Invitees:

 

All Cabinet and CMB Members

The Chairperson welcomed the Invitees into the meeting and the Leader gave an introduction to the report.

 

The Chairperson following this invited questions to the Invitees from Members.

 

A Member noted from page 32 of the report, that the Cardiff City Deal would generate around 25,000 extra jobs across the region. He asked how many of these would there be in the Bridgend County Borough.

 

The Leader advised that this number was not known at this time, but he wished to point out that it would mean that people from Bridgend would have the luxury of trying for more jobs created in other areas covered by the City Deal, such as in Cardiff and Newport, as well as the Bridgend area. It would therefore give people more choice to work out of the area as well as in it, and there would be different types of jobs to suit the different skill set of individuals. He was aware from statistical information available, that presently most of the jobs in Cardiff were occupied by employees who lived outside the city and its surrounding area, rather than within it. The City Deal would therefore encourage a more mobile workforce than that which currently exists.

 

The Member followed-up by stating that Bridgend required further work carried out on its infrastructure.

 

The Leader agreed, adding that this was being focused upon, and having met recently with local transport providers, it was established that Bridgend was the fastest growing region outside the city of Cardiff.

 

A Member referred to page 32 of the report and to the Key Programmes, and the Successful Economy Programme. Though there were key regeneration and local development schemes mentioned in this section of the report, these schemes related more to the past tense, ie the Rhiw Car Park development. He felt this area of the report should include new such initiatives proposed. He also felt that Bridgend did not look that appealing to visitors when they were travelling into the County Borough along routes such as the M4 corridor, and that some work was required to the environment in order to improve this.

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration stated that he thought that the County Borough of Bridgend compared well with others to visitors when they travelled into it from various other places. Work was ongoing through various projects and external funding, not only in the shape of the Rhiw Car Park development, but also by converting vacant space over shops to provide much needed Social Housing and Affordable Accommodation including in the heart of town centres. There were also projects in the valleys through the Valleys Taskforce, and to pursue funding for transformative projects such as the redevelopment of Maesteg Town Hall. There were a number of different projects proposed he added.

 

The Cabinet Member Communities added that the report was looking at both the past and the future in terms of projects, and that the Nolton Street development that was ongoing was building on and connected to the success of the Rhiw development.

 

A Member referred to page 32 of the report and bullet point 1 on that page, the aim ‘to help local people develop skills and take advantage of opportunities to succeed and to extend that success to every community in the County Borough. There was no explanation he felt however, to say how this would be achieved. He felt that the Corporate Plan going forward, should have more explanation in it confirming what income the Council has lost since austerity, and how it is still delivering services despite the recession. He stated that the public needed to be educated more on this, so that they had a level of understanding as to why some services previously provided had reduced or even were no longer being delivered. She added that whilst there was much reference in the document to the towns of Bridgend, Maesteg and Porthcawl, there was little or no mention of Pencoed which was the 4^th town in the County Borough. She felt that this was something that needed addressing in the Plan.

 

The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services confirmed that the style of the Corporate Plan had been changed so that it was more ‘punchy’ as had been directed by the Welsh Audit Office, who had previously been critical of the Council’s previous versions which they felt were too long and therefore not user friendly in terms of the public reading these.

 

The Chief Executive supplemented this by confirming that there was more detail in the various Directorate Business Plans from which the Corporate Plan had been derived, and these were available for Members to view if they so wished. He felt that perhaps the introductory section of the Corporate Plan could be altered slightly to explain more about austerity and the impact this has had on the local authority, and that now its workforce was much reduced from that of previous, which in turn, had resulted in a reduction in the services it now provided.

 

Members generally agreed with this, adding that an explanatory note should be provided in the document advising what the Council has achieved; how it achieved these things, and what was intended to be delivered moving forward in the face of continuing reduced resources.

 

A Member added to this, by stating that the document should also have a section advising the public of the challenges of legislation and the impact this has had on Council resources, for example the Welsh Language Act requirements.

 

The Leader recognised the sentiments of Members, and although the Corporate Plan would be a document made available to the public, he was sceptical regarding the number of people who would who this, and felt that it would be useful to note the number of website hits made in due course by the public viewing this. He noted the comments made regarding the town of Pencoed being given a higher profile in the Plan, including its achievements, and felt that the document could be adjusted to reflect investment taking place County Borough wide, as opposed to just concentrating on our towns only.   

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration added also, that the towns of Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg were mentioned more than other areas of the Borough in the Corporate Plan, but this was largely due to the fact that these locations were where most of the investment was being committed to through joint working with major partners.

 

The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations felt that it was pleasing to see that there was reference to the valleys and more deprived areas of the County Borough, as opposed to just towns.

 

A Member noted that there were some references in the document to acronyms, and she felt that the public would not necessarily understand what these mean. An example of this was reference to NEETS on page 34 of the document. The Invitees agreed that this was not user friendly, and that slight adjustments would be made to the document to put in full names where required, rather than abbreviations.

 

A Member referred to page 34 of the document and the Success Indicator detailing the percentage of all care leavers who are in education, training or employment at a) 12 months, and b) 24 months after leaving care. She noted that the Actual figure for 2016-17 was a) 45.2%, and b) 50%. The target for 2017-18 was however 70% ( for a) and b) ) and the same for 2018-19. She asked if this target was realistic and if it could be sustained given the financial restraints the local authority were still continuing to face.

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing advised that she would re-look at this particular performance indicator and make the necessary adjustment if this was considered necessary in order to give a more realistic and achievable target.

 

A Member referred to page 35 of the report and the Success Indicator of ‘the percentage of 16 – 64 year olds without qualifications’. She welcomed this Indicator and looked forward to receiving details regarding it in due course. She felt that it would also be useful if Members could in conjunction with this, also have any statistical information on the number of people in the County Borough who are still employed after 65 years of age (ie retirement age).

 

A Member referred to page 35 of the report, and the Success Indicator in respect of the percentage of pupils achieving 3 x A*- A grades at A level. He noted that the Actual target for this for 2016-17 had been 5.7%, and that the target for 2017-18 was 10%, only for this to reduce to 5.8% for 2018-19. He failed to understand why this target was set high for the current year and then low for the year after.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support, advised that his Department were endeavouring to set aspirational but realistic targets. He agreed however to take this away and re-look at the target percentages for this particular Indicator.

 

A Member asked for further explanation to be provided on page 35 of the Plan, with regard to what the percentage means in relation to the gap in educational attainment for pupils aged 15 plus who are entitled to free school meals, as opposed to those who are not.

 

Another Member noted from this Success Indicator and the Rationale for target, that the target would be set by the Central South Consortium, but would not be available until early in 2018. She asked when in 2018 would this information be available.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support confirmed that this information would be available in January/February of this year.

 

A Member referred to page 36 of the report and the Success Indicator in respect of the total annual expenditure spent by tourists. The Target for 2018-19 was set at a 2% increase on the 2017-18 Year End actual spend. He made the point however, that if inflation increased by more than 2% then this increase would be less than was estimated.

 

The Leader agreed with the above, and therefore advised that this target could be revisited.

 

The Corporate Director Communities advised that challenging targets were required to be put in place, however, CCTV footage had revealed that the footfall figure for the town of Porthcawl, which was one of the main tourist areas of the County Borough, so therefore the estimated target for this Indicator had been set as the status quo, rather than being more aspirational.

 

A Member pointed out however, that footfall into/out of town centres etc, was measured by cameras and the data derived from this was not the most accurate.

 

The Corporate Director Communities agreed with this ie that footfall measured this way was not necessarily an accurate measure on the number of visitors visiting a particular place, however, the anticipated expenditure formula shown in the report would be more accurate.

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration added that the data used here would allow for reasonable comparisons to be made year on year.

 

A Member once more referring to page 36 of the report, and the data for both the number of business start-ups and the number of active businesses, was only estimating a very small increase in terms of the target for 2018-19 when compared to 2016-17. He also asked why the data for year 2017-18 was not yet available.

 

The Corporate Director Communities advised that targets were being set here, whilst trying to gauge the extent of details of information that as yet was unavailable. This was a relatively new indicator he added, and the data for both these Success Indicators would be inserted in the Corporate Plan for the year 2017-18, when it was known.

 

A Member felt that it would be useful, if upon request, Members could have sight of the Tourism Strategy, and she felt that the data for this should include retail developments like McCarthur Glen, as well as the more tourist areas such as Porthcawl. She noted though that there was only one member of staff supporting the area of Tourism in BCBC, so she felt that it would be difficult to support growth and enterprise in this area without an adequate staffing compliment to do so.

 

The Corporate Director Communities advised that he was sure that McCarthur Glen Retail Park was included in the Strategy though he would check this and come back to the Member outside of the meeting.

 

In terms of the compliment of staff supporting tourism in his Directorate, he confirmed that the support of this work area and the Tourism Strategy, was inputted to by other Officers in his Directorate, as well as by other regional and collaborative methods, in order that the deficit of staff with expertise in tourism in the Authority could be supplemented by other means. The Council were looking to invest in prime local areas, such as Porthcawl (eg Jennings Building).

 

The Leader added that Officers not just in the Communities Directorate but throughout all of the Council, were working hard to secure grant funding where available, and this was crucial in order to attract the public to places where tourism was being developed within the County Borough.

 

The Chief Executive added that some priorities contained in the Corporate Plan overlapped with others. He further added that the Authority also recognised that there was a strong and active drive for tourism from the private sector, as opposed to just a BCBC approach. The private sector tended to deal with the smaller projects, while BCBC took on some of the larger ones.              

 

A Member pointed out that the report explained that the Council had given grants for Business Starters, and she felt that the report should detail who these were given to, ie the names of the small businesses, together with the amounts of these grants.

 

A Member added that there were a considerable number of businesses situate throughout the County Borough, and she asked the Invitees if Members could have a breakdown of where these were located.

 

The Leader advised that this information could be made available for Committee Members.

 

A Member noted that an aim and objective of the Corporate Plan was to create successful town centres that had vitality, and he noted that there was little or no reference in the Plan to the Bridgend Indoor Market. He felt that something was required to help boost trade in that market, particularly given that a number of stalls situate within there had now closed and had not been replaced by other traders.

 

The Corporate Director Communities advised that the finer detail of the Bridgend Indoor Market was included in Directorate Business Plans. He added that there was a considerable amount of work ongoing with the  market’s traders, with a view to ensuring that this shopping facility remains sustainable.

 

A Member referred to page 37 of the report, and noted that whilst there was mention of vacant properties in the three other towns within the County Borough, there was no mention of Pencoed in this context. She mentioned this, as there were little or no vacant properties situate in the location of Pencoed, which was something that should be noted.

 

A Member referring to page 38 of the Corporate Plan, was looking forward to see introduced, the new model of Residential Care being proposed for children.

 

A Member referred to page 39 of the Plan, and the aim to give people more choice and control over what support they receive by providing early access to advice and information. She noted that there was no explanation given as to how it was intended to achieve this however.

 

A Member referred to the bottom bullet point on this page, ie ‘to enable community groups and the third sector to have more voice and control over community assets.’ He commended what the Council were trying to do here. He felt that this should be linked to the Success Indicator on page 42 of the report, regarding the number of Council owned assets transferred to the community for running, and considered that the target of 2 for 2018/19 was not challenging or aspirational enough.

 

A Member referred to page 40 of the Corporate Plan, and the Success Indicator regarding the number of people who have been diverted from mainstream services to help them remain independent for as long as possible. She asked if this Indicator was in respect of individuals with learning disabilities only.

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that this was not the case, and that it related solely to individuals subject to the receipt of Adult Social Care.

 

The Leader added that performance information with regard to people with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health issues had been an Indicator that had been targeted, and as a result of this, was an area that had been a big success.

 

A Member noted from page 41 of the report that the Success Indicator of ensuring that private sector dwellings vacant for more than 6 months, become occupied as soon after as is possible, was not that aspirational given that the target for both 2017-18 and 2018-19 was 7.86%. He felt that this should be set higher for the latter of these years.

 

The Leader confirmed that he agreed with this, and would discuss this issue with Officers with a view to increasing this target for 2018-19.

 

A Member referred to page 41 of the Corporate Plan and the percentage of homeless or potentially homeless people, for whom the local authority has a legal responsibility to secure suitable accommodation. He noticed that the Indicator for this was reduced for 2018-19, compared to what it was for 2017-18, due to funding being reduced by Welsh Government. He thought however, that the Council had a legal responsibility to try and ensure where possible, such individuals were provided with accommodation as opposed to being out on the streets.

 

The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services, advised that whilst the Council had a statutory obligation to meet with regards to homeless people, this did not extend to having to accommodate everyone who was classed as being homeless. He added that the target for future years was reducing, due to Welsh Government funding not only reducing, but also eventually coming to an end.

 

A Member asked if there was any information available to confirm how many homeless people the Council had secured accommodation for in 2017-18, to which the Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services replied that he would obtain this information, and share it with the Member outside of the meeting.

 

A Member referred to page 42 of the Plan and the Indicator regarding the percentage of carers of adults who were offered an assessment or review of their needs in their own right during the year. She asked how many had taken this up.

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that she would find out this information, and in turn, forward it onto the Member accordingly.

 

With regard to the Indicator on page 46 of the Corporate Plan regarding the percentage of employees completing e-learning modules, the target for this was 45% for years 2017-18 and 2018-19. She asked if this should be 100%, as some of these courses were mandatory.

 

The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services advised that not all such courses were mandatory and this was why the targets shown had been set at quite a fair bit below 100%, ie being the actual percentage of courses completed by employees overall. It was estimated that this would be a similar percentage number for the next target period.

 

A Member noted from page 46 of the report, that the number of interactions from citizens on the Corporate Social Media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) as Actual 2016-17 was 11.3%, and she asked if this was 11.3% of 100%.

 

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations confirmed this was the case.

 

A Member referred to page 46 of the report and the number of working days/shifts per full-time equivalent (FTE) local authority employees lost due to sickness absence, had been 10.7 for 2016-17 with a reduction in target for both 2017-18 and 2018-19 of 8.5. He felt that the latter years target should be more aspirational, and less than 8.5%.

 

The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services advised that 8.5 days was a very aspirational target in its own right, and that it would be difficult to realistically reduce this further. He added that the target had been reduced from 10.7 days to 8.5, due to more effective methods being put in place in order to better support employees when they return to work after a period of sickness absence, as well as through tightening further the provisions of the Council’s current Sickness Absence Policy.

 

The Chief Executive further added that 8.5 days was unlikely to be achieved, however, as the Corporate Plan was a public document, the Council needed to reflect that it was an aspirational target, notwithstanding the fact 8.5 days of sickness absence in a 12 month period per member of staff comprising the workforce, was in all probability likely to be exceeded to overall. This was partly due to a minority of staff experiencing periods of long term sickness absence, which then increased the average overall.

 

The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help advised that the Chief Executive and Directors were challenged every quarter through Corporate Improvement Assessment (CPA) meetings, to try and reduce the sickness absence levels in their Directorates, especially as the Council were continuing to function overall with a reduced staffing compliment.

 

The Leader added that Scrutiny Chairpersons had been invited to the next CPA meeting, so they could examine the topic of sickness absence within the Authority in more detail first hand.

 

The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services concluded debate on this item by advising that BCBC were improving in terms of sickness absence statistics, when compared to other local authorities on an all Wales basis.

 

The Chairperson thanked the Invitees for their attendance and responding to questions from Members, following which they retired from the meeting, other than the Leader, Deputy Leader and the Section 151 Officer who remained for the next item on the Agenda.

 

Conclusions:

 

Subsequent to the Committee’s consideration of the report and draft Corporate Plan Members made the following comments for amendment and inclusion:

 

• That a brief history of what the Authority had achieved and not managed to achieve over the past year in relation to the Corporate Plan be provided in the introduction;

 

• That a greater link be made in the Corporate Plan to the County Borough’s environment and community services.  The Committee linked this in with the views of the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 3 on the draft budget proposals; that the corporate priorities need to take account of the public element  and realign community services as a corporate priority;

 

• That the mention of ‘redeveloping the Rhiw Car Park’  under Priority One be updated to state that it has been done – possibly including this also in the history as a successful achievement;

 

• Plan needs to be more explicit as to the current situation of the Authority in relation to the position of austerity, how the budget has been decreased and how the authority plans to engage the smaller communities in order to still be able to achieve aims.  This also need to incorporate how also there are challenges resulting from recent legislation;

 

• Plan needs to reflect other local communities both in its achievements and plans going forward with particular reference to Pencoed and which is the fourth town in the Authority;

 

• All acronyms to be expanded upon to assist with public understanding;

 

• In relation to the percentage of care leavers who are in education, training or employment, a more achievable target should be put forward as the jump from to 70% appears a very large jump from what was achieved in 2016-17;

 

• In relation to the measuring the percentage of economically active 16-64 year olds, it was proposed that a further measure be included to consider those who are still economically active 65+ to give us a greater understanding of our economy;

 

• That the target for the percentage of pupils achieving 3 A*-A grades at A level be addressed as there appears to be a significant jump for 2017-18 but then a decline for 2018-19, which doesn’t also reflect the comments in the rationale regarding the target confirming an improving positon;

 

• That clarification be provided within the plan over what the percentage refers to in relation to the gap in educational attachment between pupils 15+ entitled top free school meals and those who are not;

 

• That the 2% increase on total annual expenditure by tourists be amended to take into account recent inflation and possibly be reviewed to be a bit more ambitious;

 

• In relation to the number visitors to town centres, the rationale needs to be clearer as to why there is a 0% change target for 2018-19, which Officers explained was due to the footfall in Porthcawl decreasing over the past year;

 

• In relation to Business start-ups, it was proposed that the target be revisited once the actual for 2017-18 is known to try and show a strive for improvement and also a greater explanation be provided in the rationale, particularly if the target is not increased significantly;

 

• Clarification be provided in the plan as to whether the figure provided for business start-ups includes those that that have been funded through the Special Regeneration Fund and if not that consideration be given to include a separate line in the Corporate Plan to illustrate these as a success indicator;

 

• That some detail be provided as to where these business start-ups and active businesses are in the county borough;

 

• That clarification be provided in the plan as to who the indictor refers to in relation to ‘the number of people who have been diverted from mainstream services to help them remain independent for as long as possible’;

 

• In relation to the indicator for ‘the percentage of private dwellings that have been vacant for more than 6 months that have been returned to occupation….’ , it is proposed that the target needs a greater explanation in the rationale as it is not clear as to why its target remains the same as the previous year;

 

• That the rationale be reworded for the indicator on the percentage of people presenting as homeless to whom the local authority has a legal responsibility to secure accommodation, as it is not clear how the target can be reduced when Welsh Government funding is reduced;

 

• That a further indicator be provided to monitor how many carers of adults who were offered an assessment or review actually took up the offer;

 

• That clarification be provided in the plan as to whether the 45% referred to for the percentage of employees completing e-learning modules is in relation to the total workforce;

 

• That the actual figure for budget reductions achieved for 2016-17 be provided within the plan;

 

• That the rationale relating to the percentage of Council Tax customers accessing on line services through ‘my account’ be more transparent in relation to the delay that has occurred in launching the system and hence why the target has remained the same;

 

• That clarification be provided within the plan as to whether the number or percentage is being referred to for the interactions from citizens on the corporate social media accounts as there indicator states number yet the target states percentage.  On the same indicator clarification was requested in relation to how many people a 5% increase would refer to.

 

Further Information

 

The Committee requested that they receive the Tourism strategy for information.

 

How many people out of those who presented as homeless or potentially homeless did the Authority provide accommodation for in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

 

How much social interaction with citizens on the corporate social media is instigated by the Authority rather than by the citizens themselves.

 

What the actual figure is for 17-18 in relation to sickness absence for the Authority.

 

Comments for future Scrutiny Committee

 

City Deal

 

The Committee requested that any future focus by Scrutiny on the subject of City Deal include detailed consideration of the planned infrastructure that is required, in order for Bridgend to be properly linked for commuting purposes etc.