Agenda item

Context:

To provide the committee with an update on the steps being delivered as part Monmouthshire’s Well-being Plan.

Key Issues:

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 Public Service Board must prepare and publish a local well-being plan setting out its local objectives and the steps it proposes to take to meet them.

The PSB has approved four well-being objectives that underpin a clear purpose of building sustainable and resilient communities and is now developing the activity that will contribute to thedelivery of these. Each partner has assumed responsibility for delivering the activity whichincludes holding workshops and involving other partners, organisations and community groups.These are set out in appendix one. The measures shown against each of these are largelydrawn from the 46 national well-being measures that were developed alongside The Act. Thesewill be supplemented by local measures as the work develops.

Delivering the steps is being done in an integrated way as there are clear synergies between them. Some of the relationships between the steps are shown in appendix 2. 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.

Lead partners for some steps are still exploring potential solutions and the picture continues to evolve. For example, on Monday 1st October a workshop was held with partners exploring issues around preventing harm as a result of adverse childhood experiences, or ACES.

Member Scrutiny:

A Member referred to the recommendation and stated that as the only body to scrutinise the Public Service Board, the recommendation should be strengthened to state that the Select Committee will ask representatives of other agencies to attend meetings.  He also asked if there is anything that ensures other agencies take notice of what is said and deliberated at the scrutiny meetings.

The Policy and Performance Manager agreed with the comment and would check the wording of the recommendation.

The Scrutiny Manager took the opportunity to highlight the terms of reference of the Committee, which includes actual powers which are to review or scrutinise decisions made, or actions taken by the PSB; to review or scrutinise the Board’s governance arrangements; to make reports or recommendations to the board regarding its functions or governance arrangements.  From this it is clear that partners would need to be accountable and to do so they would need to be present.

Therefore, the recommendation was amended to read:

Members of the committee are invited to scrutinise the activity being prioritised and delivered and may identify any of these areas for further scrutiny as part of its work programme. It will ask for the 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.

We heard that the PSB must respond to the comments of scrutiny committee and the officer confirmed that the partners are willing to engage and recognise challenges are open to feedback.

In response to a request for examples of decisions coming from the PSB we heard that the work of the PSB has been on a number of issues, including providing the Wellbeing Assessment and producing the plan to respond to that.  Its decisions have largely been around providing evidence and the implementation of the plan. 

A Member expressed frustration that health proposals should be brought to the Public Service Board.  It was recognised that a bigger discussion is needed around health in general, however the Scrutiny Manager advised that Adult Select calls in the Health Board to scrutinise matters affecting Monmouthshire. 

To clarify the wider role of the Public Service Board we were advised that the PSB has responsibility for developing and delivering the wellbeing plan, and as part of that they have to take into consideration some of the broader functions of the partners.

The Chair added that we can only work in a certain framework, and as councillors must be diligent when we hear of things happening within communities to be able to bring people to account.

The Chair sought clarification around intergenerational living, and it was explained that this is being led by Monmouthshire Housing Association and Melin.  It was asked that housing officers are invited to attend a future meeting.

Recommendations:

Members of the committee are invited to scrutinise the activity being prioritised and delivered and may identify any of these areas for further scrutiny as part of its work programme. It will ask for the 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.

Committee Conclusion:

The Chair thanked officers and welcomed the progress being made. 

As an outcome of the meeting Members wished to look at wellbeing objectives around demographical changes, and invite partners to discuss future supply of housing.

The Committee resolved to accept the recommendation.