Agenda item
Ceredigion Public Services Board (PSB) meeting held 20th September 2022 & Draft Ceredigion Local Well-being Plan 2023-28.
Minutes:
3
Ceredigion Public Services Board (PSB) meeting held 20th
September 2022 & Draft Ceredigion Local Well-being Plan 2023-28.
The Leader of the
Council, Councillor Bryan Davies, attended to present the PSB
agenda item with Diana Davies and Naomi McDonagh, the relevant Officers
in
attendance.
The Leader explained that under
Section 35 of the Well-being of Future
Generations (Wales) Act 2015, Local
Authorities are required to ensure that their
Overview and Scrutiny Committees have
the power to scrutinise decisions made,
or other action taken, by the Public
Services Board for the Local Authority area in
the exercise of its functions.
Section 39 also states that each PSB must share a
copy of its Local Well-being Plan
with the Local Authority’s Overview and
Scrutiny Committee.
The statutory guidance on the
Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act
2015 (WFG Act) sets out a requirement
for each Public Services Board (PSB) to
prepare and publish an assessment of
the state of economic, social,
environmental and cultural well-being
in its area no later than a year before it
publishes its Local Well-Being Plan.
The guidance also requires that the Local
Well-being Plan must be published no
later than 12 months following each local
government ordinary election.
Ceredigion PSB published its Assessment of
Local Well-being on 4th May 2022 and it was presented to this Committee on
15th June
2022. The Assessment of Local Well-being has been key to informing
and establishing the four Local
Well-being Objectives which were agreed at
PSB meeting on the 7th March 2022 and presented to this Committee on
15th June. The
Leader explained that it is these objectives that will form the basis
of the next Ceredigion Local
Well-being Plan and are as follows:
1.
Work together to achieve a sustainable economy
that benefits local people
and builds on the strengths of Ceredigion.
2.
Work together to reduce inequalities in our
communities and use social and
Green solutions to improve physical and mental health.
3.
Work together to deliver decarbonisation
initiatives within Ceredigion to
protect and enhance our natural resources.
4.
Work together to enable communities to feel safe
and connected and will
promote cultural diversity and increase opportunities to use the Welsh
language.
It was also agreed that a
cross-cutting objective to tackle hardship and poverty
would be incorporated into the plan
to reflect the current and future implications
of the cost-of-living crisis and
that it is recognised that this will have the potential
to impact across the four well-being
pillars - economic, social, environmental,
and cultural well-being and working
together collaboratively across PSB
organisations will help maintain a
focus on this area of work.
Committee Members were advised that
the content of the draft Local Well-being
Plan 2023-28 had been developed
through on-line and in person surveys, input
from the Office of the Future
Generations Commissioner for Wales and a task
and finish group consisting of
representatives from Ceredigion PSB
organisations.
The PSB approved the draft
Ceredigion Local Well-being Plan 2023-28 at their
meeting on the 20th September and subject to minor amendments have gone
out to a 12 week public
consultation; commencing on the 7th November
2022
and concluding on 29th January 2023. The responses received during the public
consultation will be considered and
fed into the final Ceredigion Local Well-being
Plan that will be presented to the
PSB at their meeting in March 2023. All PSB
member organisations will then be required
to approve the Plan through their
usual governance arrangements
before the PSB can give final approval to
publish the Plan in April 2023.
Officers advised that this will
then be the main work-plan and focus of the
Ceredigion PSB and its performance
will be scrutinised by this Scrutiny
Committee.
The minutes of the Ceredigion PSB meeting held on the 20th
September
2022 were also presented to the Committee.
During discussion, the main points raised were as follows:
· In response to a
question regarding ‘Warm Hubs’ it was confirmed that there is a Community Grant
Scheme whereby voluntary, non profit organisations are able to apply and
register their interest to open warm hubs for the benefit of others in the
county. Many village halls could be used
for this purpose. The warm hub task and
finish group was established via the PSB Poverty sub-group and reports back to
the PSB through the sub-group.
· It was confirmed in
response to a question that work would be undertaken throughout the 12 week
consultation period to promote and encourage contributions.
·
In
response to a question, the Leader confirmed that he is content that there is
appropriate representation from all Organisations present at the PSB meetings,
·
In response to a question, Naomi Mc Donagh advised Members
that Co-Production Wales
are working with Ceredigion PSB, as well as Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire
PSBs as part of a West Wales cluster to assist the PSBs with their engagement
activity. It was noted that engagement is a key element of the Well-being
of Future Generations Act and Naomi sighted an example of them assisting with
designing a workshop for school pupils as part of the consultation as well as
other elements to help inform the process.
· It was confirmed
following a question that Ceredigion is very much on track for the document to
be published in May 2023.
Following discussion, Committee Members were asked to consider the
following
recommendations:
i.
To
receive the draft minutes of the Ceredigion PSB meeting held on 20th September
2022
ii.
To
receive the draft Ceredigion Local Well-being Plan 2023-28 and to consider what
feedback, if any, the Overview and Scrutiny Coordinating Committee wish to
provide to the current consultation on the Plan.
Members agreed to accept both recommendations in order to carry our
their
role of taking an overview of the overall effectiveness of the PSB.
The Chair thanked the Leader and the Officers for presenting the
information
and answering any questions.
Supporting documents:
- Scrutiny paper Nov 22- DRAFT PSB minutes and Draft Local Well-being Plan 23-28 final, item 7. PDF 91 KB
- Public Services Board Meeting 20.09.22 final, item 7. PDF 198 KB
- DRAFT Local Wellbeing Plan 23-28 (ENG), item 7. PDF 920 KB