Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

·         Cllr Paxton Hood-Williams – Community Councillor, Three Cross and Upper Killay CC and Crwys District Sports Association

·         Cllr Brigitte Rowlands – Community Councillor, Friends of CCP and Friends of Felindre and Garnswllt Hall

·         Cllr Jeff Jones – Friends of Dunvant Park

·         Cllr Peter Jones – Friends of Botanical Garden

To approve & sign the Notes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

·         Approved

·         Questions must relate to matters on the open part of the Agenda of the meeting, and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period

·         None

• Tracey McNulty – Head of Cultural Services
• Cllr June Burtonshaw – Cabinet Member for Better Communities – Place
• Sue Reed - Community, Partnership & Destination Development Manager

·         Cllr Burtonshaw extended sincere thanks to all volunteers involved in Community activities – “communities would fall apart without them”

·         Community groups are important to Communities, team works with them to see what they want and need

·         Centres and spaces run by volunteers can access grants which the Council cannot

·         Penderry have a volunteer reward scheme

·         Ensuring long term sustainability of resources is part of the corporate strategy

·         Governance has changed since 2016 to a community development model

·         The involvement of the Senior Citizens Pavillions has been a huge success

·         Swansea has 38 thriving community centres

·         The Hall in Glais is an excellent example of successful partnership working

·         The amount of staff in the team supporting community development has reduced dramatically with Council cuts

·         There are savings which have been made as a result of the new model

·         Buildings remain a Council asset, the Council is the landlord, relationship not withdrawn

·         Team has a folder of standard documents relation to policies and procedures, how to constitute groups etc

·         The costs to the Council of these buildings/areas relate to maintenance only and health and safety issues

·         Ongoing relationship with Beyond Bricks and Mortar

·         There has been a large amount of investment – a mix of grants and group funding

·         There has been £300k of investment in parks externally

·         There is support for volunteers to apply for funding externally and the team support with this

·         Swansea is recognised as an example of good practice in relation to community development

·         Praise given for support given in Pontardullais - ‘second to none’

·         Community buildings are invaluable but committees need new people to get involved to carry on duties

·         Volunteer recruitment and volunteer burn out are ongoing issues but younger people are getting involved

·         Volunteers are not recognised enough

·         The report should outline links with Community Councils and SCVS

·         Discussed ideas for recognising the work of volunteers

·         There should be clarity in the licence over the difference between community asset transfers and the current arrangement

·         Some discussion over whether community functions should sit under one service

• Julie Nicholas Humphreys - Customer Services Manager
• Cllr Clive Lloyd – Cabinet Member for Business Transformation and Performance

·         The trend is similar to previous years – complaints have increased

·         Some of this is down to the improved accessibility of the complaints procedure

·         Praise is equally important and should be recognised

·         The team look at the root cause of complaints and work with relevant teams on process improvement

·         There are no major concerns or trends which the report identifies

·         Less than 50%of the stage 1 complaints were upheld

·         100 moved to stage 2 and only 24 of these were upheld

·         The change in fleet vehicles in waste should combat some of the issues which were present around waste complaints e.g. broken down vehicles

·         62 people approached the Ombudsman with 1 of those complaints upheld, however, some of the complaints were premature and referred back to the Council

·         Service requests come before a stage 1 complaint

·         RIPA could be scaled down to one paragraph considering its use is low as the Police generally use this with Council support

·         FOI’s are suggested as a separate report to come scrutiny rather than included within the complaints report.

·         Highlighted new audit items on the work plan

·         Highlighted additional May meeting

·         Local Government Performance Bulletin – agreed to send link to webpage rather than have as a meeting item