Rob's Weekly Round Up

17 April 2025

Helo bawb,

As many of us are preparing for a long-weekend, I have decided to share this week’s message a day early.

As I mentioned last week, I’m eager to resume celebrating our successes across the organisation – and in the spirit of recognising staff achievements – Rose Tipples, a Telecare call handler at C1V, was recently put forward for a shout-out by her manager Rochelle Gibbons after she received a lovely message from the family of a resident being supported by the service.

In their message, Rose was recognised for her kindness and professionalism whilst supporting the resident when they needed help and was praised for going above and beyond to reassure the family of the resident after they contacted the Telecare team.

Rochelle Gibbons, the Integrated Contact Centre Manager for Wellbeing Matters, said: “Rose often goes the extra mile for our Telecare Customers, but hearing how much she was appreciated by the daughter of one of our customers made me extremely proud!”

This is a brilliant example of how we strive to compassionately support and protect those who need us and the real difference our work can make in their lives.

Thank you Rose for your caring work supporting residents in the Vale – bendigedig!

On a similar note, I also wanted to recognise the important work that is happening at Ysgol Gwaun y Nant in Barry to promote Welsh-language education across the county.

The school is home to the Ganolfan Iaith and Clwb Trochi - a provision which supports learners who come into Welsh-medium education with little to no Welsh, and helps them to become confident Welsh-speakers within a couple of months.

Recently, some filming work was undertaken for a new video to promote the scheme, and emphasised just how important the Ganolfan Iaith is as a resource for the families who have chosen Welsh-medium education for their children.

The video featured families who had moved to the Vale from as far as Spain and Mexico, and shows how their children were quickly immersed in what would be their second or even third language.

Learning Welsh is such a valuable life skill, and I’m immensely proud of the work we do as a local authority – especially at the Ganolfan Iaith – to enable residents to live in thriving bilingual communities as well as contribute to the wider Welsh Government strategy to reach a million Welsh-speakers by 2050. Gwaith arbennig!

Next, I would like to share an update on the ambitious upgrades that have been made to leisure centre facilities across the Vale.

The changing rooms and toilets at Llantwit Major Leisure Centre have been fully refurbished - including the introduction of new water-saving showers, low-energy lighting and the installation of a new high performance, energy efficient air handling unit to keep the area around the pool and the changing rooms warm and dry year-round.

Barry Leisure Centre has also seen major improvements to its Hammer Strength Gym, as it has been transformed into a fully accessible state-of-the-art functional training zone with a new stretch area and improved resistance equipment.

Some of the upgrade works at both leisure centres were part-funded through grants from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.

As many of you will be aware, the Council owns the leisure centres, but our operational partner Legacy Leisure run them for us. 

This example of our partnership working delivers a wealth of leisure activities that promote healthier, more active lifestyles in line with our own well-being ambitions, whilst also keeping costs down for everyone.

Speaking of our aims as a Council, I recently took part in an online question and answer session alongside Tom Bowring, Director of Corporate Resources to discuss a range of important topics.

During the hour-long session, we talked about the direction of the organisation and our priorities, including Vale 2030 as our new Corporate Plan, Brilliant Basics as a plan to ensure that we all strive to deliver excellent customer service as well as strengthening our partnership work with other organisations that help us to deliver services.

Tom and I were glad that the event was well-attended and it was a great opportunity to hear the thoughtful questions and feedback from colleagues across the organisation as we work toward our shared ambition of being the best council we can be.

Diolch yn fawr iawn to those who attended and contributed to the session, and we hope that we can continue these important conversations going forward too.

In other news, I’m pleased to let you know that the rollout of our new print strategy is now complete. With the end of our six-year contract with Xerox, all machines have now been replaced by devices from our new supplier, Aurora.

Aurora worked with teams across the organisation to review equipment, aid the transition, and ensure everything ran smoothly during the rollout.

The new devices bring several benefits - including increased reliability by replacing older machines, better speed and improved capacity, lower environmental impact by introducing energy-saving features and greater cost savings by having fewer devices and reducing print volumes.

There will also be training resources to help everyone make the most of the new equipment.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this transition, especially those who took part in last year’s Print Strategy survey. Your feedback helped shape the direction of this new way of working.

Da iawn James Rees, Nick Wheeler, Andrew Brian, Elis Jones and the team for your hard work over these past few weeks to get the new print strategy up and running.

Finally, as the Easter bank holiday approaches, I’d highly recommend following the Council on Instagram for the latest updates on what’s happening in the Vale over Easter. There is a whole host of fun family-friendly activities to put a hop in your step this weekend!

As always, thank you all very much for your efforts this week, they are very much appreciated by myself and the rest of the Strategic Leadership Team.

For those not in work, have a restful and relaxing long-weekend and Happy Easter to those who celebrate.

Diolch yn fawr,

Rob