Swansea

Your views matter

July 13, 2018 by Martin Leave a Comment

During the last four years our staff surveys have generally been positive, but they’ve highlighted some difficult issues like bullying and harassment which we we’ve introduced measures to combat. Response rates have also been mixed and CMT this week discussed what to do to improve this. All members of CMT are fully behind the principle of gathering views from staff, but only 26% of staff took part last year and many told us this was because the survey was too long. As a result we ran a shorter survey as a pilot in the Place directorate and we intend to roll-out this shorter survey across the organisation from September. Staff that took part in the pilot survey back-up up this view. We’re also considering in future years supplementing the shorter surveys with thematic add-ons based on current issues, for example agile working, stress or innovation. We’re keen to hear your views on this and I’ll say more about the staff survey as we approach the launch of this year’s version.

Welsh

We’re having some problems complying with the Welsh Language Standards. One of the recurring issues is that when people contact us in Welsh we need to respond to them in Welsh. This is just one of the issues staff face, but there are many more requirements for all of us and it’s really important that we don’t fall down on these. The Welsh Language Commissioner is already dealing with several complaints against us. Here’s a handy guide to what’s required so please ensure we all do what’s necessary.

Senior Staff Appointments

The appointment dates for senior staff following the recent restructure have now been set. The directors of social services and education, along with the chief finance officer will be appointed by Council on July 27. The Deputy Chief Executive appointment will be made on August 21. I’ll keep you posted.

Co-production

I’ve previously mentioned the need for councils to develop a new relationship with citizens. Legislative changes like the Social Services and Wellbeing Act and the Future Generations Act require us as public bodies, quite rightly, to work in different ways. This week I attended an interesting seminar on co-production. This is defined by the Co-production Network for Wales as an asset-based approach to public services which enables citizens and professionals to share power and work together in equal and reciprocal relationships. Co-production is underpinned by a set of principles:

valuing all participants, and building on our strengths
developing networks of support
doing what matters for the people involved
building relationships of trust, sharing power
people can be change makers, and organisations enable this

I know many teams are already adapting to these principles and we heard some interesting developments in social services from Lisa Banks and Jane Whitmore. We’ll be developing some further ideas around these principles and how they may impact on other services and our citizens. I’ll say more as this develops but I would also welcome any staff views about co-production.

Join in with the Mischief Makers

Our Library Service and the Reading Agency have teamed up with Beano to help them celebrate their 80th anniversary for this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, Mischief Makers. Children’s reading can ‘dip’ during the summer holidays, so the challenge is an excellent way to engage children in reading. Our libraries will be running events and children can join-up in any of our libraries from July 14. Thanks to our library staff for organising this.

Achievements

From time to time I acknowledge the achievements of staff for their work in the organisation. I know many go above and beyond this in their personal lives and I was astonished to hear the achievements of Douglas Thomas, Site Supervisor at Pentrehafod Sports Centre and Pool. At work Douglas has completed 31 years’ service with 100% attendance over the last 11 years, despite suffering a potentially life-threatening illness in 2004. On top of this he‘s devoted his private time to life-saving and water safety. The Evening Post reported this week that Douglas was one of only 29 people in the UK (and only two from Wales) awarded the British Citizen Award. This is his 5^th major award in the past 10 months and I hear that another one is shortly on its way. Congratulations Douglas for your exemplary service at work and in your community.

Farewell

Today is the last working day for Chris Sivers, our Director of People. Chris is leaving to work in South Gloucestershire. She’s made a fantastic contribution to delivering our priorities and helping to put Swansea on the global stage through her work on Learning Cities, Healthy Cities and Human Rights Cities. Chris is having a cake sale in the Lord Mayor’s reception room today so please feel free to come along and wish her all the best for the future.

Balancing the books

June 22, 2018 by Martin Leave a Comment

This week CMT and Cabinet members have been having early discussions on our budget strategy. There are some major challenges in delivering this year’s savings but it’s essential we’re successful in doing so. Detailed monitoring arrangements have been put in place and I’ve asked managers to ensure the spending restrictions are strictly followed. CMT will continue to monitor vacancy management and procurement whilst we develop additional in-year savings proposals to ensure we come in on budget at the end of the financial year.

As part of the overall financial picture, management costs must be reduced in order to protect front line services so I was delighted that Council approved my report on the review of our senior management structure last night. All staff affected are being consulted over the coming weeks. The proposals set out how we’ll save around £280,000 in senior management costs whilst ensuring there’s enough capacity to deliver the Council’s ambitious programmes and for us to meet the challenges of regional working. I know this will present challenges for staff in delivering our services but the financial environment for all councils is getting increasingly tough. We now need to develop detailed proposals for discussion with councillors in the autumn and I hope all staff will feed ideas in so that we can minimise job losses.

Farewell

This month sees a number of our long-serving members of staff taking ER/VR. The 32 leavers have clocked up more than 740 years’ service between them which is a remarkable achievement. Among them are Kath Thomas in our school governor unit who’s done 31 years, Nigel Jones, the driving force behind many of our major events, who’s reached 32 years, and Deb Yeates who will be known around the council for her work in HR who’ll be leaving after 37 years. There are too many to mention in this blog, but here’s a link to the full list. It’s always sad to see colleagues leave, but I wish them all well and thank them for their outstanding service and commitment to public service in Swansea. The place is going to seem strange without these familiar faces!

Schools

I mentioned last week that schools would be taking part in an enterprise event in Castle Square and I’m delighted to say it was a huge success. Their products included pocket games, bird seed holders, soaps, scrabble key rings, flower pots and candles in vintage tea cups. Well done to everyone involved. And congratulations to Morriston Primary School which is celebrating its 150^th anniversary. Staff, pupils, parents and local businesses have taken part in the celebrations.

Events

Swansea communities which have their roots in the Windrush Generation will be sharing and celebrating their heritage on Saturday. It’s the 70th anniversary of the arrival in Britain of the ‘MV Empire Windrush’, a former cruise ship carrying Caribbean migrants answering a UK government call for a new generation of workers to help re-build Britain after the ravages of war. The event is being held at the Guildhall and will feature a Gospel choir, local artists and a display from Swansea Museum. It’s been organised by Race Council Cymru in collaboration with our Cultural Services team and Black History Wales.

Refugee Week celebrates its 20th birthday this week. It’s a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and educational activities that celebrate the contribution of refugees and people seeking sanctuary to the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities. In Swansea our Fusion team have delivered a range of music and lyric writing workshops at Gower College for adults, organised a film evening at Cinema and Co and showcased a primary-aged Ballet showcase.

This weekend I’ll be at the Liberty Stadium to watch the Killers. It’s part of an exciting series of events taking place in Swansea this summer so thanks for all the staff who are working to support the programme.

Housing matters

April 27, 2018 by Martin Leave a Comment

This week I was interviewed by the Wales Audit Office on progress we’re making to ensure our 13,000 council homes meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. I know a number of other staff and councillors have also been interviewed and the messages were consistently hammered home by all. The purpose of this review is to determine whether we have appropriate arrangements in place to enable us to deliver the WHQS by 2020 and how we engage with tenants in the process. The bottom line is we’re making good progress towards meeting the WHQS by 2020, although some challenges remain. Thanks to all staff and councillors who are involved in this complex and difficult £300 million investment programme which will improve the lives of all our tenants. Thanks also to Colin Goddard from the Strategic Delivery Unit for co-ordinating the project for us and supporting the audit process. I will say more when the report is issued by the WAO.

Regional working

It’s been another busy week for regional collaboration, which continues apace in spite of the current consultation on council mergers. The City Deal working agreement should be presented to all four councils in the region for approval in June. At the Shadow Joint Committee on Wednesday we discussed transport and digital programmes in some detail and I know a lot of work is being done by our teams to support this.

On school improvement I met the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams, to update her on progress made by ERW and the six councils over the last two months. From 2016/17 to 2017/18 there’s been a 42% decrease in the number of schools causing concern in the ERW region and I’m particularly proud of the performance here in Swansea. It’s a credit to all teachers, staff, councillors and governors involved. In the meantime, we await the consultation on the new national model for education with interest as it could prompt further changes to how education services are delivered in Wales.

Have your say

We’re starting consulting on Monday on proposals that affect some of our day services and residential care for adults. Under the proposals we’d focus our residential care and day services on those with complex needs. We’ve also got over-capacity in these services so, if agreed following consultation, Parkway residential home and the day centres at the Hollies and Rose Cross would close. The proposals affect staff but we don’t anticipate compulsory job losses as we’ll be putting our efforts into redeployment, ER/VR etc. We’ve briefed staff and unions. Details on how to have your say will be published on Monday.

New cafe

The refurbished 4^th floor café re-opens on Monday with a new look and new name. The new cafe has an “industrial chic” feel and there’ll be free coffee on Monday 9.30-11am. It’ll be a smart, informal meeting facility and the adjoining servery area will continue to offer food and drink and will itself be transformed soon. Costs are being kept low thanks to the use of recycled and upcycled furnishings. Thanks to all the staff involved.

Data changes

New data protection laws come into force in less than a month. It’s essential that all staff are aware of the changes these new GDPR regulations bring. Details here.

Foster Swansea

Foster Care Fortnight is rapidly approaching and yesterday I had my photo taken as part of the social media campaign to promote this vital service. I hope others will join the campaign and have their photos added. The campaign runs May 14 to 27. The theme for this year is once again ‘Foster care transforms lives’, using the hashtag #proudtofoster and #proudtosupportfostering

Congratulations and thanks

During the past few weeks we’ve been re-surfacing large parts of Fabian Way. Our teams have been working during the night to minimise traffic disruption. The work is now complete and it’s made a huge difference to one of the city’s main arteries. Thank you to all the staff involved for a great job.

Merry Christmas

December 20, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

As we head into the Christmas break I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all staff and councillors for their work in the busiest year I can remember for Swansea as a city and as a Council. In my next blog I hope to recap on some of the events of the year but for those of you who’ll be on leave over Christmas I hope you enjoy your well-earned break. I’m sending my blog out early this week as I’m conscious our offices close at noon on Friday and some people will be taking leave to finish their preparations for the festivities.

However, a number of our staff won’t be relaxing over the coming week because they’ll be working to maintain vital services during the holiday period and I’m immensely grateful to them for this.

City of Culture

On Tuesday I met Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport at the Welsh Government, following the disappointment of missing out on the UK City of Culture 2021 title. Tracey McNulty and I shared with him the feedback I mentioned in last week’s blog. There were a lot of positive messages from the panel on the Swansea bid and a plea from the UK Minister for Culture to continue with elements of our proposed programme, irrespective of the decision. We outlined the huge amount of support for our bid, as demonstrated by the excellent social media campaign. We also explained that our strategy for culture remains in place and we’re keen to work with Welsh Government to develop an approach for Wales that would see Swansea at the forefront of its cultural agenda.

Lord Elis-Thomas expressed his support for this and has invited us to develop our proposals further over the next few weeks, so we’ll be working in earnest with councillors on this. It’s clear the Welsh Government is willing to help us to resource this which is great news for us all. Watch this space!

City Deal

The City Deal discussions are moving very quickly now and the Joint Working Agreement between us will be signed early in the New Year. Our teams in Place, Finance and Legal have worked hard on this for many months so thanks to them for their efforts. The Shadow Joint Committee received an update on Monday re progress with the 11 projects and details on how the digital strategy for the region will be delivered. The aim is to put Swansea and the region in pole position for the roll-out of 5G technology after 2020 and to become one of the UK’s leading Smart Cities and a test-bed for the Internet of Things. It all sounds a bit weird and far-fetched but just over a decade ago no-one could predict the impact, for good or ill, that smartphones would make to our working and our personal lives. The next generation of digital technology will be at least as disruptive as the last so we’d best prepare to make the best use of it for the benefit of the city and our citizens.

Early intervention

Our Early Intervention staff at Swansea Children’s Centre in Penlan and our Jig-so midwives saved a four-week-old baby’s life last week. The baby stopped breathing during a group session at the centre and our staff performed CPR and then the air ambulance landed within 10 minutes of the call. Their intervention helped to make sure that the baby, who is now able to breathe unaided and is improving, got to hospital safely. Fantastic work! Further congratulations to our Early Intervention team who led the Mr X Scheme again this year. They have put in a huge effort along with community volunteers to ensure that over 4,500 children and young people received gifts this Christmas.

And some lucky children had an early visit from Santa, in the form of our refuse collectors, who kindly took it upon themselves to give out selection boxes to the children who get excited to see them on their route each week. Well done to everyone involved.

Farewell

Thanks to Chris Tonkin, head teacher at Townhill Community Primary School, who’s retiring. I wish Chris all the best for the future and we’re grateful for all your work in improving the school and the lives of the children in Townhill.

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.