Robs Weekly Round Up

22 November 2024

Dear colleagues,

This week we joined with people across the country to recognise the contribution of and promote the help available to one of the most important groups of individuals that we work with: carers.

Unpaid carers support thousands of people within the Vale. Carers Rights Day helps raise awareness of caring, what it means, and the challenges it involves.

Caring in any capacity is hard – both physical and emotionally. Carers Rights Day helps people understand the help and support that is available to them, and more importantly feel confident in asking for what they need.

The day helps people recognise that they are carers themselves and our teams have been working to show how they can access the variety of information, advice, and support provided by us and our partners.

All our staff are supported by our Carers Policy which helps those colleagues with caring responsibilities help balance their home and working lives. I am proud that as an employer the Council is able to offer such support to its staff and I would urge anyone who thinks they may be eligible to take the time to read it.

Over the last five days we’ve also been promoting another area of our work as part of fraud awareness week.

Sadly, as a Council, we are always vulnerable to criminal activity. In recent years there has been an increase in fraudsters targeting local authorities through sophisticated scams.

Throughout the week our audit team has been explaining to colleagues what fraud is, how to spot it, and what to do if you suspect something may be going on. Staff play a key role in protecting the Council against the risk of fraud and corruption and it is vital that we are all aware of the signs to look out for.

At any point where we are making or receiving payments or administering financial support we are vulnerable to fraud. We should not forget that as well as being a criminal offence, money lost to fraud is money that would otherwise be available to support our services and those residents that use them. The audit team have put together some advice on how to the most common types of fraud, how to spot red flags, and how to report suspicious activity. Please do read it to understand how you can help.

With warnings of ice and snow in this weekend’s weather forecast today feels like an opportune moment to remind colleagues of the Council’s adverse weather policy. Hybrid working arrangements do make it easier for many of us but for those colleagues who still need to attend a fixed place of work the policy sets out what to do if the weather makes this difficult.

The possibility of snow means is one sign that Christmas is approaching. Another is that our Santa’s Cause campaign is now in full swing. We are four weeks in and thanks to the generosity of our colleagues and partners we are almost halfway to our target for this year.

There have been some great fundraising ideas so far. The ‘No Lunch Gang’ in our Property team raised £80 by donating their lunch money. The Dewis team have swapped their traditional secret Santa for gifting presents to the cause. Creative Communities have set up collection points in the Western Vale to make it easier for more people to donate. The Wellbeing Matters team held a cake sale to raise funds. Some of you may even have heard Leanne Delaney on Bro Radio earlier this week promoting the campaign to listeners as part of Love the Vale Day. Absolutely fantastic work all round.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign so far. These are just the examples I have heard about. I want to shout out every team or member of staff that’s doing something to raise money so if that’s you please get in touch with me directly or tell the Santa’s Cause team so they can pass on the details.

If you want to get involved but aren’t quite sure how then the inaugural Santa’s Cause fun run at Barry Island on 01 December could be just what you are looking for. You can run, walk or jog a 5k or 2.5k route and raise money through sponsorship.

After signing up you will receive a fundraising toolkit to help you with sponsorship or you could just toast your achievement by putting the cost of a celebratory coffee or two into the pot at the end.

If you don’t feel like the walk, run or jogging element then you could instead volunteer as a steward for the event, or just come down to support those taking part. Anything you can contribute will help give a child a happier Christmas.

Since starting the Santa’s Cause campaign we have provided thousands of presents to children and young people in the Vale that would otherwise have nothing to open on Christmas Day. Each year the campaign is a reminder of how committed our colleagues are to supporting those that need us and I am very excited to see what we can achieve together in 2024. 

Thanks as always to everyone for their hard work this week. Diolch yn fawr pawb.

Rob.