Robs Weekly Round Up 

06 September 2024

Hi everyone, Shwt mae pawb!

This has been a significant week for the Council as pupils and staff return to school after their summer break. Croeso nol.

I will say a bit more about that later in this message, but first I wanted to provide an update on work to develop the Reshaping Programme and new Corporate Plan, specifically focusing on our Wellbeing Objectives.

Over the last couple of months, various members of the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) have written about aspects of this work that relate to their areas of responsibility, while I and other colleagues have delivered a couple of staff sessions on these subjects.

To offer a bit of a recap, the new Corporate Plan will set out the vision of how the Council will look by 2030 and beyond, while the Reshaping Programme describes the changes that must be made to realise those ambitions.

Reshaping is not a new concept, it is a way of re-examining and reinventing services first adopted in 2015.

But with the massive financial challenges now facing the Council - caused largely by reduced funding and energy, inflation and interest rate spikes – there is a need to move more quickly and radically so transformation will be approached in a new way.

This will contribute towards the necessary savings while allowing the Council to continue delivering for its communities.

The new Reshaping Programme has five overlapping and interconnected themes.

• The Target Operating Model.
• Service Transformation.
• Strengthening Communities.  
• Digital Innovation, and 
• Economic Resilience. 

The Target Operating Model encompasses the way in which the Council wants to work to achieve optimum results.

It involves making the best use of our assets, such as buildings, play areas and car parks; looking at innovative ways to generate income; empowering staff to deliver for residents and looking at new strategic ways of working both within existing teams and through greater collaboration across the organisation and with partners.

Service transformation focuses on making specific services more responsive and effective while also delivering better outcomes. A good example of this the creation of the Big Fresh Catering Company, a Council operation that was set up as a separate entity, with profits invested back into the business.

Strengthening Communities is all about a partnership approach in which the Council can work alongside the voluntary sector, third party organisations and town and community councils to make a real difference at a local level.

There is also a commitment to deliver the Digital Strategy, making the most of new technologies to ensure services and interactions with residents are delivered in the most efficient, accessible and responsive ways possible.

The Council must also strive for Economic Resilience, working in regional partnerships and securing external funding to regenerate areas and create new and improved places for people to live, work and enjoy.

These themes align with the Council’s aim and overall vision to create Strong Communities with a Bright Future and its values to be: Ambitious, Open, Together and Proud.

We need a new Corporate Plan because a lot’s happened recently with significant challenges ahead.

The make-up of our communities has changed over the last five years and the discrepancies between communities has changed.

There’s been a cost-of-living crisis and a lot of areas are experiencing poverty and depravation while life expectancy varies significantly depending on where you are born in the Vale. We’ve got an aging population and also issues around mental health and physical disability.

We’ve also had the results to the Let’s Talk about Life in The Vale survey, which canvassed residents’ views on a wide range of subjects, and then there is the environmental agenda.

We have to think about how to increase the emphasis and impetus of Project Zero, our plan to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Whilst we clearly need to consider and have an awareness of these challenges, our focus has to be on the future and the many opportunities for us as an organisation to continue to transform and to make a real difference within our communities and for the benefit of our residents. The new Corporate Plan will be developed in line with the Future Generations and Wellbeing Act, Welsh Government legislation designed to improve people’s lives in the short, mid and long-term.

Initial work on our new plan has focussed in on five Draft Wellbeing Objectives, which explain that our efforts should concentrate on:

• 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, and
• Being the best Council we can be.

Two of these objectives are about the Vale as a place, two are about the people that live here, while the last is unashamedly saying we want to maximise our full potential and continuously strive to improve and be better for our residents.

None of these aims are particularly neat and none are intended to be looked at in a silo, they're not designed around directorates or teams, they're far more thematic than that.

Creating great places to live and work involves promoting connected communities with  access to essential local services.

It is about regeneration, using Levelling Up money, Tidy Towns money and other available funding to create a strong economy.

We want people to have access to jobs if they don’t currently or access to better jobs and better prospects.

Tourism is important as is transport infrastructure so people can comfortably move around within and between areas.

We also want to foster civic pride in communities and public spaces.

This work will involve close collaboration across the organisation and with other sectors to deliver those very local services that keep a place clean, safe, neat and tidy.

The really best example of this is the Vale gaining Age Friendly Status, reflecting a desire to make the Vale a decent place to grow older.

When it comes to Respecting and Celebrating the Environment, there is a reference to the climate and nature emergencies we have declared and the efforts being made to address those situations.

We are looking to reach net zero carbon emissions within six years, a target that will only be achieved by protecting and enhancing our green spaces, promoting active travel, using renewable forms of energy and improving our recycling performance among other steps.

Giving Everyone a Good Start in Life means offering excellent education in our schools, opportunities for sport and play and the chance to improve skills through training.

We want to make sure we engage with young people, help tackle public health issues, improve wellbeing and make sure that children are looked after and families are supported.

Supporting and Protecting Those who Need us describes an unashamed commitment to safeguard the vulnerable and help others who need and indeed rely on our support while also maintaining their independence.

This includes those suffering with mental health issues, those who are homeless and individuals requiring adult social care.

We want to help people who might need social housing and support, offer access to advice and information services, promote community safety and help tackle food poverty.

Being the Best Council we can Be means making the most of our workforce and assets like buildings.

We aim to harness the power of technology to ensure the organisation is operating as efficiently as possible while retaining a customer focus.

There must also be an emphasis on community involvement, equality and promoting the Welsh language. But above all it means that we all need to be proud to work for the Council, to be public servants and to do our very best when delivering services to our residents.

As far as next steps are concerned, we will soon be reporting the draft new Corporate Plan and consulting on it before a final version of that document is published in April.

I would encourage everyone to share their feedback as part of that process.

Projects in the Reshaping Programme are already underway, with more set to roll out in the coming months.

This is really important work that involves the whole organisation so I’d like as many of you as possible to be involved as it progresses.

Lots of information relating to these topics is available on Staffnet and there will be further opportunities to learn more about them in future.

If anyone would like to play a more significant role in this work, please drop me an email and we can make that happen.

Switching focus, as I mentioned earlier, the new term began this week and I know a number of schools were pleased with improvements that had been made over the summer.

Barry Island Primary School got in touch to thank Stephen Hodges and other members of the Facilities Team for work carried out there, which included the fitting of a light installation.

Evenlode Primary were similarly impressed with adaptations to their site, where classrooms and toilets have been upgraded.

Well done to Andrew Liddell, Timothy Sansum, Brendan Doherty, Ian Tomkinson, Claire Bull and everyone else involved, the staff and children really appreciate your efforts.

This week also saw the launch of our Miss School Miss Out campaign, which aims to raise awareness around the importance of attending school regularly.

Aside from the educational advantages, there are a range of other benefits associated with consistent attendance as children learn to build social relationships and experience different activities.

Our Inclusion and Welfare Team do a great job to make sure children are able to make the most of all these opportunities.

Managed by our Benefits Team, The School Essentials Grant is again available to support families on low income to buy items such as uniform, sports kits, stationery, and more.

Every primary school in Wales is now offering free meals to all pupils, something we in the Vale have been doing through the Big Fresh catering Company since April 2023, ensuring no child goes hungry.

Our Sustainable Communities for Learning Team has also been overseeing the construction of the new annexe to Ysgol Y Deri, near Cosmeston, extended provision that will provide much needed specialist education for young people with additional needs.

This academic year may have only just got underway, but our School Admissions Team are already preparing to open 2025 admissions for secondary schools at the end of the month.

The team manage the entry of children into nurseries, primary schools and secondary schools, helping families navigate the guidance and allocation process along the way.

And of course - a big thank you to our wonderful teams of school staff who have welcomed pupils into to the classroom this week. Good luck for the new term! Finally, a sincere thank you to all staff for your efforts this week – they are always very much appreciated.

Diolch yn fawr iawn,

Rob