To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including whipping declarations)

The following Declarations of interests were declared in the report upon

Progress in Delivering Priorities for Wellbeing, Leisure and Cultural Services

in Bridgend, as follows:

Councillor Janice Lewis declared a personal interest in the report as a user of the Library Service and as a Volunteer helping to run St Brides Minor Community Centre.

Councillor Dhanisha Patel declared a personal interest in the report as a Member of St Brides Minor Community Council.

The Leader, Councillor Huw David declared a personal interest in the report, as the Chair of Cefn Cribwr Community Association.

Invitees

Councillor Huw David – Leader

Councillor Dhanisha Patel - Cabinet Member for Wellbeing & Future Generations

Claire Marchant - Corporate Director Social Services & Wellbeing

Laura Kinsey – Head of Children’s Social Care

Andrew Thomas – Group Manager, Prevention and Wellbeing

Scott Rolfe – Chief Executive Officer, Halo

Simon Gwynne – Partnership Manager, Halo

Richard Hughes – Chief Executive, Awen

Kay Baker – Operations and Partnership Manager, BAVO

The Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing introduced the report and emphasised the importance of Scrutiny considering the report, as leisure and cultural services, and their wellbeing approach in Bridgend had been at the fore of their responses during the past almost two years of the Covid pandemic and needed to continue to be for their responses during the recovery phase over the coming years.

The Group Manager for Prevention and Wellbeing advised the report looked at leisure and cultural opportunities, what had been done and what would be done to improve accessibility, removal of barriers and things that can be developed to support both individual and community wellbeing, linked to Council and Community COVID recovery. He explained they also had representation to show the work that had been progressed with the Third Sector and through their building resilient communities’ approaches and where that may be taken in the future. To add to that they had included some of the areas of service that the Prevention and Wellbeing Service directly delivers in terms of active young people programmes, healthy living services and play development.

A Member referred to paragraph 4 of the report and the participation in the learn to swim programmes and asked would this be re-established in 2022, and when that would happen as the report stated they had a twenty-one-month backlog.

The Group Manager for Prevention and Wellbeing explained that the way school swimming was supported within Bridgend was that the investment was delegated to the schools and then the school arranged how they wanted to use that investment to attend those programmes. Regarding the young people who were no longer in primary school and were now attending the secondary school the project needed to move beyond school swimming, and they had to look at more holistic programmes. This included how they target programmes like the free-swimming initiative, where they knew people had barriers such as the cost to learn to swim, and how they make programmes more available to those people who would not be engaging in any other way was potentially a real challenge going forward, but one that needed to be firmly on the radar.

The Partnership Manager for Halo advised that an eighteen-week programme of school swimming had resumed. From January they had an eighteen-week plan for the rest of that year to July of schools going back, which meant that they had 30 different schools back. 118 different groups, so different year groups or different in the same year group going at different times based on the numbers of schools, as there were still restrictions on capacity.

A Member expressed his concern that the swimming pool in Maesteg was closed on a Sunday.

The Partnership Manager for Halo advised several lesson programmes were run on a Saturday in Maesteg and on certain weekends on a Sunday too.  He explained that they had historically closed earlier on the basis of capacity, use and demographics, so over the years there had been slightly  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Invitees

Councillor Huw David – Leader

Councillor Jane Gebbie – Cabinet Member for Social Services & Early Help

Claire Marchant - Corporate Director Social Services & Wellbeing

Laura Kinsey – Head of Children’s Social Care

Mark Wilkinson – Group Manager, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health and Substance Misuse

Robert Goodwin – CTM UHB Service Group Manager

The Group Manager, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health and Substance Misuse introduced the report, which referred to the strategic document that they used as the point of reference which is the Mental Health Delivery Plan which was reviewed in 2019 due to the pandemic. He explained that the report contained a number of overarching themes and a number of priorities which applied to both adults and children mental health services. Those priorities guided them in how they delivered and developed the Mental Health Services in Bridgend. He advised the report moved on to an overview of the Community Mental Health Services and referred to the Operating Group, which was a group of senior managers from the Council and from Cwm Taf delivery unit which met every month to review the operating model, talk about developments in services and planning for future developments. He concluded that the report also talked about some of the work they had done with the Voluntary Sector, in particular the Wellbeing Retreat developed in 2020 particularly from mental health matters, the service had been in place for just over a year.

A Member referred to paragraphs 3.5 and 4.2 of the report where it stated the impact on mental health as a result of the pandemic had been evident during 2021, affecting the number and type of referrals to services and had almost doubled in 2021 from the level in 2020. She asked if they had an example of what the actual figures were and how many referrals they were looking at.

The Group Manager, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health and Substance Misuse explained it had doubled they thought because of the pandemic and the report gave a scale, and he could provide actual accurate figures following the meeting.

A Member referred to paragraph 4.2 and most referrals coming from the Police and asked what number of referrals they received from concerned neighbours or the public where there were aware that someone was on their own or they were concerned for them generally.

The Group Manager, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health and Substance Misuse advised that it was not a category in itself, however the Police referrals come mostly from them being called out to incidents in the community, which could have been reported by a neighbour. Once the Police had dealt with the situation, they would complete a referral form from them, but the identity of the person who contacted the police would not be shown.

The Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTM UHB) Service Group Manager replied that the pattern of referrals they had seen had been a growth in Tier Zero and Primary Care, but the number of people with serious mental health concerns had remained quite constant in terms of the numbers, which was evidenced by the number of people who had been detained under the Mental Health Act, which had not been significantly different to before the pandemic.

A Member commented on the alteration of the operating model to change methods of contact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer - Scrutiny presented a report requesting the Committee to nominate one Member to sit on the Public Service Board Scrutiny Panel.

The Chairperson invited nominations, following which it was

RESOLVED:     That Councillor Amanda Williams be nominated by the             

                          Committee to sit on the Public Service Board Scrutiny              

                          Panel.

To consider any item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in

accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

None