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Agenda item

Well-being Plan: Emerging Priorities and Actions

Minutes:

Purpose:

To provide the committee with an update on the emerging actions being developed to deliver the objectives contained in Monmouthshire’s Well-being Plan. This provides further detail on the steps that were published within the plan and which have been subject to further development by all partners of the Public Service Board ahead of its next meeting on 17th July.

 

Recommendations:

1. Members of the committee are invited to scrutinise the emerging actions and timescales and consider whether they are the right things to deliver the objectives specified within the Well-being Plan.

2. Members of the committee are invited to bring forward further recommendations which could be presented to the PSB alongside this work and which could deliver the steps.

3. The committee may identify any of these areas for further scrutiny as part of its work programme. It may request attendance from any partner within the PSB to inform members understanding of the steps being taken and to seek assurance of the effectiveness of the partnership arrangements.

 

Key Issues

1. The Well-being of Future Generations Act aims to ensure that public bodies think more about the long term, work better with people and communities and each other, look to prevent problems and take a more joined-up approach. Each PSB must prepare and publish a local well-being plan setting out its local objectives and the steps it proposes to take to meet them.

2. The PSB has approved four well-being objectives that underpin a clear purpose of building sustainable and resilient communities. The objectives are:

Provide children and young people with the best possible start in life

Respond to the challenges associated with demographic change

Protect and enhance the resilience of our natural environment whilst mitigating and

adapting to the impact of climate change

Develop opportunities for communities and businesses to be part of an economically thriving and well-connected county.

3. The issues within the plan are complex and there are no clear answers or quick solutions to address them. The ‘steps’ within the plan give an indication of the work the PSB will deliver or commission. Each of the partners has assumed responsibility for exploring the steps and beginning to turn them into more specific actions which the PSB can then prioritise. This is necessary as the organisations do not have the capacity to work on all 19 of these at the same time.

4. The lead partner for each step was provided with a range of information to inform the development of the step, including a briefing paper outlining the PSB’s approach and key questions that need to be considered in developing the step. Details of the process and guidance are included as appendix 3 to this report. The insight gathered so far was also provided, this included evidence from the Well-being Assessment, feedback from partnerships, the Future Generations Commissioner and responses to the consultation on the Well-being Plan.

5. Each partner has been further developing the evidence base and exploring potential solutions that could move us towards delivery against the outcomes in the plan. This has included discussions with experts in these areas. Ahead of Select Committee each partner has been asked to specify:

The vision or ambition for each step in two or three sentences thinking about the impact on communities

Whether the work at the exploration/research stage or moving towards action?

When the work would be expected to start if approved by PSB which could be either steps in the process or actions in communities.

When would we expect there to be an impact that people notice

At time of circulation this is not in place for all steps. An update on outstanding activities will be provided at the meeting.

6. Delivering the steps will also need to be done in an integrated way. Some steps in Appendix 1 have been combined where there is strong integration with the actions being taken to address the issues in each step. Work to progress each of the steps will inevitably impact on other steps, and some of the steps are likely to be developed together to reduce the likelihood of “silo working”. Consideration will also need to be given to how the aspirations of the PSB, which are crosscutting, are integrated when progressing the steps. The matrix in appendix 2 demonstrates how the steps (summarised on the axis) will impact on each other, with the most significant impacts shaded in blue, this integration will need to continue to be reviewed as the action to address each step is developed.

7. Lead partners for some steps are still further developing the evidence base and exploring potential solutions and information on the progress made on some steps has not yet been provided to inform this report, as shown in appendix 1. The information for the remaining steps will be circulated to the committee when available.

8. At its next meeting the PSB will begin the process of sequencing these steps to ensure that they are the right things to be doing and being delivered in a logical order and in accordance with the available resources and time commitments required to make them happen. As the work develops further performance measures and milestones will be established against each of these to that partners can be held to account for delivery.

 

Member Scrutiny:

The Head of Policy and Governance introduced the report and invited questions and comments:

 

·         The Chair enquired if the Public Service Board (PSB) Select Committee had powers to invite partner organisations to its meetings to ask questions, and secondly asked if the partners have their own scrutiny processes.  It was clarified that the PSB Select Committee has scrutiny powers because the local authority has statutory responsibility for the oversight and governance of the PSB.

 

·         A Member queried the absence of an integrated public transport system adding that better transport links would help to address PSB priorities and questioned the next steps in Monmouthshire, and what strategy would be used to ensure it’s an integral part of PSB work.  The relationship between the PSB and Monmouthshire Strategic Transport Group was queried. 

 

It was responded that transport is consistently raised by all age groups and development of technological solutions to rural transport, and the promotion of active and sustainable travel is key.  It was explained that the Council made a bid to the Cabinet Office Digital Service to set up a Challenge Fund to develop technical solutions to address loneliness and rural transport.  Private companies are being invited to participate in a competition to develop solutions to connect communities.  This matter is also under consideration by Cardiff Capital Region.  Ultimately, the aspiration is to have a fully integrated transport system in the County.

 

The Member queried timelines and was informed that the project was launched on 3rd July 2018, the GovTech competition launched on 16th July 2018 followed by a launch event, and closes on the 5th September 2018.  An assessment panel will consider initial ideas for 2/3 weeks and first allocations of funding will be disbursed to five firms over an 8/10 week period.  A further assessment panel will select two of the five projects to proceed as pilots working towards a viable solution by the end of 2019.

 

·         The Chair was interested in projects to address PSB priorities such as the best possible start for children, addressing physical inactivity and obesity and promoting active and safe communities and sought ways to collaborate with the Health Board e.g. on transport.  He welcomed the opportunity to question partner organisations, and urged that timescales are applied as soon as possible.

 

·         A Member emphasised that healthy food is not always cheap and asked how the authority can engage with supermarkets to provide cheaper healthier food for families that cannot otherwise afford it.  It was responded that schools do an excellent job of educating young people about healthy eating choices. It was explained that opportunities to explore sustainable and healthier food options within the County to maximise local supply chains and community led innovative approaches.

 

·         Regarding the competition, a Member asked if there was an opportunity to scrutinise companies at the Research and Development stage. It was noted that there will be opportunities for engagement and to scrutinise chosen projects at a later stage.  It was also confirmed that it is a nationwide competition and incentives will be available e.g. office space if the company wishes to relocate.

 

·         Members promoted the need for excellent broadband, and added their disappointment that Monmouthshire was bottom of the list in the Welsh Government roll out of broadband.

 

·         A Member asked the following questions:

 

“What is the PSB’s vision in the Short, Medium and longer term?” - It was responded that the Steps show the Council’s ambitions and timescales e.g. digital solutions for rural transport.  It was noted that some steps are more aspirational and more detail will follow in due course.

 

“What measures in the Short, Medium and Long term will you be    implementing? – It was explained that, in the Wellbeing Plan, there are 46 measures alongside the Wellbeing Pulse.  .

 

What are the timescales for implementing the Short, Medium and Long term measures?” - Each project will have specific measures and milestones to measure progress and impact.

Text Box: Committee Conclusion The recommendations were accepted and the Select Committee looks forward to developing the scrutiny role and inviting representatives of partner organisations to attend meetings to report on progress. Additionally, it was requested that there is some clarity about how to develop the scrutiny role with commercial organisations. Timescales for projects were also requested to enable more effective scrutiny. The Officers were congratulated for setting worthwhile projects in motion. “What data will you be utilising to continually evaluate the effectiveness of the measures and targets you propose” – We will be looking at targeted outcomes for specifically identified individuals/groups.

Supporting documents: