Robs Weekly Round Up

26 July 2024

Dear colleagues,

I’m back on end-of-week duty today after enjoying a bit of time off.

In my absence, Miles and Liz picked up the reins to give this message their own individual style.

I see from those updates that the last couple of weeks have been just as busy as normal, with plenty of fantastic work taking place and no shortage of staff achievements to celebrate.

That’s again the case today as colleagues continue to deliver for the organisation.

I’ll start with the Council’s Youth Service, which recently hosted a highly successful awards ceremony. Having attended the same event last year, I was extremely disappointed to miss this occasion, but I gather it was again, a fantastic evening.

This event was a celebration of the achievements of our young people, the strength of the community partnerships that have been established and the dedication of staff and volunteers.

Well done to everyone involved for making this event such a memorable and impactful occasion.

The awards ceremony highlighted the exceptional accomplishments of young people across various categories, including personal development, community involvement, academic success, and resilience.

Key partners were acknowledged for their contributions, reinforcing the value of those collaborative efforts.

Special recognition was given to our dedicated youth service staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to support and inspire young people. Their commitment and passion are integral to the success of our programmes.

Awards were presented in the categories of Partnership of the Year, Learning Achievement, Skills for Life, Creating a better Vale, Project of the year, Personal Growth, Adult Volunteer, Youth Inspiration, Youth Volunteer, Youth Worker of the Year and Young Person of the Year.

A host of young people who use and assist the service picked up trophies, while local companies donated money for raffle prizes.

The positive feedback from attendees, including young people, parents, and partners, was significant, indicating a strong sense of community pride and support, with many expressing their appreciation for the event on social media.

I know there are already plans to build on this success by expanding partnerships further and offering even more opportunities for young people.

Well done to all involved, not just those that picked up awards, but others behind the scenes that put in the hard work to make this event possible.

Those efforts are very much appreciated and make a real difference to young people within our communities.  Da iawn i chi i gyd a llongyfarchiadau.

In July, the Council has been marking Disability Pride Month.

This is a worldwide event, celebrating people with disabilities and encouraging conversations on this topic.

It encourages people to be proud of their disabilities and to live authentically and unapologetically.

Ableism is still a big problem which can create barriers to everyday life for many disabled people.

Disability Pride Month helps to raise awareness of this issue among those who are not disabled, as well as the general discrimination faced by this group and how to combat it.

At the start of April this year, 77.2 per cent of Council staff said they had no disability, while 2.8 per cent said they had a disability that limited them a little.

County-wide 2021 census data tells us that 8.6 per cent of Vale of Glamorgan residents identified as being disabled and limited a lot, which is around 11,300 people, and 10.8 per cent of residents identified as disabled and limited a little.

In Wales, the proportion of disabled people was 21.1 per cent, comprised of 11.1 per cent who were limited a little and 10 per cent who were limited a lot. Over a quarter of people in Wales reported having some kind of long-term physical or mental health condition. 

Approximately 16 million people in the UK report having a disability.

To mark Disability Pride Month, AccessAble.co.uk are encouraging people to read a book by a disabled author and have compiled a list of such titles.

The Disability Pride Art Exhibition runs in Cardiff until tomorrow and is free to attend.

Details of the next Council’s disability staff network, Abl, meeting are also coming soon.

Next, I wanted to give a mention to the Facilities Team and the work they have been doing with our schools to arrange cleaning contracts.

Schools have delegated budgets and can use any company for services like cleaning, so it was great to hear that Lynne Armstrong, Simon Bowden and colleagues have added Whitmore High and Pencoedtre High to the list that have signed up with us.

Ysgol Dewi Sant, Ysgol y Ddraig, St Illtyd’s, Dinas Powys Junior School, and Wick and Marcross Primary have also already agreed to use the Council ahead of external businesses, providing a welcome boost at a time of well-documented financial challenges.

Knowing that our schools are putting their trust in the service offered by our cleaning team is a real plus as it keeps this spending within the Authority, rather than see it go to third parties.

Diolch to the schools who have signed up and are supporting those services delivered by the Council and diolch to Lynne, Simon and team, including Area Supervisors Paul Edwards and Hayley Fellows, for their work.

Over the last few years, our Schools ICT Team has also been doing fantastic work to improve facilities for pupils and staff in the Vale.

Using Welsh Government funding, Ross Fraser, Pietro Pucella, Lewis Gibbon, Chris Thomas and Sean Granville have revolutionised the way that technology is now managed within Vale primary schools.

All computers and devices are enrolled and managed on the Google platform and Microsoft’s Intune management system. 

With the variety of equipment in schools, Microsoft Intune and Google Admin are valuable tools, helping to improve efficiency.

Intune excels at security, letting the ICT Team manage access, remotely deploy applications and push out various policies and settings to every device that is used in the school environment.

The team is now successfully rolling out this system into Vale secondary schools and has taken on an additional member of staff, Alex Doe, who is permanently based in Pencoedtre High.

The support the team has received from staff in that school has been fantastic and is very much appreciated.

Many don’t realise the hard and often unseen work that takes place behind the scenes to maintain technology, so I’d like to say a big thank you to the team for all their hard work.

I know our schools will be in the best possible situation to move forward into the ever- evolving world of information technology.

Our Social Services Teams have also received resounding praise from a Welsh Government colleague who visited to expand her knowledge base.

After spending time with our staff, Taryn Stephens, who works in the Office of the Chief Social Care Officer for Wales wrote to Lance Carver and Jason Bennett to say: “I just wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to spend time with your teams yesterday. It was a really helpful thought-provoking visit and it was great to make links across the system.

“I wanted to share how great it was to see such an embedded culture of passion for a shared vision and professionals who felt they had the autonomy and support to be forward-thinking. Everyone I spoke to was extremely passionate about good outcomes for individuals, it felt like a clear vision in action across multiagency teams. I found it really personally motivating to see.”

Da iawn and well done to all colleagues involved and it is fantastic to receive such glowing feedback.

The Council’s Learning and Skills Directorate was also roundly acclaimed in a recent case study published by Estyn on effective practice.

That followed the department’s recent successful inspection.

In its report, the Welsh education and training inspectorate hailed the collaborative way in which Council staff operate towards a clear corporate vision.

Efforts to promote the Welsh language, tackle poverty, help vulnerable learners, encourage healthy living, support those not in Education, Employment or Training were singled out for praise.

The Council’s transformative approach and corporate priorities were also recognised, which links neatly to work taking place at the moment on the Reshaping Programme and the new Corporate Plan for 2025 - 30.

Yesterday, Tom Bowring, Lloyd Fisher and myself delivered the latest staff session on these subjects, focusing on the Council’s proposed five Wellbeing Objectives:

• Creating a great place to live and work
• Respecting and celebrating the environment
• Giving everyone a good start in life
• Supporting and protecting those who need us
• Being the best Council we can be

The new Corporate Plan will set out how the Council will prioritise its work from 2025 to 2030 and staff will have the opportunity to share their views as it develops over the coming months.

The Reshaping Programme explains the changes that need to be made to get to that point and describes a way of reinventing and re-examining services to best deliver for Vale communities.

On Wednesday, the Flying Start team organised another Free Family Fun Day, which was attended by over 40 organisations.

Teams from across the Council were there to support the event which saw a range of attractions for children, including a bouncy castle, reptiles, magic shows, archery, two fire engines and police vans.

Information about the services provided by the various agencies was also provided.

Thank you to all that helped make that event such a success. From the pictures, it looked fantastic.

Finally, I wanted to mention a couple of people that will soon be leaving the Council.

Carmel Lovell is retiring after 20 years teaching for our Adult Community Learning Service.

Carmel is a Sugarcraft tutor at Palmerston Centre and also recently delivered a live class online.

Colleagues will greatly miss Carmel and recently marked her departure with a cream tea.

The Sugarcraft courses have always been really popular and over the years hundreds of learners have attended classes.

They learned how to design and decorate cakes for all occasions, with many going on to start their own businesses.

Over the years, learners have exhibited their work locally and at national competitions, helping to build confidence and self-esteem, boosting their health and wellbeing.

Well done Carmel. Thank you for your years of service and enjoy your retirement.

The Adult Community Learning Team will soon have a new tutor, with Zlatina offering some exciting new courses from September, including Sugarcraft, Baking and Patisserie.

Also retiring at the end of next week is Emma Reed, our Head of Neighbourhood Services.

I have worked closely with Emma throughout my time with the Council which started back in 1996 when we were both within the then Planning Department and both involved in various versions of Development Plans for the Vale of Glamorgan.  As well as Policy and Development Plans, Emma quickly established herself as an expert in transport planning and was the Council’s lead officer in working to re-open the Vale of Glamorgan railway line to passenger services in 2005.  She was also well respected regionally for her work in Transport and Development Planning, playing key roles in the various reginal transport arrangements over many years.  

Emma took up the role of Head of Neighbourhood Services and Transport approximately 10 years ago where she was responsible for overseeing our highways, waste, transport and healthy living services and has done a fantastic job in very challenging circumstances given budgetary pressures.

Throughout her career, she has been extremely committed to the organisation and that has been very clear to me, both during our time together in Planning and also in her commitment to Neighbourhood Services since 2015.  I’d like to thank Emma for her long and dedicated service – Diolch Emma.

To everyone else, have a restful and relaxing couple of days.

Thank you for your efforts this week – they are very much appreciated.

Diolch yn fawr iawn,

Rob