 1 for standards and A for leadership. We discussed how we can ensure pupils are properly equipped for the world of work and further education. I was interested to hear how it’s difficult to find proper work placements for students and this is an area I think we can make progress on. One possibility is a database linking placement opportunities with students’ skills and ambitions. I’ll be discussing this with colleagues.

The school has implemented an innovative approach to educating children who arrive at the school from primary education with low levels of literacy and numeracy and this is making a real difference. They’ve also recently developed their horticultural skills by regenerating the school’s walled garden. This is a wonderful facility for learning and fun and I hope the team at the botanical gardens who’ve already assisted can help further. Ryan is leaving to move to Brynteg in Bridgend at the end of this term but I must pay tribute to his leadership and the achievements of his team.

Farewells

We have a number of long serving colleagues leaving us today. Mike Hawes, Director of Resources is retiring after 35 years. Mike has made a huge contribution and I’m grateful for his wise counsel and unwavering support, particularly since I took up post last year.

Dave Evans, Housing Business Manager, also retires today after 28 years. Dave and I worked together for many years on a variety of projects and he can be rightfully proud of his contribution in improving the quality of life for council tenants.

Also this month, Steve Colwill and Phil Lewis will be leaving Corporate Building and Property Services after 43 years and 26 years, respectively.

Thanks to all four who have clocked up 126 years of service between them!

Congratulations and thanks

Swansea Marina and four of our beaches – Caswell, Langland, Port Eynon and Bracelet Bay – have retained Blue Flag status for their quality of water, environmental education and management, safety and services.

The Blue Flag Award is a highly respected international across 49 countries.

Our city centre has retained prestigious Purple Flag status, demonstrating it’s a great, diverse and safe place to spend a night out. Well done to all involved.

A high-profile visitor has called into the Dylan Thomas Exhibition to find out about Dylan’s links with the USA. Lewis Lukens, the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in London, was shown around the exhibition by our literature officer, Jo Furber.

Blog

I’m on leave next week so my next blog will be on June 9.

Awards

I mentioned last week that following discussions with the Leader we‘ve submitted a number of our projects and services for the Municipal Journal (MJ) Awards.

These awards recognise the best local government services and personnel. Judges look for evidence of ability, ingenuity and performance. They’re often impressed by the dedication of local government staff and the practical outcomes we achieve. An MJ Award allows local authorities to be recognised for the delivery of their services over the past 12 months and to share their expertise with peers. It also provides staff with the recognition they deserve.

There were a number of possible candidates for consideration but after much deliberation we‘ve submitted in the following categories

Category	Main Content
Local Authority of the Year	All-council – City Deal, Tidal Lagoon, City Centre, Sustainable Swansea, Vision, Values
Delivering Better Outcomes	Helping Hands Volunteer Service, Stress Management & Counselling, South Wales Estates Project, Delivering Better Outcomes, Swans Academy Pilot, Health & Safety Engagement
Delivering Better Outcomes	Domestic Abuse Hub Swansea (Child & Family, Poverty & Prevention)
Excellence in Community Engagement	Work Development Service – vulnerable/ disadvantaged people create a cleaner and safer Swansea.
Reinventing Public Services	Western Bay Health and Social Care Programme’s Optimal Model of Intermediate Care
Workforce Transformation	Sustainable Swansea

Thanks to all the staff who helped to prepare the submissions in a very short space of time and particular thanks to Andy Pearson, Communications and Engagement Officer, for pulling the whole process together for us. Well done Andy.

Poverty

CMT met at the Mansion House on Wednesday to discuss a number of issues including the on-going commissioning review of catering services, the Band B school improvement programme and the Poverty Strategy. You’ll be aware that tackling poverty is a corporate priority for us all and the timely review of the Poverty Strategy allows us to reflect on what has been achieved, but more importantly to determine what we’ll collectively do in the coming months and years. This will be set out in the Delivery Plan and it was encouraging to see contributions coming from a large number of service areas. We have a real opportunity to make a difference in the coming years providing we believe that tackling poverty, like safeguarding, is everyone’s business.

Three years ago Council approved an economic regeneration strategy which aimed to increase prosperity through a series of targeted interventions, many being reflected in the current projects within our City Deal and Tidal Lagoon proposals. But critically the strategy identified that unless we adopted the right approaches to skills, training, apprenticeships and managing supply chains we could experience 20 years of what economists call “jobless growth”. Productivity rises but unemployment and economic inactivity increases. As a consequence relative poverty increases. We’ve been working locally and regionally to tackle this through projects like Workways, Beyond Bricks and Mortar, our Apprenticeship Strategy and Communities First.

You may have seen the announcement this week by Carl Sargeant that Communities First, the flagship policy aimed at boosting deprived communities across Wales, is set to be dropped. The Communities Secretary said he was not convinced that “continuing to focus on 52 small areas is the most effective way to deliver for Wales”. Mr Sargeant told AMs that a new Wales-wide approach would focus on employment, early years and “empowerment”.

It‘s too early for us to understand the full impact of these changes on our organisation. I appreciate these will be uncertain times for many employees but we’ll be working with our staff to determine a way forward which will give us the confidence that our Poverty Strategy and Delivery Plan will be implemented.

Penyrheol Primary School

Last Friday I was privileged to be invited to Penyrheol Primary School to present a High 5 award to the Year 5 pupils, along with our fantastic High 5 ambassador and Swansea City star, Leon Britton.

The High 5 judging panel had decided that they would award the whole of Year 5 for the support they have given to their classmate, Ellis. The children had been nominated by Ellis’ mother, Heidi.

Ellis is confined to a wheelchair but this has not stopped him participating in virtually everything the class does. Year 5 have gone out of their way to ensure he can take part in activities ranging from climbing trees to playing rugby and football. They are magnificent role models and show a degree of empathy and caring that puts most of us adults to shame.

The head teacher, Alison Williams, had invited the whole school and the parents in Year 5 to celebrate the achievement so I was a bit taken aback when I entered the school hall which was crammed full of people.

At that point it all started to get a bit surreal. Leon entered the hall to a fanfare of cheering and he and I were marched onto the stage. I was then handed a guitar and asked to play along with four songs with the Penyrheol School of Rock, flanked by children dressed as bananas and bacteria.

It was a lovely celebration by the school, for the school, and set up fantastically by Alison and her team. I promised to go back there soon to talk to the school council but I suspect they won’t ask me to play the guitar again.

Thanks to the pupils, parents, governors and staff for making Leon and I feel so welcome. And thanks to Year 5 for setting a fantastic example for us all.

Pre-election period

With the local government elections taking place in May, we’ll soon be entering the pre-election period. Sometimes known as “purdah”, it begins on March 17 and affects some of the things we do. It’d be a good idea for all staff to read the latest guidance that you can find via this link.

Chief Education Officer

Council has confirmed the appointment of Nick Williams as our new Chief Education Officer. Nick, our current Head of the Learner Support Service, was appointed by competitive interview following a recruitment process that attracted a lot of competition. Well done to Nick. I‘m delighted with his appointment. He will commence duties immediately on the departure of Lindsay Harvey in March.

Ambassador

Sarah Jones, who is of our many inspirational carers with Foster Swansea, has recently been appointed one of six Foster Carer Ambassadors in Wales.

As part of her new role she’ll host and speak at events, showcase foster care achievement, offer support to fellow carers and help raise the profile of what they do.

Along with the other ambassadors, she will also act as a voice for foster carers across Wales. Foster carers in Swansea do an amazing job and I’m sure we all wish Sarah well.

Neat work

Well done to members of our NEAT team who assisted Mid & West Wales Fire Service, retrieving more than 60 abandoned shopping trolleys from the River Tawe.

Next week

There’ll be no blog next week as I’ll be on annual leave. The next one will be on March 3.

Manchester – a City United

Bananas, Bacteria and the School of Rock