Success – Page 9

Brave new world

May 12, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

The recent council elections will trigger a number of things that will impact on us. Council on May 25 will elect a Leader who will appoint a Cabinet and determine the responsibilities within each portfolio. The policy agenda will reflect the commitments made during the election which includes new projects and programmes. We’ve already held induction sessions for our councillors. In an induction presentation I explained to them how the organisation functions, the roles of councillors and officers and the importance of maintaining mutual respect. There were also a series of presentations from senior staff on our services. It’s a daunting prospect for our new politicians, with a huge amount of compulsory training ranging from planning and licensing to safeguarding and data management. I know officers will make a concerted effort to help the new members to settle in. We’ve made a good start by holding a market place event where councillors spoke to staff from every service area. Thanks to all the staff who organised and took part in the market place event and to the councillors who attended.

CMT meeting

Corporate Management Team considered a number of reports relating to performance management and a new suite of indicators to reflect the next set of policy commitments and service performance. This will be driven by a newly established Strategic Delivery Unit to work closely with service directorates to ensure coherent and joined up delivery of Council priorities.

We also discussed workforce issues, including sickness management, and we’ll be having further discussions on this in the coming weeks.

Rhian Millar updated CMT on the results of the telephone survey of customers and I’m always impressed by the number of people who rate what we do. Every two months we survey the public on a number of issues and we always score very highly on staff being friendly (89%) efficient (82%), treating customers with respect (89%) and the level of customer service we provide (83%). Overall satisfaction with the way we run things is (71%). This is a great reflection of our staff. But it’s also interesting that only 34% of people would speak highly of us. I’m not sure why there’s such a gap between these scores, but it’s something I want to look at more closely.

Communities First – where next?

Since the Welsh Government decided to discontinue the Communities First approach to tackling poverty, we’ve been working closely with them to develop a transition plan to focus on employability, empowerment and early years. I was delighted when Swansea was selected to be one of the “early adopters” to pilot the new approach and I’m grateful to all the staff who’ve been working on this. This is an excellent piece of work that will now be presented to the Welsh Government for approval. Key to making this plan successful will be a joined-up approach which links employability to our early years and schools work, our apprenticeships strategy, the major investment programmes for the city and our social benefits policies.

Congratulations

As a keen walker I was delighted to hear that Rebecca Tribe (Waste Management) and Terri Shaw (Corporate Building Services) have just completed the Great Wall of China challenge to raise money for Ty Hafan. They joined a team of fundraisers in China last week, walking for up to 9 hours a day! Between them all they managed to raise a fantastic £70,000 for the local charity. Ever dedicated to her job – Rebecca even managed to take a photo of the recycling bins along the way! Congratulations to Rebecca and Terri for a fantastic achievement.

Ian George, contract monitoring officer in adult services, recently completed the London Marathon. Ian was thrilled to have finished in 5 hours and 21 minutes. Currently the funds raised stands at over £5,000 and this will help Shaw Trust to support vulnerable people in academy schools. You can donate here

Our Food and Safety team received a Certificate of Commendation from the Swansea and West Wales Occupational Safety Group. It’s in recognition of the team visiting local businesses and manufacturers to talk to them about health and safety in the workplace.

We’re on a bit of a roll at national award ceremonies and our latest successes came at Sunday’s inaugural Professional Teaching Awards Cymru. Mark Thompson, who has led St Helen’s Primary School since 2011 and supports other schools in Swansea as a challenge adviser, was named Head Teacher of the Year. Bethan Baglow of Olchfa Comprehensive School won the award for School Business Manager, while Hafod Primary School, shortlisted for the Whole School Award for promoting relationships with parents and the community, just missed out. Many congratulations to everyone involved.

Staff events

Many of our colleagues have already become Dementia Champions as part of our commitment to make Swansea a Dementia Friendly city. On Thursday (May 18) Dementia Friendly Swansea is holding an open morning at the Waterfront Museum as part of Dementia Awareness Week.

On Tuesday (May 16) between 6pm and 8pm the Foster Swansea team will be staging the first of two information evenings at the Civic Centre so that anyone considering becoming a foster carer can find out more.

C’mon the Swans!

Finally, this weekend could well be a significant one for our local football club, Swansea City, who travel to Sunderland in an attempt to avoid relegation from the Premier League. I suspect the issue of who gets relegated will not be determined until next Sunday but I hope any staff who are travelling have a safe trip and an enjoyable day. It’s really important for the city that the Swans retain their Premier League status.

Coming up trumps

April 6, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Awards

We came up trumps again this week at another UK awards event which highlights the great work our staff are doing. We won the gold award at the iESE (Improvement and Efficiency South East) awards for our Transformation in Waste & Environment submission. The award was for our Household Waste Recycling Centre initiative which is fantastic recognition for the success of the project. Congratulations to staff in waste management and colleagues in parks and cleansing, communications, highways, housing, and the call centre who all contributed.

We also gained the bronze award for Transformation through Support Services, for implementing the ICT Service Desk and self-service portal which achieved improved efficiency, better demand management and reduced cost. The whole Digital Services team were involved in ensuring it was scoped and delivered on time, and I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work.

There were 157 entries and we were the only Welsh council shortlisted in both categories, which is a fantastic achievement.

Great services, great staff

Here are four examples of how our staff are making such a huge difference. After winning an award for a film they made, our Children’s Rights and Participation Group, which is made up of looked-after children and youngsters who have experienced care, is to receive a Diana Award. The Diana Awards are presented to courageous, caring and compassionate young people for transforming the lives of others in the name of Diana, Princess of Wales. I’m sure colleagues in Child and Family Services and Education are especially proud and they too deserve credit for this fantastic achievement.

Another initiative gaining recognition is the council-led domestic abuse hub. The BBC recently featured the story of a Swansea couple who survived domestic abuse with the help of this pilot project, which follows a Sustainable Swansea commissioning review. It’ll be the first of its kind in Wales. Here’s the BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39450276

The refurbishment of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery has been highlighted by Constructing Excellence in Wales as an example of best practice. It was one of a number of projects to participate in the Enabling Zero Waste initiative, with Construction Excellence in Wales providing technical advice and guidance on waste management. Figures show 82.9% of its waste was recycled, 12.1% was converted into energy and 1.8% was either prevented or re-used.

Our Car Parking Services team and Commercial Services have successfully promoted car parking for local businesses. As a result, our High Street multi-storey car park, which has historically been underutilised, now accommodates over 300 Virgin Atlantic and TUI Group employees. Similarly, our Strand car park now accommodates 283 BT employees.

Our New CRM system

The new Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) for managing customer contact went live on March 30. It’s a massive improvement on the one previously hosted by Cardiff Council which has been in place for 10 years. It’s also enabled £70,000 worth of savings to be made. This cloud-hosted system is faster and more robust, which enables our Contact Centre floorwalkers to access data from tablet PCs and mobile phones so they can triage customers during high demand.

I’m really impressed it’s been built in-house using one of the new digital platforms. Our Communications team are also using the social engagement module to monitor traffic around the UK City of Culture 2017 bid. More developments will grow across the Council now the new platform is live.

I’d like to send special thanks to Rayna Soproniuk from digital services and Delyth Evans and Michelle Regan from the Contact Centre, who all worked incredibly hard to get the system in on time.

Discussions with Cardiff

This week I met Paul Orders, Chief Executive at Cardiff Council, to discuss a range of issues including the respective City Deals and how the two cities in Wales can co-operate in the future. Despite my undying love for Swansea City FC, I enjoy visiting Cardiff and it was interesting to hear the forthcoming proposals for the continued regeneration of our capital city. Paul and I have had a number of meetings along with Will Godfrey, Chief Executive at Newport Council, mainly about how the three cities can help to reinvigorate the Welsh economy. Different councils have different strengths and co-operation between us is an excellent way to improve services and learn from others. The challenges facing Cardiff and Swansea are very similar and I explained our approach to transformation through Sustainable Swansea. We identified a number of areas where we can collaborate and I’ll be discussing these with councillors.

School visits

Last Friday I visited Penyrheol Primary School for a meeting of the school council and pupil representatives. It was interesting to hear the numerous activities taking place in the school, and great to see how the investment in new ICT kit there is paying dividends.

The council voted on which charities the school would support and decided that Water Aid and protecting dolphins were their priorities. They’re also collecting for the local food bank. I had a quick tour of the brightly-coloured classrooms. Penyrheol pupils are among the most welcoming and happy young people I‘ve met in schools, so thanks to head teacher Alison Williams, the staff and all the children for looking after me.

On Tuesday I dropped in to see Jamie Richards, Head Teacher at Cadle Primary School. We had an interesting conversation which reinforced my thinking about the need to undertake a cross-cutting commissioning review of services for children and young people. He explained many of the challenges of joint working and I hope he’ll contribute to our thinking on how we can better co-ordinate a whole council approach in future. The pupils were more interested in hearing about the forthcoming airshow than our plans for the city centre or lagoon. Thanks to Jamie, the staff and pupils for a brief but enjoyable visit.

As usual I took the opportunity to have a brief look round the neighbouring community and was pleased to see progress being made in improving the environment and housing in Fforesthall, Cadle and Portmead.

Spring has arrived

It feels like winter is officially over now that floral displays are emerging across our city thanks to the fantastic work done by our teams in parks. It makes a huge difference and I’m grateful to everyone involved.

Clean-up

Well done to staff in our cleansing team who joined local PCSOs in a joint day of litter-picking and clean-up action in Mount Pleasant. It’s an excellent example of how joint-working with other organisations in the city can benefit local communities.

City Deal – what it means

March 24, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

City Deal – what does it mean?

So we finally got the City Deal signed. So what? Why is it important? For what it’s worth here are my thoughts.

The City Region of South West Wales has faced a steady decline in its economic performance for more than 30 years. In comparison with the rest of Wales and the UK our productivity has worsened since 1996 in nearly every sector, bar the public sector. The economic conditions for regeneration have not been in our favour and despite our best endeavours and a significant amount of European funding we have not been able to halt that decline.

The City Deal is different. It represents a massive commitment from UK and Welsh Governments to helping local authorities tackle our challenges. It is a long-term plan to invest in our infrastructure, both physical and digital. The plan is evidence-based. The Team Swansea approach is a genuine one and the partners in the city are strongly behind it. It has a total value of £1.3bn, including a UK and Welsh Government contribution of £241m, and £673m of private investment. It will be invested in an area with a population of 680,000 and will create 33,000 jobs.

We have the opportunity to exploit a 15-year funding stream. Add this to the massive investment in housing following the Housing Revenue Account settlement with the Treasury and the strong possibility that the Tidal Lagoon will be approved, then the programme becomes truly ambitious.

The arena, office and health campus proposals will be the essential trigger for a more vibrant City Centre with an improved leisure and retail offer resulting from increased footfall.

There will be many challenges in the delivery of these projects. We must align the work we do in schools to the opportunities presented by the City Deal. In my discussions with primary head teachers at Ysgolion Cynradd Abertawe (YCA) this week there is clearly much enthusiasm for the City Deal, but a concern that without a focus on investing in education our children could miss out on the opportunities ahead. Changes to the curriculum must be given time to bed-in, key skills developed and we must identify clear pathways to employment for all our citizens. We must retain a focus on those who face the most challenges and break down the barriers that prevent them from achieving their potential. We must use our investment profile to secure social benefits for citizens, increase our apprenticeship programme and support local supply chains.

The work done by our staff to date is something that I will always be proud of but the future will require departments and staff to work together in an unprecedented way and with absolute focus. Anyone with an interest in skills and education, health and social care, energy, housing, transport, streetscene, sustainable development, tourism, culture, business support and technology will have an essential role to play in this ambition.

We must ensure that governance arrangements for the joint committee that will drive the City Deal are appropriate and that the resources for delivery are in place. Businesses will need a voice and democratic accountability must be transparent so the City Deal is subject to effective scrutiny.

As regards 5G technology I don’t know exactly what it will look like, nor do I yet fully understand its potential to transform the lives of our citizens or how it can help cities to operate. No-one does, or at least I haven’t met them yet. However I am confident that the City Deal will put us at the forefront of these developments.

The most important point is that the City Deal will open up new opportunities for our citizens and it is our responsibility to do all we can to make sure that they get the full advantage of them.

Penybryn School

Last Friday I visited Pen-y-Bryn Special School to talk to the head teacher, Gethin Sutton and the Chair of Governors, Huw Vaughan. Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn has a unit for autistic pupils and educates pupils, aged 3-19, who have a wide range of additional learning needs.

Gethin had recently helped us in the assessment centre for the recruitment of our Chief Education Officer, Nick Williams, and during the process he kindly invited me to the school. I was pleased to hear how well the school and the pupils were progressing and seriously impressed by the quality of the publications and audio books that the school produces. I visited all the classes to meet the children and had the pleasure of attending the weekly awards ceremony which was highly entertaining and a lot of fun. Thanks to Cerys, one of the school’s star pupils for showing me round.

The awards keep rolling in !!!

Beyond Bricks and Mortar has this week won the UK National GO Awards Excellence in Public Procurement for the Best Employment initiative. This is great recognition for the Council’s innovative approach to embedding community benefits in all we do. Including community benefits has never been more important with the opportunities that can be created through the forthcoming city centre regeneration, the City Deal and hopefully the Tidal Lagoon. My thanks to the Beyond Bricks and Mortar team who have put us on the map with this exemplary initiative.

I hope to bring you news about our entries in the MJ awards in the next couple of weeks.

World Social Work Day

Earlier this week our social workers celebrated World Social Work Day which aims to recognise the contribution they make to supporting some of the most vulnerable adults and children in society. Safeguarding is the council’s top priority and, alongside our partners, the work our social workers do makes a significant contribution to the wellbeing of our communities offering support, guidance and a listening ear. Over the past few years I’ve seen the service go from strength to strength, earning praise from the CSSIW and internationally for their pioneering work in areas like dementia and Signs of Safety. I’d like to thank our social workers for their continuing commitment.

Wales National Air Show

Congratulations to our events team after the RAF Red Arrows were again confirmed to take part in this year’s Wales National Airshow on July 1 and July 2. Swansea University has also now come on board as the main sponsors of this year’s event, with further aircraft taking part to be announced over coming weeks.

City of Culture

Thanks to Amanda Hegarty, our Residential Services Manager at Llanfair House, for sending me the photo of this fantastic art work created by the facility’s occupational therapist and service users from recycled material. The City of Culture is obviously alive and well at Llanfair House.

Farewells

There are a number of people leaving the organisation at the end of March and I will be paying tribute to some of them next week.

Yesterday our Staff Choir put on an excellent performance in the Civic Centre Foyer to raise £170 for Comic Relief. It was a lot of fun but sadly a farewell event for the Choir Director John Mills, a performance specialist in Education Effectiveness who is retiring this week after 33 years of service. John has given his free time to sort out the music and tutor the choir for over a year and he will be greatly missed. Thanks John from us all, but particularly the choir members who will miss your guidance and infinite patience.

Today is the last working day for Steve Phillips, Economic Development Team Leader. Steve and his team worked tirelessly on the delivery of our economic regeneration strategy which has formed the evidence base for, amongst other things, our European Funding programmes and our City Deal bid. I have enjoyed working with Steve and wish him well for the future.

Our global platform

March 17, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Global platform

On Monday I travelled to France with the Leader and Huw Mowbray, our Property Development Manager, to attend the international property conference, MIPIM. This is the biggest conference of its type in the world, attracting 23,000 people from 90 countries and gives local authorities a platform to present their proposals for regeneration and development to funders, developers, agents and retailers. We’re conscious of the spending restrictions so we were delighted to be invited by UK Trade & Industry department in Whitehall to present our City Deal and City Centre proposals in the Downing Street pavilion, along with colleagues from Belfast and Glasgow. It was a whistle-stop 24-hour tour which involved a number of discussions with funders and businesses and a presentation by the Leader on the opportunities on offer in Swansea.

Sharing the platform with two other major UK cities has raised awareness of our ambitions as a council worldwide and I’m confident the contacts we made and discussions we had will bear fruit in our quest to secure the City Deal and all that it brings. An announcement is imminent. Dozens of UK councils attended but very few could compete with the quality of work done by our officers, as reflected in the fly-through we commissioned to illustrate the proposition. I’m grateful for all their efforts which epitomise the Team Swansea approach we have been fostering.

Lindsay’s leaving

Today is the last day at the council for Lindsay Harvey our Chief Education Officer.

Anyone who has met Lindsay will know he’s a larger than life character and brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and commitment. He has done a fantastic job and some of the progress we’ve made in our schools has been outstanding. I’ll miss Lindsay but I also wish him well in his new post at Bridgend. Nick Williams will be taking over form him and I wish him well.

Senior management review

A report is going to Council on March 23 setting out proposals for restructuring corporate services. The proposals give us a strong platform to progress our business support plans and improve efficiency across the council. If approved by councillors the proposals will be subject to consultation when staff can give their views. The report is available via this link.

Danygraig school

On a visit to St Thomas and Port Tennant I received a warm welcome at Danygraig Primary School. Headteacher Stuart Davies gave me a tour of the school, along with pupils Danushan, Carlo, Ruby and Poppy.

It’s a very old building and I saw the improvements being made by our team in Corporate Building & Property Service. This included a window replacement programme which is helping to keep the building wind and weather proof. This probably shouldn’t include replacing one of the windows which was knocked skew whiff during the three nights blitz and has sat at an unusual angle ever since; a historical legacy that tells its own story!

The teachers are really committed and this school is a real hub of the community. Of course the history of the area is entwined with Swansea docks and overlooks the SA1 district and the location of the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon. I’ll speak to the Tidal Lagoon company about cementing strong links with the school, along with St Thomas primary, and to make sure that the children are properly engaged in these proposals. The enthusiasm of Stuart and the staff was impressive, reflecting the level of commitment to empowering the pupils to achieve their potential that I see every week in our schools.

Learning needs

The Corporate Management Team received a presentation on the Commissioning Review of Additional Learning Needs (ALN) in the city. Mark Sheridan gave an informative presentation about the work carried out by his team and the challenges the service faces. This is a really important issue for us all and it was encouraging to hear about the corporate commitment to supporting ALN and the great work being done by teaching staff inside and outside schools. The review will be carried on beyond the second gateway report and whilst much remains to be done the rate of progress and analysis is impressive.

Purdah

A reminder that today marks the start of the Purdah period. The restrictions relate to social media as well as general publicity so please read the guidance and help us to ensure a fair and transparent election. For the electoral anoraks amongst us the word “purdah” is a derivation of the Persian word “pardeh” meaning curtain, or veil.

Inspirational youngster

Alfie Walters was recognised at an awards ceremony this week. The 16-year-old from Dylan Thomas School was on a shortlist of three from across the UK for the Educational Achiever Award at The Prince’s Trust annual celebration at the London Palladium. Alfie’s mum passed away when he was just 11. Less than three years later, he also lost his dad, and along with his sisters, he was taken into care. Despite this and with support from the school, our Looked After Children team and The Prince’s Trust he achieved a Level 2 Award on The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme. His skills have made him an excellent ambassador for the trust and he has been invited back to the school to motivate and encourage younger pupils. Well done Alfie.

Film award

This part of the world is well known for its big screen connections and now we can add our own Child and Family Services to the list. They worked with 15 youngsters between the ages of 11 and 19 to create a short film which was crowned Best Animation: 13 and Over at the Into Film Awards in London this week. Judges at the ceremony at the Odeon Cinema in London’s Leicester Square described it as “wonderful and imaginative” and “technically highly accomplished”. Having watched the film I agree with their sentiments. Congratulations to all involved. You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/201657295

Awards

We’ve been shortlisted in two categories of the iESE Awards – Transformation Through Support Services and Transformation in Waste & Environment. Well done to all the staff involved and good luck at the awards ceremony.

Pool rescue

Staff at the Wales National Pool saved a male swimmer suffering heart problems. Mark Jones, the duty manager, and his team responded magnificently. The swimmer was taken to hospital and has since contacted staff to thank them. The nurse who attended the scene paid this tribute: “They clearly saved a gentleman’s life today. Mark and the team should be highly commended for a calm, well-practiced Resuscitation.” Our water safety team train the pool staff so well done and thank you to everyone involved.

Sports Awards

Three employees were honoured at last night’s Swansea Sports Awards. Karen Gibbins (Libraries) won the Volunteer of the Year award and Adam Thomas (Cultural Services volunteer) was named Young Volunteer of the Year. Sam Richards (Cultural Services) was runner-up in the Volunteer of the Year category. Well done to all three who are great ambassadors for us.

Farewell

Aeron Kirczey is retiring from the Highways Service after 40 years’ service. Aeron has been a major contributor in advising on highways issues during the planning process and I’m grateful for his input into many of the major schemes he’s worked on.

Also Graham Williams is retiring from Child and Family Services after 42 years’ service. For the majority of his career Graham worked principally within the Child Protection Conference Unit where the model of practice and policies developed were considered innovative and enabled Swansea conference process to be valued as leading the way in policy development. Graham’s commitment to the service over the last 42 years has been really impressive and he’ll be greatly missed.

I wish them well in their retirement and thank them both for their many years in public service.

Apprentice strategy launch

March 10, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Apprentice strategy launch

We launched of our Apprenticeship Strategy in the George Hall on Monday. It builds on the success of the apprenticeship scheme running in Corporate Building Services and is now a broader Corporate Strategy to run across all service areas. The aim is to provide apprenticeships, training and work experience opportunities including graduate placements and internships

This has been developed by a working group of representatives from across the council following the agreement in principle by Cabinet in July 2016.

Given our corporate priorities relating to poverty and safeguarding it’s essential we target opportunities for disadvantaged groups, particularly given our role as a corporate parent and we must reduce the barriers to allow access to these opportunities. I’ll be taking a personal interest in seeing this happens.

Apprenticeships are key to develop skills needed for the future and will help address skill shortages. I’m indebted to Martin Nicholls, Director of Place, and his team for their enthusiasm and drive in preparing the strategy. The team are preparing guides for managers to help provide a consistent approach to taking on an apprentice, trainee or offering work experience. We‘ll also work with other public sector bodies and learn from best practice available. We’ve already advertised 14 opportunities and we’ll be seeking to identify 30 to 40 more during the next few months.

Along with Martin, the Leader and Councillor Andrea Lewis, Cabinet Member for Next Generation Services, spoke at the launch to underline their commitment to the strategy. We must now make sure it’s delivered across the organisation as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This week I almost met Lord Heseltine!

It’s been a frustrating week for those of us involved in the Swansea Bay City Deal. I mentioned last week that following the pitch to the UK Government we had provided all the information requested and were optimistic the deal could be agreed and announced in Wednesday’s budget. The final meeting was arranged with Lord Heseltine here in Swansea on budget day but was cancelled following his sacking late on Tuesday evening. As a result we held yet another meeting with civil servants to go back over some old ground. The budget statement included the following words, which stopped some distance short of what we had hoped for:

“The government continues to make good progress towards city deals for Edinburgh and Swansea and is working constructively with local partners and the Scottish and Welsh Governments respectively to achieve this.”

The meeting with civil servants was followed by a session with representatives from the private sector who have given strong support for our bid. I detected a lot of impatience and frustration from many of these representatives who are struggling to understand why the Welsh Government considers the deal complete, but the UK Government does not. The Leader and I will be doing whatever we can to push this given that every day of delay is a missed opportunity for our citizens.

This week I did meet Sir Charles Hendry

On Tuesday evening the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress hosted a dinner for Sir Charles Hendry, author of the Government review into tidal lagoons. It was an opportunity to discuss the report and its findings and learn about the process of how the report was commissioned and delivered by Sir Charles. It became clear that Sir Charles has not only learned a lot about the city, he has also developed a fondness for it. He reiterated his conclusion that the lagoon must be built and that we must get on with it immediately so it was also frustrating that there was no mention of it in the Chancellor’s budget speech on Wednesday. We remain optimistic that an announcement is imminent.

Congratulations

Swansea has two nominations at a national film award ceremony next week. Our Child and Family Services worked with 15 young people to make a short film about being in care and it’s on a shortlist of three in the Best Animation: 13 and Over category at the Into Film Awards.

And Amy Parry, from Cwmrhydyceirw Primary School in Morriston, is on the shortlist for Teacher of the Year.

Into Film is a UK-wide charity that aims to raise standards of achievement and aspiration among youngsters through film and the awards take place at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square on Tuesday (March 14). Fingers crossed for both when the golden envelopes, hopefully the right ones, are opened.

Last Friday we took part in the Patient Choice Awards at Singleton Hospital. It was introduced by the ABMU Health Board back in 2015 to give patients, carers, relatives and visitors the chance to say thanks to a member of staff or team they feel have made a real difference and provided outstanding care.

The ceremony saw some of our social workers and care workers stand alongside district nurses, GPs and therapists in being recognised for the work they have done.

It was a terrific opportunity to celebrate the commitment they give to helping vulnerable adults to stay safe and independent and really demonstrated that our staff go above and beyond, showing professionalism, kindness and compassion to people at really difficult times in their lives. Well done to everyone involved.

The Swansea Bay 10k organised by our events team has been shortlisted in two categories for this year’s Running Awards: best 10k and best child-friendly event.

Voting closes on Monday March 20, so head to this link to get your vote in and make sure the event gets the recognition it deserves.

Info-Nation was re-launched this week, providing free and confidential information and advice on a range of subjects including sexual health, relationships, substance misuse and finding work.

It now includes the Bays+ service which provides services for young people aged 16 or older who are in need of care, support or accommodation. DrugAid Cymru also has its ‘Choices’ young people’s service based in the shop for a number of years.

Today is the last working day at the council for John Lewis, our Principal Design and Technical Officer, based in Cultural Services. John has worked for us since October 1974 when he started with Swansea City Council as a Draughtsman and then Graphic Designer. Since then he’s held a range of posts in Tourism and was instrumental in helping me with the first blue plaque in Swansea in tribute to Pete Ham. Since then he’s helped me with many other things – always with patience and good humour – and I’ll miss his knowledge, skills and innovation very much. I wish him a long and happy retirement.