Wiltshire's Area Boards
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Wiltshire’s Area Boards: The Handbook Your community, your say 1 CONTENTS BACKGROUND 3 INTRODUCTION 4 STRUCTURE 11 REPRESENTATION 27 AUTHORITY 31 RESOURCES 34 WAYS OF WORKING TOGETHER 40 CONNECTING WITH SERVICES 50 PUBLIC HEALTH 57 CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 57 COMMUNITY SERVICES 60 TRANSPORT, ENVIRONMENT AND LEISURE 62 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING AND HOUSING 67 CABINET 71 With thanks to all the people who have contributed to or commented on the handbook, including service directors and managers of Wiltshire Council, the Police, Fire and Rescue, Wiltshire NHS, Wiltshire’s Town and Parish Councils, Wiltshire’s community area partnerships, the pilot Area Boards, a wide range of interested individuals and groups. The handbook has been put together and edited by Julie Martin, Corporate Advisor: Community Leadership and Governance. 2 The legal set up behind the Area Boards is written BACKGROUND down in the Constitution for Wiltshire Council as agreed in June 2009. The Constitution is not in this The contents of this handbook have been handbook as it is a lengthy document. It can be developed through four drafts over the past found on the Council’s website at www.wiltshire. year. Several hundred people have helped its gov.uk. The Constitution sets out how the Council development including: operates. It explains how decisions are made and y The Council’s service managers the processes that are followed to make sure that decisions are efficient, transparent and accountable y Police, Health and the Emergency Services to local people. The law insists on some of these y Voluntary organisations processes, while the Council chose others. The y Community area partnerships Constitution is divided into “articles” which set out y Pilot Area Boards the basic rules governing the Council’s business. y Town and Parish Councils More detailed procedures and codes of practice are provided in separate rules and protocols at the end y The private sector of the document. The Area Boards are included y Regional advisors and focus groups. under article 10 of the Constitution. The development has been watched over and This handbook is a guide for the people who will guided by three groups: work with Area Boards. This includes councillors, y A steering group on the Community service managers, community area managers, Leadership and Governance developments democratic service officers and others who are for Wiltshire Council supporting or reporting to Area Boards. It also y A group called an External Reference Group includes Town and Parish Councils, community drawn from interested organisations area partnerships and many other groups who will y A Scrutiny Task Group set up to look at the join Area Boards or work closely with them. These development of Area Boards are listed later in this document. The aim is to encourage people on the Area Boards to work in creative ways that will also get the job done. It is also to clear up points that were raised during the Reports and recommendations have been given consultation. How the different public services will to the Implementation Executive which was the work with Area Boards in the future will develop decision-making body of the council in its transition over time. A start is made on trying to outline this to the new Wiltshire Council. Regular reports have in the handbook. also been made to the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Transition Board which examines the decisions of A strong message was that this document should the Implementation Executive. There has also been be written in plain English. While we have tried useful input from the pilot Area Boards, which to do this, there are specific groups, names and tested out ideas and approaches in the year leading plans, which cannot be changed. Some terms are up to the new Council. They were supported by widely known, not just in local government but the Area Board Development Team, who produced also by the voluntary sector and other agencies. In a study of the pilot phase. places, an explanation is given about what a phrase might mean or the role of a specific group. These Originally, this handbook was called the rulebook. explanations have been given in order to be clear This was changed on the advice of the pilot Area rather than speaking over people’s heads or being Boards that felt that this should be a guide rather difficult to understand or patronising. The use of than a set of rules. jargon has been cut down where possible. 3 Fire and Emergency Services, the Police, Town INTRODUCTION and Parish Councils - will also work with the What are we trying to achieve? Area Boards. For example, the Police are keen to work with Area Boards to further develop This handbook is about how local governance neighbourhood policing. in Wiltshire will work in the future. Local governance is about how local government and others providing public services will work Big ambitions for Wiltshire together. The Area Boards are a central idea for There have been other developments in Wiltshire this new way of working. Other things are also which support these new arrangements. After a important, such as local people being able to see review of voluntary organisations, there is now when, where and how they can have more of a group to help them work with others such as an influence over decisions that affect their lives in the Wiltshire Assembly. This Assembly brings and the places where they live. Local people will together many people and organisations to have an influence when appropriate and will see identify issues facing Wiltshire and find solutions. clearly who made decisions and why. The basis It meets twice a year to discuss the impact of of this is the desire to build greater visibility, changes on Wiltshire. These could be global, transparency, satisfaction and trust in the new national or regional changes. The Wiltshire Wiltshire Council. Assembly works together to keep the county in good shape and wants to help build ‘resilient communities’ across Wiltshire. But what are ‘resilient communities’? There could be quite a few different ways of interpreting this. For example, communities of people who are able “It really would be a to help themselves and adapt to change and wonderful achievement if, the pressures of modern life, without having to in five years’ time, people rely on others, such as local government. The genuinely looked forward Wiltshire Assembly also talks about these being to meeting with their local communities where people do not feel left out. Area Board to tackle issues These could also be communities where people and identify opportunities to can build skills and knowledge to take action improve the quality of life at and improve their quality of life. A generally a local level.” agreed definition of resilient communities is that they are ones where people are active and confident in voicing and addressing their own needs and ambitions. There are many issues that unite different communities in Wiltshire, including: To help get this going, there is a Co-ordinating y Lack of affordable housing Group which provides a bridge between the y Need for more facilities for young people Wiltshire Assembly and other groups such as y Improving relationships between people of those looking at the economy, children and different ages young people, community safety, housing, the y Problems with public transport environment etc. There is also a Public Service y Heavy goods vehicles going through villages Board that brings together the larger budget holders in the county. They make sure that y Speeding and pot-holes government money is spent on local priorities. y Emergencies such as flooding The Wiltshire Assembly and the Public Service Board have developed high-level plans after a Area Boards will be a formal part of the Wiltshire long period of consultation. There are quite a Council and will look at such issues and try to few of these plans. These are some of the key find solutions. They will have authority to act as ones: a local arm of the council. Other organisations y The Sustainable Community Strategy for providing public services – such as Health, Wiltshire. This is an analysis of the quality 4 of life and wellbeing in the county. This is problems. This may be especially true where being linked the Core Strategy, which is the the solution involves challenging people’s key planning document for Wiltshire. The behaviours and views. This is not going to Core Strategy sets out the long-term ideas happen if everything comes from the council. for the area and the policies and proposals that will make these ideas happen So, on the one hand, Wiltshire’s new y The Local Agreement for Wiltshire. This arrangements for communities give power and is an agreement between organisations influence to them from the ‘top down’. On the in Wiltshire to take action to improve other hand, the Area Boards must also influence the quality of life in the county. In this policy-making from the ‘bottom up.’ It is document is another agreement between intended that there will be a strong two-way Wiltshire and central government, called exchange of ideas in the following way: the Local Area Agreement. This sets out y The Area Boards will identify and consider the targets for improvement which are local issues. Not all of these might be important both to Wiltshire and central solved through local action alone and many government issues will be common to all areas. It is important that this local intelligence feeds into the Local Agreement for Wiltshire. An example of this is the ‘Credit Crunch Report’ produced by George Bright in 2009 – this was a strategic report that needed a local response.