Robs Weekly Round Up

08 March 2024

Dear colleagues,

Today, as I am sure many of you are already well aware, is International Women’s Day. IWD is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. All week colleagues have been able to give a shout out to someone who inspires them on our dedicated StaffNet page. It’s been great to see these come in as the week has gone on. There is nothing more heartening than seeing our colleagues celebrate each other’s influence and work.

IWD also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. As a Council we are committed to fostering a workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. One where difference is valued and celebrated. To help push us forwards on this journey the Leader of the Council is today hosting an event with colleagues from all parts of the organisation. This year’s theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’ and the group is coming together to discuss issues of gender equality, how colleagues can better support each other, and how the organisation could better support us all.

At the end of today’s session, Tracy Dickinson, our Head of HR, will be collating all of the information shared in the workshop sessions and presenting it to SLT at a future meeting. Our intention is then to set ourselves clear objectives on how we can address gender inequality in the organisation over the next twelve months. I look forward to reporting back to you all with updates on this.

Today’s event and celebrations cap off what has been a particularly inspiring week. On Monday I joined colleagues from SLT and our Equalities team in taking part in a Junior Diverse safe space meeting at St Cyres school in Penarth. The Junior Diverse group is made up of pupils at the school and is supported by our own Diverse staff network. The session gave those of us in attendance the chance to hear first hand the experiences of young people from diverse backgrounds.

I can confidently speak for everyone in the room in saying we all learned a huge amount. What was shared in the safe space was of course said in confidence but what I can share is that the honesty and maturity on display from the young people was amazing. To hear first hand accounts of what some young people encounter, and their positivity about how we can tackle the ignorance that causes it gave us all a huge amount to think about.

The school is doing excellent work to support its pupils and I’d like to thank them for inviting us to visit and commend all those at St Cyres working to support the Junior Diverse group, as well as those in Learning and Skills and Corporate Resources who put the session together. We are attending a similar session at Holton Road Primary school later this month and I am eager to hear what more can be done to help make our services more inclusive.  

Keeping with the inclusion theme it was great to see our Council being featured on Newsround this week for our ongoing work to ensure all our play areas are fully accessible for children with disabilities. The piece looked at a recent commitment by the UK Government to improve playgrounds and was filmed at the new play area in Cosmeston Country Park to illustrate the great work already completed in the Vale to make this happen. Diolch to the Neighbourhood Services teams who keep our play areas in such great condition and to the team at the Country Park for ensuring everyone is able to enjoy one of the Vale’s best outdoor spaces.  

This wasn’t the only example of our work featured on the small screen this week either. Our Play Streets project was the backdrop for a piece on ITV Wales on Tuesday evening which looked at the success of schemes designed to give children a chance to play outdoors and help towards net-zero targets. For the past year our Vale Play team has been working with Play Wales and local residents to implement street closures for outdoor play at two locations in Barry.

Two streets are closed to through traffic for two hours on one Sunday a month, so children can cycle, scoot, socialise and play. It’s had a great reception locally - as the piece shows – and has recently been lauded by the Future Generations Commissioner Derek Walker. Play Streets is a great demonstration of how we can address multiple issues with a single project when we work creatively. Joanne Jones in our Healthy Living team has been instrumental in its success. Gwaith da Jo and the rest of the team.

Wednesday evening was of course given over to the full Council meeting where the Council’s budget and council tax levels for the Vale were set by our elected members. The Leader and I wrote to all staff yesterday to set out what this means for us as an organisation. I won’t repeat that here but would like to take the opportunity to say thanks to all of those colleagues who worked so hard behind the scenes to make sure the meeting went smoothly. 

Our new hybrid meetings platform makes local democracy in the Vale more accessible that ever. Our meetings are live streamed, with simultaneous translation, and footage via Youtube is available for citizens to view again within hours. This is only possible because of the hard work of colleagues in our Legal and Democratic Services and ICT teams. Setting up the system and ensuring it works as efficiently and effectively as possible has not been without challenges.  In the days before the meeting the teams rigorously tested the platform, provided updated guidance to support users, and on the night were on standby both in the Civic office and remotely in case any issues arose. The first budget setting meeting with the new platform marked another step on our digital journey and I’d like to thank all of those who made it possible. Diolch pawb for all your hard work and commitment to ensure that this important hybrid meeting worked exactly as it should.

Finally, I’d like to end this week with another thank you. After serving our residents for over 20 years in the Civic Offices reception and as part of the team at C1V, Sian Wingar is retiring from the Vale of Glamorgan Council on 13 March.

I am sure everyone who has worked at the Civic Offices would recognise Sian. As well as greeting us all when we enter the building Sian will also have helped many many thousands of residents during her career. Our reception team support those who need our services in so many ways. They are the face of the Council to so many people and I know Sian has always done whatever she can to help, and was never phased by any of the more unusual queries thrown her way.

She has made countless friends across the Council in her time in the Vale and I am sure the footfall at Civic reception will pick up next week as colleagues call in to wish her a very happy retirement. Diolch yn fawr iawn Sian for all you’ve done for the Vale over the years. I hope you enjoy your next chapter.

Thanks as always to you all for your hard work this week. I hope you all have chance to relax and recharge over the weekend. Diolch yn fawr.

Rob.