Corporate plan 2023 / 2028

Foreword

1. Introduction - review of the Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives

2. Summary of Well-being statement

3. Our Well-being Objectives

4. Monitoring delivery - keeping performance under review

5. Next stages - what we plan to do next

6. Where to find additional information

Foreword

There are a number of major challenges facing the world, the UK, Wales and Swansea. Many of these challenges are having a major impact and require us to work in a different way to how we have worked before; and none more so than the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with other global factors has contributed to a cost-of-living crisis with rising prices and increasing energy costs.

Since March 2020, the council's focus has been on preserving life, minimising the spread of the virus and supporting all our communities. Council staff and partners demonstrated their willingness, flexibility, commitment, and dedication to deliver front line services to Swansea communities, volunteering to support priority areas while also adapting to new ways of working. The global response to the pandemic and war in Europe has impacted supply chains and disrupted the supply and cost of energy, which has been exacerbated by rising inflation, which is having a severe impact on the cost of living. The council is not immune to these rising costs, which are being exacerbated by increasing demand for its services.

Over the next five years the council will need to change how it works in several areas of its business to ensure that we are sustainable in the present as well as the future. This Corporate Plan is the council's overarching plan which provides the strategic framework for the transformation that is needed to achieve the council's vision while ensuring it is able to respond the challenges of the present and the future.

These challenges include climate change, which is one of the greatest dangers and challenges facing us all and we need to think how we can adapt, reduce our carbon and greenhouse emissions and reduce our risk to flooding and other significant impacts. This also involves making better use of our land and natural resources whilst seeking to protect nature, our natural environment and improve biodiversity.

To tackle these challenges we need to work together. To give current and future generations a good quality of life we need to think about the long-term impact of the decisions we make. We have to do things differently to make things change. If we are to beat these challenges we need to think more about the long-term, work better with people and communities and each other, look to prevent problems and take a more joined-up approach. This will help us to create a Swansea and a Wales that we all want to live in, now and in the future.

Cllr. Rob Stewart
Leader of the Council

Martin Nicholls
Chief Executive

1. Introduction - review of the Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives

This Corporate Plan includes a summary of the council's well-being statement and key priorities, known as 'Well-being Objectives', which are a requirement of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives have been reviewed and updated for 2023 / 28.

The review of the Corporate Plan and our Well-being Objectives for 2023 / 28 was undertaken by consulting with local people and by assessing, among other sources, the following evidence:

• Future trends and challenges
• Future Generations Commissioners Report 2020
• Our equality objectives, including Welsh language
• Our policy commitments.

The Corporate Plan describes the steps being undertaken to meet our Well-being Objectives and contribute to the seven national well-being goals¹ outlined in the Act.

The Plan also sets out how we are maximising our contribution to our Well-being Objectives and national goals through the way in which we work, which is in line with sustainable principles as follows:

• Looking ahead to the medium and long-term challenges.
• Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse.
• Ensuring our objectives do not contradict each other and complement those of other public bodies.
• Working in partnership with others.
• Involving local people.

Strategic Equality Plan

There is a close correlation between the council's Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives and the council's Strategic Equality Plan 2020 / 24 and Equality Objectives. A new strategic Equality Plan with new Strategic Equality Objectives will be published during 2024 / 25. We will seek to retain close alignment between the council's Equality and Well-being Objectives as we pursue integration, seek to improve well-being, and strive towards a more equal Swansea and a more equal Wales.

¹The National Goals are: A Prosperous Wales; A Resilient Wales; A Healthier Wales; A More Equal Wales; A Wales of More Cohesive Communities; A Wales of Vibrant Culture and Thriving Welsh Language; A Globally Responsible Wales.

2. Summary of Well-being statement

Our Corporate Plan - Vision, Values, Principles and Well-being Objectives

Our Corporate Plan 'Delivering a Successful and Sustainable Swansea' and our Well-being Objectives outline how we will work to meet present and future challenges.

The challenges ahead

Swansea faces a number of challenges in the years ahead, which include:

• Population changes - a growing, ageing and more diverse Swansea.
• Economic changes - attracting investment, high quality jobs and new technology into Swansea while addressing the skills gap.
• Climate change and nature emergencies - risks from flooding, air and water quality, dangers to ecosystems and biodiversity and energy security.
• Social and cultural changes - addressing inequalities in health, education, employment, and life chances.
• Global challenges - helping Swansea to deal with rising energy costs, increasing prices, supply chain disruptions and a resulting cost-of-living crisis.

These challenges are expressed in our Corporate Risks:

• Safeguarding.
• Pupil attainment and achievement.
• Impact of poverty.
• Cost of living crisis.
• social cohesion.
• Local Economy and Infrastructure.
• Net Zero 2030 target.
• Financial control - Medium Term Financial Plan delivery.
• Corporate Transformation Plan.
• Workforce recruitment and retention.
• Mandatory training.
• Oracle Fusion project implementation.
• Cyber, data and digital security.
• Health and Safety.
• Emergency Planning, Resilience and Business Continuity.

Our Corporate Risks are those that, should they come into effect, could have a detrimental impact on the whole council or community or could prevent the council from achieving its priorities and objectives.

We have sought to address our Corporate Risks through relevant control measures and through our Corporate Plan and our Well-being Objectives.

Our ambitions and commitments to residents - our Vision and Well-being Objectives

Our Vision

In 2028 Swansea is a place that has a thriving mixed use city centre and local economy. It is a place where people can gain the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in life, where everyone can achieve their potential and where communities are resilient and cohesive. Swansea is a place where human rights are respected, and people are safeguarded from harm and exploitation. It is a place where nature and biodiversity are maintained and enhanced, and carbon emissions are falling.

In order to meet these challenges and achieve our vision, we have prioritised six well-being objectives. These are:

• Safeguarding people from harm - so that our citizens are free from harm and exploitation.
• Improving Education and Skills - so that everyone in Swansea gains the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in life.
• Transforming our Economy and Infrastructure - so that Swansea has a thriving mixed use City Centre and a local economy that will support the prosperity of our citizens.
• Tackling Poverty and Enabling Communities - so that every person in Swansea can achieve their potential.
• Delivering on Nature Recovery and Climate Change - so that we maintain and enhance nature and biodiversity in Swansea, reduce our carbon footprint and tackle climate change.
• Transformation and Financial Resilience - so that we and the services that we provide are sustainable and fit for the future.

The 'Tackling Poverty and Enabling Communities' objective was amended to add 'enabling communities' so as to recognise a strengths-based approach where the strengths of individuals, communities and networks can be capitalised upon to help tackle poverty. The 'Transformation and Financial Resilience' objective was renamed to reflect how the council will need to change to become sustainable and better able to weather global events, leading to increased demand and rising prices at a time when resources are being reduced.

How we will work - our values and principles

Our values and principles expressed in our Corporate Plan underpin the delivery of our well-being objectives and reflect sustainable ways of working:

Our Values
Our Plans are built on three clear values, which guide the way that we work, how we develop as an organisation and our decision-making through the years ahead.

• People Focus
  We will focus on community needs and outcomes and on improving the lives of the people who live and work in Swansea. We will also respect, value and support our employees and demonstrate the highest standards of integrity.
   
• Working Together
  We will promote a whole partnership approach, working across services to maximise resources and knowledge and joining forces with others outside the council to ensure we prioritise our resources and get the best for our communities.
   
• Innovation
  We will promote and support a culture of innovation. We will think and work differently to improve our ability to deliver and to meet the financial, demographic and societal challenges we face. The response to the Covid crisis has resulted in significant innovations and changes to the way staff work and deliver services.

Our Principles
Our Plans and priorities will be underpinned by three key principles. These principles are essential to deliver our well-being objectives and will be woven into the way that we work.

• Sustainability
  We will work to improve the economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being of Swansea. This means making sure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This will be at the heart of our transformation programmes.
  
  As part of this, we will continue to engage with and seek the views of residents and service users. The principle of sustainability has prevention and integration at its heart and we will develop long-term plans for addressing our Well-being Objectives, working with others. We will also ensure that, through this approach, we meet the requirements of the 'Well Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015'.
   
• Prevention
  We will intervene earlier in order to support people at greatest risk, change behaviours and prevent the need for costly specialist services, often with a long-term support programme. This will help to make families and communities more resilient, reduce the demand for council services, lower costs and achieve better outcomes. We will adopt a whole-council approach to managing the demand for services and aim to deepen our understanding of customer contact and how services can be redesigned to eliminate, reduce or divert demand.
  
  During the pandemic, we continued to work with social care providers to support the ongoing challenges to the easing of lockdown and fight against the effects of Covid-19, while plans were put in place to move the balance away from acute care towards preventative and community services.
   
• Collaboration and integration
  We will work together with our partners across the public, business and voluntary sectors through the Public Services Board and through other collaborative means in order to meet the shared challenges that face Swansea and its communities.
  
  This 'Team Swansea' approach was vital when dealing with Covid-19, working as a whole-council with partners, such as health, to ensure that every service played a part in contributing to our Well-being Objectives and that we shared resources and expertise in response to Covid-19. The needs of our residents and the major challenges facing Swansea can only be tackled through productive partnerships, greater integration of our services and pooling of resources.

Our Delivery - the steps

Our Corporate Plan demonstrates that all of our Well-being Objectives taken together and the steps that we are undertaking to deliver them shows our contribution to all seven national goals and to the social, economic, cultural and environmental well-being of Swansea and Wales.

Our contribution to the national goals and well-being of Swansea and Wales is not just expressed in our Corporate Plan. The Corporate Plan describes our key Well-being Objectives and contribution but it forms part of our wider Performance Improvement Framework which includes departmental Service Plans; the Corporate Plan taken together with Service Plans describes our full contribution. This arrangement is outlined in the diagram below:

Our Delivery - sustainable ways of working
We will further maximise our contribution to the social, economic, cultural, and environmental well-being of Swansea and Wales through embedding sustainable ways of working.

These ways of working are reflected in our values and principles but also in the steps we are taking and plan to take in order to maximise our contribution.

• Looking ahead to the long-term challenges
  Our Corporate Plan and Well-Being Objectives seek to address current and longer-term challenges.
  
  We continued to develop our capability and capacity for a longer-term strategic outlook. This will be an important part of our ongoing transformation as we seek to remodel services and focus on meeting people's needs, facilitate economic prosperity, build cohesive and resilient communities, develop excellent customer service, maximise efficiency, reduce the council's impact on the environment and develop a committed and motivated workforce.
   
• Preventing problems from occurring or getting worse
  Through our Well-being Objectives we are working to prevent problems or to stop them from getting worse.
  
  The council needs to continue to develop its preventative approach and has to that end developed a 'Prevention Strategy'. This strategy will further embed early intervention and prevention into the council's business and place an even greater focus on improving well-being.
   
• How our Well-being Objectives relate to each other and to those of other public bodies
  It is important to point out though that each of our Well-being Objectives cannot be seen in isolation from each other. Each Well-being Objective both affects and is affected by the others.
  
  For example, improving education and skills is both important to our efforts to reduce poverty and to improve the city and economy, which means transforming our education system to ensure children and young people have the necessary skills for the new economy and how society has changed following Covid-19 and as a result from the threats from climate change and the decline in biodiversity.
  
  This interdependency is illustrated in the diagram below:

We are working to identify the connections and potential impacts of diverse policies and programmes and highlight where such policies / programmes can reinforce or undermine each other.

We have developed a new Integrated Impact Assessment tool that is being used to identify and strengthen interdependencies.

We used this tool to assess and review our Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives, which helped map our contribution to the national goals and identify further options for maximising the contribution to the social, economic, cultural, and environmental well-being of Swansea and Wales.

• Working in collaboration with others
  
  We are collaborating with partners from the public, private and third sector in order to take steps to deliver our Well-being Objectives, showing our contribution and options to maximise our contribution to the social, cultural, environmental and economic  well-being of Swansea and Wales. These include:
  • Working with other local authorities to deliver school improvement services.
  • Working in partnership on safeguarding with representatives of each of the main agencies and professionals who are responsible for helping to protect children and adults from abuse and neglect through the Welsh Glamorgan Safeguarding Boards.
  • Working with three other local authorities, the Welsh Government, Universities and the private sector through the Swansea Bay City Deal to transform the economic landscape of the area, boost the local economy by £1.8 billion, and generate almost 10,000 new jobs over the next 15 years.
  • Working in partnership with Health, Welsh Government, other public bodies and the third sector to respond to continue the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
     
• Involving all of our citizens in what we are doing
  
  The council is committed to consulting with, and involving, residents, other stakeholders and employees in the council's decision-making process. We have a new 'Consultation and Engagement Strategy' for practitioners to help them engage with residents and service users.
  
  In addition, the council engages with the diversity of the population through diversity groups and forums, such as the 50+ Network and LGBT Forum. Schools' pupils are involved in their education through school councils and through 'Pupil Voice', which is directly aimed at increasing pupil participation as set out in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC); Swansea was the first UK council to adopt and embed UNCRC. The council's 'Big Conversation' events give children and young people an opportunity to discuss that matter to them and to influence council policy.
  
  We have plans to involve more local people in the council's decisions that affect them, their families and communities and is to that end have worked with the Swansea Co-production Network to engage Co-production Network for Wales (Co-pro Lab) to upskill and develop the council, embedding co-production behaviours and thinking into everything that we do.

Involving people in our Well-being Objectives

A consultation on Swansea Council's Corporate Plan 2023-28 ran from the 27 January to the 24 February 2023. The purpose of he consultation was gathering people's views on the council's well-being objectives (priorities), the actions (steps) the council proposed to deliver each of these priorities and to identify any other suggestions in relation to any additional steps the council could take to implement these priorities.

Consultation on the Swansea Council's Corporate Plan is an iterative and ongoing process. During the spring of 2022 the council developed a survey as a guide and 'temperature check' to help inform the refresh of the Corporate Plan. The results of this survey showed a high level of support for the well-being objectives as the right priorities for the council to continue to improve well-being in Swansea.

The Lead Officers for each of the well-being objectives have also consulted widely on the development of their priorities and the steps. For example, in relation to Education, most school initiatives have individual stakeholder involvement arrangements which are often set out in legislation, for example school reorganisation. In addition, there are many networks with school staff, other LA staff, parents / carers (for example, Parent Carer Forum) that are well-established to discuss priorities and develop workstreams together. The council also runs a large number of consultations on an on-going basis which indirectly and directly inform the development of the Plan for example Climate Change, Active Travel and Green Infrastructure engagement or specific engagement events relating to Swansea's well-being, for example the World Children's Day event.

During the same time period for the consultation on the Corporate Plan, the council was also consulting on its budget proposals for 2023-24, Swansea's Local Well-being Plan and the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee' Corporate Plan, therefore the approach to consulting on the Corporate Plan was designed to be both proportionate and to build upon previous and ongoing consultations in relation to informing the council's priorities.

The survey was structured asked respondents to indicate:

• to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the 6 draft objectives (priorities) for Swansea Council, in order to continue to improve well-being in Swansea.
• to what extent they agreed or disagreed with each of the steps to deliver each of the priorities.

Overall, the results of the survey showed a relatively high level of agreement with the 6 objectives, which is in line with the results of previous consultations:

• 88% of respondents agreed that safeguarding people from harm should be a priority for Swansea Council.
• 93% agreed that education and skills should be a priority for the council.
• 87% agreed that transforming our economy and infrastructure should be a priority for the council.
• 90% agreed that tackling poverty and enabling communities should be a priority for the council.
• 75% agreed that delivering on nature recovery and climate change should be a priority for the council.
• 75% agreed that transformation and financial resilience should be a priority for the council.

There was a similar level of agreement with each of the proposed steps to deliver each of the Well-being Objectives.

Our Budget - resourcing our Well-being Objectives

Following consultation with staff, the public and other stakeholders, a report on the budget goes to Cabinet and is then discussed at a meeting of full council. The council has over £550 million to spend. The vast majority of this money comes from the Government and grants, and we raise further money from council tax and income. This is how it is currently allocated (2023/24 budget):

Public consultation on the 2024 / 25 budget will be underway by the Autumn unless it is delayed, as has been the case for the last 3 years by national UK and Welsh government decisions to delay budget allocations and announcements (exacerbated more recently by Covid-19 financial uncertainty). Although the amount of money we receive from Welsh Government is a significant increase for next year (2023/24) and could well be a modest increase in cash in future years, there will need to be additional savings to offset our forecast additional expenditure, which is outside our control such as rising price inflation, national pay awards and demographics.

The public have already told us their priorities are schools and social services. Yet they also tell us some specific events, street cleaning and highways maintenance are very important to them too. We also have to plan for high levels of inflation and ensure robust and rapid recovery from the cost of living crisis both in terms of health, wellbeing, and economic activity, all coming on top of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our budget includes a list of budget priorities in line with our well-being objectives set out in our Corporate Plan. But with finite resources we'll have to make tough choices in the future on spending and taxes to balance the books.

We raise over £140million in council tax each year, not even enough to cover the cost of our social services, let along all the other services we provide. The overall cost of council services means simply raising council tax alone is not an option. So, we have to take other steps.

3. Our Well-being Objectives

The next part of the Plan sets out our Well-being Objectives for 2023 / 28. Each objective is described in detail under the following headings:

• Why this priority is a Well-being Objective.
• The longer-term challenges each well-being objective will help address.
• The steps we will take to meet each Well-being Objective.
• What we have done by the end of 2023-2024.
• How we will measure progress.
• The contribution each well-being objective makes to the national goals.
• How we will maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work.
• The contribution each well-being objective makes to the Public Services Board Well-being Objectives.

Safeguarding people from harm

Why this priority is a well-being objective

• Swansea is a fair and equal city in which children can have the best start in life to be the best they can be, safe within their families.
   
• Swansea is a healthy city in which all people can expect to live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives; to achieve their own wellbeing outcomes and age well.
   
• Swansea is a human rights city committed to enhancing the health, wellbeing, safety and to promoting the rights of vulnerable adults, children, and families.
   
• We aim to prevent and intervene early, where a person or child is at risk of harm, abuse, neglect or exploitation, and to ensure the right care and support at the right time.
   
• We will continue to promote safeguarding vulnerable people as everyone's business, across the council, through a skilled and professional workforce, our elected members and any organisation or person who undertakes work on our behalf.

The longer-term challenges this well-being objective will help address

• Learning from the recent pandemic and looking forward with the help of the council's Recovery Plan will remain a key focus going into 2023 and beyond, as we carry on with transformation programmes to modernise social care services, to achieve a more preventative, sustainable approach and net zero carbon footprint.
   
• We are working in partnerships to improve the safety, the health, and the wellbeing outcomes of our most vulnerable citizens.
   
• Through 'coproduction' - we are involving people in everything we do, focusing on 'what matters most' to them as citizens, placing them at the centre of their own care and support and by coproducing services to achieve better outcomes.
   
• By ensuring there is high quality and more accessible, and integrated health and social care services for adults, children and families who need our care and support.
   
• Swansea is engaged in work on a regional strategic approach to support the wellbeing needs of carers and young carers, this needs to translate into a clear approach locally to make a difference in the lives of individuals.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective are:

• Safeguarding as everyone's business - safeguarding our most vulnerable people is 'everyone's business' across the council, within schools, with partners, and through West Glamorgan Safeguarding Board and partnerships, we will undertake a review of post-pandemic care and support provision.
   
• High quality and resilient statutory services - by ensuring that Adult and Child and Family Services are robust, resilient, and effective in getting right care and support, to the right person, at the right time. We commit to investing £750 million for better care in Swansea, to begin options appraisal to increase council direct delivery of care.
   
• Improving outcomes for children and young people by promoting rights of children, young people in everything we do, through our strategy to support children and young people to live safely at home with their family; through the corporate parenting strategy to help each cared for child achieve a better life; We will strive to provide new children's care facilities within Swansea; by progressing a new children's care facility offering high quality, not for profit, local placements when most needed.
   
• Transforming care and support to vulnerable adults - supporting our most vulnerable adults to remain safe and independent at home, by remodelling access to an integrated health and social care service. We will re balance our service offer to provide better day care opportunities and respite services across the City; to focus on prevention, reablement, and by engaging with Health to ensure care plans align with health recovery to improve outcomes.
   
• Support to unpaid carers, parent carers and young carers - recognising the vital contribution of unpaid carers, parent-carers and young carers by coproducing new approaches to the right support to achieve their own well-being outcomes.
   
• Building a skilled, professional workforce and supporting their wellbeing - by safe recruitment, and retaining a workforce that continues to deliver high quality social services, by committing to fairer pay for care workers; through supportive leadership; by focusing on workforce wellbeing, practice standards and professional development to support each worker to be the best they can be.
   
• Implement the West Glamorgan regional partnership work programme by working with partners to achieve integrated sustainable, and zero net carbon model of health and social care.

By the end of 2023-2024 we will have:

• Safeguarding remains a whole council priority and everyone's business.
• Improved access to early help and the council's wellbeing and prevention offer are helping to reduce demand on statutory services.
• Safety and safe standards inform our practice.
• Focus on quality in the delivery of statutory social services.
• Workers feel supported in their work and professional development.
• Carers are identified and supported in their own wellbeing.
• Swansea citizens experience a seamless journey towards their own health and wellbeing outcomes.

How we will measure progress*

*Provisional pending review and data development.

• Early help - number of children and families supported.
• Number / rate of children in need of care and support, children looked after and children on the child protection register.
• Statutory visits undertaken to children on the child protection register.
• Reablement - adults receiving community and residential reablement to meet their own well-being needs.
• Reviews of care and support plans (adults) within statutory timescales.
• Support to carers - number / rate of carers identified and offered a carers assessment to help meet their own wellbeing needs.
• Timeliness in responding to adult safeguarding enquiries.
• Percentage of contacts received by statutory children's social services during the period where a decision was made by the end of the next working day.

How we will maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work

• Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse - developing preventative services to help citizens achieve their own wellbeing outcomes, and to reduce the need for people to access statutory services.
   
• Addressing long-term challenges - working preventatively, in a rights-based way, co-producing care and support plans with citizens to help plan to address future care and support outcomes, and identify solutions for tackling new and rising demands on local health and social care services.
   
• Working in partnership with others - to tackling complex wellbeing and society issues such as adverse childhood experiences, domestic violence, homelessness and helping people to live and age well with partners through the Public Services Board.
   
• Avoiding conflicts between public body objectives - working collaboratively with partners through Western Bay regional health and social care partnership board, regional safeguarding board and through the Public Services Board.
   
• Involving people - involving all citizens, including carers, young carers and victims of domestic abuse and looked after children and their families in coproducing their own care and support plans, and by focusing on their rights, their strengths and assets and what they can bring to their own family networks and communities.

Improving Education and Skills

Why this priority is a well-being objective

• We want all children and young people to attend school regularly, to be included, to be resilient and have successful futures.
   
• We want all children and young people to have good Welsh language skills.
   
• We want to support and maintain effective school leadership.
   
• We want to support and maintain excellent teaching.
   
• We want all learners to receive their education in environments that are safe and sustainable communities for learning.

The longer-term challenges this well-being objective will help address

• Ensuring young people have the skills to be able to enter local employment opportunities, including those arising from the Swansea Bay City Deal.
   
• Ensuring children and young people's learning, health and well-being is supported, particularly following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
   
• Addressing the inequalities created by the link that exists between educational attainment and economic prosperity.
   
• Ensuring that the support for the provision of additional learning needs is stronger, less adversarial and places children and young people at the centre of decision making.
   
• Ensuring equal opportunities for all learners to learn Welsh, speak the language confidently and to promote the benefits of bilingualism / multilingualism.
   
• Ensuring leaders and practitioners are supported to maintain delivery of excellent education in all learning settings.
   
• Providing a school estate that is suitable, safe, and sustainable.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective are:

• Inclusion Strategy - We will deliver the inclusion strategy to embed universal provision for additional needs, specialist places for additional needs and a whole school approach to emotional health and psychological wellbeing. The strategy will promote attendance, inclusion, learner participation in decision making and reduction in peer-on-peer bullying and harassment in schools.
   
• Welsh Language Skills Strategy - We will deliver a strategy that embeds the Siarter Iaith to all schools. The strategy will ensure that all schools are supported to develop learners' skills within and outside the classroom. We want learners to speak Welsh with confidence when they leave school.
   
• Leadership Support Strategy - We will deliver a strategy to maintain and support effective leadership, including governance, across all schools. The strategy will promote self-improvement and collaboration. We want our school leaders to improve their own wellbeing in order to support practitioners and learners well.
   
• Teaching Support Strategy - We will deliver a strategy to support literacy, numeracy, and digital competence to maintain, restore and accelerate learners' skills. The strategy will promote excellence across all schools. We want all teachers to equip learners with key skills to access all areas of learning.
   
• Designing Destinations Strategy - We will deliver a strategy to support vocational learning, post-16 curriculum collaboration, careers and work-related education. We want schools to engage with community learning champions employers and other education providers to inspire successful futures for learners.
   
• Equity in Education Strategy - We will deliver a strategy to embed trauma informed practice across all schools, actions to reduce the impact of poverty on learners and meet our responsibilities as corporate parents. We want our vulnerable learners to access support in one place through community focussed schools.
   
• New and Better School Strategy - We want to provide an efficient and effective educational infrastructure to meet current and future demands for school places. We will deliver a transformed schools' estate using our school building and maintenance programme and also respond to the developments set out within the local development plan (LDP) while ensuring community benefits from contracts. We want to reduce our carbon footprint within the school estate and make assets available for community use where local demand exists.

By the end of 2023-2024 we will have:

• Developed and promoted the new inclusion strategy.
• Continued to support schools to support learners develop Welsh language skills, in line with the WESP delivery plan.
• Encouraged take-up and support for school staff to undertake leadership development opportunities including qualifications.
• Promoted a new vision for school governance to support school leadership.
• Promoted local and regional opportunities of professional learning to support excellent teaching and learning.
• Consulted with learners on post-16 choices and developed a new post-16 and vocational strategy.
• Ensured suitable facilities to deliver universal free school meals to reception age, in line with the Welsh Government offer.
• Submitted a strategic outline programme for sustainable communities for learning.

How we will measure progress*

*Provisional pending review and data development.

• Improved attendance in all educational settings.
• Reduction in exclusions from all educational settings.
• Increased percentage of learners educated through the medium of Welsh at nursery and reception ages.
• Increased percentage of learners remaining in Welsh-medium provision when transferring from one key stage to another.
• Increased number of learners assessed for qualifications through the medium of Welsh.
• Numbers of leaders on MLDP / SLDP / Aspiring Headteacher / NPQH qualifications.
• Improved percentage of learners making good progress in reading and writing skills.
• Improved percentage of learners making good progress in their digital competence.
• Reduction in young people known to be NEET at 16 years of age.
• Enrolment and outcomes of apprenticeships in the council and the wider community.
• Engagement with training weeks secured for the economically inactive or unemployed through community benefit clauses in contracts.
• Increased take-up of universal Free School Meals (within the Welsh Government offer).
• Swansea becoming the first Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)-informed Council in Wales.
• Approved business cases and delivery of the remaining Band B projects.
• Increased number of schools available for community use.
• Increased number of schools whose Display Energy Certificate (DEC) rating is either an A or improves by at least one grade, for example D to C.
• Increased number of schools that are net zero operational carbon (currently none).

How we will maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work

Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse - by:

• Supporting schools to design engaging curriculums and opportunities to further develop good quality teaching, so that pupils develop skills and qualifications that they need to go on into further and higher education, training, or employment.
• Supporting learners and their families from the earliest opportunity to overcome barriers to good attendance.
• Supporting learners and their families through early intervention to increase inclusion, engagement and prevent exclusions.
• Early identification of need to ensure learners have suitable provision.

Addressing long-term challenges - by:

• Ensuring the school curriculum in Swansea provides pupils with the skills and qualifications for the future and contributes to the success of the Swansea Bay City Deal in raising prosperity.
• Ensure the schools' estate is maintained to be suitable and safe for both current and future learners.

Working in partnership with others - by:

• Maintain and further develop working closely with other services across the local authority.
• Collaborating with local authorities through the regional arrangements to support school improvement services.
• Improved collaboration and information sharing with agencies to ensure early identification and support to achieve positive outcomes for children and young people.

Avoiding conflicts between public body objectives - by:

• Creating synergy between national and local objectives and economic development.

Involving people - by:

• Involving learners in their education through a range of engagement mechanisms in order to demonstrate we value these key stakeholders.
• Ensuring the views of families and the wider community are considered.
• Co-construction of policies and plans as appropriate to ensure they meet needs and expectations of the learning community.

Transforming our Economy and Infrastructure

Why this priority is a well-being objective

• We want to raise economic performance to create wealth and employment opportunities to improve the economic well-being of Swansea's citizens.
   
• We want to lever all investment and funding opportunities in realising this objective including UK Government City Deal, Levelling up and Shared Prosperity Fund, Welsh Government Transforming Towns, Economy and Creative Wales and other major funders.
   
• We want to ensure our local economies are supported to achieve resilience in the face of future global, national, and regional challenges, in particular the city centre and our small independent businesses and organisations that are the fabric of our communities large and small.
   
• We want to provide an enabling approach to support individuals, businesses and communities through our employment and business support, regeneration activities, cultural assets, transport connectivity, planning and other support and regulatory frameworks in delivering these practical measures.
   
• We want to ensure Swansea is a place characterised by sustainable communities with sufficient good quality housing and places for work and leisure.
   
• We want to continue to forge strong, hard-working networks with our external partners who are co-delivering with the council.
   
• We want to take advantage of untapped growth potential to generate sustainable energy, deliver on net zero commitments, protect the environment and boost the economy.

The longer-term challenges this well-being objective will help address

• Post-Covid support and recovery.
   
• A digital and connected future and new models of working.
   
• Ongoing productivity gap with rest of UK - Swansea's productivity (GVA per hour worked) stood at 85.9% of the UK average in 2020.
   
• Swansea has a healthy level of new business formations but the relative size of the business base (508 businesses per 10,000 population) is below Wales (539) and UK (718) averages. One and five year survival rates for enterprises have improved and in 2020 were in line with the equivalent rates for Wales and UK, but the increasing costs of goods and services, particularly energy costs, and rising interest rates are creating very challenging trading conditions for local businesses.
   
• A new future for both the city centre and smaller district and local centres and adapting to new ways of working including transport methods and connectivity and positive impact on places.
   
• Ongoing issue of unemployment and inactivity and ensuring a supply of genuine pathways and opportunities. Economic activity and employment rates in Swansea are lower than Wales averages and further below equivalent UK rates.
   
• The Household Income Gap - although Gross Disposable Household Income rose in Swansea by 8.5% between 2014 and 2019, it continued to lag behind Wales and the UK where rises were 12.3% and 15.8% respectively over the same period. In 2019 Gross Disposable Household Income in Swansea was 75.9% of the UK average.
   
• Wage rate gap - over the year to April 2021, annual median full-time earnings in Swansea (workplace based) rose by 5.2%, which was greater than the Wales (+1.2%) and UK (-0.6%) averages. Consequently, annual median full-time wage rates in Swansea stood at 91.6% of the UK average in April 2021.
   
• Contribute to a reduction in deprivation, through the creation of sustainable well paid employment. There are pockets of deprivation across the county, with a number of areas among the highest levels of deprivation in Wales. In the 2019 Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD), Swansea had an above average proportion of its Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) featuring in the most deprived 10% in Wales, with 17 (11.5%) of its 148 LSOAs in the 191 (10%) most deprived.
   
• Change the current business sectoral mix towards higher skilled, higher paid employment. 87.3% of employment is currently service sector based, and there is an under-representation of businesses in professional, scientific and technical sectors which tend to have better skilled and higher paid roles.
   
• Swansea has a higher proportion of retail businesses than the Welsh and UK average - the planned regeneration schemes will help diversify the city and district centres.
   
• Resident skills - continue to upskill people to take advantage of opportunities in new and emerging industries.
   
• Address skills gaps in sectors such as care, hospitality and construction.
   
• Recognising and working with deep seated anti-social behaviour, crime and associated issues and providing real alternatives and support.
   
• Enabling creation of sustainable energy sources.
   
• Help reduce commercial property viability gap with provision of quality flexible adaptable office space in response to increasing levels of inward investment interest and local independent business growth in both town centres and modern industrial settings.
   
• Increase the supply of affordable housing by building and acquiring new homes and looking for innovative solutions to convert existing buildings into residential accommodation.
   
• Following completion of the WHQS, continue to invest to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes and reduce the impact of fuel poverty for residents.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective are:

Transform our economy by securing funding opportunities and continuing to collaborate with our local regeneration partners and networks to implement the economic regeneration plan. We will maximise the benefits through the creation of employment and training opportunities for the long-term unemployed and economically inactive via community benefit clauses in contracts. There will also be a focus on -

• Lead implementation of South West Wales Regional Economic Delivery Plan in Swansea and associated work packages and funding streams such as UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Welsh Government sources.
   
• Continuing support to business (both start up and existing) through the Business Swansea provision.
   
• Public Health Teams ensuring businesses can run effectively by adhering to the relevant legislation be it in the hospitality and catering sector or the licensed taxi sector.
   
• Help create thousands of new jobs for the people of Swansea, aiming to provide high quality and secure employment.
   
• Deliver an events programme each year, for the next five years, which expands and grows in tune with the regeneration of the city and growing visitor economy.
   
• Deliver a range of new and exciting immersive attractions, summer concerts and a new phase of Arena shows; encapsulated in a larger ever growing events programme (including the half Iron Man event), which commenced with community support for Platinum Jubilee events.
   
• Retain the Wales National Air Show in Swansea, bringing tens of thousands of visitors to the city for this annual event and review how its delivery can align with its net zero carbon targets.
   
• Secure a major new tenant for the Debenhams unit in the Quadrant Shopping Centre, securing the use of this unit for the future.
   
• Continue to work with partners to build a strong and resilient Creative Network to support the existing, emerging and future fabric of cultural and leisure assets embedded across the city centre and district and local centres.

Transform the city and county's infrastructure to support a strong and resilient economy by focusing on key developments and enhancing key assets, specifically:

• Working with our regional partners, progress a £1 billion regeneration and £750 million strategic partnership with Urban Splash as our new strategic partner, with an initial focus on Copr Bay Phase 2, the Civic Centre site and St Thomas site.
   
• Progress the Palace Theatre and Albert Hall developments to secure our historic buildings for future generations and seek an innovative solution to secure the future of the Elysium building.
   
• Work with partners to develop commercial meanwhile uses.
   
• Develop and promote more city living, including new hotels, retail, office space and food and beverage facilities.
   
• Progress work on the new Castle Square Gardens project.
   
• Progress work on the new city centre Community Hub project providing a new home to the Central Library.
   
• Complete the phased demolition of Ty Dewi Sant and the old multi-storey car park.
   
• Progress the build of 71-72 The Kingsway, to create an innovation hub which will be home to new businesses and up to six hundred new jobs.
   
• Continue to progress development and investment through the Skyline park attraction on Kilvey Hill.
   
• Progress hotels discussions for the city.
   
• Working in partnership with Penderyn Distillery, support the opening of a new whiskey distillery attraction at Landore.
   
• Progress the development and reopening of the River Tawe corridor, including new pontoons.
   
• Deliver new promenade improvements and developments, as well as new lighting around Swansea Bay.
   
• Commit to improving public toilets.
   
• Progress discussions for the new interactive aquarium, aiming to offer an immersive experience for visitors and a wider educational resource.
   
• Strive to progress discussions regarding a new ferry service linking Wales with the South West of England.
   
• Commit to progress discussions with partners regarding the International Sports Science Village.
   
• Commit to investment in our towns and villages.
   
• Deliver on the refurbishment and upgrade of remaining tower blocks.
   
• Provide more energy efficient homes and more affordable homes, alongside more investment in social housing.
   
• Public Health Teams ensuring private rented properties and Homes in Multiple Occupation are safe for tenants and rogue traders are prosecuted.
   
• Complete the Welsh Quality Housing Standard (WQHS) 1 and begin planning WQHS 2.
   
• Continue onto the next phase of the More Homes build, whilst maintaining progress on further retrofitting of council homes.

Promote and enhance a diverse and sustainable local economy through ensuring a robust policy framework:

• Progress the replacement Swansea Local Development Plan to provide an up to date planning and place making framework for guiding decisions on development proposals.
   
• Agree a new Swansea Bay Strategy.
   
• To remodel services, focusing on meeting people's needs, within the funding available.
   
• Commence a review of the disabled parking bay policy.
   
• Progress TAN15 discussions with Welsh Government to find a solution that supports appropriate development.

Investment in our communities to provide good community infrastructure:

• Promote sustainable use of sports pitches for local sports clubs.
   
• Continue to invest in parks and play areas.
   
• Progress roll-out of free public wifi.
   
• Commit to complete play area upgrades.
   
• Continue the replacement of bus shelter installations.
   
• Commit to installing new bins and to replace dog waste bins with larger general bins.
   
• Commit to roll-out new drainage teams and new PATCH (Priority Action Team for Community Highways) programmes.
   
• Commence the £10 million local road upgrades.
   
• Progress delivery of all-weather sports pitches.
   
• Commit to delivering better skate-park facilities within Swansea.
   
• Ensure the availability of dedicated resources to tackle weeds, litter and minor works in every community; recruiting local ward operatives.

By the end of 2023-2024 we will have:

• Delivered better skate facilities.
• Commenced £10 million local road upgrades.
• Promoted the free and sustainable use of sports pitches for local sports clubs.
• Secured a tenant for Debenhams.
• Work progressed on the new Castle Square Gardens project.
• Commenced the phased demolition of Ty Dewi Sant and the old multi-storey car park.
• 71-72 The Kingsway completed.
• Progressed discussions on a new ferry service linking Wales with the South West of England.

How we will measure progress*

*Provisional pending review and data development.

• Timelines assessing planning applications.
• Approvals of major planning applications.
• Housing units and commercial floor space created as a result of the Transforming Towns programme.
• Value of inward investment into Swansea.
• Tourism spend.
• Projects containing community benefit clauses in contracts and number of training weeks created.
• Average Turnaround Time for Land Charge Searches.
• Develop performance measures for jobs created / protected and impact on GVA / productivity.
• Develop clear targets for overall new housing and specifically affordable targets.

How we will maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work

• Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse - promoting development opportunities for renewable energy and sustainable transport to build the economy and help tackle climate change.
   
• Addressing long-term challenges - reshaping Swansea and the region's economy to meet the economic challenges of the future and technological change through the City Deal and new Regional Economic Delivery Plan.
   
• Working in partnership with others - working with three other local authorities, the Welsh Government, Universities, Health Boards and the private sector through the Corporate Joint Committee and Regeneration Swansea to deliver the City Deal and Regional Economic Delivery Plan.
   
• Avoiding conflicts between public body objectives - producing a replacement Local Development Plan to support the regeneration of Swansea and provide a blueprint for appropriate, consistent land use planning decisions for current and future generations.
   
• Involving people - extensive consultation and engagement process to shape regeneration schemes, and during each stage of the development of our Local Development Plan looking to identify opportunities to meet housing need and provide employment.

Tackling poverty and enabling communities

Why this priority is a well-being objective

• Between 2023 and 2028, the Cost of Living crisis and ongoing economic challenges will continue to impact on individuals, families and communities across Swansea. Poverty is multi-dimensional, complex, growing and impacting more people in Wales. The council has an important role to play in helping people to alleviate poverty, improving their personal prosperity through better skills and jobs, and address the key issues influencing poverty such as homelessness.
   
• We also see a role for our communities in supporting people to deliver early interventions, improve the wellbeing of local people and build collaborative relationships with service providers. Our vision for this priority is to create welcoming, strong, resilient, connected and prosperous communities as part of our response to tackle and alleviate poverty in Swansea.
   
• Tackling poverty and enabling communities is a wellbeing objective because we need to:
  • continue responding to the global economic pressures - including the Cost of Living crisis - that are impacting on our communities.
  • target support for people in poverty or at risk of poverty in order to alleviate poverty and tackle the longer-term impacts on our society.
  • focus on helping people to avoid the need to access services by promoting early interventions and preventative action.
  • embed the lived experience of people in poverty across our services to ensure that we understand and meet those needs.
  • create communities that are safe and resilient where people's rights and needs are respected.
  • improve the personal prosperity of individuals through opportunities to develop skills, improve employability, access jobs and look after their own wellbeing.

The longer-term challenges this well-being objective will help address

• Levels of poverty which remains persistently high - with almost a quarter of people in Wales living in poverty - and impacts on life expectancy, health outcomes and adverse effects on the poorest areas.
   
• People's experiences of poverty covering a range of common issues including access to essential resources such as housing, fuel, energy, clothing, footwear, food, and water, as well as support with finances, exclusion from services, and emotional and relationship issues.
   
• The extra costs that people on low incomes must pay for essentials - such as transport, fuel and food - due to the poverty premium, compounded by the ongoing Cost of Living crisis.
   
• The role our communities play in tackling poverty and preventing people's needs from escalating to the point where they need services or interventions.
   
• Changes to population and demographics as well as local population needs as our communities have more older people, become more urbanised and require more homes to be built.
   
• Opportunities to work closer with communities to tackle these important challenges, building on the networks, strengths and assets of our local areas.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective are:

• Strategic direction - We will develop methods of working with people with lived experience to co-produce and publish our aligned strategic visions, outcomes and priorities for Tackling Poverty and Community Enablement.
   
• Cost of Living - We will reduce levels of poverty and mitigate the impacts of being in poverty by rolling out government grants, providing welfare rights advice and implementing targeted schemes including the 'free bus ride' initiative and Swansea Spaces.
   
• Tackling and preventing homelessness - We will implement the Housing Support Programme Strategy to support people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
   
• Making more homes available - We will offer more energy efficient and affordable homes to help minimise household costs, as well as increasing the availability and quality of social housing, to help more people access accommodation that is suitable for their needs.
   
• Improving people's prosperity - We will deliver programmes of employability, skills development and community enhancements that help people to improve their prospects for the future and volunteer their time to contribute to their local communities.
   
• Focus on early intervention - We will collaborate with communities to help them play a stronger role in preventing escalation of individuals' needs and integrating with partners / local sources of support to mitigate demands on services.
   
• Empowering communities - We will embed the principles of human rights across our work with communities, empowering local people to get more involved in the co-production of services, community cohesion and social value.
   
• Keeping communities safe - We will tackle anti-social behaviour through targeted initiatives and support for people who are vulnerable or at risk by improving the presence of enforcement and using events / technologies to protect local people and property.
   
• Building community assets - We will continue to grow the assets of all communities across Swansea by using a strengths-based approach to increase resilient community-led initiatives (such as social enterprises) and establish integrated community hubs aligned with our Local Library Plan.

By the end of 2023-2024 we will have:

• Published our refreshed Tackling Poverty Strategy, working co-productively with our partners and people with lived experience of poverty.
• Developed a Tackling Poverty Performance Framework that aligns objectives, outcomes and performance measures related to tackling poverty.
• Began a review of the council's Housing Allocations Policy to ensure focus on providing suitable homes for vulnerable people, unintentionally homeless and people who may be struggling with poverty.
• Agreed a strategy to support homeless individuals as the Covid-19 hotel use ends, whilst continuing with our 'always a bed' pledge.
• Supported the establishment of the Swansea Sustainable Food Partnership.
• Published our Corporate Volunteering Policy to develop and manage voluntary action within the organisation.

How we will measure progress*

*Provisional pending review and data development.

• Amount (value) of grants allocated to individuals for applying for Cost of Living funds.
• Amount (value) of grants allocated to businesses for applying for Cost of Living funds.
• Amount (value) of benefit entitlements claimed through Welfare Rights Advice.
• Time taken (days) to process Council Tax Reduction (CTR) and Housing Benefit (HB) applications.
• Time taken (days) to process Council Tax Reduction (CTR) and Housing Benefit (HB) changes of circumstances.
• Number of new affordable homes built.
• Number of people who gain employment through Employability Support.
• Number of adults who achieve accredited qualifications through Adult Learning.
• Number of people who volunteer through council volunteer schemes.
• The number of beneficiaries who have attended the 'Get Swansea online' programme.

How will we maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work

• Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse - we will use early interventions, strategic partnerships, and community-led initiatives to take a preventative approach to not only poverty but the wider impacts of poverty to ensure that escalating needs are addressed before service interventions are required.
   
• Addressing long-term challenges - we will strike a balance between the short-term needs of people in poverty (such as the need for housing and essential resources like food and clothes) with helping people to improve their personal prosperity and long-term aspirations for the future.
   
• Working in partnership with others - we will work with partners and stakeholders including local communities themselves to reflect the diversity of our population and the opportunities available from collaboration and service integration.
   
• Avoiding conflicts between public body objectives - we will develop a framework for linking our national, regional and local outcomes that demonstrates the contributions of our services and transformation programmes to public body strategies, policies and objectives.
   
• Involving people - we will embed the principles of human rights and co-production across our tackling poverty and enabling communities programmes and initiatives, mapping the experiences and capturing the voices of people with lived experience of poverty.

Delivering on Nature Recovery and Climate Change

Why this priority is a well-being objective

• Following Welsh Government declarations for Wales, the council has declared both a Climate Emergency in June 2019 and a Nature Emergency in November 2021.
   
• Using the Welsh Government Route map to net zero, Swansea Council will align with its principles, knowing what needs to be done now, by 2022-26 Low Carbon becoming the norm and by 2030 where choosing carbon zero is routine.
   
• Sound governance has been established within the council to act on such challenges and all activity will be driven within the parameters of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015, the Environment Act (Wales) 2016, the Strategic Equality Plan and the Corporate Plan and the Swansea (PSB) Well-being Plan.
   
• To ensure that in addition to achieving net zero 2030 for Swansea Council, we will work with partners, organisations, schools, businesses to support Swansea as a whole county and citizens in its efforts to become net zero by 2050, aligning with the Net Zero Wales Carbon Budget (2) 2022 / 2025. Establishing both Climate and Nature Charters and a Pledge Wall to encourage active participation and help build a healthier, more prosperous and biodiverse / ecologically resilient Swansea.
   
• Swansea is one of the most ecologically rich and diverse counties in the UK. Its unique variety of habitats and species and wonderful range of parks, green spaces, nature reserves, beaches and landscapes needs to be maintained, enhanced and sustainably managed for the benefit of everyone now and into the future.
   
• Our natural environment and biodiversity is under threat and in decline due to unsustainable human activities. Habitats and species are being lost at an alarming and unsustainable rate. We need to raise awareness of the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change at the local level and provide information, advice, and practical support and incentives to encourage others to take action and collaborate to deliver positive solutions to these challenges.
   
• We want everyone to have access to, understand, appreciate and benefit from Swansea's outstanding natural environment and to play their part in looking after and enhancing it, resulting in a healthier, greener and more prosperous Swansea.
   
• Our future survival and quality of life is dependent on healthy resilient natural environment, the multiple benefits it provides to society and on reducing our carbon emissions to net zero.
   
• We have a moral responsibility to look after biodiversity for its own intrinsic value.

The longer-term challenges this well-being objective will help address

• A public sector target of 2030, ahead of the Welsh Government's target of 2050 for the whole of Wales, will give us our best chance of keeping global warming below 1.5ºC. This is the tipping point at which the climate impacts we're already experiencing will go from bad to potentially catastrophic. We'll see natural systems cross danger points, triggering lasting changes such as extreme storms, heatwaves, mass loss of natural habitats and species.
• We are at a critical point in time for nature recovery and without urgent transformative change, many of our species and habitats will continue to decline or become extinct.
• Halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity through reducing harm and unsustainable use and moving to a situation where we are working with nature to maintain healthy resilient ecosystems that will continue to provide long-term quality of life (or ecosystem services) benefits upon which we all depend.
• Tackling climate change, which is one of the greatest challenges facing us all and we need to reduce our carbon footprint and to mitigate for and adapt to the likely risks and impacts.
• Creating high quality environmentally and low carbon responsible and sustainable green jobs that make the most of our unique natural resources, for example, through environmental tourism, sustainable land and coastal management, local food production, sustainable waste management, energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon capture. As such we will explore and support projects such as on and off shore renewables which align to these ambitions.
• Reducing inequalities in health and well-being by maintaining and enhancing a high quality and accessible natural environment plus ensuring fair access to low carbon energy, homes, travel options, sustainably sourced food and greener job opportunities.
• Sustainably managing and enhancing the quality of our natural resources including air, water, soils and biodiversity will help increase Swansea's ecological resilience and the well-being of its inhabitants.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective are:

Net Zero Swansea Council by 2030

• Achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030, following the approved Swansea Council Net Zero 2030 Delivery Plan.
• Reduce the council's impact on the environment, monitoring via the Welsh Government reporting process on the 6 organisational categories.

• Replace for street lighting with LED.
• Develop a new county-wide tree planting map allowing us to plant thousands of new trees.
• Continue to review the council transport fleet to maximise opportunities for use of a green fleet in line with its green fleet strategy.

Net Zero Swansea by 2050

• Collectively support the wider Swansea ambition, working alongside Climate Charter signatories, PSB, citizens, schools, businesses, community groups and environmental partners to help deliver the Welsh Government ambition of Net Zero Wales by 2050.

• Develop a Swansea Adaptation and Mitigation Plan.
• Support delivery of the first phase of the Blue Eden Lagoon project.
• Progress the development of a council-operated solar energy farm at the city's Tir John site.
• Aim to make neighbourhood greening improvements.
• Support and enable the increase and availability of electric vehicle (EV) charging points and develop a wider EV charging strategy.
• Progress discussions on the development of a hydrogen fuelling hub.
• Work towards announcing new Active Travel routes, which develop the built and natural environment and encourages higher levels of physical activity.

Nature Recovery

• Develop and monitor the delivery of the Section 6 Corporate Biodiversity Plan and the Resilient Wales goal through annual business planning and reporting mechanisms up to 2028. We will report to Welsh Government every 3 years in line with our Biodiversity Duty.
   
• Contribute to the review, delivery and monitoring of the Local Nature Recovery Action Plan and a County Wide Green Infrastructure Strategy.
   
• Work to improve the ecosystem resilience of council owned Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Local Nature Reserves (LNR), Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) and greenspaces.
   
• Improve awareness and understanding of climate change and our natural environment through provision of information, training, and events.
   
• Continue to deliver a programme of wildflower planting and management and take actions that help to control invasive non-native species.
   
• Engage with local communities to encourage volunteering and to support them taking action to enhance and maintain their local greenspaces and wildlife sites.
   
• Take action to maintain and improve the quality of our air, water and soils.

By the end of 2023-2024 we will have:

• Reported to Welsh Government on Swansea Council 2022-23 emissions.
• Progressed phase 2 of the public buildings retrofit programme.
• Delivered a second year of projects with our environmental partner.
• Agreed a development model and progressed with the Tir John solar farm development.
• Agree and announce progress on the Blue Eden project with our development partner.
• Built strong collaborative working relationships with climate charter signatories on the 2050 Swansea agenda.
• Begun to implement our ULEV Transition Strategy 2021-2030, with over 150 ULEV vehicles and fleet charge points.
• Continue with the LED street lighting installation programme.
• Agreed an updated tree planting and management strategy.
• Planted hundreds of new trees.
• Produced a series of Wild About your Ward Maps to support communities in identifying opportunities for enhancing local greenspaces and wildlife sites and engaging them in volunteering activities.
• Drafted Management Plans for Council owned Local Nature Reserves.
• Targeted treatment and / or removal of Invasive Non-Native Species on nature sites.
• Produced a series of Climate Change and Nature Recovery e-training modules.
• Continued amenity grassland and road verge management trials to establish as species rich wildflower meadows.
• Prepared a Local Nature Recovery Action Plan and a County Wide GI Strategy.

How we will measure progress*

*Provisional pending review and data development.

• Embed a Climate Change and Nature Strategy.
• Emission reductions to be monitored annually via the Welsh Government reporting process.
• Monitor progress against 30 actions by 2030 for Swansea Council delivery plan on an annual basis.
• Report regularly on collaboration successes with Climate Charter signatories, PSB, citizens, schools, businesses, community groups and environmental partners.
• Delivery of the Section 6 Corporate Biodiversity Plan, alongside a Nature Recovery Action Plan in collaboration with the Swansea Nature Partnership and adoption of a Countywide Green Infrastructure Strategy Continue to monitor air, water and soil quality.

How we will maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work

• Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse - By halting the decline of biodiversity and maintaining and enhancing a resilient natural environment, we will maintain vital ecosystem services (for example, flood alleviation, air and water quality, carbon storage and pollination) and help to maintain people's health, well-being, and quality of life. By helping people to understand the causes of problems and how by working together, we can prevent problems occurring. By delivering net zero targets we can help avoid global warming and subsequent consequences. Adaptation activity will help us prepare for change already identified as unavoidable.
   
• Addressing long-term challenges - We want to reverse the loss of biodiversity, promote healthy resilient ecosystems, and strengthen green infrastructure to adapt to and mitigate for the impacts of climate change, and ensure that our natural environment and the benefits and services it provides are protected for the benefit of future generations. We want to achieve net zero carbon.
   
• Working in partnership with others - We will continue to support and collaborate with others Climate Charter signatories, PSB, citizens, schools, businesses, community groups and environmental partners to co-ordinate the planning and delivery of actions and maximise use of resources.
   
• Avoiding conflicts between public body objectives - By raising awareness of biodiversity and climate change and ensuring that it is taken into account at the early decision-making / design stages of plans and projects, the potential for conflict will be reduced.
   
• Involving people - We will build capacity and achieve more by involving and supporting the local community to participate in identifying and delivering initiatives that maintain and enhance the natural environment and reduce our carbon footprint. More people will be enabled to access and enjoy their natural environment and contribute to mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Transformation and Financial Resilience

Why this priority is a well-being objective

• Between 2023 and 2028 there will be extraordinary challenges facing individuals, communities, and public bodies in Swansea, especially as a result of the ongoing recession. At a time when our population needs public services most, they are under threat as our costs rise but our funding is falling in real terms.
   
• Against that background, if the council is to meet its statutory obligations and deliver the commitments it has made, we will need to innovate and transform how we operate, working closer than ever with others, while continuing to ensure that everything we do is focused on meeting the needs of our population.
   
• Our vision for this priority is to deliver, through transformation, at least the same if not better outcomes for our population and to improve our efficiency by making significant changes to the way we work and how our services are designed and delivered.
   
• Transformation and Financial Resilience is a wellbeing objective because we need to:
  • manage the public finances sustainability, recognising the huge constraints that we know we will face over the term of the plan;
  • ensure the council is adequately protected from major external risks such as cyber and data security breaches and recruitment and retention challenges we have across the council and in some services in particular;
  • redesign and remodel aspects of the organisation and its services to meet the changing needs and expectations of citizens within the resources we have available;
  • improve our customer service to ensure our citizens can access council advice, guidance, information, and services how and when they need them;
  • improve how we consult, engage, and involve our population to help us design effective and efficient services;
  • reduce the council's carbon footprint;
  • create a culture that values high performance, learning and continuous improvement.

The longer-term challenges this well-being objective will help address

• The long-term public finance outlook is likely to remain challenging.
   
• Demographic changes which will continue to drive increasing demand for council services and increasingly complex needs.
   
• Demographic changes impacting on the local labour market and composition of the council workforce.
   
• Technological advances are expected to continue to pave the way in defining how modern societies and economies will interact and develop into the future, not least our approach to social interactions, where we work, and how we access key services like education, health, and social care.
   
• Recognition that solving complex challenges, such as substance misuse, strategic planning and meeting the needs of the older population cannot be met by the council alone and will increasingly require whole system responses through greater collaboration with partners and the population we serve.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective are:

• Financial Sustainability: We will maintain a sustainable Medium Term Financial Strategy which ensures the council's revenue and capital resources are aligned to the achievement of the council's wellbeing objectives and delivery of our statutory obligations both over the term of the plan. We will ensure required savings are delivered, and commercial opportunities are taken, where appropriate.
   
• Transforming our business: We will deliver the council's transformation vision and goals, through the development and implementation of a corporate transformation plan, incorporating the key transformational change projects and programmes from across the council.
   
• Digital Transformation: We will implement the council's digital strategy, using digital technology to improve people's lives, to enable digital access to services 24 hours a day, and to improve operational efficiency.
   
• Workforce Development: We will implement the council's workforce strategy and thereby develop a motivated and committed workforce that is innovative, supported, skilled and customer focused.
   
• Organisational Development: We will ensure the organisation's working model reflects the needs of the population and the council's agile working approach. We will review senior management structure, pay and grading to ensure they are appropriate and in line with the wider workforce pay and grading scheme. We will develop tools to help services implement change, including training, guidance, and support.
   
• Performance Management and Governance: We will continue to embed self-assessment into the council's performance management arrangements and develop a culture of high performance, learning and continuous improvement. We will ensure the corporate plan, Medium Term Financial Strategy and Transformation Plan are aligned and support the long term needs of the population. We will also keep the council's constitution under review, including ensuring appropriate delegation arrangements for members and officers are in place.
   
• Procurement: We will continue to develop the procurement supply chain locally, regionally and pan Wales to ensure our procurement activity remains ethical, looks to embed real living wage aspirations across the supply chain and weighs ever more heavily on the social value of procurement, in line with the sustainable development principles.
   
• Operational estate: We will continue to rationalise the council's operational estate to maximise efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint.
   
• Partnership Working: We will continue to collaborate with our regional partners to progress our wellbeing objectives, specifically in relation to the strategic development planning, regional transport planning, promoting the economic well-being and delivering a regional energy strategy (through the Corporate Joint Committee), health and social care (through the West Glamorgan partnership) and education improvement (through Partneriaeth). Our collaboration will also continue with local partners to develop and implement solutions to the challenges facing our population and progress our 2040 Wellbeing Plan (through the Public Services Board).
   
• Interacting with our population: We will continue to ensure that where appropriate we consult, engage, and involve our population in the design and the delivery of our policies and services, enhancing our co-production capacity and capability through pilot projects and practice.
   
• Equality, Diversity and Human Rights: We will continue to embed equality, diversity, and human rights through all that we do as a council, implementing our Welsh language proving the quality of our integrated impact assessments and working with partners to make Swansea a Human Rights City.

By the end of 2023-2024 we will have:

• A balanced Medium Term Financial Plan.
• Delivered all the savings proposals approved in the 2023-2024 Final Budget.
• A corporate transformation plan which is delivering major changes across the council.
• Embedded a new Enterprise Resource Planning System.
• Increased the number of Swansea Account users and improved its functionality.
• Introduced new leadership behaviours and a management learning and development offer.
• Reviewed the senior management structure and pay and grading scheme.
• Strengthened the council's Performance Management and Quality Assurance Framework.
• Further development our local supply chain and also ensure commercial opportunities are developed where appropriate.
• Reduced carbon emissions from our operational estate.
• Rolled out co-production training and toolkits across the council.
• Developed a medium-term action plan for extending our work on human rights across Swansea.

How we will measure progress*

*Provisional pending review and data development.

• Percentage of agreed savings planned that are delivered within the financial year (100%)
• Number of Swansea Account holders (tbc)
• Direct carbon emissions from the council's operational estate (tbc)
• Average staff sickness rate across the council (tbc)
• Council staff turnover rate (tbc)
• Mandatory training compliance rates (100%)
• Percentage of invoices paid within specified timeframe (tbc)
• Percentage of contracts procured locally / regionally / pan Wales (tbc)
• Percentage of corporate complaints that are resolved at the first stage (target 90%)
• Number of online payments received via City and County of Swansea websites
• Number of forms completed online for fully automated processes
• Number of data breaches which has resulted in an enforcement or monetary penalty notice being issued by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

How we will maximise our contribution to the national goals through the way in which we work

• Preventing problems from occurring or from getting worse - improving customer service and access to advice, guidance, and support through the implementation of the digital strategy.
• Addressing long-term challenges - ensuring the corporate plan, Medium Term Financial Strategy and Transformation Plan are aligned and support the long term needs of the population.
• Working in partnership with others - working in collaboration with organisations regionally and locally to support the needs of the population.
• Avoiding conflicts between public body objectives - working through established regional and local governance arrangements to ensure consistency between public body objectives.
• Involving people - involving citizens where appropriate in policy and service design and delivery, enabling community action and ownership.

4. Monitoring delivery - keeping performance under review

We will monitor delivery and keep our progress meeting our Well-being Objectives under review as follows:

How we will monitor progress

• Through the quarterly and annual performance monitoring reports to Cabinet.

How we will report achievements

• Quarterly and annually through Cabinet.
• Annual Review of Performance.

When and how this plan will be updated

• Annual review and refresh.

5. Next stages - what we plan to do next

We have made some good progress embedding sustainable ways of working into how we do business as illustrated in this Plan; we want to continue to build on this.

To fully meet our obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we want to:

• ensure sufficient and joined-up capability and capacity in strategic planning;
• continue to look for ways to increase citizens' involvement;
• look to create a longer-term strategic outlook, looking ahead up to 25+ years;
• ensure strategic integration and coherence between plans and strategies;
• work to ensure that the sustainable development principle shapes strategy and decision-making, and;
• continue to further embed the sustainable ways of working.

6. Where to find additional information

Strategies, plans and policies

Performance and statistics

Finance and budget

Scrutiny

Well-being of Future Generations

Safeguarding

Schools and learning

Children and young people's rights

Swansea Bay City Deal

Regeneration and development plans and policies

West Glamorgan Regional Partnership (opens new window)

Partneriaeth (formerly Education through Regional Working (ERW)) (opens new window)

Poverty and prevention strategies

Climate change and nature recovery

Have your say - consultations

Human Rights and Strategic Equality Plan 2024 - 2028

Welsh language