LOCAL SERVICE BOARD

Minutes of a meeting of the Joint Conwy & Local Service Board held in Cartrefi Conwy, Morfa Gele, NW Business Park, Cae Eithin, Abergele LL22 8LJ on Tuesday, 17 June 2014 at 10.00 am.

PRESENT

Andrew Bowden (Chair) Cartrefi Conwy Mohammed Mehmet (Vice-Chair) Denbighshire County Council Iwan Davies Council DCI Steven P Williams North Police Richard Fairhead ACFO, North Wales Fire & Rescue Glyn Jones Councillor Dilwyn Roberts Conwy County Borough Council Jan Jones (substitute for Sioned Rees) Iwan Jones (substitute for Emyr Williams) Snowdonia National Park Sally Baxter (substitute for Neil Bradshaw) BCUHB

OFFICERS

Liz Grieve Partnerships & Communities Team Manager (DCC) Gillian Hayes Corporate Partnerships Manager (CCBC) Sally Baxter BCUHB Beverley Moore LSB Development Officer (DCC) Hannah Rigby LSB Development Officer (CCBC) Sharon Walker Committee Administrator (DCC)

Chris Evans Principle Housing & Area Renewal Officer (DCC) Debbie Doig Evans Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Roy Bichan, North Wales Economic Forum; Neil Bradshaw, BCUHB; Councillor Hugh Evans, Denbighshire County Council; Delyth Jones, Public Health Wales; Wendy Jones, Conwy Voluntary Services Council; Sioned Rees, Welsh Government; John Watkin, Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council; and Emyr Williams, Snowdonia National Park Authority.

2 LETTERS FOR THE BOARD

None received.

3 MINUTES

The Minutes of a meeting of the Local Service Board held on the 27 March 2014 were submitted.

The Acting Director of Planning, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, informed the Committee that regarding Page 12, Item 9 “Exception Reporting – LSB-ESF Funded Projects” a letter had been submitted to the Chair of BCUHB but to date no response had been received.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Joint Conwy & Denbighshire Local Service Board held on 27 March 2014, be received and approved as a correct record.

4 MATTERS ARISING

NHS Reform Update – Sally Baxter, Acting Director of Planning, BCUHB, provided a verbal update on developments which had taken place over recent months.

The following updates were presented:

 The new Chief Executive of BCUHB started in post on Monday 16 June 2014.  Assessment of area management to take place and how the management structure fits.  Future possible changes to the Health Board for sustainable services for the future. How services could be provided with shrinking resources.  Assessing the following services:  Surgery  Maternity  Paediatric and how the services could be provided at three main hospital sites. Recommendations to be presented to BCUHB at the end of July 2014 as to the streamlining of the process.  Prevention reforms to be looked into. Number of projects working with partners regarding healthy living.  Projects to support people at home rather than in hospital.  The new Chief Executive had been aware of the linguistic needs of people and linguistic impact assessments would take place to ensure services were offered through the medium of Welsh.

Engagement Strategy – Verbal update provided by the Partnerships & Communities Team Manager (DCC).

Work had taken place developing an LSB website, an example of which was shown to the Board. Over a period of time, the website would be developed and become an LSB working site to share documents and also to include engagement activities. The website would encourage collaboration across the LSB. The Group would seek funding from the LSB partners of £300 per member and an additional fee of £30 per year for the updating and running of the website.

Information Strategy – Verbal update provided by the Corporate Partnerships Manager (CCBC).

DCC and BCUHB would be leading on a training session on sharing information which would be provided to all partner organisations in September 2014. The session would look not only at systematic sharing of information but also ad hoc sharing. All partners had been asked to provide case studies based on their experiences of sharing information to help raise awareness of each other’s experiences and also the various legislation affecting them. A toolkit would also be provided to enable participants to take the training back into the workplace and disseminating information on behalf of the Joint Conwy & Denbighshire LSB.

Most of the Joint LSB organisations have now signed up to WASPI (the Wales accord on the sharing of personal information), a training session was scheduled to take place on Friday 20 June 2014 for those who are still in the process of signing up.

A question was raised as to whether r LSB would be required to sign any LSB ESF Project Service Level Agreements and memoranda of understanding arising from the Joint LSB’s projects or whether this could be done on an operational level. It was agreed that these could be signed on a more operational level on behalf of the Board but that press should be informed of these important events.

Scrutiny Update - Verbal update provided by the Corporate Partnerships Manager (CCBC).

A pilot Scrutiny arrangement had taken place in Conwy during the previous year. Based on lessons learnt from the pilot, final nominations for non-voting co-opted members has been seeked from the Joint Local Service Board partner organisations and these were now to hand.. The co-optee members would represent the LSB when items involving the LSB were on the Partnerships Scrutiny Committee Agenda. The model used in Conwy would also be used from September 2014 in Denbighshire.

The nominees were:

North Wales Fire & Rescue Meirick Lloyd Davies Conwy Voluntary Services David Scott Conwy County Borough Council Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee Public Health Wales Siwan Jones Natural Resource Wales Euros Jones North Wales Police Jeff Moses Cartrefi Conwy Sandra Lee Snowdonia National Park Authority Iwan Jones

A nomination from BCU would be forthcoming shortly.

Llandrillo College had declined to put forward a nominee due to current lack of capacity, however, they will re-visit this in the future.

The nominees would be trained by the Wales Centre for National Scrutiny in readiness for September 2014.

Draft LSB Information Pack - Verbal update provided by the Partnerships & Communities Team Manager (DCC).

The Information Pack was currently in draft form but was due to be signed off imminently. The pack had been designed to assist new members to understand the LSB in more detail. The Information Pack would be sent out as soon as possible.

Terms of Reference – An update was presented by the Corporate Partnerships Manager (CCBC).

The proposed changes to the LSB Terms of Reference were produced for the Board Members information and comments.

Community Safety Partnership (Commissioners Fund) - Verbal update provided by the Partnerships & Communities Team Manager (DCC).

Agreement had been reached regarding bids with the Police and Crime Commissioner.

RESOLVED that the respective reports be received and their contents noted.

5 FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME AND ACTIONS TABLE

A copy of the Local Service Board Forward Work Programme and Actions Table (previously circulated) was presented.

It was agreed that the LSB Projects would be showcased at a Joint event to take place in September, and that a formal report be presented at the December LSB meeting.

RESOLVED that the Forward Work Programme and Actions Table be noted and updated.

6 LSB FINANCE REPORT

The Chair presented a Conwy and Denbighshire Local Service Board Financial Framework report (previously circulated) to provide LSB members with an overview of the financial framework for the LSB’s business and projects to highlight potential areas of concern going forward.

Prior to discussion of the report, the Chair extended his gratitude to the Partnerships & Communities Team Manager (DCC) for producing the report.

There were concerns within the report regarding funding.

All external sources of funding were due to end by the end of the financial year 2014/15. While the time-limited projects were due to cease during the year, the support of the LSB’s ongoing work would be limited in the absence of further external funding for the Development Officer and Making the Connections Officer posts.

Restricted external funding was likely to reduce the capacity of LSB to continue to mature and would reduce the development capacity within the third sector.

In the current financial climate where frontline services must be prioritised, Local Authorities’ capacity to support partnership development would become increasingly stretched and current levels of support could not be guaranteed in future years.

RESOLVED that:

 The LSB notes the current situation and monitors developments over the coming months;  A further report be tabled in December 2014 outlining proposals for how the LSB could be supported in light of the demands of the Future Generations Bill and the recommendations of the national evaluation of the LSB Development Officers;  The report also outlines proposals for the development of a pooled project and development budget based on financial contributions from all partners.

7 THE DENBIGHSHIRE WELL-BEING PLAN

The Partnership & Communities Manager (DCC) presented a Denbighshire’s Wellbeing Plan Update report (previously circulated) to update LSB members on the progress of the project plan for publication of Denbighshire’s second Single Integrated Plan (SIP).

The current plan was due to end in 2014 and its successor to be published in December 2014.

In line with the Future Generations Bill, the proposed title was: Supporting Independence & Resilience: Denbighshire’s Wellbeing Plan.

The proposed theme for the SIP would be “Independence and Resilience” with priority areas being “rural areas”, “vulnerable families” and “building community capacity”.

A further report would be submitted to the December LSB meeting to endorse the Plan.

RESOLVED that the LSB members accept the report and agreed to a further report th being submitted for endorsement of the Plan at the December 5 LSB meeting.

8 PRESENTATION

The Partnerships & Communities Team Manager (DCC) introduced a presentation regarding the Conwy & Denbighshire Priority Area Overview.

The overview encompassed alcohol, childhood obesity, and the ageing population.

Concerns were raised regarding the issue of duplication of work and also of issues falling through gaps in the system.

The Chair confirmed the objectives had been signed off. Three areas had been identified and there was a need to ensure, as community leaders, these worked effectively.

Data sharing had improved but there was still scope for this to work even better.

It was confirmed that the Older Persons Commissioner had requested to attend an LSB meeting to discuss the aging population. She felt that middle ranking officers who were not delivering were making it more challenging for frontline staff to deliver, therefore, affecting frontline services.

The Chair confirmed that the Older Persons Commissioner had asked him to attend an event in Llandudno in July to speak as Chair of the LSB.

The Chief Executive of Denbighshire County Council confirmed alcohol and substance mis-use had been an issue within the region and it would be appropriate to become more engaging and spend time working on the issue to assure the Board what was being done was the best.

A standalone piece of work could be carried out regarding childhood obesity.

RESOLVED that:

 The Board note and accept the presentation  Invite the Older Persons Commissioner to attend LSB  Regarding childhood obesity, a Task & Finish Group be set up to review the framework  A Lead Officer be identified (from Children and Young People Services) regarding the alcohol and substance mis-use issue and to attend a future LSB meeting.

9 ENERGY SAVINGS TRUST PROJECT

The Principle Housing & Area Renewal Officer (DCC) presented a report (previously circulated) to inform members of the data gathered by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) who were commissioned to report on the potential of future Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding in both Denbighshire and Conwy. The report combined feedback from strategic LSB partners on the effectiveness of the proposed EST options as detailed within their report.

The ECO was an energy efficiency programme introduced into Britain at the beginning of 2013. It replaced two previous schemes, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). ECO had originally been scheduled to finish in March 2015, however, the scheme had been extended until March 2017.

The sourcing of the ECO funding represented a significant financial gain for both Denbighshire and Conwy’s residents. However, the establishment of the partnership, and the co-ordination and management of finances and of stakeholder groups would require significant time and effort.

Denbighshire did not have the resources available to make an impact with ECO but had recently received revenue funding as part of a successful bid for ECO funding in west . With this funding, Denbighshire would be in a position to employ an Energy Efficiency Officer on a short term contract which would enable the county to bid for ECO funding and potentially project manage schemes in the future.

Discussion took place and initially the two preferred options were:

 Option 2 – Customer interest – this involved attracting and directing customers towards a particular channel of delivery. The “brand credibility” of partners, and the local authority in particular should not be underestimated, EST had run marketing campaigns in Wales with no more than a local authority logo and achieved significant uptake of insulation at no cost to the authority. This would be considered as the minimum option.  Option 3 – Customer contact – more proactive customer gathering could also involve allocating staff and resources to managing customer interest, speaking to the public, providing information and also collecting key information before onward passage to a selected and vetted private sector delivery partner. This option would likely trigger procurement activity and could, therefore, take time to implement. It offered the possibility of generating an income through referral fees to recover expenses.

Following further discussion, it was

RESOLVED that:

 LSB recommend Option 2 but to be kept under review.  A further report to be presented including the impact and benefits related to the project.

10 BASIC SKILLS AND LITERACY PROJECT UPDATE

Debbie Doig Evans of the Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (DVSC) presented a report (previously circulated) to update the Local Service Board on the Improving Basic Skills Project. This had been instigated by the Local Service Board following discussions regarding issues that had arisen from a proportion of the citizens of Conwy and Denbighshire having poor basis skills.

The Chief Officer from DVSC had proposed that the LSB should have an accurate picture of work which had been carried out in both counties to address the need and formulate a co-ordinated approach to the work to ensure effective outcomes, smart commissioning and efficient working practices took place.

Within Conwy and Denbighshire there had been an awareness of certain geographical areas with particular “hot spots”. For example, Denbighshire’s needs assessment data illustrated that 46.2% of people living in Rhyl West had literacy skills below Level 1, compared to 24% for Denbighshire as a whole. Similarly, Conwy’s needs assessment data indicated that in Llysfaen 1 ward, 28% of people aged 20-24 and 32% of people aged 25-34 had no recognised qualifications.

The Adult Community Learning Grant 2014/15 for both Denbighshire and Conwy had been cut by 37.5% and further cuts were envisaged for 2015/16. This would have a further impact on current basic skills delivery within the two counties.

For individuals and the economy, lack of basic skills had been a waste of potential, a financial burden and a check on future growth. Without good communication, literacy and mathematical skills, individuals were severely disadvantaged throughout their lives, as learners, in the workplace and as parents, consumers and citizens.

Following discussion, it was

RESOLVED that LSB note the report and support the recommendation –

To develop basic skills improvement as a key work-stream within the single North Wales ESF bid addressing the support needed for those who are economically inactive.

Whilst this data relates to Conwy and Denbighshire only, the impact of poor basic skills affects all areas of Wales and this work aligns with the range of projects necessary to address economic inactivity. A regional approach avoids duplication, enhances collaborative working and strengthens the aim of the North Wales Economic Ambition Board.

The proposal seeks to improve through increased consistency of approach across the public, private and third sectors; consistent methods of measurement to indicate improvement and the distance travelled and increased collaboration among partners to deliver a progression pathway from economic inactivity through engagement, education and training to employment and career development.

There may also be an opportunity to match fund via a bid to external funders, e.g. BIG Lottery, enabling the Third Sector section of the work-programme, maximising resources available and targeting the “hot spot” areas with highest level of need.

11 ISSUES FOR THE BOARDS ATTENTION

A question had been raised at the recent Conwy Partnerships Committee as to whether LSB could be a more open meeting and if members would be able to attend.

The Terms of Reference stated that people could attend with the agreement of the Chair.

12 AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING

RESOLVED that members of the Board agree the items listed in the Forward Work Programme of the Local Service Board.

13 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

None.