Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

The shape of things to come

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The world is changing rapidly and technology increasingly shapes the way in which we live and work. We’re on the edge of fifth generation technology and we’re uniquely positioned to redesign and reshape our city through the City Deal and related projects.   The technology is complex but the principles are simple.  The benefits must be for our citizens, our businesses and to those we provide services to.  There’ll be impacts on every service area and we must understand and deal with the consequences of technological change on equality, security and privacy.

On Monday we held a seminar for senior councillors and officers on the subject of Smart and Connected Cities to increase awareness of policy advisers and policy makers. Mike Galvin, an expert in this field, is working on the digital strand of the City Deal and highlighted the potential of 5G technology.  Darren Topham, from our technology partner Gartner, described the top five most disruptive developing technologies including artificial intelligence, wearable devices, visual personal assistants and bots.  Infosys then explained the Internet of Things and the technology that supports it, how this might help to make a Smart City and what Swansea might look like five years from now.

Julie Snell, from Bristol is Open, explained how Bristol, the UK’s leading Smart City, is putting this technology into practice.  We’ll be having further discussions with colleagues over the bridge to embed their learning into our plans.

We’re hoping to roll-out this programme to more councillors, officers and our partners.  All the presentations can be found here.

Thank you to all who attended, but particularly to Rhys Curtis, our innovation officer, who worked tirelessly on this event.

Budget latest

The draft budget proposals are published in a report for Cabinet next week. We’ll be spending more than £400 million on services, including extra cash for social services and education as well as funding the national 2% pay award for staff. We’ve also had to identify savings of £28 million which will impact on services and staff. I know this is a really difficult time for staff who are affected, but I want to reiterate my commitment to avoiding compulsory redundancies where we can. That’s why managers are being urged to work with staff and workshops involving staff and the unions have been set up to explore options.  I am still involved in eleventh hour discussions on education grant funding !!!

This is the most difficult budget I’ve ever been involved in and although there’s no doubt over the challenges we face, I want to thank everyone for continuing to do a great job in very testing circumstances.

Music festival

The Brangwyn Hall hosted the Schools Day for the Abertawe Festival of Young Musicians.  The hall was packed and I managed to catch a few songs during the primary school showcase including my young friends from the Penyrheol School of Rock.  All the schools demonstrated the commitment to music and the arts that characterised our City of Culture bid, nurturing young talent and having fun.  Thanks to all involved in staging and taking part in this fantastic event.

Blaenymaes School

Children’s Commissioner Sally Holland visited Blaenymaes School following an invite from its Rights Respecting Ambassadors in Year Six. Sally asked them to launch an intergenerational group and last week she worked with the school council and ambassadors on a proposal for a gardening group with older people in the community.

Sally was impressed with a number of initiatives at the school and said, “It’s very exciting that Blaenymaes are starting an intergenerational project, which will offer a real opportunity to promote positive relationships between the oldest and youngest members of this community.”

Wellbeing

I mentioned last week that the Big Wellbeing Event on January 31 at the Brangwyn and George Hall for staff, councillors, partners and foster carers. It was a huge success and 627 signed into the event though we know far more actually attended. My thanks to everyone involved.

I’ve moved

I’ve moved down the corridor to Room 208 in the Guildhall.  Thanks to staff in Facilities and ICT who moved me rapidly and painlessly to the room I originally occupied 14 years ago!

Well done

Congratulations to headteacher Jeff Bird, the staff, governors, parents and the wider community at Bishopston Comprehensive School on their recent Estyn inspection.  The school was judged to be excellent in all five categories.  The inspectors commented, “Leaders at Bishopston Comprehensive School have established an ethos whereby pupils develop outstanding social, learning and life skills. Learning experiences meet the needs of pupils exceptionally well and teaching supports pupils to reach high standards.”

The Dylan Thomas Centre has been named in the shortlist of the ‘Best Family Venue’ category, of the Fantastic for Families Awards. The winner will be announced on March 1. Congratulations to the team and let’s hope it’s a double celebration on St David’s Day

Open Day

Swansea mosque is taking part in the national #VisitMyMosque to give the local community an insight on Sunday, February 18.

 

Plugging the gap

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I mentioned last week just how difficult this year’s budget process is.  I’ve spent most of the week dealing with a number of 11th hour issues including discussions with Welsh Government over education grants.  Unfortunately, this has driven a coach and horses through my diary so apologies to those people I was scheduled to meet.  Amongst the cancelled appointments in my diary was the Staff Well-being event held in the Brangwyn Hall on Wednesday which by all accounts was a massive success.  I’ll say more about it next week.

The public consultation on the budget process finishes today which gives us the time to ensure that reports are finalised in time for Council on March 1.  I know that discussions are taking place with staff affected by the proposals and I’ve urged managers to make every effort to avoid redundancies, however difficult that may be.  I hope to see staff, managers and unions working together to come up with other options.

Work will then begin immediately on next year’s financial challenge and my thanks go to all who’ve worked harder than ever before to prepare the budget.

I know some staff may be considering taking ER/VR so it’s worth me flagging up some changes to the scheme. We’ve been offering an enhanced ER/VR scheme, giving staff additional benefits using a 45-week calculator. Unfortunately, the pot of money we set aside to fund these enhanced payments will run out by the end of June. This means we can’t offer the enhanced rate after March 31, so applications after that date will be considered on the 30-week calculator. In the past we’ve been able to extend the deadline for the enhanced rate because there was money left in the pot, but our Head of Financial Services and Service Centre, Ben Smith, has made it clear that’ll definitely not be the case after March 31 because the money will have run out.

Staff travel

Leadership Team looked at the issue of staff travel and how we can make it easier and more efficient for employees. A lot of time and effort is spent on travelling both in and out-of-county as part of our jobs, but with changing technology and new ways of working there’s an opportunity to take a fresh look at what we do. It’s early days in the discussions but we considered issues such as car share, parking at council locations, using Skype to avoid travel, pool cars and our existing fleet. Our Highways and Transportation team will carry out further work and I’ll update you.

CMT

Corporate Management Team this week considered a range of issues including the budget, social care charging policy and the Prevention Strategy. We also had a demonstration of the online sickness absence system that’s being developed by our in-house IT team.  Hopefully this will produce accurate and timely information to help us all manage sickness absence more effectively.  Sickness has a heavy cost to the Council each year which compounds the budget challenge and increases the likelihood of job losses.  We’ll be working with the Leadership Team to refine the system over the coming weeks.  Thanks to Leanne Casey and Richard John who came to CMT to present this to us.

Schools

I know opinion is divided over the Welsh Government’s school categorisation process but I was delighted to see the performance of Swansea schools in the latest round.  We were one of a handful of councils with no schools in the red category and my thanks go to all the staff in our schools and education service for their efforts.

The Biggest Weekend

The Biggest Weekend is coming to Swansea this summer with Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift headlining at Singleton Park. This is a fantastic coup and something our Events Team has been working on for a number of years.  It adds to our summer events which include Man Engine, Little Mix and The Killers at Liberty Stadium, the Wales Airshow and Now the Hero / Nawr Yr Arwr which justifies our position as Wales’ Capital of Culture. Tickets for The Biggest Weekend go on sale on Monday, February 12, at £18 plus £4.50 booking fee. Further information here  or www.bbc.co.uk/biggestweekend

Well-being

You can have your say on plans to develop a better Swansea as part of the consultation on the Local Well-being Plan. It’s been drafted by the Swansea Public Service Board and an online survey can be found at https://www.swansea.gov.uk/psb or in sessions held at the Civic Centre on Feb 6 at 4pm-5pm, the Baling Plant on Feb 12, 9.30am-10.30am and Heol y Gors on Feb 9 at 7.30am-10.30am.

New build

Plans to develop a new purpose-built school for vulnerable young people as part of our EOTAS provision have cleared an important hurdle. The Welsh Government’s Capital Panel recommended to approve the business case. This approval is now subject to the Cabinet Secretary’s final decision. Let’s hope it gets agreed.

History month

To mark LGBT History month, we’ll be flying the pride flag at the Civic Centre in a series of events taking place across the city.  Supported by our Staff LGBT+ Group, our library service has a display created from newspaper cuttings celebrating the history of LGBT in Swansea.  They’re also showing ‘Britain on Film: LGBT Britain’ on February 24.

Swans

And finally, congratulations to the Swans on another well-deserved victory against one of the top clubs on Monday.  Even I’m starting to regain hope they’ll survive in the Premier League which will be another massive plus for the city.

Hard Times

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The budget for next year continues to dominate CMT’s work and we’ve been wrestling with some emerging issues to try to finalise our proposals.

The removal of some grants and increased spending pressures, including unfunded pay awards, have made the task of setting a balanced budget much more difficult this year. Over the coming weeks the details will be finalised with Cabinet before we report to Council following consultation.

I know this is a difficult time for staff and decisions will need to be taken that we wouldn’t consider if the financial position was easier.  Where staff are under threat of redundancy I’ve asked for particular efforts to be made to ensure that our redeployment processes operate quickly and effectively.

I’m also conscious there’s been a good deal of misinformation circulating about the proposed funding for schools.  Our Section 151 Officer, Ben Smith, and I will be writing to head teachers next week setting out the facts clearly so that the record can be put straight.

Local Government collaboration.

Yesterday the Leader and I met Alun Davies AM, Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services in the Welsh Government to discuss local government reform.  I’m speculating but I think it’s possible that there might be a change of emphasis and it is always possible that the issue of merging councils might reappear over the coming weeks.  This would have an impact on the current collaborations we’re involved in, particularly those involving education and economic development.  We’ll find out more by mid-February and I’ll keep you posted on developments.  In the meantime large amounts of my time, and that of colleagues, is tied up with regional collaborations and below is an update on the three main programmes.

ERW

This week I’ve been speaking to the six education directors in the ERW region about what needs to be done to improve the governance and effectiveness of the regional consortium and I’ll be meeting Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams in a few weeks to set out the position and make some recommendations for the future.

Western Bay

Last Friday I chaired the Western Bay Leadership Team where we discussed the progress made on the proposed move of Bridgend CBC to the Cwm Taf health board area.  This will be a real challenge for all involved but it’s essential we retain a focus on services to the citizen, so I was pleased to hear about the excellent progress being made by the Western Bay partnership.

City Deal

The Leader and I, along with colleagues from our three partner councils, met the Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns, and the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Mark Drakeford.  We discussed the issues that remain outstanding before we can proceed to signing the Joint Working Agreement and I’m optimistic we can resolve these so that a report can be made to Council before the end of the financial year.

Over the past few months I’ve been working with our Corporate Innovation Officer, Rhys Curtis, on a seminar for lead members and officers on what a smart and connected Swansea will look like as we progress the City Deal projects.  I’ll say more about this in a couple of weeks but I’m anxious that we reach a wider audience of staff, councillors and partners so that the vision for the future can be shared and debated.  The seminar will be held in early February and I’ll report back and add links to the presentations as soon as possible.

Thanks and well done

Thanks to the staff in ICT who arranged the migration of CMT to Office 365 this week.  It was a smooth transition for which I’m very grateful.

Thanks to Mark Gosney and the High 5 team who this week organised a tea for this year’s winners with the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House.  This followed the kind offer that the Lord Mayor made at the High 5 Awards ceremony.

On Monday evening the Mansion House was the venue for a thank you event for all our partners in the City of Culture bid which gave the opportunity to remind everyone that we’ll continue to work with Welsh Government to make Swansea the Welsh capital of culture.

Our city centre rangers dealt with 21,015 incidents last year, ranging from enquiries from the public to working with the police to report and tackle anti-social behaviour. They also support city centre events and activities, help businesses with their questions and queries, and put safety and security arrangements in place. Well done to all involved.

Next week is the last working week for Greg Jones in our Communications team.  Greg is leaving to join the City Deal team so our paths will continue to cross frequently.  I’d like to thank Greg for all his hard work over the years and wish him well for the future.

Penblwydd hapus

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Today marks the first anniversary of the publication of Sir Charles Hendry’s report on the future of tidal lagoon energy with the clear recommendation to the Government to get on with the Swansea tidal lagoon project.  I acknowledge that the lagoon doesn’t have 100% support but the vast majority of people I’ve spoken to are in favour of it and it has cross-party support in Council.

We’ll continue to exert as much pressure as we can to secure this project and the massive economic boost it’d bring to the city and the region.  This week we had a Love the Lagoon birthday cake made to mark the anniversary. It’s part of our campaign and was shared with business leaders and visitors to Swansea Market. We also sent first birthday cards to the Prime Minister, Welsh Secretary and Business Secretary as a friendly nudge for them to make a decision.

You may have seen this week that the First Minister has now waded in to the debate with an offer of substantial financial support from the Welsh Government. It remains to be seen whether this will help unblock the project at UK Government level, but I know that the pressure of our Love the Lagoon campaign has been felt in Cardiff and London so thanks to all who‘ve joined with it.

On Monday I attended our Scrutiny Programme Committee along with the Leader where the subject of the lagoon was raised once again.  The committee heard from the Leader about progress on a range of issues from City Deal and the broader regeneration programme to the work of the Public Services Board and our corporate priorities.  Scrutiny is an essential function of local government and we responded to a range of challenging and important questions. The report is available here.  During the meeting we noted that Greg Clark, the current Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, had retained his post in the UK Government Cabinet reshuffle. During our recent meeting with him he said a decision would be made “shortly” so we hope he keeps to his word and we can leave the second birthday candle firmly in the drawer.

Homelessness

This week saw the publication of the Wales Audit Office report into how councils are managing homelessness.  The report presents a mixed picture on performance but acknowledges that many of the causation factors are outside the control of councils and Welsh Government.  For example there’s a general concern over the impact of welfare reform and a growth in the numbers of people finding themselves without a home.

Auditor General, Huw Vaughan-Thomas said: “My report today highlights that Local Authorities continue to focus on managing people in crisis rather than stopping them getting into crisis in the first place. To truly prevent homelessness public bodies need to take a long-term view and work with other organisations to really tackle the issues that cause homelessness. This requires a focus on, for example, better educational attainment, access to employment, well planned transition when leaving care and access to welfare benefits.”

We’re praised in the report for work on preventing homelessness through the creative use of Supporting People funding, its work with private landlords and its strategic approach to prevention.  This Council has led the way in Wales on tackling homelessness for many years and I was proud to read the comments of the auditor.  My thanks go to all those who work in this important and essential service area.

Sharing Information

On Tuesday I met with the Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner to discuss the effectiveness of information sharing protocols with housing following the introduction of new arrangements last year. It’s clear our council is also leading the way nationally on this initiative and although there are still some issues to resolve this is having an impact on community safety for our housing estates. Thanks to Dave Thomas and all in the housing team who’ve helped to make this a success.

Congratulations

The ‘Jig-so’ project has been shortlisted for prestigious British Journal of Midwifery Awards. It’s a Swansea-wide team of midwives, nursery nurses, family facilitators and early language development workers.  Well done to all involved and let’s hope the team get the right result on the night.

Our corporate building and property services team is carrying out works at council homes to help tenants save money on their heating bills. The team has taken on more staff to do the work in-house, leading to a 25% increase in turnover compared to 2016/17. This will help us reach the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, so well done to all staff involved.

Staff in a range of services have joined forces with businesses and organisations to help improve the appearance of St Phillips Community Centre in Sandfields. This will improve things for thousands of people who use the community centre every year, so my thanks to all involved.

 

 

The show must go on

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I hope those of you who took time off over the festive period had a great break.  For those of you who worked through it I want to repeat my thanks.  There were a number of incidents to deal with during the holiday period, many caused by the horrible weather we experienced.

I must say a huge thank you to all those involved in responding to the crisis caused by water leaks at the Grand Theatre.  There are too many people to mention but staff at the theatre and colleagues in corporate building and property services and ICT went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the theatre re-opened within 24 hours of the leak.  It was a tremendous effort and demonstrates their total commitment to the old adage that “the show must go on”.

Hats off also to all the front line officers who helped clear up after this week’s storms and floods.  Keeping the city moving and safe in the face of violent storms is no mean feat but they achieved it once again and we should all be grateful for that.

Corporate Management Team

On Wednesday CMT met to discuss a number of issues including an update on this year’s budget monitoring. Whilst we’ve made significant progress we’re still heading for an overall overspend this year and so a reminder that the current spending restrictions remain in force is timely.  We also considered a report on corporate risks, including financial ones, and we’ll be working with Cabinet Members to agree these next week.  We also discussed the current challenges of regional collaboration and the potential for a change of direction by Welsh Government that will need some detailed discussion with councillors over the coming weeks and months. The Leader and I are meeting the new minister next week so I’ll update you on any developments.

On Thursday the Leadership Team worked on a range of topics including our Organisational Development and Commercial strategies.  I’ve mentioned previously that the best way to protect jobs and sustain frontline services is to become a more commercial organisation and to look for new ways to generate income.

New Year’s Honours

I was delighted to hear Sue Hollister, former Head Teacher at Cefn Hengoed School, was awarded the MBE.  It’s a well-deserved recognition of her outstanding achievements in education and her contribution to improving outcomes for thousands of our children and young people. I was also delighted that Professor Hilary Lappin-Scott, Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor of Microbiology at Swansea University, was awarded the OBE for services to microbiology and the advancement of women in science and engineering. I’ve worked with Hilary on a number of projects including the Swansea Science Festival and the Soapbox Science events I’ve mentioned in previous blogs.

Congratulations

You may have read on StaffNet that Laura Collins and the Foster Swansea team held a collection for food banks at the Child and Family staff development day in December.  They collected enough food to feed 375 people this Christmas which is a fantastic achievement.  Thanks to all who took part.