1. Question from Councillor Tim Thomas to the Leader
Is the Leader satisfied with the resources available to members of the City Deal Joint Scrutiny Committee?
2. Question from Councillor Sorrel Dendy to the Cabinet Member Communities
Has First Cymru indicated to BCBC or put notice in of the removal of their service to Bridgend County?
3. Question from Councillor Tom Giffard to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations
A recent Freedom of Information request I submitted showed that this council has spent nearly £200,000 on external Welsh translation services over the last 18 months.
Can the Cabinet Member explain why this council is not prioritising employing internal translators to keep this ballooning budget under control?
4. Question from Councillor Altaf Hussain to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations
In order to develop more active communities and your achievements in partnership with HALO leisure Centre, with 9% increase in visits to life Centres following your major investment in their facilities – can the Cabinet Member let us know which other Centres in Bridgend County apart from HALO can be accessed by over 60 years old residents?
Can the Cabinet Member also let us know since when has the council invested in these life centres and how much has been invested so far in attaining this 9% increase in visits?
Minutes:
1.
2. 1. Question from Councillor Tim Thomas to the Leader
Is the Leader satisfied with the resources available to members of the City Deal Joint Scrutiny Committee?
Response
The Council offered to host the joint scrutiny committee on behalf of the ten partners. The authority has a good reputation nationally for our work on scrutiny and as such the other partners in the City Deal were confident in us taking a lead on this.
We have estimated the additional resource required by the authority to support the joint commitee – mostly in terms of democratic support officer’s time and this is being funded from the City Deal. It is intended that the joint scrutiny committee can draw on the expertise of the accountable body (Cardiff CC) who are already providing legal, financial and democratic support to the regional committee – we are deliberately avoiding any duplication of effort.
The committee has met once and we will keep the resource requirements under review over time. However it should be recognised that the work of the Cardiff Capital region City Deal is also overseen by:
The UK government
The Welsh Government
The Welsh Audit Office
These organisations all have an interest and role in the probity, governance, value for money and deliverability of the partnership.
In addition, a series of independent gateway reviews commissioned by the UK government have also been established. These will assess in more detail how well the partnership is delivering outcomes and will in turn determine the ongoing receipt of phased payments from the treasury.
Supplementary question by Councillor Tim Thomas
Given that the Cardiff Capital City Deal is such an important area of work, how are we monitoring it moving forward and how can Members get involved specifically.
Response
There is a site visit in Newport beofre the next scheduled meeting of the Cardiff City Deal Joint Scrutiny Committee so there are adequate resources supporting the scheme. All Members will receive reports for future meetings also, as opposed to a link to the agenda being placed on the Council’s website. If Members had any questions regarding the City Deal, then these can either be shared with me, or the Chairperson of the Cardiff City Deal Region (ie the Leader of Rhonnda Cynon Taf CBC). Alternatively, the Programme Director could also be approached to this end. He added that the Cardiff City Deal was open and transparent, similar to the Shared Regulatory Service. It also had its own Joint Committee that scrutinised any work and projects going forward. If there was any fear of the scheme not having sufficient resources as it progressed, then this would be looked into by the participating authorities. As part of the scheme, quarterly monitoring reports had to be submitted to both the UK and Welsh Governments. Targets set within the Business Plan that supported the City Deal also had to be met. The Wales Audit Office had reviewed the Cardiff City Deal in its fairly aerly stages and had found governance arrangements to be effective. The Vice-Chairperson of the Cardiff City Deal Joint Scrutiny Committee added that if Members had any specific concerns has had been raised by the relevant Member today, then he would address these should he be approached and asked.
3. 2. Question from Councillor Sorrel Dendy to the Cabinet Member Communities
Has First Cymru indicated to BCBC or put notice in of the removal of their service to Bridgend County?
Response
There is no indication from First Cymru Buses Ltd that they intend to withdraw their services in the Bridgend area, rather in recent meetings they have been positive about having ongoing and potentially improved services moving forward within Bridgend.
Supplementary Question from Councillor Dendy to the Cabinet Member Communities
Whether BCBC has a plan in place if the main bus service were to leave with little to no notice?
Response
The bus services are predominately provided on a commercial basis by independent operators, not directly by BCBC or via any contract with BCBC and operators. As such should one operator decide to pull out of the market place, BCBC’s role in the situation would be limited. The gap in services would in all likelihood be met by other commercial operators looking to increase their market share and capitalise on the opportunity that would be presented. Whilst BCBC may take a proactive role in encouraging and facilitating this to take place to ensure routes are provided there is no specific plan as this is not a directly provided council service.
Further supplementary question from Councillor Tim Thomas
The future of bus routes and bus subsidies within the County Borough will probably have an effect on the future of the Bridgend bus station and whether this remains open. Has an economic impact analysis been conducted into the future viability of the Bridgend bus station in conjunction with bus subsidies/bus routes
Response
The cuts that the Council are facing at present and those anticipated in the future are both unprecedented and hard hitting. The possibility of the Bridgend bus station closing is something that will have to be considered as part of the MTFS reductions. Though the Council do not wish to close this facility, the cost of keeping it open also has to be strongly considered.
4. 3. Question from Councillor Tom Giffard to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations
A recent Freedom of Information request I submitted showed that this Council has spent nearly £200,000 on external Welsh translation services over the last 18 months.
Can the Cabinet Member explain why the Council is not prioritising employing internal translators to keep this ballooning budget under control?
Response
Our total cost across the authority was £192,535 for the period between April 2017 and October 2018 for the purchase of translation services.
At this stage there is no compelling business case to employ an in house team for the reasons that follow, however this is of course something that we will continue to keep under review should circumstances change. The reasons for not creating an in house service at the moment are:
Therefore at this stage there is no robust business case for investing in such additional staff. However as already stated, this is something that we will keep under review should circumstances change.
Updates on our compliance with the Welsh Language Standards will continue to be provided to the Cabinet Equalities Committee.
Supplementary question by Councillor Tom Giffard
Councillor Giffard initially asked his question in welsh, but upon being asked by the above Cabinet Member to ask this in English, he duly responded as follows:-
Could a report be prepared on the above for submission to the Cabinet Committee Equalities so that the use of the welsh language and compliance with the Welsh Language Standards can be looked at in more detail. All Councillors should be able to work bilingually.
Response
We take our duty seriously regarding the use of welsh language including in the workplace and the Welsh Language Standards, this is something that is also considered by the Cabinet Committee Equalities as part of their regular reports on employee data collation, etc. A regular agenda item is considered by the Cabinet Committee Equalities on the use of Welsh and the Welsh Language Standards. The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations added that not all Members are Welsh speakers nor have had the opportunity to learn Welsh.
Second supplementary question by Councillor Tim Thomas
What opportunities are there for staff in the workplace to practice and learn to communicate in welsh and are there any plans to roll this out further.
Response
There are courses available in the workplace for employees to learn welsh and they get paid for time off for this. However, any studying of this is voluntary as opposed to mandatory. The Authority are also encouraging the recruitment of welsh speaking teaching staff and extra funding for this purpose had been provided by the Welsh Government and the Central South Consortium. There are cohorts for level 1 and level 2 welsh speaking training courses, and the Council were also looking wherever possible in recruiting welsh speakers in vacant posts, including in apprenticeship roles.
Third supplementary question by Councillor Alex Williams
We don’t publish FOI requests on-line due to translation costs associated with this. Is this compliant with the Welsh Language Standards, and is this being looked at in possible conjunction with the recruitment of an increased number of welsh speaking employees.
Response
If an FOI request is placed on the Council’s website then it is translated (into welsh). If it is not placed on the Council’s website then it is not translated until it is requested in Welsh.
5. 4. Question from Councillor Altaf Hussain to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations
In order to develop more active communities and your achievements in partnership with HALO Leisure Centre, with 9% increase in visits to Life Centres following your major investment in their facilities, can the Cabinet Member let us know which other centres in Bridgend County, apart from HALO, can be accessed by over 60 year old residents?
Can the Cabinet Member also let us know since when has the Council invested in these Life Centres and how much has been invested so far in attaining this 9% increase in visits?
Response
In terms of participation in centres in Bridgend by the over 60s, apart from HALO which delivers strong services, particularly the over 60 National Free Swim initiative (highest in Wales) and National Exercise Referral Scheme (2nd largest in Wales). Bridgend has an Ageing Well Plan, which targets the development of age friendly communities including intergenerational opportunities as opposed to segregated activities for specific demographics. Key aspirations would include combatting loneliness and isolation by connecting older adults to communities, reducing falls or the fear of falling and developing dementia supportive opportunities also.
In addition to leisure facilities, BCBC works with Town and Community Councils, voluntary management committees and the Awen Cultural Trust to ensure 18 community centres are locally available. These centres are supporting activities such as movement and dance, exercise, creative and social opportunities. Our Local Community Coordinators are connecting vulnerable people to such opportunities and helping to develop new opportunities. BCBC works in partnership with Sport Wales to invest in community groups and opportunities via the Community Chest scheme. During 2017–18 there were around 6 projects supported that could be deemed more specific to the over 60s with £6-8k of investment.
Our partnership with Awen Cultural Trust includes joint service development planning to ensure that our libraries and cultural venues are connecting to (and supporting) the Ageing Well Plan. In 2014 the Awen cultural partnership was created to manage the Councils libraries, cultural venues and theatres, arts development and cultural services and Bryngarw Park on our behalf. Opportunities have included movement and exercise in libraries, the ‘books on prescription’ scheme, the HYNT scheme, providing support for carers, support for the development of Men’s Sheds and the “Books on Wheels” mobile library services for the housebound. BCBC has continued to invest in the Bridgend Carers’ Centre and related services where a balanced programme of exercise, social and wellbeing activities are held.
BCBC has ensured that people attending residential care and day care can be more active via the ‘move more often’ and ‘Olympage’ programmes including training of related staff and volunteers. This has grown into regular programmes and events at the Community Hubs led by Social Services personnel. There is close working with Shout (the older persons’ forum) and support for Tai Chi for wellbeing activities at the Evergreen Hall and a range of non- Council venues (e.g. Caerau, Cefn Glas). There are also mobile outreach sessions such as lifestyle screening, falls prevention in Porthcawl, Maesteg and Ogmore Vale linked to community centres or sheltered housing.
BCBC is now working with BAVO and Alzheimer’s Society to support the development of more dementia friendly communities and this will include both HALO and Awen. We are also working with schools to become more age-friendly and this will include our dual use sites where growth in overall attendances by the over 60s can also be evidenced in recent years. Our work with older adults has highlighted the importance of our outdoor environment and green spaces. Our Love to Walk programme offers 6-12 weekly walks (seasonal variations) led by volunteer walk leaders, whilst the 2018 walking festival attracted 291 participants. Similarly, Bridgend works in partnership with Swansea and Neath/Port Talbot Councils to offer the Park Lives programme that in Bridgend we have focused particularly on older adults and outdoor activities.
The Healthy Living Partnership between BCBC and GLL/HALO was established in 2012 and included 8 leisure centres and swimming pool facilities and related services. The key objectives in establishing the partnership were to ensure the assets remained fit for purpose, to ensure that the costs to the Council were reduced, for the Council to retain certain controls over pricing and programming whilst also delivering on social outcomes such as healthier communities, children and young people and strong communities.
The capital investment at the commencement of the partnership was £4.3 million, which is repaid during the 15 years that the contract operates via annual revenue budgets. The initial investment supported the development of Bridgend Life Centre as a flagship facility and was essential to support the Council’s aspiration for sustainable facilities and cost effective delivery. Since 2012, our partners have continued to invest in improving assets including co-location of libraries, all-weather sports areas, state of the art fitness equipment, energy efficiency installations and more. In terms of overall annual costs to the Council, the management fee payable to HALO is now over 50% less than the cost of the leisure centres in 2011-12 when services were run by the Council. A full repairing lease is an integral part of the management fee.
The focus on partnership working across the County Borough and involving a broad range of organisations has been recognised in a recent inspection by Quest, the UK Quality scheme for sport and recreation. The approach being taken in Bridgend has been assessed as ‘excellent’ and is the only Local Authority in Wales to have achieved this standard. The partnership with Halo has been managed within the Social Services and Wellbeing directorate and this has assisted with the strategic direction of the partnership to enhance wellbeing and impact on targeted population groups.
Supplementary question by Councillor Altaf Hussain
He would supply this to the Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations outside of the meeting and requested a written response outside of the meeting (ie to all Members).