Agenda, decisions and minutes

None.

Councillor D Davies declared an interest under:

Item 6 Property Services Arrangements – Implementation – Cllr Davies is named in the report as a Director of the new LATCo.

Item 9 Transfer of Share in CSC Foundry Limited to South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee – Cllr Davies is currently the Chair of this Committee.

The Minutes from 12 February 2025 were accepted as a true record.

The Leader introduced the report for the period 1 October to 31 December 2024.

At the end of Quarter 3 there were 42 risks recorded across the organisation as outlined within the report.

In comparison to Quarter 2 corporate risk register, there was one risk (WCCIS Replacement) which reduced its risk score from 20 to 12.  This reflected the progress made by the Council to purchase a new system and an establishment of a project team to oversee its implementation.

The 14 remaining risks remained at the same risk score. 

The Governance and Audit Committee would receive the Quarter 3 risk update at the end of March.  

Councillors Lacey, R Howells, Forsey and Adan highlighted the pressures that services were under in relation to their portfolio.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet considered and noted the contents of the Quarter 3 update of the Corporate Risk Register.

The Deputy Leader presented the report, which if supported would progress to Full Council for agreement.

It was noted that there were no significant variances compared with previous year’s on the gender pay gap areas, or the lowest paid officer compared with the highest.

There was a new requirement for the Council to report on its Social Partnership Arrangements statement, as part of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023.

The Council agreed this statement with all Trade Unions, apart from one union and details were included in the Pay and Reward Policy.

The Deputy Leader noted that the Council was committed to continuing to build on Social Partnership and reaching consensus wherever possible.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet noted and supported the content of the draft Pay and Reward Policy accompanying this report and recommended it for adoption by Full Council.

The Leader introduced to Cabinet the report outlining the background of Newport Norse joint venture (JV). This current partnership provided a range of services including facilities management; estate management, design and building maintenance; premises management and cleaning.

In previous reports, supported by Scrutiny recommendations, Cabinet agreed the establishment of a local authority trading company ( LATCo) to take over from the current JV which would come to an end on 31 December 2025.

The Cabinet Member for Assets and Infrastructure was invited by the Leader to update Cabinet on the delivery of the future model for the provision of Property Services for Newport City Council.

In addition to this, the Leader outlined the detailed proposals which provided authority to move to the next stage. This included the six recommendations set out in the report for the Cabinet decision.

The Leader and the Chief Executive thanked all staff working for Newport Norse JV and hoped to continue to work with the staff in the coming years.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet agreed to the following:

1.      To delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Transformation and Corporate (SDTC), in consultation with the Head of Finance and the Head of Law and Standards, to take such steps as are necessary to formally set up and incorporate the LATCo, including registration of the LATCo at Companies House, determining the need for any documents required to enable the company to function, including the Articles of Association and any Shareholder Agreement and any other documents the SDTC considers necessary and to determine the form, content and provisions of such documents.

2.      To appoint the Deputy Leader, SDTC and Strategic Director-Environment and Sustainability as Directors of the LATCo, with effect from the date of registration at Companies House.

3.      To delegate authority to the SDTC, in consultation with statutory officers, to determine the form and content of and enter into an agreement between the Council and the LATCo which sets out the scope of the services to be provided to the Council by the LATCo, the provisions governing the delivery of such services and the sums to be paid by the Council for such services provided that such sums are within established budgets.

4.      To agree for the use of reserve funds (prior year underspend reserve) of £597,000 as set out in this report for the updated one-off transition costs (in addition to the figure of £745,000 approved previously).

5.      To approve, subject to the drawing up and entering into of a suitable loan agreement document, the granting of a loan from the Council to the LATCo of up to £3,000,000 (three million pounds) for the purposes of funding the LATCo’s initial operating costs and to delegate to the SDTC, in consultation with the Head of Finance and the Head of Law and Standards, the authority to determine:

a)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Cabinet Member for Communications and Culture provided an outline on the first Newport Culture Strategy to Cabinet for adoption by the Council. 

This set forth a detailed vision on how the Council enabled and supported Newport’s unique Culture and Heritage to thrive. 

This was developed in collaboration with a huge range of stakeholders, including key partners in the sector that formed the Steering Group.

The report helped Cabinet understand what was required and the benefits of a Culture Strategy, details of which were included in the report.

Councillor Lacey thanked Councillor Corten for their hard work and dedication to the completion of this Cultural Strategy.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet approved and adopted the draft Newport Culture Strategy 2025-35 at Appendix 1 of this report.

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Democratic Services presented the report to Cabinet colleagues, which had been in place since 2022 and was coming to an end.

Further funding for what is being called a transition year, April 2025 until March 2026, was announced by UK Government in the Autumn Budget.  This transition fund allowed UK Government to agree longer-term funding plans and Newport City Council was looking forward to hearing the proposals in the next spending review.

Newport’s funding allocation for 2025-26 is just over £11m, of which UK Government expected to see a minimum of £3million being used for capital projects. The Local Investment Plan detailed in Appendix 1 provided a list of projects and programmes which it was suggested would be supported in the next year and reflected a mix of Council-led projects and funding to support external groups and organisations.

Councillor Clarke thanked officers involved for their hard work.

The Leader thanked Councillor Clarke for their contribution.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet –

1.      Approved the Local Investment Plan 2025-26 which accompanied this report (at Appendix 1), and the projects contained within.

2.      Authorised the submission of the draft Local Investment Plan to the regional lead local authority (Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC) allowing the development of an updated Memorandum of Understanding from the UK Government in May,

3.      Maintained the delegated authority granted to the Cabinet Member responsible for Regeneration allowing them to approve specific projects under each of the three SPF priorities and to recalibrate and to revise funding allocations as necessary to achieve outputs and outcomes against SPF interventions.

The Leader informed Cabinet that in 2017, ten local authorities in South East Wales, including Newport, entered into an agreement to work together on various economic development initiatives under the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal.

One of the key projects under the City Deal was the establishment of CSC Foundry Limited, a semiconductor factory at Imperial Park, Newport, with each local authority holding one share in the company.

The City Deal was now completing the process of transitioning into the South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC), a legal entity that assumed all responsibilities of the City Deal.

This transition was approved by the CJC board, on which Newport City Council was represented.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet agreed to the following –

1.      That the Council transfers its share in CSC Foundry Limited to the South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee.

2.      That delegated authority be granted to the Head of Law and Standards to approve and sign such documents as are necessary in order to effect the decisions of the SEWCJC in the future.

Education Services

The Deputy Leader presented the Estyn Report to Cabinet for Education Services. The Estyn Inspection took place between 4 and 8 November 2024, with the full report published on 18 December 2024.

This report was very strong and included two ‘spotlights’, which were intended to share good and unique practice across Wales. These were based on:

1.      How Education Services commission the expertise of Ysgol Bryn Derw staff to provide excellent quality ALN outreach support for mainstream schools.

2.      The high levels of bespoke support provided by local authority officers to support school facing financial challenges.

The report also provided two recommendations:

1.      Sharpen evaluation and improvement planning processes to consider the impact of services with greater precision, including value for money.

2.      Strengthen work to develop the Welsh language skills of pupils in English medium schools.

The Deputy Leader thanked all staff within Education Services as well as the Head of Education, Sarah Morgan for their contribution and hard work, during the inspection.

The Leader congratulated Education Services and the Cabinet Member for this excellent report.

Youth Service

The Cabinet Member for Social Services then presented Cabinet with the Estyn Report on Newport City Council’s Youth Service, which underwent its first independent Estyn Inspection in September 2024.  The report published just before Christmas highlighted a number of areas of strengths for the service set against a challenging background of increasing youth population growth, areas of high deprivation and large multi-cultural communities. It concluded with some recommendations for the service to consider as it further developed.  

The Inspection looked at 3 key areas to determine how well the service is delivering youth services for children of Newport:

1.      How does youth work help young people achieve their potential

2.      What young people can expect from youth work provision

3.      Leading and improving  

The Report concluded with 3 recommendations.

1.      Set out a clear strategy for the youth and play service by mapping youth work provision across the local authority area and develop a plan to co-ordinate the services across both internal and external partners in Newport to ensure that young people’s needs are met

2.      Strengthen the youth and play service’s self-evaluation process to aid improvement planning and more accurately measure and evaluate the impact of youth work on young people

3.      Increase participation and publicise services more widely so that more young people regularly access youth work opportunities

Councillor Lacey added that the service was outstanding and highlighted the importance of prevention and inclusion team and thanked Councillor D Davies for her hard work.

To access a full recording of the comments made by elected members please refer to the Council’s YouTube channel. Democratic meetings / Cyfarfodydd democrataidd.

Decision:

Cabinet noted and accepted the Estyn Reports for Education and Early Years and the Youth Service.

This was the regular monthly report on the work programme.

Decision:

Cabinet agreed the Work Programme.

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