Councillor Armand Watts, nominated by Councillor Rooke and seconded by Councillor Bond.

Councillor Penny Jones, nominated by Councillor Butler and seconded by Councillor Lane.

There were no declarations of interest.

Select Committee Public Open Forum ~ Guidance

Our Select Committee meetings are live streamed and a link to the live stream will be available on the meeting page of the Monmouthshire County Council website

If you would like to share your thoughts on any proposals being discussed by Select Committees, you can submit your representation via this form

·      Please share your views by uploading a video or audio file (maximum of 4 minutes) or;

·      Please submit a written representation (via Microsoft Word, maximum of 500 words)

You will need to register for a My Monmouthshire account in order to submit the representation or use your log in, if you have registered previously.

The deadline for submitting representations to the Council is 5pm three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

If representations received exceed 30 minutes, a selection of these based on theme will be shared at the Select Committee meeting.  All representations received will be made available to councillors prior to the meeting.

If you would like to suggest future topics for scrutiny by one of our Select Committees, please do so by emailing Scrutiny@monmouthshire.gov.uk

No public submissions were received.

Hazel Ilett delivered the presentation to the committee, with additional comments from Matthew Gatehouse. Sharran Lloyd and Matthew Gatehouse answered the members’ questions.

Challenge:

What overall influence do we have with the Wellbeing Plan? Will we be updated as it progresses?

The key factor in producing the regional Wellbeing Plan at the regional level, and the remit of the Gwent Public Services Board, is not to lose the localism. As we start to develop that plan, we are making links through the local delivery group, the subgroup for the regional Public Services Board. Each of the 5 localities has that board in place – ours is the Monmouthshire Programme Board, which will link with the Public Services Board and ensure that we drive what matters to Monmouthshire. It will take on board any of the recommendations from this committee and ensure its voice is heard in the development of the next plan. Officers are working on establishing a Gwent scrutiny process; members of this committee might sit on the regional board as well, with ability then to influence the local picture.

Are the 5 authorities each going to have a scrutiny committee?

We’re all maintaining our local scrutiny but will also link with the regional scrutiny arrangement.

Will each local authority concentrate on its local aspect?

Yes. We want this committee to focus on what matters to Monmouthshire and ensure that the Gwent Public Services Board is delivering on the county’s behalf. Then there are the mechanisms to feed back if the committee doesn’t feel that our citizens are being serviced best through this arrangement.

The report is Monmouthshire-based. Will there be a high-level report and 5 separate reports for each area?

Possibly, but we don’t have answers at the moment as the regional plan isn’t yet in place. There will be a local plan and a report coming forward; we are working now through how the regional plan works with that. There could be 2 reports but we will try to simplify them into one report for this committee, if feasible.

Do we have representation on the separate boards? What does ‘separate boards’ mean?

The Gwent Public Services Board has become a regional board with representatives from the 5 local authorities and partners. To ensure they still have localism feeding in, there are 5 local delivery groups in each authority – they are the strategic delivery groups for those 5 areas. In Monmouthshire, ours is a programme board, essentially a sub-group of the regional Public Services Board, and will feed in what matters to Monmouthshire at that PSB level.

Do we have officers or members on the local delivery board?

It mirrors the PSB, in effect. We have all of the partners who sit at PSB level represented here in the county – the next level down from the Chief Executives who sit at regional PSB, so here we have Directors and their counterparts from across the other public services. The difference in Monmouthshire is that we also have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Richard Jones and Sharran Lloyd presented the report and answered the members’ questions with Matthew Gatehouse.

Challenge:

Are these established objectives likely to be carried forward to the new regional objectives?

The alignment between local and regional is clear. Our priorities are informed by our local data and evidence, which has helped to inform the regional plan. The themes that they are looking at are completely aligned to those that we have in Monmouthshire.

Can members signpost people to the social workers performing triage in the community?

There is an email address, which will need to be supplied later, for a central point to which people can be referred.

In the table on p9, what are the criteria for the identification of links between these steps? Do ACEs have an intergenerational link?

This brings up an important point about Integration, one of the 5 ways of working set out in the Future Generations Act. The table quickly demonstrates how a particular step might contribute to, or work alongside, another step, so that work isn’t being done in isolation. Taking the ACEs example, mental health is a very important part of the underlying causes. So, the leads of those steps should work together to maximise the contribution that they can make to improving wellbeing in that area. That then runs through the rest of that table, trying to show the most significant integrations.

How do the icons relate to the 4 Objectives?

A key will be added in to make it clearer. It’s to succinctly show integration between the goals at a higher level than steps. Behind this work there will be more detailed plans about that integration and how it works.

Is there anything that can be done at an adult level, before adverse experiences for children are created?

This year the PSB endorsed an early years transformation programme. Also, as part of the ACEs step in this Wellbeing plan, we have been looking at the first 1000 days, thinking about the formative years from pregnancy to starting school. It hasn’t been fully referenced in this report but will come through in the work going forward.

Is there scope to look at doing something to benefit fledgling businesses, local entrepreneurs struggling to get a foothold in Chepstow, particularly following Covid and given the town’s large business rates and rents?

This is probably not relevant to this committee or this particular report, despite being of great importance.

How will we identify and deliver the government’s pledge to deliver 50% affordable housing on all new sites? How are we working towards filling empty homes and addressing homelessness?

The PSB focusses on collaborative things i.e. challenges that a single agency couldn’t consider in isolation. Therefore, most of the work concerning town centres sits with MCC as a single agency, so wouldn’t normally be looked at by the PSB. Housing becomes more of an issue across multiple partners; for example, there is a role for Natural Resources Wales when considering the problem of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Hazel Ilett presented the report, with additional comments from the Chair and Vice-Chair. The committee proposed the following topics:

• Bringing in Aneurin Bevan Health Board Adult Dementia Care about its plans for Monmouthshire and dealing with the demographic timebomb, to advance care for those people and reach out to communities
• Stagecoach’s review of its bus services in the CCR – what is happening, particularly in relation to getting people to and from work
• ABHB: Dentistry for young people
• The Covid vaccination programme: ABHB’s plans for Winter, location of centres, publicity
• The mental health impact from Covid, and educational effects
• Schools culture and education pertaining to the environment and climate change.

Hazel Ilett noted that there are other ways to address some of these concerns e.g. the vaccination issue needs timely action, so the Chair could write a letter to the Chief Executive of the Health Board asking for clarification about the rollout.

Chair’s Summary:

Transport (Stagecoach) and Dementia will be progressed as priorities. Regarding the matter of schools’ environmental culture and education, the Chair proposed writing to the Chief Officer for Education as a starting point.

The minutes were noted, as none of the members were present.

Monday 10th October 2022 at 2.00pm.