Agenda item

CABINET MEMBER: Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn

To consider the report

To accept the report and to note the observations.

A report was submitted outlining the governance arrangements of the Public Services Board (PSB).  The contents of the report were expanded upon and a brief update was provided on the developments within the priority fields along with the work of the sub-groups responsible for those fields. Since March 2020, in light of the covid-19 pandemic, it was explained that public bodies had had to adjust to respond to the health crisis by changing their way of working and communicating with others. Reference was made to a workshop held in September 2020 to discuss the Board's role in the recovery of communities from the pandemic.

As a result of the workshop's findings the work streams of the existing sub-groups
were revised together with their work programmes, and milestones were agreed. It was also agreed to undertake further research in some areas (financial poverty and youth unemployment) to ascertain the latest situation. The findings of this research would be presented to the Public Services Board on 16 December 2020.

Another finding of the workshop was that a number of the partners responded to the wellbeing needs of our communities as individual organisations. It was explained that the PSB noted that they wanted to avoid work duplication, and they were investigating how they could operate without duplicating the work undertaken by individual partners in order to add value to the current plans. One way to avoid work duplication was that the Board from time to time invites other partners to give presentations on their work such as the Skills Partnership and the Community Safety Partnership.

Members expressed their thanks for the report.

During the discussion, the following observations were made by Members:-

·         If the Board's work was to be scrutinised then information was needed regarding measures, targets, data, successes

·         Why were the Police not part of the Board?

·         There was a lack of houses available to buy locally

·         The countryside was suffering with services moving or closing down in communities

·         The ethos of Housing Associations was to buy local housing rather than build housing for local people – it was necessary to focus on the element of re-building to protect the Welsh language and to ensure that any funding received e.g. Council Tax Premium for second homes would be invested in those areas that suffer from the impact

In response to an observation that the Welsh Government had not anticipated the need to contribute to the costs of coastal maintenance in response to the increase in use / visitors as a result of the pandemic, it was suggested that the Government's mindset needed to adapt to understand that some coastal issues were beyond Local Authority strategies.  It was highlighted that Gwynedd had already had to deal with additional costs to maintain infrastructure due to the increase in use. 

It was added that the Future Generations Commissioner noted that public bodies had to focus on how their decisions would have a long-term impact, working together to prevent problems from happening and to recognise that no individual public body can respond to the major challenges.  The need to discuss the visitors' structure was agreed and it was noted that a working group had been established to look at the current lack of provision together with trying to find a system for sustainable tourism.

In response to a comment about getting Gwynedd Council to lead on housing matters rather than the Chief Executive of a Commercial Housing Company, it was noted that Gwynedd Council's Housing and Property Department would present a Housing Action Plan to the Cabinet on 15 December outlining suitable plans to deliver the Council's vision to secure suitable housing for the County's residents.  The Housing and Property Department will collaborate with Housing Associations to complete specific plans to push the plan forward.  It was added that the work of the Housing Sub-group was to establish an innovative programme to build new, affordable housing in the County e.g. building low carbon housing, or 'pre-constructed housing' in Wales.  It was emphasised that the Sub-group's work was to look at new opportunities or construction methods with the Gwynedd Housing Strategy and the Gwynedd Housing Action Plan firmly in the hands of Gwynedd Council.

In response to a comment that there was no poverty sub-group, although it had been identified as a priority area, it was noted that the Public Services Board wished to look at poverty but work duplication was a concern.  It was added that the intention was to seek arrangements to identify where the gaps were and to maximise what can be done to tackle poverty.  Members were reminded that further research was being conducted to ascertain the latest situation and to submit a report to the Board on 16 December 2020.

RESOLVED

To accept the report and to note the observations.