1.            To gain an understanding of the structure and functions of the Public Services Boards.

1.1       Background

·         In common with all Public Services Boards, Swansea Public Services Board was set up following the last local authority elections in 2016, in line with duties set out in the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015.

 

Terms of Reference have been set out and agreed in the form of a ‘Partnership Manual’. This document meets all legal requirements but also acts as an accessible guide for anyone interested in the work of the board with specific sections written to address the needs of different groups of people. This was last updated on 17 January 2017. It is recognised that this document requires updating and simplification in line with changing membership etc.

 

·         It should be noted that Swansea’s Local Well-being Plan ‘Working together to build a better future’ includes a commitment to undertake a governance review. This means that the current arrangements are scheduled for review and may be changed in order to streamline decision making and deliver the priorities within the local well-being plan more effectively.

 

1.2       Swansea Public Services Board

Swansea Public Services Board is a partnership of public service agencies who work together to improve local services.  The four statutory members of the Board are Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, Natural Resources Wales, the Fire and Rescue Service and the Council. These members are legally required to participate and ensure the PSB meets its statutory responsibilities set out in the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015. The Board also involves other organisations that have an interest in the wellbeing of the area.  The Board’s structure includes a Partnership Group, a Core group and operational workstreams all overseen by multiagency Scrutiny. Support is provided by the City and County of Swansea.

 

The organisations currently on the Partnership Group are:

In addition the following bodies are invited to attend meetings as partners:

Every year the Board reviews its membership to ensure that the right organisations are involved depending on the priorities that it has set.  In reviewing its membership the Board pays particular attention to the national well-being goals in order to ensure that each is covered adequately by the Board's membership.

 

1.3       The Partnership Group

All of the organisations involved in the Board meet as a Partnership Group. The Partnership Group is responsible for:

·         Ensuring that everyone who needs to be is involved and engaged in the work of the Board

·         Communicating the work of the Board

·         Supporting partner organisations to meet the sustainable development principle and ways of working

·         Supporting partner organisations to meet the Board's commitments

·         Providing leadership for public services in Swansea

·         Developing the wellbeing assessment and the wellbeing plan

·         Meetings of the Partnership Group normally take place every two months and are open to anyone to come along, observe and ask questions.

 

1.4       The Core Group

The four statutory members along with the Chief Constable of South Wales Police, Swansea Council for Voluntary Service, the South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner and a representative from Welsh Government meet as the Core Group.

The Core Group is responsible for:

·         Planning the work of the Board

·         Setting the agendas for meetings

·         Leading and managing the workstreams

·         Reviewing and developing the Board

·         Meetings of the Core Group are not open to the public the minutes from these meetings are published on the agendas of Partnership Group Meetings.  The Core Group meets bimonthly, alternating with the Partnership Group meetings.

 

1.5       Workstreams

The work of the Board is undertaken through workstreams which currently include

·         The Research workstream responsible for preparing the Assessment of Local Well-being.  It includes researchers and analysts from the different organisations involved in the Board.

·         The Planning workstream responsible for preparing the Local Well-being Plan.  It includes policy officers, partnership coordinators and public service professionals from the different organisations involved in the Board.

·         Priority Workstreams responsible for making a difference to key issues or Local Well-being objectives

Workstream participants will generally be from organisations on the Public Services Board but anyone able to contribute can be involved, particularly contributions from unusual suspects.

1.6       Scrutiny

Scrutiny of the Board is the responsibility of the Council's Scrutiny Programme Committee.  A multi-agency panel is the agreed method for undertaking scrutiny that includes, alongside councillors, the following non-executive members from Core Group Member organisations as co-opted members:

·         Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board - Non-executive Board Member

·         Member of the South Wales Police and Crime Panel

·         Member of the Performance, Audit and Scrutiny Committee, Mid and West Wales Fire Authority

·         Swansea Council of Voluntary Services - Non-executive management Committee Member

1.7       Functions of Swansea Public Service Board

The purpose of the Board is to improve the economic, social, environmental, health and well-being and cultural well-being of the city. The Board wants to see Swansea develop as a city and county of opportunity, a city that cares, a city of innovation and a city to be proud of. The Board makes a difference by ensuring that public services are working together to address the same priorities. The sustainable development principle underpins all of the Board’s activities and decision making.

The Board has four main tasks:

1.    To prepare and publish an assessment of the state of economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being in the City and County of Swansea

2.    To prepare and publish a Local well-being Plan for the City and County of Swansea setting out local objectives and the steps it proposes to take to meet them

3.    To take all reasonable steps to meet the local objectives they have set

4.    To prepare and publish an annual report that sets out the Board's progress in meeting its local objectives.

1.8       The Commitments

 

Underpinning the work of the Board is a set of commitments that all Board Members and Participants sign up to when they join.  These common commitments are above and beyond the legal duties that the different organisations have and assist in aligning the values and behaviours of board members. These commitments include.

 

·         Healthy City Status - Swansea is part of the Healthy Cities network promoting good health and addressing health inequality in our communities

·         Children and Young People’s Rights - The Board is committed to making sure that services have a positive effect on children and young people in Swansea and have embedded the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into the way we set our policies 

·         Age Friendly Cities and Communities - The Board endorses the principles and actions set out in the Dublin Declaration on Age-Friendly Cities and Communities in Europe. 

·         Good Practice in Public Engagement - The Board endorses the National Principles for Public Engagement in Wales and will follow them in all engagement and consultation. The Board is committed to engaging people who are interested in improving local well-being in the development of both the Well-being Assessment and the Well-being Plan and will strive to reflect the diversity of the population when doing so.

·         Participation of Children and Young People - The Board is committed to the principles of the National Standards for Children and Young People’s Participation.

·         Armed Forces Community Covenant - The Board is committed to the Armed Forces Community Covenant and to nurturing understanding and awareness amongst the public of the issues affecting the armed forces community.

·         Convention on Biological Diversity - The Board is committed to delivering against the principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity as set out in the adopted Swansea Local Biodiversity Action Plan 2005.  

·         One Public Sector - The Board is committed to a culture that cuts across organisational boundaries and sectors. Where everyone involved in the delivery of public services in Wales is part of this common endeavour, sharing common values and working together for the benefit of the people of Wales.

These commitments are regularly reviewed, moving forward the Board will consider other common pledges such as a commitment to tackling poverty.

 

2.         To explore the effectiveness of PSBs, resourcing and capacity.

2.1       Effectiveness

Public Service Boards are at an early stage of development and have a long term focus so it is difficult to assess effectiveness in terms of outcomes at this stage as the true impact will be as the long term outcomes improving Swansea’s well-being become clear.

However, to date positive outcomes have been recorded in terms of the work of workstreams initially started as a Local Service Board and carried through to be implemented as PSB projects. Workstreams have included work on

·         Domestic abuse - which has resulted in the formation of a multi-agency steering group to facilitate a co-ordinated response. This included the development of information sharing protocols, agreed referral pathways and training/awareness raising sessions.

·         The independence of older people – All Core members have been recognised as Dementia friendly with 7,500 staff trained as dementia friends, Making Every contact Count scoping work has been completed ready for PSB roll out.

·         Good Start in life – ‘Best start Swansea’ is a multi-agency campaign which agrees and communicates key messages across  partners, awareness sessions have been delivered to 29 separate agencies, engaging 630 staff. Other projects have included Jig-So a multi-disciplinary and agency team of midwives, NNEBs and Parenting and Language development practitioners for first time parents under 25 and Penderi Primary Care Early Years Project which is a project funded by Penderi GP Network to deliver parenting skills via the GP network.

 

In terms of producing deliverables, the Public Service Board has produced a detailed Assessment of Local Well-being in 2017 and used this evidence along with the extensive involvement of stakeholders to publish a Local Well-being Plan in 2018. Action planning is currently being finalised and the implementation of many of the steps identified has already started.

2.1       Resourcing and Capacity

It should be remembered that Public Service Boards are essentially run primarily on trust and goodwill. There is no formal pooled budget or centralised funds. Staff time is provided as part of existing responsibilities in an environment when staff are often taking on an increased range of responsibilities.

To date, Swansea has benefited from the generosity and high value that partners place on multi agency which has resulted in for example secondments being made (from Fire and Rescue to the Council’s Local Area Co-ordination Scheme). ABMU has also committed to make a financial contribution to administration of the board. However as resources are increasingly limited, it may become difficult for board members to continue contributing time and resource to the degree that they would like. The lack of dedicated staffing is helpful in that it reinforces the aim that PSB work is not ‘on top of’ but is the ‘day job’ – that it is a vital part of how we do business in Swansea. But the lack of a dedicated resource also means that PSB work is subject to competing priorities and has reduced the extent to which partners have been able to engage.

As the provider of support and administration as well as a partner this burden falls heavily on the Council. As no additional funding is available for PSB, there has been no alternative but for the Council to fund requirements which fall beyond its ability to meet with in house resources such as fast turn-around lengthy translations and the external use of expertise to improve the accessibility of documents. This is resulting in considerable costs.

Work for the Public Services Board ties up finite resources having an adverse impact on the Council’s own organisational capacity to deliver on the Well-being of Future Generations Act within its own organisation. This is especially true of centralised services such as communications, policy or consultation, where the additional demand on already oversubscribed services is only manageable by sacrificing other internal activity. This negative impact caused by the displacement of key skills is also experienced by other Public Services Board members particularly those who serve on multiple boards.

 

 

 

 

 

3.         To gather evidence of issues or barriers that may impact on effective working, and examples of good practice and innovation.  

3.1       Barriers and Issues

Barriers and issues which may impact on the successful achievement of the PSB’s well-being aims include

·         The increasing impact of austerity and reducing resources is a real risk. Increasing lack of resource stifles innovation as the ability of partners to invest the time and resources is reduced. Outcomes may have to be more direct and less risky to justify the allocation of scarce resource by PSB partners.

•   The uncertainty surrounding local government reform may create confusion in relation to existing collaborations such as PSB. While Swansea is open to the idea of merger, if authorities were to agree to merge, they may have very different views on arrangements that could freeze decision making on some collaborations until there is clarity.

·         In addition, PSBs should ideally follow local government boundaries to further help demonstrate community leadership and local accountability.

 

·         The undefined relationship with Regional Partnership Boards presents a future opportunity for closer working but there also scope for confusion in the short term as two relatively new organisations implement new Plans in a short space of time. The issue of lack of accountability also relates to such developments.

 

·         The Act places a responsibility on the local authority to provide administrative support for a new way of working. Yet due to the democratically accountable nature of the organisation there is a tension between the needs, culture, and existing mechanisms and supporting partners to deliver new collaborative ways of working.

 

·         Swansea PSB is committed to supporting and promoting the Welsh language, however in an area with a relatively low Welsh speaking population at present, there are real issues with capacity to deliver best practice and even at times of high demand basic statutory duties. In order to deliver, both private and public solutions have been drawn upon.

 

 

3.2       Good and Innovative practice

There are many examples of good and innovative practice in operation at Swansea.

·         The link between democratic accountability and the operation of the Public Service Board is strong.

o   In moving beyond traditional consultation mechanisms, the direct connection that elected members enjoy with their constituents has been effectively used to support involvement work undertaken by the PSB with member training on Local Well-being Plan Consultation being well-received.

o   In addition, Member Champions (in areas from bio-diversity to engagement) are often able to offer their expertise and connections to assist with the implementation of objectives and steps.

 

·         Scrutiny is not provided exclusively by local authority councillors but a multi-agency panel.

o   A multi-agency panel consists of co-opted members from Core Group organisations, who work alongside councillors.

o   Scrutiny is the responsibility of Swansea Council’s Programme Committee. However they have set up the Public Service Board’s Scrutiny Panel which includes the Chairs of other Scrutiny boards along with lay members.

o   Evidence is also requested from any organisation leading on a subject particularly statutory members.

 

·         Trust and understanding between PSB partners is increasing in particular due to a programme intended to improve understanding between services. The ‘Walking in our Shoes’ programmes gives the Core Group the opportunity to understand the ranges of services and challenges faced by each partner. Each partner host an event which includes visiting the communities served and sites.

 

·         Community and Town Council Relations – Although no Swansea Community Councils have yet identified as meeting the criteria to be subject to the duty, the Community Councils are valued partners who are invited to nominate a representative to be involved in the activity of the Partnership. The Local Well-being Plan was presented at Town and Community Council Forum and bespoke training has been offered to all Community Councillors on the implications of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

 

·         Citizens along with the voluntary and community sector have been involved in the initial development as well as consultation of the Local Well-being Plan enabling full participation in genuinely setting objectives for Swansea.

 

·         Partnership Group meetings are conducted in public to maximise involvement with questions welcomed from citizens.