Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Keep your ideas coming

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Thanks to all those staff who attended the recent roadshows. More than 750 staff turned up and the fact so many expressed their views frankly to senior managers is encouraging.  What can senior managers learn from the dialogue?

Well, firstly it’s clear many staff have deep concerns about the future of local government in the face of continuing austerity.  This isn’t surprising given the continual pressure on services and insufficient funding.  It’s clear, however, there are people keen to innovate and generate ideas which will help make us a more sustainable council.

A number of staff approached me after the events with suggestions and I’m conscious some people are not comfortable raising ideas in a large forum.  CMT will discuss ideas with individual staff and there’s a staff suggestion scheme online for those with digital access, or you can give ideas to your manager. All suggestions are considered by the relevant Head of Service for implementation.

There’s also an impatience among some as to the pace of cultural change in the organisation and the need for us to focus on productivity and output rather than attendance and bureaucratic processes.  CMT will consider the feedback from the roadshows over the coming weeks and I hope we can do justice to the invaluable feedback we’ve had.

Fostering stronger relations

The Leader and I have been discussing our relationship with the Welsh Government to raise Swansea’s profile nationally.  In fairness we spend a large amount of time making the case for the city in the corridors on the Senedd and I’m impressing on the management team the need to have constructive dialogue with senior civil servants.  There’s a danger policy makers at the national level are remote from the realities of working at the coal face and the impacts of their decisions or the missed opportunities for improving services.  Unfortunately, demands of the job sometimes mean we struggle to devote enough time to this but I’ll be reinforcing the importance of building stronger relationships and presenting innovative proposals to the Welsh Government and making sure we exploit opportunities to attract more funding to this council and this city.

More Brexit sorry     

Next Tuesday sees the next milestone in the runaway train that is Brexit as the debates will rage again in the House of Commons.  It remains to be seen whether an unlikely compromise can be reached or whether we face a delay in Brexit or a further referendum.  In the meantime, we’re continuing to plan for any eventuality. On Thursday I joined the discussions at the Welsh Government EU preparedness Advisory Panel.  A lot of work has been done by the Welsh Government to support the economy, ensure continuity on the provision of health, care and education services and to mitigate the impacts of a no deal Brexit.  There’s a website explaining what’s being done.

The Council hosted a roadshow presentation by the Home Office on the EU settlement scheme to inform EU citizens living in Swansea on the application process in relation to obtaining settled status.  The roadshow was well supported with over 70 people hearing from the Home Office the steps they need to take and information and contacts they can contact to support them through the process. This also involved a Q&A session to address individual concerns and issues.  The information and presentation will be uploaded to the web along with the information from the Q&A session.

Education

Nick Williams

Our Director of Education, Nick Williams, has been off work due to ill health.  I visited Nick this week and I’m delighted to say he’s doing well and looking forward to returning when he’s fully recovered.

Council last night agreed in Nick’s absence our Head of Vulnerable Learner Service, Mark Sheridan, will be our Statutory Director of Education on an interim basis.

Mark Sheridan

A huge thank you to Mark, Helen Morgan-Rees, Brian Roles and the education team for stepping up to cover this crucially important role.  Council also considered the strong progress made in delivering education department priorities last year and noted that the priorities for this academic year:

  • Improve teaching and learning with a particular focus on reducing inequalities for the most vulnerable
  • Improve leadership and school governance
  • Work in partnership to develop a sustainable education system
  • Embed the new ALN, wellbeing and behaviour strategies
  • Ensure all learning opportunities take place in safe environments

Fitting tribute

Pupils at Pontarddulais Comprehensive School will today be commemorating Sunday’s Holocaust Memorial Day. Holocaust Memorial Day remembers the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 and I’m encouraged our younger generations are so involved in today’s important event.

Great effort

Many thanks to staff in our winter maintenance team who worked around the clock making sure our roads were treated with grit during the low temperatures this week. While there were some issues on the roads I’m sure the work of our highways teams helped keep these to a minimum considering the conditions.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

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As we come to the end of the year it is a good time to reflect on the events of the last 12 months.

Despite the best attempts of our officers and elected members the future of the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon remains uncertain.  In January we celebrated the anniversary of the publication of the Hendry report but by June the UK Government confirmed that it would not be supporting the project.  We continue to explore different ways to deliver the scheme and 2019 will see us redouble our efforts to move forward.

In February we held our Smart City event at the Swansea tech hub and this has proved to be an important milestone in moving our digital strategy forward.  Investment by Openreach into the City and the recent submission of our Local Full Fibre Network bid have followed as the City Deal digital projects get underway.  2019 will see more work on the ground as we futureproof Swansea for the impact of fifth generation technology.

March saw the unveiling of the latest local government reform proposals and the suggestion that ten councils were the right footprint for Wales but by July these had been consigned to the dustbin of history.  This was also the month that we completed and opened the first council housing scheme built in the City for a generation which was a real highlight of the year for me.

In April we opened Wales’ first fully integrated family centre and primary care centre at Mountain View in Mayhill and in May we successfully hosted the Radio 1 Biggest Weekend, demonstrating our continuing commitment to culture. More events followed, including the Wales National Airshow along with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Skyline project at Kilvey Hill.

In July we were visited by the Care Inspectorate Wales as they inspected our approach as a corporate parent, our progress on safeguarding and the performance of our Children’s Services.  In October they issued their report which was highly positive and complimentary about the work our social services teams are doing.

In August our schools celebrated another excellent set of results.  The Senior Management Review was completed with the appointment of my deputy, Adam Hill.

September was a difficult month following the provisional budget announcements from Welsh Government and we completed the penultimate stage in approving our Local Development Plan with the inspectors confirming that there would be no further public hearings.

In October we made significant progress on our Regional Education Consortium, ERW, with an agreement by the Joint Committee to make structural changes and revisit the collaborative approach.  This will be driven forward again in January so that we can ensure that schools get the school improvement support in a more consistent and coherent way. We also celebrated the best High 5 awards to date with inspirational young people from across the City.

My highlights for November were the opening of Lon Las School by TV presenter Huw Edwards and the first signs that the Welsh Government were responding to our concerns about the budget settlement.  I was very grateful to Ben Smith for his support in my submission to the Welsh Assembly Petitions Committee and I hope that it brought home to policy makers the impact of the scale of cuts on the ground.

December was marred by the news that the City Deal Delta Lakes scheme in Carmarthen had some major problems but the Joint Committee, chaired by Councillor Rob Stewart took rapid and decisive action to ensure that the other City Deal schemes could continue to progress smoothly.

So what can we learn from the year’s events?  We are a diverse and complex organisation that provides essential services for our citizens and we do it well.  We deal efficiently and effectively with the challenges thrown at us and this is because we have a talented and committed workforce.  I know morale is not helped by the constant pressure of austerity but we have demonstrated a resilience that other councils would envy.

So thanks to all of you for your hard work this year.  I don’t doubt that next year will be equally challenging for us all but I know you will deal with it as you have consistently done; with innovation, determination and commitment.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.  Happy New Year.

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

 

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.

Are we a good parent?

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The Care Inspectorate Wales have been with us again this week and I met with them on Wednesday to talk through our approach as a corporate parent, our progress on safeguarding and the performance of our Children’s Services.

Thanks to Gemma Whyley and Julie Thomas for their support and guidance as the inspection process is an important one if we are to improve our services further.  Amongst the areas I felt confident but not complacent about was our performance as a corporate parent and the work done across the organisation to ensure children in our care have the best start in life and are able to realise their ambitions.  This is a reflection of the work done for children in care by staff across the council which I’m very proud of and grateful for.  This was particularly important as children in care was a key theme for the inspectors.

A good corporate parent should think the same way about the children in its care as any other parent should do.  Are they able to achieve their ambitions, experience a good education, feel safe and secure, live free from poverty and enjoy life?  There were a number of examples beyond the direct work of social services that I was able to give to demonstrate this commitment, including the measures we’ve taken on housing, education, council tax, the apprenticeship strategy, Beyond Bricks and Mortar and cultural event invites, all of which benefit children in our care and care leavers.

We won’t know the outcome from CIW for some weeks yet but thanks to all the staff involved in the inspection. I hope to thank them in person this afternoon at an event to mark the end of the three-week inspection.

Regionalisation

We’re waiting to hear the next steps in relation to local government reform following the scrapping of compulsory merger proposals.  It sounds like another working group is on its way and I’ll be seeking to be represented on it.  In the meantime, I’ve spent this week in joint committee meetings for ERW and Western Bay and at the City Deal programme board.  The workload associated with all this collaboration is growing massively and following the senior management restructure I’ll be looking at the best way to ensure we’re represented at the various meetings that have filled up my calendar.

There are some significant challenges in relation to ERW which I’ll be working with regional colleagues on and there’s much to be done on the Western Bay collaboration in preparation for Bridgend Council’s departure next April.

Your home, your health

I’ve been working with colleagues in housing, social care and the health board to organise a symposium on housing and health at the Liberty Stadium in October.  The links between good housing and good health outcomes are strong and I hope the symposium can help us develop our strategies and investment programmes to help promote independence for older people, combat the scourge of homelessness and tackle the impacts of welfare reform and fuel poverty.  I’ll say more about this as the date approaches but if you are interested then you might wish to mark October 5 as a date in your diary.

High 5

The nominations for this year’s High 5 Awards are closing today. Thank you to everyone who’s been involved and to those who’ve nominated young people. I look forward to the judging process and planning the awards night in the autumn.

End of term        

As the end of the school year approaches I’d like to thank all the teachers and support staff for their efforts during the year.  I’ve been impressed with the performance of schools across the city and this has been evidenced in a series of ESTYN inspection reports throughout the year.  Have a well-earned rest and come back refreshed after the summer break as the next cohort of learners will be arriving.  Thanks to all.

Best wishes

Another long-serving employee is leaving with Clare Watson setting out for a new life in Brittany. Clare has worked as a specialist teacher for 20 Years and has 37 years’ experience working with pupils with additional learning needs. Based at YG Bryn Tawe during the last 14 years, Clare has provided support to pupils from Welsh medium schools as well as providing essential training across Swansea.