Agenda and minutes

None.

The minutes of the Meeting held on 20 June 2018 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

Attendees:

·        Rhys Cornwall (Head of People and Business Change)

·        Will Godfrey (Chair of One Newport PSB Strategy and Performance Board)

·        Will Beer (Health and Wellbeing Theme Lead)

·        Supt Ian Roberts (Safe and Cohesive Theme Lead)

The Single Integrated Plan Annual Report 2017-18 was presented to the Committee by the Head of People and Business Change as the final performance report upon the Single Integrated Plan. In future the Committee would receive performance reports upon the implementation of the newly adopted Well-being Plan 2018-2023.

The Head of People and Business Change introduced the Public Services Board Theme Leads in attendance to present their respective theme and respond to related questions from Members of the Committee and advised that the Chief Executive as Chair of One Newport PSB Strategy and Performance Board would act as Theme Lead for Economy and Skills for the meeting, as the Strategic Director – Place was unable to attend and sent her apologies.

Economy and Skills

The Chief Executive as Chair of the One Newport PSB Strategy and Performance Board introduced the Economy and Skills Theme and explained that the last 12 months had seen the Partners shifting their focus to the Well-being Plan’s actions and outcomes. He drew the Committee’s attention to a number of areas that warranted highlighting:

·        Newport had a growing economy and that this was still the case without high levels of high skilled employment in the city.

·        Newport had the highest levels of young people who were not in education, training or employment (NEET) in Wales, but the Partnership had made good progress lowering this through tracking young people’s destination after GCSE and A level. This was reflected in the overachievement of some of the targets.

·        Newport had more tech companies than Cardiff and there was the opportunity to grow the industry around the Software Academy.  The PSB was working to make Newport more attractive to tech companies. The main difference between Cardiff, Bristol and Newport was that Cardiff and Bristol’s Economy were perceived to be more vibrant.

·        Newport was only one of two Local Authorities that had an increase in people commuting in, in Newport’s case it was an additional 15,000 a day. Cardiff being the other Local Authority.

·        The report had stated that Newport had the highest level of vacant shop fronts in its city centre, higher than anywhere else in the Country. This did not paint a fair picture as Newport also had the one of the highest concentrations of shops in a city centre.

·        There would be a wait for a decision on the M4 relief road until the new First Minister is in place. The road would not be a small undertaking with it possibly taking around five years to complete once started. The infrastructure project could have significant impact on traffic in the city.

·        The Council was in discussions with the Welsh Government (WG) for funding to create a new footbridge over the railway line, improving accessibility to the city centre for more  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Scrutiny Adviser introduced the Draft 2018-19 Annual Forward Work Programme to the Committee and advised that it was best practice and a cornerstone of good scrutiny for Members of a Scrutiny Committee to have ownership of their forward work programme and to be involved in developing, reviewing and updating it. The Draft Annual Forward Work Programme had been produced following a review of the outcomes from the Committee’s Work Programme the previous year.

The Adviser presented an overview of the suggested topics included in the draft Annual Work Programme for the Committee’s consideration.  Key work for the Committee included monitoring partnerships that had previously been considered by the Committee including Education Achievement Service, Violence Against Women Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence Strategy, as well as emerging items such as Arrangements for the Scrutiny of the City Deal, plus previous outcomes recommended by the Committee and the statutory duty to scrutinise the Public Service Board’s implementation of the Well-being Plan 2018-23.

The Committee had concern about meetings scheduled for the day after a Council meeting.  A Member advised that the scheduling of this meeting the day after a meeting of Council which ran late into the previous evening had impacted upon the ability to completely digest the reports and devise questions and questioning strategies. Consequently, the Committee requested that the meetings scheduled for 27 February and 24 April be moved for this reason, if possible.

Actions:

1.     The Committee approved the Annual Forward Work Programme, the start time for Committee meetings and the proposed schedule of meetings, subject to the movement of the meetings scheduled for 27 February and 24 April, if possible.

2.     The Committee requested an update on the scheduling of the report upon the Arrangements for Scrutiny of the City Deal.