Chief Exec's Blog

An update from the Chief Executive

Shifting boundaries

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The battle lines over local government reorganisation appear to have been drawn. Last Friday I updated you on the Welsh Government proposals to reduce to 10 councils, but on the same day you may have seen coverage of a feisty meeting between council leaders and the Cabinet Secretary.  I won’t make further comment at this time but I did say it wasn’t going to be an easy ride.  Swansea has consistently been open to considerations on merger but it’s unclear what the views of our neighbours are.  We’ll be holding discussions with them over the coming weeks to develop an understanding.  In the meantime, I’ve submitted some observations to our scrutiny inquiry panel which I hope will be helpful in their deliberations.

Education funding

I met with the Welsh Government Education team to discuss the thorny topic of the Minority Ethnic Achievement Grant.  You may have read about this in the media.  Councillors in Swansea and elsewhere have been unhappy about the funding reductions by the Welsh Government and I’ve been doing my best to recover the position, or at least some of it.  The Welsh Government have made it clear that they want consistent regional models for the distribution of education grant funding but this is not without issues, particularly for urban authorities like Swansea who face different pressures given our demographics.  I’m conscious that a number of staff in our Ethnic Minority Achievement Unit have been informed that their jobs are at risk and I’ve asked the education team to work closely with them during the consultation period to see how we can support schools, and the pupils who receive this service, following the Welsh Government changes.

Budget latest

CMT received an update from Ben Smith, our Chief Finance Officer, setting out an early view of the likely year-end position and ongoing risks around delivering some of the budget savings for 2018-19. It’s already clear that as austerity continues to bite in the form of further savings, that we, like many councils, will struggle to balance the books. We can’t just live within our existing budgets any longer, we also have try to underspend to offset the undoubted pressures and surprises that will emerge during the year. I know we’ve just come out of a really tough budget cycle, but I suspect these tough times will continue.

You may remember a significant number of staff were “at-risk” in Corporate Services. Thankfully, that number has now reduced to four due to the commitment of managers and our HR team in supporting staff. I’m also grateful to those staff who’ve been redeployed for being willing to take on a new challenge. I’m hopeful that we can work with the four remaining staff to get a positive outcome.

Bryntawe visit

After a number of unavoidable postponements I finally got to spend some time at Ysgol Gyfun Bryntawe this week.  I had been there in January to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day but I did not get a chance to talk to Simon Davies, headteacher, or any of the pupils. There is a lot of innovation happening at the school, particularly in the way that classes are organised, with teachers floating between rooms rather than pupils.  Simon took me on the visit and then I met the school council.  It is a school where culture, performance and music are alive and I’m proud to say, fiercely promoted, so amongst the topics for discussion was how austerity will hit arts funding.  We then talked about the possible impacts of austerity on school budgets and the general challenges the city faces (including the Lagoon again).  Thanks to all for the warm welcome and once again for the sense of optimism for the future of Swansea when you meet such articulate and intelligent young people.

Although it’s been relatively quiet in the media, work continues on pushing the case for the tidal lagoon. The Leader and I have held a number of meetings and conference calls to try to unblock the current deadlock.  I’ll keep you updated.

Awards

Our Colliers Way scheme has been commended in the Municipal Journal 2018 awards under the ‘Best Social Housing Initiative’ category. The judges were looking for interesting and innovative social housing projects with clear outcomes. There were a record number of entries this year so this a great achievement for the team.  Well done to all.

The South Wales Evening Post Community Award winners will be announced tonight. Phil Treseder, our Learning and Participation Officer, has made the final shortlist for the Community Champion Award for his commitment to YMCA Swansea, over the last 10 years as chairman and trustee.  Also Kevin Allen who was part of our City of Culture bid team has made the final for the Ambassador award.  For Twin Town fans if Kevin wins I’m confident he’ll be laying on sausage rolls and Welsh cakes in the gazebo.  Good luck to both.

Data changes

The new European General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, will change the way we work from May 25. It requires us to be more open and transparent with our citizens about how we use their personal data. Citizens’ rights regarding their data will be strengthened and the deadline for investigating data breaches becomes a challenging 72 hours. We need to finish creating a corporate overview of all our personal data processing activity and to ensure that, at each point where we ask people to provide their personal details, we make clear to them what we’re going to do with the personal data they’ve supplied, There’s information on GDPR on Staffnet: http://www.swansea.gov.uk/staffnet/gdprguide

Farewells

More long-serving members of staff are leaving at the end of the month. They include David Laytham from Facilities, Simon Clark from Pollution Control, Tina Evans from Housing , Jeanette Lewis in Economic Regeneration and Planning as well as Jayne Bool, Steve Holt, Simon Mason, Richard Thomas and Raymond Morgan from Digital and Transformation Services and Teresa O’Flynn from the Contact Centre. Also leaving after long service are Geraldine Baker, Christine Gravelle, Kevin Jenkins, Karen Preedy-Davies and Janet Monks from Financial Services and Service Centre, Wendy Baker from Health and Safety, Andrea Thomas from Unison and Ian Rowden from Fforestfach Day Service. Thank you for all your efforts and outstanding service.

Happy Easter

I‘ll be on holiday for a few weeks so my next blog will be on  April 20.  In the meantime, I want to wish you a happy Easter break and thank you all for your work to improve the organisation and the city.  As usual the events team have been very busy and there will be lots to do as you will see from this link.

Groundhog Day

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I have a sense of déjà vu. I mentioned in last week’s blog that the Welsh Government announcement on local government reform was imminent and sure enough we received the Green Paper, “Strengthening Local Government: Delivering for People” on Tuesday.   The main proposal within the green paper is that the 22 councils in Wales are reduced to 10 on the following footprint.

  • Ynys Mon (Anglesey) and Gwynedd
  • Conwy and Denbighshire
  • Flintshire and Wrexham
  • Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire
  • Swansea and Neath Port Talbot
  • Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil
  • Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff
  • Newport and Caerphilly
  • Powys
  • Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire

The new map would look like this:

The consultation suggests three alternative approaches to the transition from 22 to 10 authorities, namely: voluntary mergers; a phased approach with early adopters merging first by 2022 with all other authorities merging by 2026; a single comprehensive merger programme to be completed by 2022.

The expectation is that existing regional arrangements will continue around the education consortia, and the City and Growth Deals. Consultation on the proposals is now open and ends on June 12, 2018.

For Mid and South West Wales it really is déjà vu with a proposed return to the former county council footprints that were West Glamorgan, Dyfed and Powys.  We’ll be working closely with councillors to respond to the consultation and there’s a scrutiny exercise currently under way which will help to inform this.  It’s helpful the Welsh Government has set out the proposal clearly but it follows on from their previous assurance that no reorganisation would occur for 10 years.  You can understand that this has caused a degree of confusion.  My view is we have to keep the main focus on services to the public during this process.  It must be about what’s the best model for delivering sustainable and efficient local government services over and above parochial interests.  I also think a voluntary merger approach is unlikely to deliver what the Welsh Government has set out.  It remains to be seen whether these proposals survive intact following the consultation process. I’ll keep you posted on developments.

Gwyr visit

This week I met fellow ex-Olchfa School pupil Dafydd Jenkins, head teacher at Ysgol Gyfun G?yr.  We took a tour of the new sixth-form block on the site of the former Gowerton Infants School.  I’d visited the old Gowerton School a number of times before its relocation to the Elba, and Dafydd and his team have done a fantastic job working with our Corporate Building Services team to convert and modernise the buildings.  I also met a group of pupils who fired some well-thought out questions in my direction, including what are the most difficult challenges the Council faces and what is our commitment to the Welsh language?  And there was of course a question about the tidal lagoon! Diolch yn fawr iawn to Dafydd, his staff and the pupils for making me feel very welcome.

Sad news

I was saddened this week to learn about the recent death of former Councillor Nick Tregoning.   Nick served the Dunvant ward from 1999 to 2012 and also as a Cabinet Member for Social Services and Presiding Member. Nick and I worked closely together on many issues and projects and after he finished as a councillor I met him a few times to discuss credit unions.

Farewells

At the end of the financial year we say farewell to a number of our long-term staff so I thought I’d mention a few that have been brought to my attention.

Lee Morgan, our Head of Housing and Public Protection, is retiring next week after 31 years’ service, since joining Lliw Valley in 1987.  Lee and I have worked together for many years and she’s made a huge difference to the lives of tenants and residents in the city.  She must have been delighted that one of her final duties was to attend the official opening of the newly-built houses by the First Minister a couple of weeks ago.

Phil Thomas is another long serving colleague who finishes work today after almost 40 years’ service. Phil started in 1978 as a clerical officer in Finance and progressed into positions of greater responsibility and ending up as the Principal Benefits Officer responsible for a number of diverse teams.

Although I mentioned him recently, it’s worth saying again that Ian Whettleton, Group Leader Waste Management, is retiring after 44 years’ service.  Joining him is Ray Mitchell, Business Performance Consultant, after 38 years’ service. Ray’s worked in Accountancy, Internal Audit and Performance. He also acts as a presiding officer for the Council during elections and is a volunteer with Helping Hands.

Jane Tonks, our Local Area Coordination Implementation Manager, is retiring on March 28. Without Jane’s commitment, motivation and enthusiasm I don’t think we would have got the LAC initiative off the ground, and achieved the partnership support that we have.

After 39 years of dedication and commitment, Mark Rosser, DBA Team Leader in Digital and Transformation Services, is retiring.  Mark has been a fixture within IT since he left school and will be missed by many friends and colleagues.

Katherine Jones (income and finance officer and former member support officer) will be leaving the Council this month for pastures new in Oxford. And last week Tal Davies, our Fraud Team Manager, retired after long and distinguished service.

Thanks to all staff who are leaving the Council. I wish you a long and happy retirement or continued success in your future careers.

 

 

 

 

Budget approved

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This week Council approved our budget for 2018/19.  The last few weeks have been a hectic time for Ben Smith and the Finance Team and I’ve written to them to thank them for their work which is greatly appreciated.  Amendments were proposed and debated and after over two hours of deliberation the budget was agreed.  The overwhelming message for me from the debate was that austerity has arrived in Wales with a vengeance but members of Council are determined to protect core services and ensure that allocation of resources reflects our five corporate priorities.

Officers and members must now work harder than ever before to bring spending in line with the budget as there’s no longer any wriggle room or potential to rely on reserves as a fall-back.  There’s never been a greater need for financial discipline in the organisation.  Corporate Management Team will be working with Cabinet to ensure that the reporting mechanisms are fit for purpose and that risks are managed effectively.

Linked to this, the consultation period for staff in Corporate Services ended yesterday and during this time we’ve managed to reduce the previous number of staff at risk down from 26 to 10.   Discussions are ongoing with the remaining staff and whilst there’s still uncertainty for them, we’re still making efforts to look for redeployment and to reduce this number further.  It’s also worth reminding staff our enhanced ER/VR scheme is in place until the end of the month and even those who may previously have been turned down can apply again. My thanks to the HR staff involved in supporting at-risk staff.

Immediately before the Council meeting there was a photoshoot of our female councillors outside the chamber as part of our celebration of International Women’s Day.

 

 

Thanks to the councillors and staff who’ve worked on the programme to celebrate women’s achievements and promote gender parity. I know Councillors Gibbard and Sherwood have worked hard with Chris Sivers, Lucy Hyde and others to raise the profile of IWD across our organisation. Thanks to all involved.

When we build again

I have to confess if anyone had asked me 10 years ago if we would see councils building houses for rent again I’d have dismissed it pretty quickly.  I remember reading a book 30 years ago called “When We Build Again” and formed my views at that time, but this week I’ve been proved wrong! The fact that we’re amongst the first pioneers in this new drive to provide affordable housing for direct management by the Council makes me very proud.

Yesterday Carwyn Jones AM, the First Minister of Wales, officially opened our new housing development at Cwrt Trefor, Colliers Way. All of the tenants have moved in and are happy in their new homes which are modern and energy efficient. The scheme has had so many extra benefits, including energy bill savings of up to £100 a year for each home, it provided 450 apprentice learning days, two long-term unemployed people secured work, we created 15 trade-based jobs and during last week’s “Beast from the East” storm the homes were heated using only solar power. There are too many people to thank but I met most of them on site yesterday.  Thanks, you’ve done a fantastic job

Collaboration

This week the Leader and I met with our counterparts at Cardiff Council to discuss our continuing collaboration on a range of issues including education funding, economic development and migration.  Clearly both councils are concerned about the future impact of Brexit on trade and economic growth and we discussed our strategies for mitigating the possible risks and impacts.  I’m convinced that partnerships between the Welsh cities is the right approach and over the coming months we’ll explore ways of work together along with our neighbours.

On Tuesday the Leader, Deputy Leader and I met Rhys Curtis, our innovation co-ordinator, to develop proposals for building on the Smart Cities seminar we held last month.  Over the next few months we’ll be engaging with schools, colleges and universities, the health board and businesses to raise awareness about the future direction of technology and digital developments through the City Deal.  We’ll be holding a second seminar for these partners and I’ll say more about this nearer the time.

Congratulations and thanks

Congratulations to Nigel Fletcher from the Waste Commercial Team who has gone 10 years without a day of sickness.

 

 

The Jig-so Integrated team of midwives, family facilitators, early language development practitioners and nursery nurses has won the Reducing Inequalities Award at the annual national Royal College of Midwifery Awards. This is great news for the families supported by the team and I’m particularly pleased because this project has reported to the Public Services Board over the last 18 months. It shows the PSBs influence in sponsoring such collaborative working and in this instance bringing together our Early Intervention Services and ABMU’s Midwifery Service to work together to benefit both the young parents and their children. Thanks and congratulations to all involved.

Finally, I know I mentioned it last week, but thanks once again to all the staff who kept services going during the winter storm.

Thanks for a great response

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Thanks to all the staff who’ve gone the extra mile in the last few days to make sure the city keeps running during the freezing conditions.  A special thanks must go to our highways staff for keeping the traffic moving and I know this is appreciated by officers and members across the Council as well as residents, hospitals and businesses.  I’m also conscious that our social care teams face particular challenges and I’m indebted to them for their commitment and care.

Planning our response to Storm Emma has been a really big task for the Corporate Management Team, with red and amber threat forecasts constantly shifting and making it difficult to predict snowfall.  Sometimes we have to err on the side of caution to keep people safe and sadly this meant the postponement of the annual budget Council meeting yesterday.  The meeting will now be held next Tuesday at 5pm. It also meant some of our St David’s Day celebrations were cancelled but others have moved indoors and the parade is still due to go ahead on Saturday.

We’ll try to keep everyone up to date via Staffnet and team briefings. The guidance to staff on inclement weather has been published again on Staffnet.

Thanks also to our schools who managed to remain open for as long as practicable.  Thankfully the weather looks set to warm up a bit next week so hopefully normal service will resume as soon as possible.

International Women’s Day

A range of activities have been planned this important year in women’s history. With the centenary last month of partial women’s suffrage and other important anniversaries this year we are making a big splash for International Women’s Day on Thursday March 8th.

The theme this year is “Press for Progress” which for us in Swansea Council means celebrating how far we have come but recognising there is still a way to go until gender and other types of equality are achieved here and in wider society.  Swansea Council has a far better gender balance than almost all the other councils in Wales at senior management level, where 50% of directors team and 44% of Leadership Team are female.  This is also the case with our elected members with women composing 42% of Council.

All staff and councillors are invited to a special event on Thursday 8th March at 1pm in the Civic Centre Council Chamber in which Swansea University’s Dr Alys Einon will talk about gender stereotyping in the workplace which we are sure will provide some important food for thought.

To book and for more details go here.

Scrutiny review

On Tuesday I was interviewed by the Wales Audit Office who’ve been exploring how ‘fit for the future’ our scrutiny functions are, whilst also considering how we’re responding to the current challenges including the Well-being of Future Generations Act.  Thanks to the great work done by our officers and councillors on scrutiny and policy development I was able to give a good account and point to examples of work produced by scrutiny and policy development and delivery committees.  Hopefully they’ll recognise the excellent work done in Swansea but we can always learn from other councils and so I’ll be keen to see any possible areas for improvement when they publish their findings.

Congratulations

The Dylan Thomas Exhibiton at the Dylan Thomas Centre has been named as the Best Family Venue in the UK, by Fantastic for Families. The Awards recognise the contributions of organisations made to arts and culture for families during 2017, and last night the Dylan Thomas Centre was named as the Best Family Venue ahead of the likes of Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park and artsdepot in London.  Thanks to Jo Furber, Georgia Thomas and the team at the Dylan Thomas Centre for securing this national award for us.

Congratulations also to Timm Dadds from Cwmrhdyceirw Primary School who has been nominated for an Into Film Educator of the Year Award. The ceremony will take place in Leicester Square on March 13  and Timm is shortlisted with two others in the whole of the UK. Fingers crossed for Timm.

Farewell

I learned this week that Sara Harvey will be leaving her current post as Regional Programme Director with the Western Bay Programme to return to the Welsh Local Government Association.  Sara has done an excellent job over the past few years and I wish her well for the future. Thanks Sara.

Budget and jobs

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This is always a difficult time of year financially, but especially for those staff whose services are being reduced or face potential job losses. When we first announced the budget proposals we had 92 staff at risk of redundancy across the Council, due to this year’s budget proposals and previously unmet savings. Since that time we’ve managed to reduce that figure to 26. This is largely down to the efforts of our HR officers and the willingness of staff to consider redeployment opportunities across the council. I’m also grateful to managers who’ve been considering “bumped redundancies” and ER/VR applications as ways of avoiding compulsory redundancies. I know there’s still uncertainty for those 26 staff who are still “at-risk” but efforts to re-deploy people will continue and in consultation with our unions we’ll aim to reduce this number further. It’s also worth reminding staff that our enhanced ER/VR scheme is in place until the end of the month and even those who may previously have been turned down can apply again. I’m grateful to everyone involved for doing all they can in really difficult circumstances.

2017 High 5s were the best

On Monday I met the officers and sponsors who support the annual High 5 awards to evaluate last year’s activities and to suggest improvements for 2018.  Last year there were 153 nominations, 80% of which were either from targeted communities or for young people who faced significant barriers.  We awarded over 140 Highly Commended prizes, many of which were tailored to the individual aspirations of the young people. This year we had a range of new sponsors including Go-Air, CPR Global and WG Davies, generating £6,336 in sponsorship which meant the entire programme broke-even so I’m very grateful to the sponsors and officers who worked on eve this. The awards get greater visibility each year and for 2018 we’re forming a relationship with the Ospreys to help promotion, producing new publicity material, developing school ambassadors and working on a High 5 app. It’s really encouraging everyone there felt the High 5 Awards was a continuing success, pledging sponsorship support for this year and renewing their commitment to ensure there’s a significant impact for the winners.  Two previous winners are now employed by the council and I hope this trend continues. Thanks again to Mark Gosney for his tremendous work on this programme and I look forward to launching this year’s awards in a few weeks’ time.  I hope we can increase nominations so please watch for further news on how to get involved.

City Deal

Yesterday the Shadow Joint Committee of the Swansea Bay City Deal met to finalise our joint-working agreement.  There’ve been extensive discussions with both UK and Welsh governments over the detail of the arrangements and in the last few weeks we’ve been making progress on the two outstanding financial issues; the retention of business rates and a capitalisation directive which ensures adequate revenue funding to deliver the 11 regional projects.  We’ll hopefully be seeking approval from Council in the next few weeks to conclude this and get on with the transformational programme for the city and the region.  Thanks to all involved in getting the outstanding issues resolved.

Liberty Stadium

We’ve also concluded the agreement with Swansea City FC over the lease of the Liberty Stadium.  Having been involved in numerous, often heated, debates over the past decade it’s great to have a simplified arrangement that guarantees a rental return from the lease.  The Council still maintains ownership of the stadium and the Ospreys RFC will continue to play there. The agreement that the council will benefit from a share of the naming rights gives an extra reason for wanting the Swans to retain their Premier League status. Thanks to Geoff Bacon and the property team for their hard work in getting this deal done.

Luke’s a star

Congratulations to Luke Evans, a 4th year apprentice plumber with Corporate Building and Property Services, who’s won a national competition. Luke was named Hipex Plumbing Apprentice of the Year and will now take part in the regional finals in Cheltenham.

Farewell

After 44 years of dedication and commitment Ian Whettleton, Group Leader in Waste Management, has decided to retire. Ian has been a fixture in the Waste Managemnt Team and will be missed by the many colleagues across the Council who know him.  Thanks Ian and all the best for a happy retirement.

St David’s Day

A parade, Welsh language events, bands, cookery demonstrations and street entertainers will all be on offer in Swansea’s biggest-ever St David’s Day celebration.

Croeso Abertawe starts on March 1 at the Brangwyn Hall with a ‘Saints, Songs and Celebrations’ show featuring 300 young people from schools joining up to enjoy St David’s Day in music and dance.

The following day the action shifts to the city centre where the two-day Croeso Food and Drink Festival kicks off in Oxford Street, Princess Way and Castle Square. The big day is Saturday where there’ll be an afternoon parade and family entertainment across the city centre. Thank you to everyone who’s helped organise the events.