(i) Mayor (or person presiding)
(ii) Members of the Cabinet
(iii) Chief Executive
Minutes:
Mayor
The Mayor announced that it was wonderful to welcome a small group of pupils from Ysgol Y Ferch O’r Sger to the Civic Offices before they broke up for the summer holidays. The children came prepared with some very well thought out questions and there ensued an interesting exchange. He hoped that they enjoyed the visit as much as both his Consort and he did, and the Mayor thanked Councillor Butcher for arranging this.
He also had a very entertaining evening courtesy of Pencoed Comprehensive School, the pupil’s production of “Back to the 80’s” was a joy and the Mayor stated the event almost had him dancing.
The Mayor also had the pleasure on Saturday of attending the opening of the British Isles Junior Ladies International Bowling Championship, which was being hosted by Bridgend Bowls Club. This was the first time that this event had been hosted by Bridgend, but hopefully not the last and it was nice also to see that the event was hosted on a nice summer’s day.
The Mayor took the opportunity to thank Mr. Jeffrey Harris, Chief Executive of Castle Bingo and his staff for the donation of £2,000 which he presented to him a couple of weeks ago. This was is much appreciated and would go towards his fundraising for the year.
The Mayor confirmed, that Members will have received a list of the forthcoming charity events that have been scheduled for the coming months. Hopefully there will be something that will appeal to everyone and both he and his Consort would be delighted if they could join them on at least one occasion to raise funds for his chosen charities. The next event will be afternoon tea in the Hi-Tide, Porthcawl on the 21st August, and as always further details and tickets could be obtained from Mari Major.
Deputy Leader
The Deputy Leader announced that the Council’s popular School’s Out programme was underway with a huge variety of activities and events taking
place for different age groups. The summer schedule was truly action packed this year, as children aged between eight and 12 are being offered free places in Active 4 Life schemes which focus on fun, sports, games, arts and creative activities.
The Play Ranger programme was new for 2016, and features outdoor events that show children how to make rope swings, dens, water slides and more. It encouraged children to put down their computer games, play outside and enjoy some traditional fun in the sun, all while learning about nature.
Elsewhere, Mini Play 4 Life sessions aimed at 2-7 year olds were helping youngsters develop their agility, balance and co-ordination skills, while the Active4Life programme catered for 8-12 year olds and focused on sports, traditional play and fun, healthy activities.
Many of these had been established in partnership with town and community councils, and Welsh language holiday activities were also available in partnership with Menter Bro Ogwr and Urdd Gobaith Cymru. In addition, there were a whole range of additional activities offered by the likes of Flying Start, Communities First, the summer reading challenge at local libraries, Bryngarw Country Park, Halo Leisure and more, so if Members heard any children complaining that they were bored this summer, they could point them in the right direction.
The Deputy Leader was also pleased to inform Members that the planning application for a proposed new primary school at Pencoed had been submitted. This followed a public consultation exercise during which no objections were received. As Members may be aware, the current school operates on two different sites with some pupils taught in buildings on Penprysg Road, while other children were based at the old Heol Y Cyw primary school premises.
As part of the Council’s ongoing school modernisation programme, there was a vision to bring all of the pupils together at a new state of the art facility located on part of the school playing fields further along Penprysg Road.
If approved and with appropriate funding in place from the Welsh Government, the new school would cater for 510 pupils aged 4-11 and feature a 70 place nursery as well as provision for pupils with special education needs. The current school buildings were built in the early 1900s for separate infant, junior and secondary provision, and their layout is preventing necessary adaptations from being made. It was also far from ideal that many of the children currently had to cross a busy main road to walk between classes, so he was really pleased that the Authority had reached a milestone in its efforts to provide a brand new facility for the pupils of Pencoed Primary.
Cabinet Member Communities
The Cabinet Member Communities announced that many Members had reported that concerned residents have been contacting them following the recent tragic accident on the A48 in which sixteen year old Rhys Rubery lost his life.
Bridgend County Borough Council has issued a statement to confirm that the authority will be conducting an investigation of the A48 within the vicinity of the accident.
The various comments and concerns that it had received will be taken into account alongside issues such as pedestrian and cyclist movements along the route, speed limits, the current provision of crossing points and all other relevant factors.
As South Wales Police are still investigating the circumstances and actions surrounding this tragic accident, it is important not to speculate about what happened until all of the facts are fully known, but once investigations have concluded, the Council will be making recommendations based on their findings of these.
In the meantime, she was sure that she reflected the views of all Members when she confirmed that thoughts and sympathies were with Rhys’ family and friends at this tragically sad time.
Cabinet Member Adult Social Care and Health and Wellbeing
The Cabinet Member Adult Social Care and Health and Wellbeing, advised that Members would be aware that Bridgend County Borough Council is developing plans for two new Extra Care facilities, one in Maesteg and another at Ynysawdre, in partnership with Linc Cymru.
The schemes had been developed as part of ongoing plans to modernise residential care services, and would create a total of 45 new Extra Care units as an alternative to the three ageing care homes within Maesteg, Ynysawdre and Ogmore Vale.
Extra Care facilities are designed to offer tenants their own apartments fitted with all the equipment they need to live safely and independently. The residential facility will offer 24/7 on-site support alongside a range of community facilities. They also enabled couples to continue to live together within a supported environment after one partner’s care or health needs change.
As part of the project to deliver these new facilities, the Council’s Communications team was supporting the Housing Strategy department by making a short film which can be used to illustrate exactly what residents and their families can expect from Extra Care.
They recently visited a Linc Cymru facility in Newport called Glyn Anwen where they interviewed some of the residents about the difference that Extra Care has made to their lives, and filmed the sort of facilities and activities that an Extra Care home can offer.
The trip was extremely successful and the residents provided so much praise for Extra Care that the Communications team informed him that they had been spoilt for choice trying to select the best comments.
The Cabinet Member Adult Social Care and Health and Wellbeing was looking forward to seeing the completed film and he hoped that it will help demonstrate what the Authority were trying to achieve for the benefit of local residents with its plans for Extra Care. In the meantime, work was continuing to closely with staff, service users and their families to ensure a smooth transition into the new facilities, and he would bring Members more news as this process developed as well as a short film production that staff had been involved in.
Cabinet Member Resources
The Cabinet Member Resources advised that all Members had received an electronic copy of an ICT survey which aims to identify how equipment is used and what improvements should be considered when providing future support.
These needed to be returned by last Monday, but to date only nine had been received.
It was important that this is completed, so hard copies had been left on the desks of any Member who had not yet already responded.
He asked Members if these could be completed and left on their desks, in order that Democratic Services Officers could collect them after the meeting
Members he added, would also be receiving further information soon on the latest round of safeguarding and child sexual exploitation awareness training.
This had been identified by Auditors as something that should be carried out annually by all Members, and further details regarding this would be provided in due course.
Finally, the Cabinet Member Resources advised Members that there will be pre-Council briefings on Tackling Poverty Programme Alignment on 7th September, and a Corporate Parenting update on 5th October.
Cabinet Member Equalities and Children’s Social Services
The Cabinet Member Equalities and Children’s Social Services, stated that she wished to make Members aware of a new campaign that has been launched to help keep children safe while using the internet. This was especially relevant in the wake of the launch of the new ‘Pokemon Go’ game which aims to get children up and out of the house by encouraging them to travel to specific locations to collect points and prizes using their mobile phones.
Called ‘Get Safe Online’, the campaign highlights that while 42 per cent of parents believe that their children are safe using the internet, almost half of all parents have no safeguards or parental controls in place to try and ensure this.
Children were so familiar and proficient with modern technology that it is sometimes difficult for parents to keep up with them. The Get Safe Online campaign offered free expert advice and simple steps that parents can follow, ranging from the basics of online safety to explaining what different types of social media are. This was a very worthwhile campaign and Members could find out more by visiting www.getsafeonline.org
She also highlighted the good work of the Girl’s Network, which recently showcased how efforts to improve the health and well-being of local comprehensive-age girls can be adapted throughout the whole of Wales.
Set up by the Active Young People Department and with the support of IT services firm CGI, the network encouraged girls to take up sports, boost their self-esteem and skills and develop a healthy attitude that will benefit them as they grow into adults.
The Cabinet Member Equalities and Children’s Social Services congratulated them on making this event a big success. The girls were keen to share their experiences, and she was impressed at the way they delivered presentations and acted as ambassadors not only for the initiative, but for the County Borough as a whole. She added that she was very proud of them.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive confirmed, that as in previous years, the Leader has chaired a panel of members to conduct his appraisal as Chief Executive and set him targets for the coming year. They had done this in the context of the revised Corporate Plan.
Clearly, as Head of Paid Service, he was am ultimately accountable for the delivery of all of the Council’s plans, but as before, the targets reflect the specific issues that Members were asking him to work on personally:
The Chief Executive added, that he had been set four strategic priorities.
The first was to oversee the development of the MTFS and delivery of the budget. This is in recognition of the difficulty in balancing the delivery of an ambitious Corporate Plan in the context of ever increasing financial challenge.
This was now a personal target for him, given that the Authority decided not to replace the Corporate Director of Resources when she left, and that alternatively, he would be responsible for this role with the support of the Section 151 Officer.
The second priority was to contribute to the development of the Cardiff Capital City Region Deal and ensuring that Bridgend County Borough's interests are protected and advanced.
This was clearly a long term initiative, and it draws on the skills and expertise of a number of people, not least being the Corporate Director of Communities and his teams. But at this stage, it is felt that his personal involvement as Chief Executive is still very important.
For the third priority, he had been asked to lead the development of the Bridgend Public Service Board. This was an important response to the Future Generations Act, and the Council had one chance to set it up so that it is effective.
The approach that being taken was to develop and build on very constructive relationships with others in senior leadership roles working in our area, such as the Health Board, Police, Fire Authority, Natural Resources Wales, amongst many more.
Finally, he had been asked to ensure the successful delivery of the Transformation Programme for the fourth priority. It had a fixed number of key transformation projects that are critical to reshaping the organisation, such as Adult and Children’s Social Care, the Strategic Schools Review and the Digital Programme.
Again, he was clearly very reliant on the expertise and skill of the Directors and other Senior Managers, but overall success of this was something that he had been tasked with, as it was clearly integral to the MTFS and Corporate Plan that form the first of the four priorities.
These were the four strategic priorities that he would be focusing on. Of course, no performance management conversation would be complete without touching upon the issue of Sickness Absence he added, so as you would expect, the Panel also asked him to maintain focus on sickness absence while recognising that this is part of a wider responsibility in considering the wellbeing of staff
After all, headlines may focus on sickness absence but this often masks the fact that the vast majority of staff do far more than required by the letter of their contract, and he was very grateful for their efforts in this regard.
The contents of his announcements would be shared later today with staff through a message being placed on bridgenders.
Member’s Announcement
Councillor M Thomas advised that on the 8 January 2015, following a meeting of the Development Control Committee, she made an unacceptable remark to Councillor HE Morgan. She confirmed that she wished to apologise to all concerned for this, and particularly to Councillor Morgan.
By way of reply, Councillor Morgan stated that her apology was noted.