Poverty

Update on our high rise blocks

This week we continued our work on tenant reassurance at our high rise blocks. It’s been a difficult week, starting on Saturday morning when I received notification that four blocks had failed the UK Government tests. By mid-morning on Sunday our magnificent staff had implemented all the required measures and more and the Housing team had delivered reassurance messages to all 672 tenants. This was a massive piece of work and I’m indebted to staff in Housing, Corporate Building and Communications for their brilliant response.

Four of our high-rise buildings – three at Clyne Court and Jeffreys Court – contain Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) and were tested at the request of the Welsh Government. Our other seven sites have not been tested because they do not contain ACM. The tests failed and we’ve been seeking further advice from the Welsh and UK Governments. So far all cladding tested from buildings in England and Wales have failed the tests.

However, we were advised on Tuesday that additional tests on the full system that we’ve been asking for over the last fortnight had been carried out by BRE on panels that are identical to the ones used in Swansea.

These additional tests – known as BR 135 – confirm the panels are fully compliant with building regulations. This provides further reassurance to tenants about the safety of their homes because it confirms the cladding will not contribute to the spread of a fire should there be one.

We’ve communicated this to our tenants and we’ve shared the information with Welsh Government as we hope they’ll confirm our understanding of the situation as soon as possible in order that tenants are fully reassured.

And yesterday there were more developments. Firstly, the Welsh Government requested a review of school buildings before the end of term. And then the UK Government finally announced new testing of the entire cladding system – something we’ve requested for the past two weeks.

Leadership Team

At Leadership Team Directors and Heads of Service considered ways of increasing the number of staff who reply to our annual staff survey. This’ll be the fourth year we’ve done the survey and we want as many staff as possible to complete it. We have to use different methods to reach different staff, especially those who don’t have access to IT in work. If you have any ideas please let me know.

We also had a demo of the new contact portal that we’ll be introducing to our switchboard. Staff can use voice-activation when using the switchboard from September and then we’ll roll it out for the public. Other councils and organisations use it successfully and with more than 20,000 calls into our switchboard every month this should help make us more efficient in dealing with staff and customer calls.

Poverty Forum

Reducing poverty is one of the five corporate objectives and we can use our power as an employer, developer, landlord and investor to achieve this. Opportunities like Welsh Housing Quality Standard, City Deal and tidal lagoon don’t come round every day so we must exploit them to the full.

This week I chaired a meeting of the Poverty Forum Network, an internal officer group, to take stock on where we are, think about how we will monitor progress and agree some key projects to work on.

The recently revised poverty strategy and delivery plan and scrutiny work makes this the right time to reignite the corporate approach through the poverty forum and I’m going to put my personal time and commitment into this and I’d like all staff to do the same.

Congratulations and thanks

The Wales Airshow last weekend was the best yet with 250,000 people enjoying the event. We owe a huge vote of thanks to all those involved in the logistics of this event. Our traffic team managed the required road closures, the special events team were a model of efficiency as were all the staff and volunteers who helped with running the event and clearing up afterwards. The Council even got a round of applause at the end! I’m very proud of all who contributed because it is a massive challenge to deliver this event. Well done all.

I’m delighted the city centre has retained its prestigious Purple Flag status. It was first awarded the status in 2015 in recognition of the excellence of its evening and night-time economy.

Rhys Harries in our Trading Standards Team received the Special Individual Achievement Award at the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) Awards. Rhys was instrumental in an investigation that resulted in £1 million of counterfeit goods being seized.

Events

Following on from the Airshow, there’s a lot happening in the next few weeks. The Soapbox Science returns to the city centre on Saturday to promote cutting edge research and encourage children to take an interest in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) subjects.

On Sunday the ‘Eid in the Park’ event is being hosted by Swansea University in Abbey Meadow on the Singleton Campus from 11.30am to 4.30pm. It’s a great family event.

Swansea’s International Dance Festival, Dance Days, also returns this weekend with a mix of free dance performance for everyone.

And the annual Swansea Beach Soccer Festival returns to Swansea Bay on Saturday, July 8 to promote sport and the area as a hub for sport and activity.

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.

Reassurance on our high-rise blocks

Bananas, Bacteria and the School of Rock