Robs Weekly Round Up

26 April 2024

Dear colleagues,

This has been another week where the Council has been in the spotlight for all the right reasons.

Those of you who stayed up late on Tuesday night may have seen a number of our colleagues featured on the ITV Wales current affairs programme The Sharp End. The programme, and accompanying written piece, used our Council as a case study to explain to the public the impact that financial pressures are having on our services.

It also highlighted some of the ways in which we are changing how we work to enable us to continue to provide services that we know matter while at the same contributing to a healthier and greener future for the Vale.

Jon Greatrex, our Parks and Open Spaces Officer, spoke about how the decision not to apply for Green Flag for our parks this year had been a difficult one but that at the same time gave us an opportunity to move towards a more ecologically friendly way of maintaining green spaces, which could help tackle the nature emergency by giving some species a space to thrive.

Colin Smith, our Operational Manager for Neighbourhood Services, explained how the new recycling arrangements for the Vale save more than £1m each year as well enabling more waste than ever to be re-used and helping us reach our Project Zero goals.

In the same piece the Leader of the Council also made clear just how difficult some of the decisions we will face in the near future are likely to be.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part and those whose work behind the scenes made it all possible. I was absolutely delighted to see our work being broadcast to the nation and held up as examples of what can be done when we are willing to think differently about service delivery. I also know that the pressures we all work under are sometimes not obvious to local residents and this can make our roles feel thankless at times. Hopefully continued media attention of the current state of public services will help address this and help more people to see the value in our work as we do.

The piece was very timely as over the past two weeks I have led workshops with the Strategic Leadership Team and Cabinet to develop the next phase of our Reshaping programme. I also had a really useful discussion on Monday of this week with the Schools Budget Forum where we were able to discuss school budgets.  This allowed us to start thinking how we could work together on transformation in the way we deliver services to support our schools and other options to allow us to face school budget challenges head on.

Our Reshaping programme will be built around an in-depth assessment of how we work, or as we call it, our Target Operating Model.  Alongside this, there will be another four themes of transformation which will shape the projects that will enable us to deliver a Council fit for 2030. We’ll be focusing on service transformation, digital, economic resilience and strengthening communities. Most importantly we will always ask ‘how is what we are doing benefiting our residents?’. 

There is still some work to be done on finalising target savings and outcomes, and identifying all possible projects but I will share full details of the programme once its available, in the very near future. I am also really keen to make sure that we deliver a comprehensive programme of staff engagement over the coming months to ensure everyone is fully briefed on what lies ahead and fully able to both influence our plans and just as importantly, play their part in making it all happen.

We are already in a very strong position. Not least because we have already delivered fundamental changes to how many services are delivered with great success. One of the best examples from one of the earlier phases of Reshaping is the Vale’s community libraries.

Dinas Powys Library and Activity Centre is run by a committed team and is an excellent example of a volunteer led organisation that is firmly rooted in its community and so able to focus its service on meeting local needs.

It is no surprise then that the team behind the library recently won a Local Heroes award in a public vote coordinated by Dinas Powys Community Council. The award was in recognition of the commitment, selflessness, and unwavering support of the volunteer team and described the team has having left an ‘indelible mark on the community’. High praise indeed and thoroughly deserved. Llongyfarchiadau team.

I would also like to say thanks to the officers who took part in two drop-in sessions last week, in St Athan and at Colcot Sports Centre. In St Athan our colleagues, alongside representatives of the MOD, were speaking to local residents about the arrangements in place to support those families recently arrived from Afghanistan. At Colcot officers were talking to local residents about a proposal to build new sports facilities at the nearby Buttrills playing fields, a development that would be funded by using the current Colcot Sports Centre site for new Council housing. Both were examples of our staff putting themselves into the heart of the communities to engage on difficult issues and explain to residents why we do what we do. This can be difficult - the Colcot session was particularly challenging thanks to some unfounded rumours circulating on Facebook – but it is always the right thing to do and shows us as a Council living up to our values and commitment to engage residents in our work. Public service is never easy and there will always be people who see the Council as an easy target.

Diolch yn fawr iawn to those colleagues who put themselves forward and were willing to make the argument in favour of supporting the most vulnerable in our communities over those with the loudest voices.

Finally, this week I’d like to say farewell to a very long serving colleague. On Wednesday I called into Democratic Services to give my best wishes to Julie Gratton who brought her time with the Vale to an end this week after an impressive 42 years and 5 months of dedicated service. Anyone who has had to navigate the Council’s committee cycle will know how integral Julie has been to the Democratic team (and Committee Services before that). Diolch yn fawr iawn Julie for everything you’ve done in that time. I wish you all the best for your retirement.   

Thanks as always to you all for your work this week. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Rob.