Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

There were no disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

None.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record.

Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Questions can be submitted in writing to Scrutiny scrutiny@swansea.gov.uk up until noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Written questions take precedence. Public may attend and ask questions in person if time allows. Questions must relate to items on the open part of the agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

There were no public questions received.

Invited to attend:

Cllr Andrea Lewis - Cabinet Member for Service Transformation

Sarah Lackenby - Head of Digital and Customer Services

Richard Rowlands - Strategic Delivery & Performance Manager

Steve King – Research and Information GIS Team Leader

Cllr Andrea Lewis and Sarah Lackenby talked through the following:

·         The Local Government Use of Data Action Plan resulted from the All Wales study by the Welsh Audit Office into how councils were making use of data. The original report was published in December 2018.

·         Significant progress has been made and all 11 specific recommendations are considered closed. The new digital strategy 2023-28 was approved by Cabinet in April 2023, which has a specific goal relating to data and this work will be part of the digital transformation programme over the coming years.

·         Continuous work on the 11 recommendations includes the promotion and use of the Local and National Land and Property Gazetteer and the Information Asset Register. The Swansea Account for customers has also been launched and significantly developed.

·         Mandatory training on data protection and cyber security is available online. Training for Councillors would also be of benefit.

·         The Council uses the Wales Accord on the Sharing of Personal Information (WASPI) framework and protocols around sharing data with partners.

·         New tools in Oracle Fusion will support the annual workforce planning process and existing established systems will continue to work with services to review, approve and improve data reporting standards.

·         Personal data is protected under the Data Protection Act. The WASPI framework sets out protocols for sharing data for specific purposes with agreement, or open data that is anonymised and not sensitive which can be shared without agreement.

Invited to attend:

Cllr Elliott King – Cabinet Member Culture and Equalities

Cllr Robert Smith – Cabinet Member for Education and Learning

Lisa DeBenedictis - Standards Officer

Cllr Elliot King, Cllr Robert Smith and Lisa DeBenedictis attended. They reported the following:

·         There are 163 Welsh language standards which local authorities are required to adhere to.

·         Recent developments include the implementation of Cwtsh- Ysgrifennu yn Cymraeg, a virtual space for staff and fully embedding the Welsh language into Integrated impact Assessments.

·         Six Welsh language complaints were received during this reported year however two relate to Welsh language requirements for car parking machines and one relates to a street sign on an unadopted road which is not within the Councils remit to provide.

·         The number of complaints compare similarly with Neath Port Talbot Council.

·         There has been a significant increase in Welsh language calls and work continues to develop on the new complaints system.

·         Through “More Than Just Words” the Council has extended its offer to social care and housing staff to learn Welsh through work. 

·         Of the 2,000,000 total page views on Staffnet in 2021-22 over 19,000 related to Welsh and the Welsh language.

·         20% of translation was carried out by external providers during this period due to an increase in workload.

·         Work with the communications team has been carried out to highlight changes and improvements to out of office messages.

·         Signage mistakes can be picked up by the media but this is a small percentage of signage produced.

·         The percentage of Welsh skills within the Council has gone up from 6.8% in the previous year to 10.2%

·         Recent census information indicates that the number of Welsh speakers in Neath Port Talbot and Swansea has decreased however there is still a critical mass of Welsh speakers in Swansea.

Review of items covered in the Work Plan 2022-23

The Panel considered the Annual Review documents and the following was noted:

·         More training may be required particularly around understanding the budget.

·         The Welsh Public Library Standards Annual Performance Report helped to increase Panel knowledge on where library services are struggling and where investment may be required,

·         The Welsh Housing Quality Standards Annual Update may require more depth and is a large piece of work.

·         Next year’s annual reports and data will be less affected by the pandemic than 2021-22.

·         Regarding the Planning Annual Performance Report, the Panel would be interested in efficiencies, operations and public perception as well as performance statistics.

·         Oracle Fusion was raised for consideration however this has already been brought to the Scrutiny Programme Committee.

·         In addition there was a request for signposting of information to Councillors on using MI Permit now that this will be used for car passes.