Swansea
Leader
Newspaper of the City and County of Swansea
Issue 100
November 2015
inside
Your 2016 recycling and rubbish collection calendar - see centre pages your city: your paper
Our schools Why investing will make a difference plus
page 5
Potholes • TOP OF THE CLASS: Morgan Smith was among the stars of the show at our city’s annual High 5 Awards which celebrates the stories of youngsters achieving against the odds. Find out more on page 7 Picture by Jason Rogers
SWANSEA Council’s transformation programme which aims to create services which are leaner, fitter and more responsive to the communities they serve is taking a step forward. Important activities like the council’s civic building cleaning services and business support, including customer contact, are set to be transformed following a review of the way they currently operate. Other services will also be set for changes in the coming months and years as the council does in-depth reviews of its services. Rob Stewart, Leader of the Council, said: “Over the last two years or so the council has made savings of around £50m, but there is still a lot more to do. According to the Council’s mid-term budget report Central Government is
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How we’re planning to transform your services THE first three services to benefit from commissioning reviews: • BUSINESS support – back-office activities will be transformed to centralise services and reduce costs. • GOWER Outdoor Activity Centres – the service will focus on centres at Borfa House and Rhossili following closure of Dan-yCoed. • IN-HOUSE cleaning services – Modernised and improved by the in-house team.
preparing for budget cuts of up to 40% and there is likely to be consequential reductions for the Welsh Government of a similar size. “So it’s being predicted that, due to this inevitable increased pressure on services and reduced funding, we can expect to have to make savings of up to £100m in the next few years." “Even if we didn’t have these funding pressures we would still want to transform public services in Swansea to deliver on the priorities we share with the people of Swansea. “That’s why recognised some time ago salami slicing budgets would not
work and now we’ve agreed in-house transformation of services is the best option to deliver the efficient services our communities need and want. “Thanks to our foresight we are ahead of the game and that’s why we’ve made a lot of progress transforming services through Sustainable Swansea – Fit for the Future, the council’s transformation programme. “We have to do this this not only because we need to save money - but because otherwise the services would be lost altogether and for good - such is the scale of cuts forced upon us.” The purpose of a commissioning
review is to take an in-depth look at each council service, think about what each will need to do in the years ahead and then work out how it can be done better. This approach aims to ensure services are more flexible and responsive to people’s needs as well as reduce costs. Clive Llloyd, Cabinet Member for Transformation and Performance, said: “We are also adopting a much more commercial approach to the way we deliver services and optimise all opportunities to generate income. “We know residents agree with us that the old ways of simply cutting or stopping services is not the way forward. That is why we have adopted this commissioning review approach.” The commissioning review process has been going on inside the council for a number of months and it has included wide consultation with staff, with trade unions and with partner organisations.
On our way to fix streets near you page 2
Thank you! Keep it Out campaign boosts recycling to 61% page 7
LDP attracts thousands of comments page 8