Rob’s Weekly Round-up
27 May 2022
Dear colleagues,
As many of you will already be aware the new political leadership of the Council was agreed this week at the Annual General Meeting on Monday night.
Cllr Lis Burnett, Leader of the Labour Group, heads up our new Cabinet after being confirmed as the Council’s new Leader. Lis will lead an eight-person political Cabinet that combines elected members from the Labour and Llantwit First groups.
The new Cabinet is made up of five women and three men, with Cllr Burnett, Deputy Leader Bronwen Brooks, Rhiannon Birch, Mark Wilson, Margaret Wilkinson and Ruba Sivagnanam coming from Labour and Gwyn John and Eddie Williams representing the Llantwit First group.
The new Cabinet portfolios have changed from those under the previous administration. You can see a full breakdown of which Cabinet members now lead on your area of work on our website.
I’ll share with you the Leader’s comments to the press this week which I think sets the tone for what the next five years will hold.
“I’m delighted to have been elected the new Leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council.
“This is an exciting time as we look to press ahead with delivering our ambitious manifesto which includes big infrastructure projects alongside a commitment to regeneration and our Project Zero initiative to become carbon neutral.
“The new Cabinet reflects my desire for better gender balance and diversity not just in politics but all positions of power.
“It is important that an area’s political leadership properly represents the people it serves and that will be a key consideration moving forwards.
“Much has been achieved in the Vale over recent years, but there is still a lot more to do.
“Public participation will be central to future change, with residents being actively involved in the decisions that affect them.”
Another issue you may have seen some coverage of this week is the temporary relocation of some classes at Y Bontfaen Primary School in Cowbridge. The temporary measure is an unintended consequence of a significant investment in the school building. More than £400k is being invested into the school and during the course of the work issues with some of the ceilings were uncovered. The safety of pupils and staff is of course our absolute priority and so the decision was taken for four year groups to be taught at alternative locations for the coming weeks.
These alternative arrangements were only able to be put in place so quickly thanks to the hard work of colleagues across our Learning and Skills, Property, ICT and HR teams, among, I am sure, many others. I’d like to personally thank all those who have worked so hard to ensure the disruption to pupils at the school has been kept to an absolute minimum.
Thinking also about the support our teams offer to pupils, I have no doubt many of you will have been upset by reports of the racist bullying incident involving Raheem Bailey. It is simply unacceptable for a young person, or indeed any person, to find themselves in this position. I am proud that this Council and our schools takes an absolute zero tolerance stance on bullying of any kind. I know that the incident is in sharp relief to the work being done in our schools to create a safe environment in which children and young people are safe and can enjoy learning.
If any of you have been affected by the coverage this week, please remember that support is available via Care First and our Diverse Network.
I’d like to say another thanks to a colleague that has worked closely with me over the last two and a half years. After balancing the Head of Digital role with the Head of Strategy, Community Learning and Resources in Learning and Skills, Trevor Baker will be moving back to focus on his substantive post from next week. The role of ICT services in supporting all of our work has never been more important and as an organisation we moved at pace during 2020 to enable us to respond to the challenges of the pandemic. That pace has been maintained since and i’d like to thank Trevor for his enthusiasm and commitment to the organisation and all he has done over the last two years, as well as Nick Wheeler and all those colleagues in the ICT department that have supported him so ably. Diolch pawb.
As you’ll have seen in the all staff message yesterday there is still time for you to show your appreciation for your colleagues by nominating them for one of our staff awards. Dozens of submissions have already been made. There is a wide range of categories to cover all areas of our work and this really is a great way to get colleagues the recognition their work deserves.
I answered questions on this as well as on some work that is quickly taking shape in response to the increasing cost of living and the future way of working in my Question Time session earlier in the month. The recording of this session is now available to view in iDev for anyone who’d like to know more. Many of the questions related to ‘hybrid working’ and in my message last week, I indicated that more information was to follow. On this we hope to present our new Hybrid Working principles to an early Cabinet meeting of the new administration. This will highlight how we wish to work in a post covid world, acknowledging the range of professions we have across a range of disciplines. This will aim to provide clarity and structure on how we work post covid.For those who have been predominately working from home during the Covid pandemic, this will see a return to the office in a different way, with a mix of both office and home working, always with the best interests of our citizens and the communities we serve at the heart of any decisions we make.
In the interim, our offices are open, and staff are welcome to attend work at any time, all staff members who wish to work from the office can be accommodated and your line managers can discuss these arrangements with you.
Our risk assessments are continually reviewed and aspects such as restrictions on numbers in rooms and the requirement to wear a mask/face covering have now been removed. We do remain considerate of the needs of all staff and therefore ask all our staff members to be respectful and understanding to their colleagues who may continue to choose to keep a social distance or wear a mask. To this end, the messages around hand washing remain and there is a plentiful supply of hand gels and wipes for those who may wish to use them.
Finally, I'd also like to remind you that our two new Directors, Tom Bowring and Marcus Goldsworthy will be taking questions from staff in June. You can submit anything you’d like to put to Tom and Marcus ahead of the session and I know they are looking forward to the sessions as an opportunity to talk about the next important steps in delivering on our commitments.
Thanks as always for your hard work this week.
Diolch yn fawr pawb.
Rob.