Robs Weekly Round-Up

10 March 2023

Dear colleagues,

More than usual this feels like a very busy week to try and round-up, with great work being done across the Council.

Budget proposals were voted through at a meeting of Full Council on Monday night and will come into effect from the start of the new financial year. You will have hopefully already seen Thursday’s joint message from the Leader and me on the budget. As you will know from previous updates, despite a better-than-expected settlement from Welsh Government, the Council remains in a challenging financial position largely because of the cost-of-living-crisis as prices, inflation and interest rates have all risen dramatically.

Our budget strategy was to protect schools and support services for the most vulnerable residents during these difficult times. I believe this is what we have achieved. There will be an increase in Council Tax of 4.9%, a rise that has been kept to a minimum as we appreciate the pressures facing households at the moment. Alongside this there will be an increase in the charges for some non-essential services. Some difficult decisions also needed to be made about service provision as there simply isn’t the money to maintain all of our services at current levels.

Also agreed at the same meeting was the 2023/24 Annual Delivery Plan. Our financial position is just one factor driving a lot of change within the organisation. In the new ADP we have aligned the Council’s work with the three most critical challenges facing communities in the Vale and us as an organisation – cost of living, Project Zero, and organisational resilience. 

With the budget agreed, SLT and Cabinet met on Thursday to discuss how we can work together to deliver for residents and colleagues. We talked through the three critical challenges as set out in the ADP and the enabling activity that we have in place - both cultural and operational things, such as staff engagement and wellbeing, as well as use of data and reporting. Together we agreed the areas of our work that need to be prioritised and how we can all change the ways in which we work. I will have a fuller update on how we can deliver on our ADP commitments in the coming weeks, but one thing is clear – we all need to continue with the excellent work of recent years that has allowed us to transform as an organisation.  This will need a renewed focus on creativity and innovation, so that we can meet financial challenges head on whilst continuing to deliver for our communities.

Thursday was International School Meals Day, and there can be no better example of us innovating with success than how we now deliver our school meals service. In recognition of their excellent work all year round I’d like to thank the team at Big Fresh and those colleagues in Learning and Skills that they work closely with to deliver an excellent service for the Vale.

Last year Welsh Government made a commitment to provide free school meals for all primary aged pupils by 2024. I am very proud that in the Vale we are on track to have the service in place well ahead of that target date. Indeed, after the Vale recorded the highest free school meal uptake in Wales during September and October 2022, our Eligible Free School Meals Team (EFSM) proudly took the award for ‘Exceptional commitment to the safeguarding of children’ at the Cardiff and Vale Safeguarding Awards shortly afterwards.

On Wednesday the Vale of Glamorgan Council held its largest ever event to mark International Women’s Day at Penarth Pier Pavilion. Hosted by the Council’s Leader, Cllr Lis Burnett, the event featured keynote speakers exploring the campaign theme ‘why equal opportunities are no longer enough’. Guests enjoyed an afternoon tea whilst students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama performed.

The all-female event was organised entirely in house and funded through sponsorship. It was attended by a great number of our colleagues. The feedback on every element has been excellent and the day was a glittering showcase of great women from across the Vale. You can catch-up on some of the highlights, and learn more about the issues under discussion, on StaffNet+ now. Thank you to all who attended and contributed on the day  and I would like to thank Jaci Cilia who worked hard in the days and weeks leading up to the event to ensure it was so well organised. Thanks also to other colleagues from the pavilion – Karen and the Big Fresh team, our communications team and Angela Bobbett who along with Jaci helped organise the day itself. Diolch pawb – thank you.

This week also brought a poignant reminder of the great contribution women make to public life in the Vale. It was with great sadness that the Leader and I wrote to inform colleagues of the death of former councillor, Anne Moore. Anne served as an elected member for almost 30 years and stood down before the last election.  Anne was the wife of former Leader of the Council, Neil Moore, who also represented the Cadoc ward for over 30 years. Once again I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Neil, Rhiannon and their whole family at this difficult time.

Also on Wednesday I was able to meet many of our newer colleagues at a bumper Welcome to the Vale session. The sessions have always been a great way to help create connections between colleagues and an opportunity for us to set out some of the Council’s key values to those new to the organisation. All staff that have joined the Council in 2023 are enrolled on a new introduction programme, which includes an opportunity to sign up to a Welcome to the Vale event. These now run monthly with this week’s an exceptionally well-attended session. Thanks again to all those who came along. I look forward to working with you in the future.

Colleagues both new and old may be interested to hear that GLAM, our LGBTQI+ Staff Network are looking to refresh their leadership and are inviting interest for Chair, Vice Chair and seven Steering Group Member roles. GLAM offers support to LGBTQI+ colleagues, runs and participates in events, works towards improvements and gives feedback to the Council on policy and practice. If you would like to join GLAM as a member or an ally, please complete the membership form. If you would like to express an interest in the Chair, Vice Chair or Steering Group roles, please email GLAM by 22 March 2023. If you would like to have a chat about it, please contact Nicola Hinton or Elyn Hannah.

Finally, and another real high note, this week saw yet more high profile praise in the national media for the work of our colleagues. The second series of the BBC documentary A Special School is currently being broadcast and a piece highlighting the great work of staff at Ysgol Y Deri was published in last weekend’s Sunday Mirror. The BBC programme follows the school’s dedicated staff and pupils from pre-nursery classes to A Level. There is a reason why it has received glowing reviews and if you haven’t yet watched it I’d suggest heading over to BBC iPlayer before it’s too late. Diolch to Chris Britten, the head teacher and the whole YYD team for their dedication and commitment and for putting the school and the Vale in the spotlight and, more importantly, huge congratulations on your new found fame to the real stars of the show – the pupils. Hugely impressive and inspiring in equal measure.

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

Rob.