Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Our City of Culture bid is in

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City of Culture bid submitted

Yesterday evening the leaders of the political groups joined me and the City of Culture team in an event at Museum Green where our bid to the UK Government was submitted.  There has been a huge wave of support in the city for this project and now we must wait for feedback and the visit from the judging panel next month.

The bid was launched electronically by community representatives and received in London by actor Rhys Ifans who delivered it to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).  Thanks to the team who have been working on this bid and for the cross-party support.

Director of Place

A large part of my week has been taken up with the recruitment process for the Director of Place which attracted interest from across the UK and beyond!  Following a rigorous assessment centre and competitive interviews the six shortlisted candidates were whittled down to two.  Following the Appointments Committee the Council yesterday appointed the current interim Director of Place, Martin Nicholls, to the post.  I’m delighted with Martin’s appointment and look forward to working with him on the continued regeneration of the city.  We’ll be discussing what changes need to be made to the management structure to deliver the core regeneration programmes of the council most effectively and efficiently.

Be the best you can be

Staff engagement is one of my personal priorities so I’m delighted we’re continuing to improve the ways we support staff and give them a voice. The annual staff survey is under way and I’d urge everyone to take the time to complete it – your feedback will be listened to – you can complete the survey here.

And we’re about to hold the Be the best you can be event for staff which is taking place at the National Waterfront Museum next Friday. There are plenty of activities and workshops for staff and it’d be great if we could fill all of the places. They include calligraphy, choir, digital photography and genius hour!

The aim is to get as many people as possible to attend the day, even if you just want to drop-in, so please try to come along. Further details are available here.

Outstanding service

This week we’re saying farewell to a number of long-serving colleagues who are well-known across the council.  Rose McCreesh our Revenues and Benefits manager is retiring after almost 41 years’ service. Rose has led the transformation of our “rev and bens” team and she was recognised in 2002 when she was invited by The Prime Minister to a Downing Street reception for ‘turnaround managers’.

Lynne Miller our Pension Manager is leaving after 39 years, 38 of which have been in our Pensions Team, and we’ve all benefitted from her experience and professionalism.

Jon Thyer is retiring after almost 31 years. Jon started in the Treasurers’ Department and had numerous posts there before moving to Social Services in 2008.

And Phil Couch, who’s been instrumental in interpreting and steering us through the introduction of the Welsh Language Standards, is retiring to start a new life in France!

These are the latest long-serving and well-respected officers who’ve left the council in recent years. I’m so grateful to all of them for their outstanding public service. They’ll be missed but I wish them the very best for the future.

Benefit changes

Universal Credit (UC) will be introduced from December 13 in Swansea and initially affect benefits and tax credits for new claimants and those with changing circumstances. We’re raising awareness among staff at the earliest possible opportunity so they or their family members can begin planning for any financial impacts. The latest information can be found here.

Macmillan Cake Sale

Thank you to everyone who either baked or bought at yesterday’s cake sale in the Guildhall. There was a tremendous selection of cakes and bakes and I had Kath Banks’ amazing corned beef pie for lunch. Thank you everyone, £327 was raised for a great cause.

Well done and thank you

Our Team Around the Family (TAF) service has been shortlisted for honours in the Guardian Public Service Awards 2017. This initiative supports children – and significantly reduces pressure on the council – by empowering primary school staff to tackle early-stage social challenges faced by families. Well done to all involved and good luck at the awards in November.

Thanks to all staff who’ve been involved in the construction of new council homes at Milford Way in Penderry. Six of the 18 new properties will be soon be ready for occupation, with the other 12 likely to be handed over to tenants  by the start of November.

Our performance is improving

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Amazing achievement

Once again I want to sing the praises of our staff who continue to do a great job despite budget pressures.

The latest Local Authority Performance Bulletin published this week shows just how good a job staff have done.  The all-Wales bulletin compares all 22 councils on a broad range of indicators, from the condition of roads to the performance of schools. Last year:

  • 29% of all our performance indicators were in the top quartile, up from 17% in 2014/15.
  • A reduction in lower quartile PIs from 22% to 14%.
  • We’re ranked 9th among all 22 councils, up from 15th last year.

We’re performing in the top quartile in 32% of the indicators compared Cardiff’s 24% and Newport’s 12%.  Given the financial pressure and as an urban area we face tougher challenges, this improvement is really impressive.  You can view the bulletin here.

On top of this, our own quarterly performance report shows 80% of our corporate plan indicators met their target and 60% showed improvement compared to the first quarter last year.

We can’t be complacent; only yesterday a report warned that services like libraries and leisure centres could become unaffordable because about 56p in every pound spent by the Welsh Government on public services could go to the NHS.

We already knew the financial outlook is difficult as we need to save tens of millions of pounds again this year, but I’m inspired by the way our staff continue to meet these challenges and provide great services.

Thank you to everyone, I really appreciate your efforts.

More than one way to skin a cat

I attended a presentation about an alternative approach to improving rail connectivity to the city and the region.  Professor Mark Barry from Cardiff University, who was instrumental in developing the South East Metro plans, believes his latest proposal can achieve more than electrification would have given us. He proposes the creation of a direct rail link from Port Talbot to Swansea via the new Bay Campus and SA1, and a Swansea Bay Metro connecting Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot. It could reduce travel times to Cardiff by 30 minutes and reach London in just over two hours.  This would greatly benefit West Wales. It’s at a very early stage but we hope to work closely with regional partners and Welsh Government to develop the business case and engage with UK government to explore how it could be funded.

Schools

My week started on a high note with a visit to Brynmill Primary School where I met Jo Simons, headteacher, and her team.  I know the school well as my children were educated there and my granddaughter is currently in the reception class.  Jo highlighted the specific challenges that face this landlocked school, its Victorian design and lack of safe play space.  The team and the children have done a great job of making the environment colourful and welcoming but more remains to be done and in the current financial environment any improvements will require an innovative approach.  I promised to give this some thought.

Mike Penrose, Chief Executive at UNICEF, visited us to see how we’ve embedded UNCRC into everything we do.  So far almost 50,000 children and young people have been engaged in the Rights Respecting Schools programme. Mike was clearly impressed, citing Hafod Primary as possibly the best example he had seen across the globe for the Rights Respecting approach.  Thanks to all the schools and staff involved in driving this initiative forward.

I met YCA, the Primary Head teachers Association, to update them on the budget, local government reform and the plans for the city, including a plea for all schools to engage with our City of Culture and Tidal Lagoon campaigns.   Schools and pupils have a very important role in helping to promote the opportunities our regeneration plans present for the young people.  Thanks to the YCA for such a warm welcome and I look forward to our next meeting.

Congratulations to Donna Caswell and her team at Llanrhidian Primary School for their recent Excellent/Excellent Estyn inspection result.  The report is a great reflection of the school, its staff and pupils.

Farewells

Thelma Maguire, Performance Management Officer in our Housing team is retiring after 41 years. Also Jennifer Griffiths, Capital and Revenue Monitoring Officer in our Education Service, is leaving after 45 years fantastic contribution to the work on our schools estate.  I wish them both well after such outstanding service.

Being member-led?

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Many councils struggle with being a member-led authority. For anyone who’s not heard this term before, it broadly means that councillors set out what they want the council to achieve and officers put plans into place to deliver it.

In truth, every council should be member-led; after all councillors get elected on the back of their manifesto so they should be the ones who decide which policies will help deliver their election promises. Officers advise; members decide.

And that’s what’s happening here. The current administration translated their manifesto pledges into a series of policy commitments that we’re implementing.

Evidence shows the best performing councils have a positive collaboration between elected members and officers with an understanding and respect for their different roles and responsibilities.

In some other authorities the balance between officer and councillor roles hasn’t been quite right, either because councillors are unnecessarily involved in day-to-day management issues or they simply leave everything to the officers.  As an elector the thought of policy and strategy being determined by unelected officers horrifies me.  It’s contrary to our democratic principles.

Our Cabinet, CMT and Heads of Service along with the chairs of our Policy Development and Delivery Committees have been working on getting this balance right. We’ve had support from Ian Bottrill, a former council leader, who’s been useful in getting everyone to see how this will work best here. It’s really important because it gives all our staff clarity over what we need to focus on and who does what – both officers and councillors.

Now that Council has agreed our priorities in the policy commitments, it’s over to officers to put plans into place to deliver these priorities, taking into account the budgets, staff and timescale required.

Local Government Reform

I’m part of the Local Government Reform Task & Finish Group set up by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to consider the issues and challenges involved in LG reform.  It’s chaired independently by our former Chief Executive, Jack Straw.

The rationale for reform is to reduce the current number of footprints for collaboration, improve services and deliver efficiencies. The key is to identify at what level things are best done; local, regional or national.  The current different footprints for collaboration, ERW, Western Bay and City Deal, create real challenges for us.  The Welsh Government’s line is less prescriptive than the previous Minister’s approach but it’s clear there’ll be an element of “mandation” in how some services are delivered; specifically social care, school improvement and economic development, transport and planning.

The proposals under consultation would create three Regional Governance Committees.  Swansea would be aligned with Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Powys.  These committees could determine and oversee how services are delivered collaboratively but there should be flexibility in which councils collaborate in each service area.  There is clearly a lot of work to do but the road ahead is becoming clearer.  I’ll update you as discussions continue.

Be the best you can be

This year’s staff engagement event is at the National Waterfront Museum on Friday, October 6.  This builds on the great work done by our innovation community.  Our guest speaker is extreme athlete and TV presenter Lowri Morgan.  Lowri, a former pupil of Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, will host two motivational talks at 11am and 1pm. Please come along, I’ll be at the event so if you want to talk to me feel free; I don’t bite!

Back the bid

We’ve had great support from our citizens, businesses, universities, arts community and professional sports clubs for our City of Culture bid.  Tracey McNulty and her team have not missed an opportunity to canvass support from every quarter, including Rhod Gilbert during the wet but wonderful Proms in the Park. Our draft document needs to be completed this week and submitted to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport on September 29. After that we’ll be visited by the City of Culture panel in October and make presentations to the panel in December.

Great news

We welcome 15 new apprentices who’ll spend four days a week being mentored by qualified staff, with the other day in training. They get an NVQ Level 3 qualification and work on construction projects. Since 2003 we’ve trained 178 apprentices and linked to this we’ve won a Queen’s Award for Innovation as part of the regional Cyfle Building Skills initiative which sees young apprentices shared among various employers to develop their practical skills.

Swansea has achieved a low likelihood of digital exclusion rating, down from medium in 2015, which is a great achievement for us. It shows initiatives like our Get Swansea Online free courses are paying off and gives us more confidence in rolling-out more digital services.

Well done to our staff who helped the city centre retain its prestigious Purple Flag status. The team is now a finalist in the South Wales Police Annual Awards.

Huw Evans in our Democratic Services team was among a group of cyclists who rode to Ireland.  They  cycled 300 miles in four days to help fund a specialised motorised wheelchair for a Loughor boy.  You still have time to donate by visiting www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/beicwyrrachel

 

 

Being more commercial

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A common response to austerity from councils across the UK has been to become more commercial in carrying out their business.  We’re a large organisation that commissions and delivers a broad range of services to our citizens and we must ensure we properly charge for our services, procure efficiently and manage contracts effectively.  Every penny generated through these efforts will help to maintain services and jobs.

We also need to become more commercial in finding new income opportunities.  This week the Leadership Team of Directors and Heads of Service held a workshop to develop our commercial strategy. The aim was to generate ideas and create the right culture across the council for increasing income.  We heard about examples from across the UK such as councils charging companies to dispose of their confidential waste, providing commercial catering and offering funeral services. When you think about it, we’re already involved in this kind of work so it’s not a huge step for us to develop our existing services and offer them to new customers to bring in more money. And Richard Mears, our car parking manager, explained how he’s been working with our commercial team to sell city centre parking spaces to local firms. We know we face declining budgets in the coming years so we want to raise new income to replace the reduced funding from the government. The next stage is for us collectively to develop the Commercial Strategy and to feed into the up-coming budget discussions. Further workshops with be held with Leadership Team and Cabinet in the coming weeks and months as we complete the strategy and action plan.

APSE award-winners

Last night we picked up two national APSE awards for our waste management service and our highways team, winning service team of the year. We narrowly missed out on the overall council of the year and our building services team was also shortlisted in two categories for service team and workforce development. Well done to everyone involved.

Love the Lagoon

The Love the Lagoon campaign has taken off this week with more than 25,000 views of our online videos.  Thousands of people have engaged on Facebook (which shows it is generating interest).  MPs raised the issue at Welsh Questions in Parliament and one MP directly mentioned our campaign.

Now we’ll be putting more focus now onto getting people to post videos of support.  I’d encourage staff who support the project to post either directly or through our communications team.

Culture

Another major campaign we’ve launched is to get support for our City of Culture bid. Banners are popping up to generate support. Winning the title would generate millions of pounds for Swansea’s economy, also attracting a year-long programme of top quality events, activities, exhibitions, concerts and shows.  With the winner due to be announced at the end of the year, we need to show the independent judging panel just how much Swansea wants and needs this title. Head here to see how you can help.

Passing the baton 

It might have been a wet and windy Tuesday morning but Swansea provided its usual warm welcome for the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton’s Relay. Swansea had the pleasure of welcoming the baton into Wales where it had travelled from the Isle of Man. Making the most of our coastal assets the Baton made a dramatic entrance by sea when it was delivered to Knab by the Mumbles RNLI. The baton was then passed, by the Deputy Leader, Cllr Clive Lloyd, to the first of our celebrity Baton Bearers, boxer Enzo Maccarinelli.

I was considering running a caption competition for the photo of the Deputy Leader and Enzo but it would probably not be a good career move! Our teams within Cultural Services – Events, Marketing and Sports Development did a great job of setting the standard for the Welsh leg of the relay.

High 5s

On Tuesday the judging panel for the High 5 Awards met to assess this year’s entries.  I wasn’t looking forward to chairing it given the 156 nominations, all of which deserve recognition, and was expecting a long and fractious meeting.  To my surprise and delight there was strong consensus among the judges and the winners were eventually agreed unanimously.   The awards ceremony will take place next month at the Liberty Stadium.

Crest

Last July I wrote about my visit to CREST (Community Recovery Education and Skills Training) in Cwmbwrla.  There’s an open day next Thursday and Friday where the service will be exhibiting the work of people who attend the centre on the themes of recovery and stigma.

Electrification Plans Derailed

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Rail electrification – a personal view

The UK Government’s announcement to scrap plans for rail electrification between Swansea and Cardiff has been met with widespread dismay and condemnation.

Having met government ministers and officials to present the original case for electrification some years ago, I was very disappointed by the U-turn.  The economic case is no different now than it was then, although clearly the huge overspend on other parts of the UK-wide electrification project has contributed to the rethink.

South West Wales has struggled with its peripheral location and any reduction in travel time is a real benefit.  The switch from diesel would have major environmental benefits and be much more energy efficient; the trains would have more modern facilities and greater safety measures.  It felt like we were going to be a part of a new UK rail infrastructure, squarely on the map and fit for the future.

In the last few years I’ve travelled by rail in Europe which was all electrified with modern, energy-efficient trains and heavily used by the public.  A modern economy requires not just digital connectivity but also the most efficient, clean and accessible rail network.  The announcement felt like a real kick in the teeth for our city.

City of Culture – what next?

We’ve been shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2021 – along with Paisley; Sunderland; Stoke and Coventry.

We’re expecting feedback from the DCMS next week and we’re working with partners and funders to nail down the core structure and details required for the final bid on September 29.

The format has changed since our previous bid, with the emphasis on confirming the partnerships, funding, programme content, venues and social, economic and tourism impacts.

The DCMS team and panel members will visit Swansea and our team will travel to Hull in December to present our final bid – before a recommendation is put to Ministers.  The announcement will be made shortly after that.

The city will be dressed with banners, posters, window dressings etc and events will engage the community. Our partners will be working on the programme details and we welcome any support you can offer to raise engagement among groups and communities that you work with and represent. Congratulations to Tracey McNulty and her staff along with all the councillors, officers and partners for getting us onto this shortlist.  Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter #Swansea2021

Public Service Board

Last Tuesday I joined 40 officers and councillors from across Swansea’s public services to identify where we might work together for a better Swansea. The Swansea Public Services Board event was the last in a series of workshops held with citizens, the community and voluntary sectors and public service leaders. We identified trends that will shape Swansea’s future and areas where we can work together to overcome challenges and make the most of opportunities.

Topics discussed included celebrating pride and belonging, developing social capital and tackling climate change. These will be used alongside evidence from the Local Assessment of Well-being to develop Local Well-being Objectives for Swansea.

There will be opportunities to feed into the development of the Local Well-being Plan in the summer before consultation in the autumn.

Director of Resources

I’m delighted Sarah Caulkin, our Chief Transformation Officer, has been appointed interim Director of Resources following competitive interviews.  Sarah’s been instrumental in progressing the transformation programme and helping us to plan our future council.   With digital transformation, regional collaboration and financial challenges on the horizon this will be a busy and exciting time for us all.

Eid in the Park

Thanks to Riaz Hassan and all the team for organising this year’s Eid in the Park event, which attracted more than 3,000 people.  These events promote community cohesion and cultural awareness and lots of people gave their time to make it a success.

Awards

Congratulations to our Corporate Building and Property Services team for winning the Integration & Collaborative Working Award 2017 at the Constructing Excellence Wales (CEW) awards.  We’ll be going forward to the National event in November.  Let’s hope we win that one too!

Our parks’ staff work has been recognised by Keep Wales Tidy. Victoria Park, Parc Llewelyn, Cwmdonkin Park, Clyne Gardens, Bynmill Park and Singleton Botanical and Ornamental Gardens were all awarded Green Flags. The organisers tweeted this week: “Amazing work by all the team down at Swansea Council – your parks are a pleasure and a joy to visit”

Last week I mentioned the Swansea Life Awards, including the winning teams from Parks Operations and Development and Outreach for the work at Clyne Gardens – here’s a photo of them with their award.  Well done.

Farewell

Dr Julie Sheppard, Head of the Education Strategic Planning & Improvement Group, is retiring at the end of the month after 14 years. Julie came to Swansea following a successful career in the private sector bringing with her years of international experience. I’d like to thank Julie for all her work and wish her well in her retirement.