Agenda item

To accept the report as a record of the technical changes to date in the review of the Council's Plan requesting further editorial work before submitting the review in its final form to the Full Council.

The report was submitted by Cllr Nia Jeffreys.

DECISION

To accept the report as a record of the technical changes to date in the review of the Council's Plan requesting further editorial work before submitting the review in its final form to the Full Council.

DISCUSSION

It was recognised that the Cyngor Gwynedd Plan 2023-28 was the Council's public statement of what was intended to achieve for the benefit of the people of the County. It was stated that there was a change to the decision sought from what was noted in the report.

It was highlighted that two workshop sessions had been held for the Cabinet members, and further sessions held for the Elected members and Corporate Management Team, to receive their input on modifications to the Plan.

It was explained that the proposed amendments to the Plan could be seen in Appendix 1. Some of those amendments were expanded upon, and it was noted that there was a new section within the Plan to acknowledge the work of the Response Plan, and that a new priority field was being proposed, namely An Equal Gwynedd.

The next steps in terms of adopting the Plan were then referred to, which was to develop milestones for the final two years of the Plan, and then attempt to establish the actual impact on the people of Gwynedd. It was mentioned that departments would be required to place more emphasis on outlining the impact that the projects had on the County's residents when reporting on performance. 

Observations arising from the discussion:

·       Attention was drawn to the Women in Leadership project, stating that the number of women within the senior team had increased substantially since the beginning of the project. The hope was that this could be extended to include other groups of society that were under-represented in leadership roles. 

·       Seeing projects developing within the new priority field was eagerly awaited.

·       Gratitude was expressed to all who had been involved in the workshops, and attention was drawn to the fact that several of the adaptations named in the report were as a result of the achievements that had taken place in several fields across the year.

·       It was explained that the current Plan was a sign of strong strategic planning, and that the report was a record of the technical amendments made. It was noted that there would be an opportunity to expand upon the explanations before being submitted to the Full Council in due course. Pride was also expressed from seeing new matters being included within the Plan.

·       Pride was expressed that several people over 55 years of age had responded to the engagement questionnaire. On the other hand, there was concern that only a small number of young people had responded to the questionnaire, and it was suggested that consideration should be given to how to communicate with young people in order to obtain their input. ⁠In response, reference was made to the Youth Forum as a way of ensuring that the voices of children and young people were heard and included in decisions across the Council.  It was mentioned that the data from this engagement was dated as no public consultation was held on the review. It was highlighted that specific groups of the population could be targeted when engaging, and that the intention was to continue with this, moving forward.