Rob's Weekly Round Up

07 February 2025

Helo bawb,

It’s the first week of a new month, and as we begin to enjoy the slightly longer days of February, I would like to shine some light on some of the things that have happened across the Vale this week.

Firstly, I’d like to talk about Race Equality Week – the theme for this year is #EveryActionCounts – and I think this would be a great opportunity to mention some of the important actions being taken to raise awareness of racism and discrimination.

The anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card recently visited All Saints Church in Wales Primary School in Barry as part of their Leaders of Now pilot scheme aimed at primary school pupils.

The Leaders of Now Scheme selects ambassadors in Wales to lead the cultural shift towards anti-racism in their own schools.

The school selected a group of pupils to form an anti-racism action group called Red to Racism.

The group worked with Show Racism the Red Card to examine what they thought anti-racism should look like, the good practice going on already in school and their aims for the future.

At the end of the project, the group completed a presentation to fellow pupils, school staff, parents and school governors on what they had been working on and their longer-term plans.

Following the success of their presentation, the students were invited to present it to members of the Vale’s Community Cohesion Group in January.

Here is what George Ashworth, Deputy Headteacher at All Saints CiW Primary School said following the presentation: “The Red to Racism Group delivered a magnificent presentation to members of the Vale of Glamorgan’s Community Cohesion Group.

“Representatives from the school’s governing body and Show Racism the Red Card also attended to hear the children present on how the school is raising the profile of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan, how they are gaining a deeper understanding of cynefin, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how these important topics are being taught in school, driven by pupil voice.”

Da iawn pawb – Gwaith da! Excellent work.

Last week, Rachel Clarke from Apex Educate – which is an anti-racist consultancy – hosted a webinar aimed at school leaders in the Vale to support them when they share inclusive practices.

Rachel talked about the current media landscape and encouraged people to reflect on their own experiences.

After discussing an example case study, Rachel presented some key strategies to the group for responding to and handling negative media.

Diolch yn fawr to everyone who has been involved in Race Equality Week this week - the only way to achieve equity and equality is for each and every one of us to take action.

Next, I would like to convey my personal thanks to everyone who has been working hard to plant a number of new trees in Penarth.

I recently received a lovely message from Penarth Civic Society, who sent their congratulations after seeing the new street trees around the town.

These new trees are being planted to replace the historic ones that once adorned streets and green spaces in Penarth.

Work to plant even more trees is underway, with planting expected to continue until the end of March this year, once the historic tree stumps are removed.

It is vital that we continue to plant trees in our communities to further our Project Zero goals to become carbon neutral by 2030 and increase biodiversity.

Well done to Adam Sargent and the Neighbourhood Services Team for your continued hard work with this project and thanks to all those community groups and organisations across the Vale who are so passionate about their local community and the environment.

Continuing on the theme of success, I’d like to share an update about the latest Hive Guys community meal.

The Hive Guys is a project run by the Vale of Glamorgan Youth Service Team who work with young people to develop transitional skills which will support them in their adult lives.

They have worked on a number of accredited opportunities, but their latest project has been all about increasing community engagement with residents who have previously used Warm Spaces.

The group developed the idea of putting together a community meal for the residents – which included planning a menu and organising activities such as napkin folding lessons and a karaoke session.

Through budgeting, cooking, and planning for the evening, the young people also developed valuable life skills - whilst also connecting with the Five Ways to Wellbeing — Be Active, Connect, Take Notice, Keep Learning, and Give.

Beyond the meal, the project aimed to build intergenerational friendships, improve understanding, and create positive conversations that also supports dementia prevention in the community.

Llongyfarchiadau to Hannah Brown and the Youth Service Team on the success of the Hive Guys community meal and for all of your work supporting young people in the Vale.

Meanwhile, Shared Regulatory Services has been audited by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) this week, and I was pleased to welcome the auditors to the Civic Offices on Wednesday morning.

The audit looked in detail at how the Service delivers the food safety function across the partner Councils.

This of course is a hugely important area of work, and SRS officers conduct daily inspections of food businesses to ensure that the food we eat is safe, hygienically prepared, properly labelled and accurately described.  

The auditors were particularly pleased to see how well the inspection programme has recovered since the disruption caused by the pandemic and I look forward to receiving their draft audit report in due course. 

As is so often the case with regulatory audits, a great deal of preparatory work took place beforehand to provide the auditors with the files, data and support they required, and it is a credit to the teams that this was achieved to such a high standard.

Gwaith arbennig! Well done to everyone involved.

With Spring fast approaching, I’d also like to mention that the next round of Cymraeg Gwaith/Work Welsh classes will be starting in March.

These classes are available for any and all staff who are interested in beginning their Dysgu Cymraeg journey.

The classes run for 30 weeks and each week will consist of about four hours of work (two and half hours with a tutor, and an hour and a half of self-guided study).

There are two options available for Cymraeg Gwaith – Mynediad/Entry Level which is for complete beginners – and Sylfaen/Foundation for those who have completed the Mynediad course or who have done quite a lot of Welsh before.

Learning Welsh can be a very valuable tool – not just in the workplace – but out in our communities too.

For more information on the courses or if you would like to explore other options for learning Welsh, please get in touch with Sarian Thomas-Jones - sthomas-jones@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk.

Cymraeg yw iaith y daith!

On the subject of enhancing the workplace, I’d like to announce that the new digital meeting room booking system is now live.

As of today, staff can use the new digital room booking system to reserve a meeting room at the Civic Offices.

Using the new Meeting Room Finder function in Outlook will allow you to filter rooms by location, capacity, and floor, helping you identify the best space for your meeting with a just a few clicks.

Alongside our how-to video guides for the new system, you also can find the newly updated floorplans of the Civic Offices on the Room Booking Staffnet page.

Lastly, I wanted to congratulate the Family Information Team who are involved with the Families First funded service ‘The Index for children and young people with disabilities or additional needs’.

They reached the finalist stage for the ‘Inclusive Service’ award at the recent ThinkEDI Diversity and Inclusion awards.

The Index oversees the Vale of Glamorgan’s voluntary register of young people 0-18 with a disability, additional needs or awaiting an assessment that could lead to a diagnosis.

They provide information on specialist and inclusive activities, family support, financial help, education, and much more.

Index Officer Lyndsey Richards, in coordination with partners, has also recently produced a new education booklet for families of children with additional needs.

It provides a great deal of information for parents and carers who have a child with emerging needs or received a diagnosis.

Well done Lyndsey and the Index Team – to reach the finalist stage of the awards is a huge accomplishment. Llongyfarchiadau.

That’s it from me for this week - for those of you not in work, have a relaxing and enjoyable couple of days off.

Diolch yn fawr iawn,

Rob