Robs Weekly Round Up

05 July 2024

Dear colleagues,

There can be no other place to start this week than with a huge thank you everyone who worked overnight and in the run-up to polling day to enable the citizens of the Vale of Glamorgan constituency to cast their votes in the general election.

The result for the Vale of Glamorgan constituency was declared at just after 2am this morning. This was the culmination of nearly two months of work since the election was called by the now former Prime Minister.

The effort overnight was incredible. More than 100 staff worked to count the 45,965 ballot papers that were cast in the Vale. Attention to detail and a new more streamlined process meant we did so quickly and efficiently. I am so very proud of everyone involved and out of 630 UK constituencies we were the 25^th to declare and the second in Wales. The added benefit of this is that those of us on the stage were hopefully looking a little less tired when the result was broadcast on television!

While this was the culmination of polling day it was only one part in a much bigger process.

Dozens of our colleagues worked at polling stations across the Vale yesterday.

Our Electoral Services team – Rachel, Hayley, Linda, Caitlin, Chelsie and Cameron – have been fantastic as always. The same goes for my Deputy Acting Returning Officer, Victoria Davidson who offered super support. Rachel leads the election process from start to finish and together the team coordinate everything from booking generators to heat draughty community halls to totalling the votes on the night.

Even when issues with deliveries of postal ballot arose earlier this week affecting Vale residents residing in the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency area, they rose quickly to the challenge and put in place emergency arrangements to ensure anyone who had not received a postal vote as expected would still be able to cast their ballot. Da iawn to the team and also thank you to C1V colleagues who assisted earlier this week and in the run up to polling day.  The cross boundary working with and the support offered to Cardiff Council’s Election team was exceptional.

After the PCC election in May I wrote that elections are a real Team Vale success and again this time there are far too many colleagues involved to thank individually. Teams drawn from Finance and Customer Relations have had important roles again and all of what was achieved last night was made possible by round the clock support from ICT Services, Building Services, and our Communications team.  

Diolch yn fawr pawb. I sincerely hope you were all able to enjoy a lie-in this morning!

Less than a day after the election there is already a lot of speculation about what the new party in power will mean for public services. It is not clear yet what a change of government in Westminster will mean for devolved services in Wales or local government more broadly but I will keep working with the Leader of the Council and her Cabinet to advocate for our organisation to have the resources it needs to deliver for communities in the Vale.

A new digital process was key to streamlining work at the count last night. Adapting more quickly to new digital tools is one of the ways in which we can become more efficient and effective as an organisation.

To help colleagues with this our OD and Learning team has recently given the Microsoft 365 support hub an update. The hub gives you access to bite-sized guides, top tips and efficiency hacks in Microsoft 365. There are loads of great features that can automate simple tasks like checking people’s availability for meetings and creating to-do lists that can make your life much easier. It is well worth logging into iDev to check it out.

The hub includes some information on Delve – the latest 365 platform that we are adopting. Delve replaces the old Phonebook application on StaffNet. Delve allows you to search for colleagues using their name, skills, projects they are working on, or any other information they have added to their profile. Then once you’ve found someone Delve will give you links for Teams messaging, Teams calls, and email, as well as their telephone number, so you can make contact in whatever way works best for you. This complements the Teams telephony project that is on track to deliver significant financial saving for us this year.

Over the last two weeks we have been celebrating our Shared Lives team. The team is dedicated to recruiting carers who provide accommodation and support from their own homes for adults with support needs.

The team relaunched their service with a new look and better support for carers earlier this year. Their work makes a big difference to the quality of life of all those they support. It also provides a good income to hosts.

The team are really keen to build better links with other Council teams who could help refer both clients and hosts to their service. To introduce themselves they have put together a short video to explain who they are and what they do.

If you haven’t yet had chance to watch it or take a look at their new website then you should try to find the time. It’s an excellent service that the team provide and if you think your work could link with it in any way then please do get in touch. 

Another team working to improve people’s quality of life is our active travel team and I was copied into an exchange earlier this week showing just how valued this work is. A St Athan resident had written a lovely letter of thanks for the new Eqlwys Brewis active travel route. “I am writing to thank you and the council for the development of the active walkway at Eglwys Brewis” it began“I live in East Camp, and earlier this year I started running to get fit. I have since been running regularly from Eglwys Brewis to Llantwit. I have shared the walkway with other runners, walkers and families who cycle - it [is] fantastic for all of us.”

Letters like this are great to see and I’d like to echo its sentiments and pass on my thanks to Lisa Elliot and the rest of the Transport & Highway team. Diolch pawb.

Finally, I’d like to thank the team at Ysgol Y Deri for inviting me to the school to join in their annual Big Lunch event on Thursday. Each year pupils from YYD help prepare food and open the doors of the school to volunteers, local residents and the school’s many supporters. The production crew of the award winning A Special School documentary were also there and it was great chatting with them and hearing about how blown away they were when they first visited and met the pupils and staff.

It was a wonderful event for another reason also, as Esme, one of the pupils was celebrating her sixteenth birthday and the sense of community and togetherness when all those there were singing happy birthday really brought home what a special place Ysgol Y Deri is and what it means to those who attend. Thank you so much to the team there for having me and thank you Esme for the special performance on your birthday, Suzy and Liam for the duet and the entire cast who performed a number from their production of Madagascar. Brilliant.

And thank you, as always, to all colleagues for their hard work this week. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Rob.