Purpose of Report

To summarise for Members the progress that each of the four North Wales Public Services Boards (PSBs) has made towards meeting the well-being objectives set in their well-being plans that were published in April/May 2018.

Executive Summary

The four North Wales PSBs have published their first annual reports demonstrating progress against well-being plans for their areas. The PSBs continue to meet regularly and to work through subject sub-groups.

Whilst the well-being plans themselves identified 74 priorities for North Wales, the four PSBs rationalised the number of priorities to focus on specific areas of need for 2018/19.

In accordance with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 the four PSBs published their annual reports prior to June 2019 and sent copies to Welsh Ministers, the Commissioner, the Auditor General for Wales and the relevant local authority’s overview and scrutiny committee.

Recommendations

That Members note the progress that has been made by the four PSBs in North Wales towards achieving their well-being objectives, as outlined in their annual reports.

Background

In April 2016, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 established a statutory PSB in each local authority area in Wales.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority (the Authority) is a statutory member of every PSB in its area, as is the local authority for the PSB area, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Natural Resources Wales. Under the Act, certain other organisations must be invited to take part in the work of the Board and others may be invited to do so.

There are currently four PSBs in North Wales – Wrexham, Flintshire, Conwy and Denbighshire, and Gwynedd and Anglesey. Since March 2016, the Chief Fire Officer has been the Authority’s designated representative on the PSBs.

The Act placed a duty on PSBs to: assess the state of well-being in their areas; publish their first well-being assessments in 2017; and, following a number of engagement and approval stages, publish their first well-being plans by 3 May 2018.

The assessments considered the strengths and assets of local areas, the people and communities living there and the challenges and opportunities for PSBs now and in future. Feedback was sought from local residents, businesses and visitors across the whole of North Wales.

Using the assessments of well-being, PSBs set local objectives designed to maximise their contribution to achieving the national well-being goals in their areas. Prior to publication the first set of local well-being plans required approval by the individual statutory members and by the PSBs themselves.

Observations from Executive Panel/Audit Committee 

This report has not previously been considered by either the Executive Panel or the Audit Committee.

Information

Final draft versions of the four local well-being plans were presented to Members in March 2018 and were given the Authority’s approval. No significant changes were made to the well-being plans prior to their publication. The final published plans are available on each PSB’s website.

Analysis of the four PSB well-being plans revealed a total of 74 priorities for North Wales. These priorities were grouped under 16 key headings: Community; Housing; Education; Health Education; Health; Responsible Citizens; Well-Being; Environment; Environmental Responsibility; Community Environment Projects; Tourism; Economy; Infrastructure; Skills For Work; Social Prescribing; and Workforce Health.

All PSBs developed actions to address the complex issues identified as priorities within the plans. Working groups were established to deliver the priorities, and time-bound work plans were created with progress regularly reported back to each PSB.

Some of the objectives developed by the PSBs align with the Authority’s own long term improvement and well-being objectives and, where these have been identified, an integrated approach is being taken in order to maximise opportunities to work collaboratively with partners and stakeholders.

Partnership working is developing around areas such as climate change, biodiversity, community cohesion and prevention. Work is ongoing to explore further opportunities to work collaboratively so as to avoid duplication of effort across public sector organisations, and encourage the sharing of resources.

Conwy and Denbighshire PSB

After analysing the feedback from its consultation Conwy and Denbighshire PSB rationalised the number of priorities from six to three. It did this by looking at the synergies between priorities, the impact the PSB could have, the long term implications and where work was already in place so as to avoid duplication. The priorities below were selected on the basis of where the PSB could add the most value collectively:

People - Supporting good mental well-being

Community - Supporting Community Empowerment

Place - Supporting Environment Resilience

A detailed summary of what the PSB has achieved can be found in its annual report.

 Wrexham PSB

Following its public consultation Wrexham PSB developed themes that people living in the county of Wrexham felt were important, and it therefore decided to focus on a couple of these at a time, rather than trying to do everything at once. Three programme boards were established around:

Children and young people are given a healthy start in life

All people have the opportunity to learn and develop throughout their lives

East Area Strategic Group (EAST) to take forward and implement Healthier Wales across North East Wales

A detailed summary of what the PSB has achieved can be found in its annual report.

Flintshire PSB

For 2018/19, the Board set five priorities and a number of in-year priorities as detailed within the Well-being Plan for Flintshire:

Community Safety

Economy and Skills

Environment

Healthy and Independent Living

Resilient Communities

A detailed summary of what the PSB has achieved can be found in its annual report.

Gwynedd and Anglesey PSB

The well-being plan confirmed the two objectives and six priority areas where the Board agreed to work together to ensure the best outcomes for the residents of Gwynedd and Anglesey:

Communities that thrive and are prosperous in the long term

The Welsh language

Homes for local people

The effect of poverty on the well-being of our communities

The effect of climate change on the well-being of communities

Healthy and independent residents with a good quality of life

Health and care of adults

The welfare and achievement of children and young people

A detailed summary of what the PSB has achieved can be found in its annual report.

A copy of each of these annual progress reports has been sent to the relevant local authority’s overview and scrutiny committee as well as to the Welsh Ministers, the Well-being of Future Generations Commissioner and the Auditor General for Wales.

IMPLICATIONS