Minutes:
We were joined in the Chamber by County Councillor Sara Jones, Cabinet Member for Social Justice.
Context:
To inform partners of the function of the newly established Community & Partnership Development Team.
The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and the Social Services and Wellbeing Act are encouraging us to look ahead and identify new ways of doing better things. As a requirement of the Act, the Public Service Board and the Authority undertook a Wellbeing Assessment in 2016, which provided us with an understanding of the assets, challenges and opportunities within our county. This enabled us to set wellbeing objectives in March 2017 that will form part of the wellbeing plan in 2018.
The strategy for a Community and Partnership Development Team aligns with the wellbeing objectives, enabling co-production by taking a local asset and place based approach. The new team will bridge gaps by balancing community needs with Authority priorities, to ensure the county’s future sustainability.
Key Issues:
Public service delivery is changing. With an ageing population, reducing budgets and ever increasing demand, dependency upon public services is increasing when budgets are decreasing.
As a local authority we need to rethink our relationship with our local communities to enable us to successfully redesign our services. We need to think longer term about how we work together to identify and co-produce the right services going forward that will help us tackle the challenges that lie ahead.
As the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act requires co-delivery with partners, the historic disconnect between the Public Services Board (PSB), the Authority and the local community needs to be addressed. To enable this, community engagement has been repositioned within a more centralised role.
The new team also provides:
Specialist support in strategic PSB areas such as health and wellbeing issues, isolation, ageing well, community cohesion, etc.
Support for the Authority in their Cluster Area activities
More direct Town/Community Council engagement/liaison to increase knowledge of needs and priorities and ensure these can feed into strategic decision-making at local authority and PSB level.
AIMS OF THE TEAM:
The Aim of the Community and Partnership Development Team is to work with communities and partners to help bring about social change and improve the quality of life in our county. The team will act as enablers; unlocking potential and supporting sustainability through collective impact; providing a resource and tangible link between local communities and a wide range of partners; enabling the delivery of measureable and sustainable programme of activities that will constantly look to the future. Collective impact is a principle, which is based on the community and sector specific organisations, agreeing to solve a specific problem or local priority using a common agenda, aligning their efforts and using common measures of success. The team will seek to exploit this principle when working with communities and partners to reach the shared goals across the county.
The team see communities as co-producers rather than service recipients, and will promote existing and establish new networks that can provide caring, mutual help and empowerment, ultimately enabling communities to control and design their own futures.
WHAT THE TEAM WILL DO:
The Community and Partnership Development Team will work to ensure there is strategic partnership direction and community delivery, and in so doing meet legislative requirements, enabling place based delivery and furthering the social justice priorities of the Council.
In order to apply strategic context to delivery, the team will operate as a bridging mechanism between partners, Town and Community Councils and communities. The team will seek to develop solid relationships with Town & Community Councils and the community, joining-up the strategic direction of public services with the desires of the community. The team will bridge the gap between multi-agency partnerships and the community to ensure that public body partners are in-tune with their communities and are better positioned to explore collective impact and co-production to meet shared outcomes.
The team will also work to shape the community and partnership landscape and strengthen the links with our communities to address challenges in relation to crime and disorder, ageing well and children & young people, ensuring better coordination and links between the direction of travel of PSB and the wider Monmouthshire communities as a whole. The team will steer PSB multi-agency partnerships to come together with the community to work more closely and strengthen links to ensure that the Authority is adopting the five ways of working under the new Wellbeing of Future Generations Act i.e. integrated, collaborative, long term, involving and preventative.
The Team will be central to the delivery of the Monmouthshire Wellbeing Plan ensuring that support is provided to all partners and communities’ in-line with the legislative requirements of the Wellbeing Act and the direction of travel in meeting the PSB and Monmouthshire County Council objectives.
The Team will allocate a dedicated officer to each of the five areas across Monmouthshire (Abergavenny, Monmouth, Usk, Caldicot and Chepstow), to provide continuity, to build solid relationship’s and provide a steer around both the strategic direction of travel and to support local action to realise sustainable and resilient communities across the county.
In addition to this the Community & Partnership Development Team will also:
Allow for the provision of a consistent asset based community development approach across the five strategic settlements, whilst acting on local priorities.
Ensure provision of a programme of support against the Authority’s statutory duties discharged through the Monmouthshire PSB, to enable the delivery of PSB priorities, enabling the solving of societal changes via a partnership and community approach, particularly in relation to Crime & Disorder, Violence Against Women Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV), United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCR), Ageing Well & Phase 3 Older Peoples Strategy, Tackling Poverty, Armed Forces Community Covenant.
Deliver the Rural Development Programme funded Community Leadership Academy designed to increase the participation and quality of community leadership by providing a suite of learning and development opportunities, upskilling members as well as community organisations to enable a common approach. Some examples of the offer include engaging with and leading volunteers, holding effective meetings, digital engagement skills, solving complex problems, putting ideas into action, working with public bodies, positive psychology and mindfulness.
Identify and support the delivery of community development priorities and place based plans, aligned to the Wellbeing Plan, in each of the five cluster areas i.e. Abergavenny, Monmouth, Usk, Chepstow and Caldicot, accepting that priorities will differ from area to area depending upon maturity, needs, gaps and opportunities
Provide engagement and support for town and community councils to build trust, develop both participative and elected democracy and disseminate information with a longer term ambition to encourage effective community representation and leadership
Develop a ‘virtual bank’ of funding streams in conjunction with partners which maps funding streams and resources to aid community development activities
Develop a business engagement programme, working with local businesses to maximise the local social impact from their corporate social responsibility programmes;
Progress the delivery of ‘A County That Serves’ – putting volunteering and contribution at the heart of citizenship in the County. Monmouthshire has some of the highest rates of volunteering in Wales with over 3500 people giving their time to help others. The team will ensure that community groups are able to make the best possible use of this unique asset to make a real difference on the issues that matter most to local people. Volunteering has a positive impact not only on individuals and their wellbeing, but also on organisations like Monmouthshire County Council and the wider community we serve. The team will work with the community and partners across the public, private and third sector to create more opportunities for people to volunteer in Monmouthshire, to have the opportunity to share their gifts, skills and passion within their own communities.
Member Scrutiny:
Members asked for the detail of the team to be placed on the Hub to refer to in regard to roles and areas of responsibilities.
The loss of the Community Safety Action Teams was discussed and it was asked if it would be beneficial to reintroduce the teams as it was felt they served a valuable function.
Members felt that there was valuable work taking place in the community and that we should publicise our successes more.
In regard to allowing the committee to provide future scrutiny it suggested that key performance indicators were in place to allow members to identify success and progress.
Members asked the team how, as County Councillors they could help Officers.
County Councillor Sara Jones, Cabinet Member for Social Justice summed up by voicing her excitement for the approach being taken and felt that the experience of the individual team members was outstanding.
It was felt that using our assets to their full potential was something the team will focus on through the social justice strategy.
She also stressed the importance of private sector development so that working partnerships were established to benefit communities.
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Committee’s Conclusion:
The chair thanked the Cabinet Member for their perspective and felt that the team will be critical to making long term improvements.
It was asked that regular updates were brought to committee for scruntiny.
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