Rob's Weekly Round-Up

15 July, 2022 

Dear colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well ahead of what promises to be a very warm weekend.

Having just returned from leave myself, I hope you will all be planning your own breaks over the coming weeks to enjoy the sunshine. 
With the forecasted heatwave in mind, I’d like to remind colleagues of the advice available, as published through our Staffnet pages when working in high temperatures. Heat exhaustion can occur in sedentary as well as manual work. Heat stroke is a life-threatening condition so please look out for yourselves, family, neighbours and colleagues.

This week, I was very pleased to have sight of a copy of a letter that we received from a resident praising our colleagues in Council Tax, Housing and Recycling and Waste. In particular, the resident wanted to thank the teams for their helpfulness and hard work both during the pandemic and in helping her resolve queries. I echo her thanks. Da iawn pawb. 

I’m pleased to announce that the first shortlist for this year’s Staff Awards has been put forward. Congratulations to our School Hero nominees - Tracey Clee from Cadoxton Primary School, Brenda Cleak and Wyn Gower from St. Richard Gwyn, Jeffrey Schembri from Oakfield Primary School and Hannah Cogbill from Cadoxton Primary School.

Remember that voting is open to everyone from across the organisation in this category and the same will be trus for the Directorat hero shortlists which are set to be announced at the end of next week. 

For many of our Schools colleagues, this will be your final full week before the start of the Summer Holidays. I would like to thank all school staff for your hard work over what has still been a strange and challenging year.  Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi i gyd and best of luck to all those pupils receiving their results in August.

Whilst on the subject of schools, colleagues have worked hard to set up a summer football camp to be held at Whitmore High School over the summer break and starting on 25 July. This promises to be a huge success and I’d like to congratulate colleagues from the school and the Council who have been instrumental in setting this up with the Joe Ledley Football Academy.  Thanks to a team approach, participants will also benefit from free packed lunches provided by the Council through the Big Fresh Catering company. 

I’d also like to remind everyone that next week our colleagues will be hosting a Staff Survey event and The Alps Depot. The event is open to everyone who wants to take part in the Staff Survey but hasn’t yet had the opportunity to. Thanks to our colleagues in Big Fresh, there will be a complimentary butty and drink for those who take part.

The event will take place on Thursday, July 21 from 6am-4pm. I’d like to reassure everyone that your responses will remain anonymous. The Staff Survey roadshow will also be visiting our residential homes over the coming weeks.

If you can’t make the event, please take the time to fill out the survey online. This should take you no more than 15 minutes and will help us better support you in the future.

Finally, I’d like to remind colleagues of the Cost of Living information that is available on Staffnet+. There are guidance and schemes to help those affected by the rising cost of living.

I’ll sign off by wishing luck to everyone taking part in Penarth’s annual Downhill Derby on Saturday. Pob lwc i chi gyd.

As always, thanks for all your work this week. Whatever you do obver the weekend, please stay safe given the forecast high temperatures. 

Diolch yn fawr.
Rob.