Weekly Round-Up with Lance

01 August 2025

Hi Everyone,

With Rob away for another week, I’ve been handed the reins for this week’s round-up.

Firstly, I wanted to update you on a topic that has attracted a fair amount of attention on social media and within the local community.

The Holiday Inn Express in Rhoose will shortly be used by Entitled Persons from Afghanistan on a temporary basis until they find more permanent accommodation across the country. The first of two intakes, which is expected shortly, will consist of 19 families with children, three couples and a single person.

Entitled Persons have the right to live in the UK following their efforts supporting British Forces abroad. There is important background to this. American, UK and allied forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and years of conflict followed resulting in the deaths of 457 British Service Personnel and thousands of Afghans. This resettlement is part of promises made to those Afghans who supported the UK in Afghanistan, often at great personal risk.

Although this is a UK Government scheme, operated by the Ministry of Defence, the Council has been involved in its planning as it has implications for schools given the number of children as well as for other services we provide.

Unfortunately, there have been examples of misinformation about this project being shared online, some of which is spread by people that have extreme political agendas. Sadly, some individuals have an interest in spreading disinformation, division and hate and with this in mind, I thought it was important that we share the details of what is actually going on and why.

In case you weren’t aware, the Vale of Glamorgan is bidding to become a County of Sanctuary. This involves joining a network that provides support, dignity and a welcome to refugees and people who have experienced forced displacement.

Such a move aligns with the central ethos of this organisation and its core values of tolerance, acceptance and inclusivity. 

Further information on the Afghan Resettlement policy can be found on the UK Government website.

As always, the weekly round-up is an opportunity to highlight some of the fantastic things happening across the Vale to make it a great place for everyone – especially the most vulnerable members of our communities.

With that, I’d like to share the news that the Council has recently selected the Vale Foodbank as the recipients of a funding award for their community cookery project in partnership with the Probation Service.

The award includes £20,000 worth of food stock funding, provided through the Direct Food Support/Emergency Food Aid Grant. This vital support will help the project continue to deliver its much-needed assistance to residents in the Vale.

Running since January 2023 at Coastlands Church, the cookery project brings together individuals on probation to prepare hot meals that are distributed free of charge alongside food parcels during the Thursday Foodbank sessions. 

Becky Morgan, Vale Foodbank Strategic Manager, said: “This community payback project has one of the highest attendance rates as people on probation feel they are giving directly back into the community and helping people in a very practical way. 

“This food provision has been a lifeline to many of our foodbank visitors, having a hot meal to take home for their family has made a huge impact within their difficult situation.”

Since it began, the project has served nearly 10,000 meals to people across the local community. This is remarkable project that aligns closely with our own values as a local authority as we work to ensure that no one in our community is left behind when it comes to basic needs, as well as supporting meaningful rehabilitation opportunities for the individuals on probation.

From food justice to family fun next as I’m pleased to report that the annual Flying Start Family Fun Day landed a successful turnout for its fourth consecutive year last week.

The Flying Start team collaborated with over 40 services and organisations to bring families together for the event.

The free fun-filled day hosted activities including arts and crafts, bouncy castles and magicians and it also gave stallholders a chance to highlight the wide range of free services available in the Vale to support families.

The Flying Start scheme is a Welsh Government Early Years programme that supports families and improve children’s development, health, and wellbeing.

The service comprises of four entitlements which provide childcare, health visiting, parenting programmes and speech and language development.

The Flying Start Family Fun Day brings services and support closer to families in a fun and accessible way and is just one of many activities available for young people this summer. 

The Council’s Family Information Service has collated a calendar of free and low-cost summer activities suitable for children and young people up to the age of 25 here.

Keeping with the subject of supporting families, the Vale, Valleys and Cardiff Adoption Collaborative (VVC) also recently held a Family Fun Day to celebrate their tenth anniversary as a service.

VVC provides adoption services across the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taff CBC, Merthyr Tydfil CBC, and Cardiff Council.

Since 2015, VVC has placed over 700 children with adoptive families and approved more than 500 adoptive families.

Each year the service holds two Family Fun Days which attract over 100 families. VVC staff also attends a number of local and national events to publicise the service and this year - in conjunction with NAS – VVC were involved in the annual Pride celebrations and will be attending the Vale of Glamorgan Show next month. 

Yesterday I attended a workshop session for colleagues to consider the future of care homes in the Vale. 

The Vale has an ageing population and as you’ll all know caring for older people is a big part of the Council’s work. It’s also one that’s getting harder. Both in terms of providing care at home for people with more complex needs and in finding placements in care homes where this is required.

We operate four excellent care homes ourselves, but these make up only a small part of the care home market in the Vale.

In most cases we find care home placements for people in private care homes. Higher demand for places means there are fewer available and so the cost of this is increasing sharply. Clearly this isn’t sustainable financially, nor is it good for the people we support if we don’t have sufficient supply.

There are many pieces of work already underway to try and help manage this in the short-term but if we are going to tackle the whole problem then we need to think about more radical solutions for the long-term. 

It was great to be able to welcome colleagues from the health board and other partners to the Civic Offices to consider just this. Together we looked at ideas that are being successfully piloted elsewhere in Wales and what else we could think about locally. 

It was a really productive session and what was most clear was that we have a really capable team here in the Vale and some very willing partners elsewhere in the region. 

Our next step will be to formalise some of this into a new care home strategy to the Vale. 

In other news, I’m thrilled to share an update on the success of our recent OneDrive and Teams webinars!

Over 500 colleagues attended across four sessions - a fantastic turnout that reflects our colleagues’ enthusiasm for digital learning and making the most of Microsoft 365 tools.

These sessions were delivered by digital experts, Chess who sparked fresh thinking around how we connect, share, and collaborate digitally.

Missed a session or want to revisit the content?

The OneDrive recordings and resources are now available here.

The Teams session recording will be available shortly.

Finally, I’d like to share a reminder about the Eich Lle office accommodation project.

The project is progressing at pace as teams are preparing for their upcoming transitions to their new offices. Here is the expected timetable for the moves:

• Regeneration and Place, Management and Finance – Your ICT equipment is being collected from the Docks Office and installed in the Civic Offices on 1 August (ICT staff will pack this for you – please do not do this yourself).  All other packed blue crates will be collected from the Docks Office and delivered to the Civic Offices on Tuesday 5 August.  The office will be ready for you to attend on Wednesday 6 August
• Countryside Services – Your ICT equipment is being collected from the Docks Office and installed in the Civic Offices on 5 August (ICT staff will pack this for you – please do not do this yourself). All other packed blue crates will be collected from the Docks Office and delivered to the Civic Offices on Thursday 7 August. The office will be ready for you to attend on Friday 8 August
• Planning & Building Control – Your ICT equipment is being collected from the Docks Office and installed in the Civic Offices on 12 and 13 August (ICT staff will pack this for you – please do not do this yourself).  All other packed blue crates will be collected from the Docks Office and delivered to the Civic Offices on Thursday 14 August. The office will be ready for you to attend on Friday 15 / Monday 18 August

 As always, thank you for your contributions this week – they are always very much appreciated by Rob, myself and the rest of the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT). 

For those not in work this weekend, enjoy a restful and relaxing couple of days off. 

Thank you, 

Lance