Agenda item

Invitees:

Tracy McKim – Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager

Rhys Cornwall - Strategic Director – Transformation and Corporate

Arabella Calder - Senior Policy and Partnership Officer

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager gave a brief overview on the Gwent Public Service Board and that they are required to conduct a wellbeing assessment ahead of the well-being plan. The first part is analysis, a review of the current situation. Members were advised that it is not about answers to issues, as that is for the response analysis stage, so the focus is on what it looks like. The Officer advised that the presentation will be circulated to the Committee and that they have until Monday 31 January to provide a response to the report. Members were reminded that it is the first time the well-being assessment has been done, against a backdrop of tight timelines and during a pandemic, therefore the officer explained there is more work to be done but it will grow over a period of time. It was noted it is commendable to get to this stage to make the statutory requirement.

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager gave an outline of the presentation and highlighted the key areas of impact and what the data tells them so far. The assessment looks into the well-being of the local area and what makes people vulnerable and resilient. It covers five areas of the local authority which highlights both the inequalities and the opportunities in the area. The officer covered the timeline of the assessment that it has been to the Gwent PSB, the Newport Partnership can tell them their response in two ways; one being if the equalities factors enough in the assessment and if they are looking at the assets enough. It is now in formal consultation and explained it would go into an anonymous block then to the response analysis.

 

Beneath the Gwent profile is a Newport Profile which has statistical comparisons split into five to compare the areas. The five supporting the Newport City profile will look at population, deprivation, economic well-being, environmental well-being and cultural well-being. Therefore, it would take forward what the priority would be for Newport and for Gwent.

 

Committee asked the following:

·         A Committee Member referred to the timetable of the assessment work and expressed concern if the elections could affect the work.

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager explained that the legislation is written around the election cycle. It has to be published around a certain timetable so therefore around an election is when they would expect to see a well-being assessment published.

 

·         The Member asked if the Officer thinks the Council would have everything in place to pass the assessment on.

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager confirmed it would be and that it is the first Gwent region assessment - so it will get better despite it needing more but it will definitely meet the statutory deadline. A lot of work has gone into it but that also depends on the consultation. Given the time available and challenges from COVID-19 and the fact that six months ago the Gwent PSB did not exist; it is a solid start but the consultation is a part of that in order to listen to what people have to feedback about it.

 

·         A Member noted the disproportionate wealth in the city centre, and queried if the reason was from shops being closed down.

 

The Manager could take it away and look at that more but it could be likely that it is an area with lower cost for housing close to the city centre as many are rented accommodations, not linked to the city centre as such but lower cost housing and rental properties tend to be closer to city centres.

 

·         A Member asked in terms of climate change issues, if anything is going to be done to protect Newport. For instance, the risk of flooding could cause businesses to close.

 

The Lead Officer explained that at the point they are within the assessment, they know there is a climate change plan for Newport City Council being formed which will be out for consultation at the end of December to come to Cabinet to include all aspects of climate change. The One Newport Partnership has a climate change group as it is something that the council cannot sort on its own without support. It was noted that the council has a pilot with the Welsh Government around the local area energy plan which will be coming up for a proposal in the area. On how everyone can use energy in a way that is better for the environment; reflecting that climate change continues to be an issue and is factored into the plans.

 

·         A Member queried if the condition of housing could be an area to be focused on as the plan develops.

 

From a regional perspective, other authorities have different types of partnerships; Newport City Homes is different from the council and Caerphilly still have their housing stock. Therefore the Member asked if the council could look at partnerships which are developing with different ways of working and how to adapt to that as conditions of housing might be an area to consider. This is because other areas of Wales could have other concerns from Newport’s issues. Usually it is the ones who cannot afford house insurance who are affected the most.

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager advised that in some areas such as Newport, they have registered social landlords but Caerphilly have their own stock who voted for a different route. In Newport; the housing will always be part of the PSB and One Newport Partnership. The RCL represent Newport City Homes and at the Gwent PSB level, there is a housing representative on the Gwent Board which will seek the housing requirements for the sector.

The Officer’s understanding is an overreliance on the wind data and in the housing sector it relies a lot on the Welsh Index Data. Perhaps not on the local understanding which might be something to feed back to the partners.

The officer agreed they could check that on the outside of the meeting. It intersects with climate change. As it is the beginning of the process, it is to identify things so that could bring more in to be considered.

 

·         The Member also noted it would be important to discuss access to health professionals. It is important to understand the ability to travel to see health professionals as some people have to travel further out of the area. The Member queried if the new plan could determine where the needs and support is and if the partners could help the Health Board in supporting the citizens to get to the healthcare needs.

 

The Policy Manager explained that some of the deprivation data alludes to the health services as it is a deprivation to those services; therefore it is included in the health data. The officer highlighted one issue of the plan which is what extend is the partnership plan going to fix, for example recycling can be fixed by the council. However, it would not make a partnership plan as lots of complexities for the partners to work on. The Well-being Assessment is used by not just the council but with statutory purposes with very successful grants. Things intersect with the partnership where you expect to see the activity.

 

·         Discussion ensued on the positives of the work such as the Fflecsi buses for access but if there is a potential problem, the Member asked if the partnership could address issues around the access to solve it.

 

The Officer explained that the team are not yet focusing on the solutions but collecting the evidence at this stage.

 

·         A Member asked how they will use the data and the partnership, and fully recognised the partnership working and the challenges of the different levels. Therefore the Member asked how they will feed into this information moving forward to include the voices of each different group.

 

The Lead Officer confirmed that future trends will be added to the assessment. In the document, it is noted that they need to do more work with future trends with predictions of where to go and access to services in that. It is also on how they can intersect with different partnerships. The officer noted that the Newport Youth Council sit on the Newport board so the voices are fed into the Gwent PSB.

Therefore in the planning stages, the Committee may want to mention how important it is to include young voices at the planning stage.

 

·         The Member mentioned if the partnership is very new and that they have statutory bodies who are co-opted onto it the board; they asked if there would be a similar format on the Gwent level. It was also queried if they use similar data collection methods.

 

The Policy Manager stated that on the Gwent PSB; each local authority has an equivalent to One Newport. Generally, that is chaired by a Leader/Deputy Leader with senior partnership focusing on local issues.The document could become the source of all planning for local partnership who will receive this data and will utilise it for their planning as they all need to contribute and deliver the well-being plan.

The partnerships mentioned by the Member are outside of the PSB but will later on hear about the population needs assessment in the meeting. The data is from the Welsh Index and cut in a particular way as the data is universally used for planning with the additional local acknowledge.

 

·         The Member queried if there is a Gwent Board that mirrors what the City has locally and if it feeds back to local groups.

 

The Officer confirmed that the PSB is the parent board and have a statutory set of partners with extras such as for housing. For example, at the PSB, they would have the University of South Wales for the education sector on the One Newport Board. They would have a range of colleagues from Gwent as they are very important in the Newport area and they also have GAVO and the Third Sector represented whereas only one of them would be represented at the PSB. There is quite a defined structure around that but it is important to keep those links.

 

·         The Member then queried if the different organisations are focusing on different data information or if they are feeding in from different data to balance the document. It was then queried what would be the main preference of data.

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager stated that they explain the work of the PSB but are not members of the PSB. Therefore they advised it would be likely that the individuals at the PSB in considering the Gwent level data make sure that Newport’s needs are properly represented in that data. This is via the profiles more than likely to be used at a local level. There will be projects at a Gwent level i.e. Active Travel Project might seek out local data and do particular things in a local area; where the officers would prioritise. In all the officers would prioritise both types of data.

 

·         A Member queried if there are any areas that require more in-depth review by the committee and if in-depth review will be required soon.

 

The Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager advised the Committee that the team are asking the Committee to take a view and a few of the comments have already shown that some things are missing. It was highlighted that the housing section needs more work and it is about hearing the voice of communities within the data to understand what people think. Which can often be different to the data, and the data could tell something else but both are very important to have. With future trends, the officer believes that some of the questions could be answered by future information being included as it would be relevant to trends.

 

The officer recognised that the housing definitely needs to be looked into, with the condition of housing; the officers questioned whether it would be good enough to create a plan from it. It would also represent a big step forward and during the life of the next five years of the document; the team would like to see and other colleagues within the service to see much more online use of the data rather than the PDFs and to be able to overlay the data and the success of it. The question is whether the council has a plan and is it delivering the right things; and would it be reviewed as they go.

 

·         A Member asked if the partners are all working well together.

 

In response, the Policy, Partnership and Involvement Manager confirmed that in any partnerships, there are different priorities in different areas. But however from difference comes very good understanding and useful information. The officer stated they have not been privy to any discord as it is all about what the evidence is telling them. Therefore there is no agenda and therefore people cannot push their own direction and thoughts.

 

The Committee thanked the team for their time and for their presentation and asked the officers to pass on their thanks to their colleagues for the work they have done so far.

 

 

Conclusions

 

The Committee wished to make the following comments and recommendations:

 

-       The Committee praised the officers and their teams for the quality of information received, and thanks them for the hard work undertaken for the consultation. The Committee felt that the partnerships are working together well and that there is a strong partnership as it is good to see the clear overlap between the two assessments. The Committee also wished to compliment the partners on their clear vision and that resources will be addressed.

 

-       The Committee understand that the document is still fresh and in a developmental stage, and are interested to see the document as it grows. Members asked to be kept updated on any future movements and also link or documents that will be of interest.

 

-       Members queried about disproportional wealth in the city centre, and asked does this mean because some of the shops are closed and they are not earning enough to keep the shops going?

 

-       The Committee noted the officer’s comment about future trends being missing from the report, and also how more work needs to be done with future trends. Members would like to see more of this information in future updates. Members also queried whether the housing data from the report takes account of housing condition?