Robs Weekly Round Up

15 December 2023

Dear colleagues,  

It is only ten days until Christmas and as I said last week, I would like to devote much of this week’s message to the success of this year’s Santa’s Cause campaign, and the people that made it all possible.  

Thanks to the generosity of our staff, suppliers, residents, and a number of community groups our social services team will next week be delivering gifts to more than 700 children and young people who would otherwise have little or nothing to open on Christmas Day.  

This year, once again, I have been absolutely blown away by the compassion and kindness of our staff as well as how fantastic Team Vale is at pulling together to make a difference to the lives of those who rely on us.  

Hundreds of staff will have played a role in the success of this year’s campaign, through everything from making individual contributions, sharing information with friends and family, helping pack and sort gifts, to transporting them across the Vale.  

There are a few individuals, however, whose contribution has been outstanding – either by the amount of money raised or the ingenuity of their methods.  

The staff and service users at Hen Goleg held a Christmas Fayre at their day centre which raised more than £700. Staff at our residential homes were exceptionally generous with Southway care home in particular making a big contribution - their bags of gifts were also some of the first to arrive.  

Julia Esseen from our Learning and Skills team led a fundraising drive with Penarth Tennis Club that delivered the biggest single donation of toys, including a full-size bike that will make someone very happy on Christmas morning.  

Claire James, in our Finance team, and her daughter Mercedes, donated their Clubcard vouchers for the year and then convinced Tesco to match their contributions. With the savvy use of some special offers this netted gifts for Santa’s Cause worth more than £500.  

Karen Davies, in our Sport and Play team, showed some very innovative thinking in using some grant money available to provide sports equipment to children and young people to donate sacks full of footballs, rugby balls, badminton sets, skipping ropes and various other items. I am told she even blew up each of the balls herself – no mean feat!

Our Family Information Service also helped promote the scheme and gave the Santa’s Cause fundraising stall a prime position at their annual Christmas party. The event was a great success. Of the 800+ people who attended I hear the only person to leave without a smile on their face was the parent of the child who won the four-foot-tall Olaf teddy in the raffle and now has to find space for him at home!   

The FIS team also came in numbers to the gift packing sessions alongside colleagues from our Community Development team, Contact One Vale, and Social Care Workforce Development team. We’ve shared a separate message of thanks to all of Santa’s elves on StaffNet+.  

As with so much of our work as a Council there is a huge amount of work done behind the scenes to make projects like this work. Our Finance and Adult Learning teams worked together to repurpose our Vale courses payment site to take online donations. This enabled collections of more than £2000 from staff and residents. Senior Accountancy Technician Mike Bumford then identified a way to claim back the VAT on gifts purchased, adding the equivalent of £1200.   

The work that underpins the project runs year-round and is led by a project team that draws together colleagues from Social Services and Corporate Resources. The work is led throughout by Harriet Kirby, Leanne Delaney, and Emily Woodley. As the core team these three colleagues organise everything from approaching corporate donors, to gathering the details of children that need our support, to coordinating the purchasing, sorting and delivery of the gifts. This is all on top of very busy and demanding day jobs within our Communications and Lifecycle teams. Theirs is an incredible effort.  

On behalf of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, all of our teams, and most importantly the families whose Christmas will now be that little bit better I would like to thank everyone who played a part in this year’s Santa’s Cause campaign. Diolch yn fawr iawn pawb.  

One of the teams mentioned in my run through of Santa’s Cause was the Family information Service (FIS) and it was great that Becky Wickett, Social Care Information Team Manager got in touch earlier today to share some further information about two events they hosted for families in the Vale on the 6 December.  All the children, parents and carers who attended the free events in Barry Memo, and enjoyed taking part in all of the Christmas activities, provided by our wonderful services in the Vale.  

Becky was keen to thank all the organisations that supported the event - such as the Play Development Team, Dewis Cymru, Early Help Team, Flying Start, Mudiad Meithrin, Communities for Work Plus and many more who took part and engaged with families about their services, whilst offering fantastic Christmas activities.  

Special thanks to Kelly Fenton and Cath Broad for being the chief organisers and all of the FIS and the Dewis elves!  Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi i gyd.  

The FIS connects families to services and support, including childcare, help with childcare costs, family support services and activities for children and young people. You can find out more on the FIS Hub. 

My occasional use of Cymraeg in these messages came up in conversation this week when I attended the celebration event for our latest cohort of learners on the Cymraeg Gwaith scheme. I try to join these sessions for as long as I can, in part because as a first language Welsh speaker I understand how important it is to some residents to be able to engage with the Council bilingually.  

Growing the use of the language within the Council is important for this reason and using words and phrases here and there is something we can all do to help with this. What was so pleasing to hear on Tuesday was that colleagues who had just completed some of the introductory courses were so keen to start using the Cymraeg they now have. 

Diolch yn fawr to those who were happy to chat on Tuesday and llongyfarchiadau on your progress to date whatever your motivation for learning and wherever you plan to use your language skills.  For those who want to progress further and anyone else who is inspired, there will be a new timetable of courses for staff which will launch in the New Year and you can sign up now.  

The latest census showed the Vale to be one of the areas in Wales with a growing number of Welsh speakers. Undoubtedly the excellent Welsh medium education on offer in the Vale is a factor and I received some excellent feedback on one of our schools recently.  

The Vale’s first Welsh Language Centre was established at Ysgol Gwaun y Nant in January 2022. The Centre is run by Enfys McKavanagh who acts as the centre’s one teacher and general champion for the language. It was established to help children move from English medium to Welsh medium education, support pupils in Welsh medium schools who need some additional language support, and in particular to help people moving to Wales who wish to learn through the medium of Welsh.  Since it opened, 150 learners have been taught and I received the following this week from the parent of two of them. 

“My twins have just finished their 12 week stint over at the language centre at Ysgol Gwaun y Nant with Enfys McKavanagh. I wanted to email to express my sincere gratitude for the provision that has been offered to them. We have recently moved to Barry after living in 12 years in Spain so it's been a big change for us all. The experience at the centre has been a huge bridge for the twins and has offered them a place where they feel welcome and confident. Their Welsh has developed phenomenally during this time and this is testament to Enfys and her team. She really is a very special teacher. She has been consistently professional, passionate and patient. It's has been a pleasure to send my children to her and watch them on their Welsh journey.” 

What absolutely glowing praise. Gwaith da a diolch yn fawr iawn Enfys.  

Many of you will be reading this message on payday and so there is no better time to share some more praise I had this week for our in-house payroll team. A colleague got in touch asking if I could give a thanks on their behalf to the team for their great work to process the recently agreed pay award so quickly and ensure staff receive their backdated pay in time for Christmas. A huge thanks to the team then on behalf of all colleagues, your hard work will go a long way in helping fill stockings over the next two weeks.  

I’d also like to thank our local trade union representatives and the unions themselves more broadly for their support and contribution this year. We have an excellent working relationship with our union colleagues. Their support to individual colleagues is of course vital but just as important is their work in advocating for staff more broadly and helping us all work in a way that develops the organisation by putting our people first.  

Finally, for those who weren’t able to join us on Wednesday the Learning Cafe session focusing on our budget for next year is now available for all staff to view online. Our financial settlement from Welsh Government will be announced on Wednesday and the Leader and I will write to all staff to set out what it means next week.  

Thanks as always for all of your efforts this week. Diolch yn fawr pawb. 

Rob.