Annual Self-Assessment 2024-25

SA2 - Corporate Planning, Performance and Working With Others

SA2.1 -  Corporate Planning and Performance

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • The Council reviewed its existing Corporate Strategy 2023-2028 during the year and subsequently approved a new Corporate Strategy 2025-2030 in March 2025.  The Strategy covers a four-year rolling period and will be reviewed periodically.  The new Strategy very much builds on the previous strategy as well as the political priorities set by Cabinet in its Programme for the Administration document.
  • The Corporate Strategy is the vehicle through which the authority sets its statutory Well-being Objectives.  The previous strategy contained 12 Well-being Objectives and the recent review presented an opportunity to reduce this number to four, with the intent of providing greater focus around the Council’s priorities and future direction.  The new Well-being Objectives are built on the themes of Our Future, Our Place, Our Communities and Our Council.
  • Three of these Well-being Objectives are focussed externally on the delivery of key services to residents and centred on the following: (i)  Our Future – enabling the best start in life for our children and young people, equipping them with skills for the future; (ii) Our Place - prosperous places, with clean, safe and sustainable environments, where people can live well and thrive; (iii) Our Communities - caring for people, and enabling active, resourceful and connected communities.
  • The fourth Well-being Objective provide an inner focus, targeted at strengthening fundamental issues where the Council must improve to enable it to deliver the services which Pembrokeshire residents deserve, namely (iv) Our Council - a financially sustainable, well-governed Council, with a workforce equipped to support the people we serve.
  • The Corporate Strategy 2025-2030 sets out clearly the contribution each of the Council’s Well-being Objectives will make to deliver the seven national Well-being Goals for Wales, as required under the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
  • The Corporate Strategy 2025-2030 is the organisation’s lead document and top of the hierarchy in its ‘golden thread’ of strategies and plans.  All Council activity – at directorate, service, team and individual level – filter down from the direction set out in the Strategy.  As well as establishing the Council’s Well-being Objectives, the strategy also contains headline priorities which filter down into individual service business plans where more detailed delivery actions sit.
  • The Council has continued to embed its new approach to service planning, shifting from an annual (short term) focus to plans which look over a rolling four-year period (medium term, will shift to three-year in future years to match new timeframes for the Medium Term Financial Plan).  The standard templates which all Heads of Service follow continues to be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that they are as effective as possible in taking opportunities to align service activity with the organisational direction set out in the new Corporate Strategy and with our approach to medium term financial planning. 
  • The link between service planning and financial planning continues to be strengthened and Heads of Service are asked to set out in service plans proposals to make savings in their service areas in the context of the scale of the financial challenges projected in the Medium Term Finance Plan.
  • Service plans are completed annually between February and May and are considered and signed off by the Senior Leadership Team.
  • Last year’s version of this report was approved by Governance and Audit Committee and by Council in the autumn of 2024. Having reviewed the approach to self-assessment taken by other local authorities and WLGA best practice information sharing sessions, the Council is confident that its approach is robust and fit for purpose.  Our annual self-assessment report is the vehicle through which we meet our statutory duty to report on our progress to deliver our Well-being Objectives.
  • During this year, the Council has agreed that the Council’s first Panel Performance Assessment (PPA), a statutory requirement under the Local Government and Elections Act, will take place in October 2025.  Work is ongoing to plan and prepare for the PPA, with support provided by the WLGA.  Having taken account of last year’s self-assessment report and this year’s version, the Senior Leadership Team has asked the panel to look specifically at three areas where we could benefit from external perspectives and independent insight.  Broadly speaking, these specific areas of focus cover the themes of financial sustainability, governance and transformation.
  • The Council continues to invest in strengthening its arrangements around corporate performance management and monitoring of key measures.  The Corporate Scorecard continues to be developed.  The purpose of this document is to ensure that Members and senior leaders are sighted on key performance measures which provide a broad overview of organisational and corporate health.  As a result the scorecard is subject to reviewed frequently to make sure that the measures reported on provide sufficient coverage across key corporate and service areas.
  • The Scorecard is currently considered routinely by the Senior Leadership team, and reported to Cabinet together with other key management information relating to financial monitoring and risk management in an integrated approach.  Some of the key areas of focus over the past 12 months has seen expanding the suite of measures to include greater operational detail for both social care and some of our residents’ services, such as waste and planning.
  • Over the past year, the Scorecard has shown that there has been a substantial reduction in waiting times for adult care assessments, improvement in homelessness figures (albeit remains a significant challenge) and maintenance of our historically strong performance in waste and recycling.  Q4 figures for 2024-25 reveal that figures in children’s services are starting to suggest that the rate in increases in demand are beginning to plateau, though this will clearly need to be continually monitored to ensure that the demand is reducing.
  • The Scorecard is formally considered in the public domain by Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee have also received data extracted from the Scorecard to provide oversight of measures within its specific remit and similarly, Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee has been presented with data relevant to its remit.
  • We have continued to embed the use of Power BI to visual data.  This has involved using the software for the collection and presentation of information rather than using a spreadsheet-based approach.  This is a complex piece of work and it is likely that it will take a considerable period of time before the approach is fully embedded.  Nevertheless, some of the benefits of using Power BI are already being realised, in particular in regards to the presentation of information, the opportunity to see trends over time, and the ability to use the data in a more interactive way.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Continue to ensure alignment between strategic objectives set out in the Corporate Strategy and the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.
  • Strengthen monitoring arrangements of the Corporate Strategy through ensuring appropriate measures to evaluate our progress are integrated into the Corporate Scorecard.
  • Delivery of the new Corporate Strategy and Well-being Objectives through the service planning process and monitoring and review of progress though this document.
  • Continue to embed the discipline of multi-year service planning in the culture of the organisation and forward planning cycle, undertaking an annual review of the service plan guidance and templates to ensure these are fit for purpose.
  • Undertake the Council’s first Panel Performance Assessment in October 2025, and respond to any recommendations forthcoming from the panel.
  • Continue to review the current list of performance measures reported in the Scorecard to ensure it provides sufficient coverage of metrics targeted at organisational challenges and strategic objectives.
  • Continue to roll-out the use of Power BI in the collection and reporting of performance information. 

 

SA2.2 - Strategic Partnerships

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • This section provides a broad overview of some of the key partnership arrangements which the Council is involved in.  More detail on some of these partnership arrangements can be found within specific sections of this report.
  • The Council is involved in and supports a number of strategic partnerships both financially and with officer time.  The drivers for these partnerships include legislation, policy directives from Welsh Government, and in realising the benefits of collaborative working through economies of scale and reducing duplication by working with others to deliver shared objectives on a regional basis.
  • In 2024 the Council reviewed its list of key strategic partnerships and the list was approved by Cabinet on 11 July 2024.  The review took a proportionate risk-based approach focusing on the key partnerships where the Council needs to have assurance that effective governance, internal control, financial management and risk management arrangements are in place.  The Council’s Partnership Procedure was also reviewed and revised by the Senior Leadership Team to support this, and partnership leads across each of the strategic partnerships approved by Cabinet have ensured governance arrangements are robust and fit for purpose.  The Council’s agreed list of key strategic partnerships are:
    • Swansea Bay City Deal
    • Celtic Freeport
    • SWW Corporate Joint Committee
    • Pembrokeshire Public Services Board (PSB)
    • Safer Pembrokeshire Community Safety Partnership
    • Regional Substance Misuse Area Planning Board
    • Pembrokeshire Nature Partnership
    • Partneriaeth
    • Regional Learning and Skills Partnership
    • Pembrokeshire College
    • West Wales Regional Partnership Board
    • Healthier Pembrokeshire Strategic Partnership Board
    • M&WW Regional Safeguarding Board: Children (CYSUR) & Adults (CWMPAS)
    • M&WW Regional Adoption Service
    • Pembrokeshire Housing Register
  • A selection of broad headlines of activity delivered through some of these strategic partnerships is outlined below:
    • The Council is one of four statutory partners of Pembrokeshire’s Public Services Board (PSB), and as such the Council plays a key leadership role in the work of the partnership.  The PSB is a strategic partnership established under the Well-being of Future Generations Act and is comprised of representatives from key organisations from the public, private and third sectors in the county. The PSB is required to publish a Well-being Plan once every five years, setting out its statutory Well-being Objectives and the actions it will take to improve well-being for people and communities in Pembrokeshire.  The most recent Well-being Plan was published in May 2023 and is focused on the delivery of three key work streams:
      • Strengthening Communities
      • Reducing Poverty and Inequalities
      • Realising net zero and decarbonisation, managing climate adaptation and tacklign the nature emergency
    • The PSB has a ‘spotlight’ session on one of the project areas at each of its meetings on a rotational basis.  Update reports for each of the work streams is also considered at each meeting.  Further information can be found in the evidence section below, particularly in respect of the PSB’s Annual Report.
    • The Corporate Joint Committee (CJC) for South West Wales covering the local authority areas of Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea (and including the two national parks within the region) was formally constituted in January 2022.  CJCs are a requirement under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act with the purpose of improving regional planning, co-ordination and delivery of transport, land use planning, economic development and energy.  The CJC published its Corporate Plan 2023-2028 during the year establishing its vison for South West Wales 2035.  The Committee has recently consulted on its draft Regional Transport Plan, looking at how the transport network across Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea should be managed and improved over the period 2025 – 2030, in a way that supports economic growth, encourages a shift away from private car use, and reduces environmental impacts.  The consultation closed on 6th April 2025 and the final plan will be published in Summer 2025.  Once finalised and adopted, the new Plan will replace the existing Joint Local Transport Plan which was prepared in 2015.  The power to deliver the schemes and initiatives of the Regional Transport Delivery Pan is down to individual councils in their roles as highway and transport authorities.  Pembrokeshire submitted 30 schemes into the Delivery Plan and a decision by Cabinet on which projects will be prioritised to be taken forward will be taken in autumn 2025.
    • Pembrokeshire is a key partner in the Swansea Bay City Deal along with the other three regional local authorities - Carmarthenshire Council, Swansea Council and Neath Port Talbot Council - together with the Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda University Health Boards, Swansea University, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and private sector partners.  The Deal is an investment package of up to £1.3 billion in a portfolio of major programmes and projects across the region with the expectation that it will boost the regional economy by at least £1.8 billion over the next 15 years, while generating more than 9,000 jobs.  City Deal programmes and projects are based on key themes including economic acceleration, life science and well-being, energy, smart manufacturing and digital.  The major project located in the county is the £60 million Pembroke Dock Marine programme will place Pembrokeshire at the heart of global zero carbon marine energy innovation while also helping tackle climate change.  Pembroke Dock Marine will deliver the facilities, services and spaces needed to establish a world-class centre for marine engineering led by the private sector and supported by the Council.  The full business case has been approved by UK Government and Welsh Government.  The most recent updates on the progress of projects to date from can be found in the evidence section below.
    • The Council is also a key partner in the Celtic Freeport private-public consortium which has been approved and will deliver an accelerated pathway for Wales’ net zero economy, generating over 16,000 new, green jobs and up to £5.5 billion of new investment. The transformational project covers the ports of Milford Haven and Port Talbot and spans clean energy developments and innovation assets, fuel terminals, a power station, heavy engineering and the steel industry across south-west Wales.  On 1st December 2024, the UK and Welsh Governments appointed a new permanent Chair of the Celtic Freeport, marking the project's transition from the development to the delivery phase. 
    • In 2022-23 the Council joined with Carmarthenshire County Council and Swansea Council to form Partneriaeth, a new education consortium which has replaced previous arrangements under ERW.  The purpose of Partneriaeth is to provide greater value for money, transparency, stronger governance on decision-making and higher quality professional learning. In January 2025 Cabinet agreed to transfer the partnership from a legal agreement to a new collaboration agreement in response to Welsh Government’s review of educational partnerships in Wales, with a view to reducing costs, restructuring the workforce and to strengthen governance arrangements.
  • Safer Pembrokeshire is the statutory community safety partnership with the purpose of reducing crime and disorder, fear of crime, anti-social behaviour and substance misuse.  The partnership receives regular updates on these matters throughout the year with a focus on how partners can work together to address these issues within communities.
  • Overview and scrutiny of the Council’s key strategic partnership arrangements are managed either through bespoke regional scrutiny committees or through the relevant thematic scrutiny committee within the Council’s own arrangements.  The Council also has an established Partnerships Panel which sits under, and reports to, Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The panel is designated with the statutory responsibility to scrutinise the PSB and also has oversight of the Safer Pembrokeshire partnership within its remit.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Continue to play a key leadership role in all of the Council’s key strategic and regional partnerships.
  • Support the delivery of the PSB’s Well-being Plan for Pembrokeshire.
  • Continue to reinforce the importance of the Partnerships Procedure to the lead officers for each of the respective strategic partnerships, to ensure that there is a clear framework in place to achieve effective governance, internal control, financial management and risk management arrangements. 

 

SA2.3 - Consultation and Engagement

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • To realise budget savings, we ended the contract with an external consultation software provider in June 2024, and replaced this with an internal process. Corporate consultation activities are now managed via our corporate website (Have Your Say) and responses are submitted using a Microsoft Form. The system no longer requires participants to register to use the system, which was often a barrier to participation. The new consultation system/processes went live from mid July 2024.
  • To support the roll-out of the new system Policy and ICT developed a Microsoft Forms training package.  43 staff have completed Microsoft Forms training to date from across the Authority.  Guides on accessing and creating forms using Microsoft Forms are available via the ICT Portal.
  • A Consultation Protocol has been produced for staff to provide practical advice to plan, prepare and run effective consultations.  This was approved by Senior Leadership Team and also taken through Extended Leadership Team and the Managers Forum for broader engagement and awareness.
  • The consultation process has been integrated with My Account (online customer account) to automate the delivery of consultation notifications, currently sent to over 4,700 users, to promote open consultations. This has had a positive effect on consultation awareness raising and responses.
  • We have reviewed the equality monitoring and Welsh language questions that we ask as part of public consultations which are pre-populated in the Microsoft Forms template ensuring they are consistently used, monitored, and can be compared with national and local statistics e.g. 2021 Census.
  • Specific consultations have received significant numbers of responses and growth in response numbers. For example, the 2024 Council Tax Premium consultation received 2,974 responses. This was 1,324 more responses than the 2023 Council Tax Premium Consultation when 1,650 responses were received. The same significant upward trend in responses received has been observed for the budget consultation and other consultations. We have increased our consultation promotion methods, both internal and external, which is supporting a response increase.
  • Services from across the Council have undertaken numerous consultation exercises during the year. In 2024, these have included the review of the Local Development Plan, proposed Active Travel Schemes, Council Tax, budget, and regeneration and transport related consultations via the “Have Your Say” platform. 
  • The Council engages and supports a number of groups who represent the interests of citizens in Pembrokeshire. Examples include the Pembrokeshire 50+ Forum, Youth Council, and Housing and Homelessness Youth Forum.
  • Democratic Services Committee and the Policy and Pre-decision Overview and Scrutiny Committee each agreed that it would review the Public Participation Strategy 2022-27 on an annual basis and reports were considered at Democratic Services Committee on 11 November 2024 and Policy and Pre-Decision Committee on 12 November 2024.
  • The Councils Children and Young People’s Rights Office continues to facilitate multiple pieces of work across the county including youth projects and youth forums in communities, Pembrokeshire Youth Assembly, Pembrokeshire Junior Safeguarding, and special interest groups. This work enables young people to have a say on decision making that affects them and also allows them to become actively involved within their community and influence decision making on a local and national level.
  • In Social Care and Housing, there is a range of consultation and engagement activities with the people we are supporting, their carers’ and their families to gain a better understanding of how we can improve our services to support their well-being.
    • Considerable tenant engagement opportunities have been provided. Tenant Panelcurrently has 136 tenants signed up who have expressed an interest in communicating and engaging with us and we have held further events and Questions of Month to gather feedback to improve services.
    • Our Youth Forum has gone from strength to strength, meeting every six weeks to shape and improve our housing services.
    • Community events to consult on our Local Lettings Policies for new developments, as well as facilitating open days for the community to look around new properties before they are occupied.
    • An open day in one of our retrofitted properties as part of the decarbonisation programme to demonstrate the new equipment being installed in properties, how to use it and the benefits.
    • We awarded approximately £1000 to tenant groups from our community chest fund to support residents to organise their own engagement activities and events.
    • The Housing section of the Strategic Equalities Plan 2024-28 includes information on how we have engaged with Gypsy and Traveller communities.  We continue to facilitate a Traveller, and Roma Communication Group, holding quarterly meetings in venues close to the sites to ensure accessibility for the community.
  • We use a variety of communication methods including Facebook Live, surveys, forums, leaflets, postcards, QR codes/ videos, social media, events, home visits, phone calls and emails and alternative formats to engage in a way that suits our residents. We have used fliers with QR codes that link to audio after a suggestion from the particular group of residents to ensure accessibility.
  • We gather user satisfaction insights for our digital services through our user research panel, which includes 146 members made up of both internal and external stakeholders. This panel supports us with usability testing across our digital projects, helping ensure our services are easy to use, accessible and valuable to the user based on their feedback.
  • To ensure users can effectively access and engage with our corporate website, we present information in an accessible format aligned with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. 

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Ensure the new internally managed consultation system meets the needs of services and participants and conduct an appraisal of the new system for the period 2024-25. Ongoing review and monitoring of the new system will continue throughout 2025-26 and beyond.
  • Undertake the Data Cymru Residents’ survey “Let’s Talk About Life in Pembrokeshire” during 2025-26. Resident responses will help to inform and shape local service delivery.
  • Foster a positive work culture that will support continuous improvement by conducting a staff survey in 2025.
  • Aligned with the Public Participation Strategy 2022-27, to have a better understanding of how Members engage with their communities, in 2025-26, we will be conducting a Members Survey on their engagement with the public. The survey will also ask what they think the Authority can do to increase diversity amongst its membership as we approach the Elections in 2026.
  • The Democratic Services Committee has set up a Working Group comprised of all Members of the Committee to review democracy work in preparation for the 2027 election, this will include a review of the induction process and programme; considering feedback from new Members in 2022 on their experiences; pre-election planning and access to democracy; equality and diversity initiatives; promoting the role of a Councillor; and engaging with prospective candidates.   Officers and non-Committee Members will be invited to participate in the work of the Group as necessary. 

 

SA2.4 - Complaints and Compliments 

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • Complaints and compliments provide vital information for the Council as the interface between the delivery of services and the feedback it receives from residents on the quality and effectiveness of those services.  Complaints help to identify potential shortcomings and are used as a tool to drive improvement, while compliments are always welcomed as a means of recognising where a service or an individual officer has done something particularly well.
  • The Complaints, Concerns and Compliments team have during the period April 2024 to March 2025 helped facilitate 971 complaints (965 in 2023-24, 819 in 2022-23), with 97% (98% in 2023-24, 96% in 2022-23) of complaints being resolved at Stage 1 (Informal). The remaining 3% (2% in 2023-24, 4% in 2022-23) of cases advanced to the formal Stage 2 level which requires an independent review of the complaint.
  • 85% (65% in 2023-24, 80% in 2022-23) of the complaints were resolved within the national timescales, with 15% (34% in 2023-24, 19% in 2022-23) of the complaints falling outside of this period being extended in agreement with the complaint.
  • As at end of March 2025, 47 complaints had been referred to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (40 in 2024-25, 44 in 2022-23), with six of these complaints requiring early intervention by the Ombudsman (6 in 2023-24, 3 in 2022-23). A breakdown of the complaints received by the Ombudsman was presented to the Governance & Audit Committee and Cabinet during 2024-25 for review.
  • Both the Compliments, Concerns and Complaints Policy and the Managing Customer Contact Policy, were approved by Cabinet at their April 2024 meeting. 
  • A service level agreement was agreed with 57 of the 60 Pembrokeshire Schools to strengthen arrangements in place, which has generated income to support the Audit, Risk & Information Service budget.
  • The Authority has continued to participate in all Wales complaints meetings and engage with the Complaints Standards Authority to share and promote best practice in complaint handling.
  • The Council likes to understand what we do well and what our customer’s value, with compliments being fed back to the respective services which can strengthen morale.  In 2024-25, the Council received 309 compliments on services provided (285 in 2023-24, 299 in 2022-23).

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • We will continue to develop the iCasework Complaints System to improve the data reported to Corporate Managers, Heads of Service and Directors so that the nature, status, outcome and lessons learned are clearly captured and evidenced. This will hopefully improve the timescales in responding to and addressing complaints received.
  • One of the key themes in the number of complaints that the Council received related to communication. Analysis of the number of complaints reported highlighted that communication could be improved. This was specifically prevalent with complaints that were reported to Building Maintenance. To address this, Building Maintenance appointed a Complaints and Compliance Officer early in 2024 to resolve complaints that were made. The Corporate Complaints Team will continue to work with all link Complaint Officers within the Council to ensure that complainants are kept up to date on the progress of their complaint.
  • We have engaged with the Complaint Standards Agency to provide both complaint handling training and investigative training to all link Complaint Officers, which will be undertaken in March 2025. This is with the aim of improving both the handling of complaints and the consistency in which investigations are conducted.
  • In addition to the above point, whilst the relevant policy documents have been updated, an easy-to-read factsheet as well as internal guidance will be provided to Officers so that a clearly documented process will be in place for Complaint Officers to follow. This will also support new staff who become link officers. Advice and support will continue to be provided by the Corporate Complaints Team on a regular basis.
  • We will aim to improve the level of complaints responded to within timeframes. The data provided in this report shows that the number of complaints responded to within timescales has decreased. Currently it is a challenge in appointing individuals to undertake Stage 2 investigations due to existing workload, which is having a negative impact on performance. 

 

SA2.5 Equalities

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • The strategic context of our work on equalities is the Equality Act 2010 and associated Welsh Government Regulations for public bodies.  The Strategic Equality Plan 2024-28 is monitored by the Strategic Equality Action Plan Group which meets quarterly. 
  • In March 2024, a Pembrokeshire Anti-racist Action Plan sub-group was formed to provide a more focussed approach in progressing this agenda in line with an agreed Notice of Motion from Council. In November 2024, the Welsh Government Anti-racist Wales Action Plan was refreshed placing emphasis on delivery of measurable impact and change to support Wales to be an anti-racist nation by 2030.
  • Our Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) process is the vehicle through which we assess the impact of key decisions and proposals. The Councils IIA process has been reviewed during 2024 to strengthen and support decision-making processes by making the IIA process more straightforward, easier to follow and by expanding the range of legislation/policy commitments covered. Broadly, these areas cover economic, environmental, and societal considerations, as well as impacts on particular groups of people. A pilot of the new process is underway to ensure that the framework is robust.
  • Equality monitoring continues to be undertaken as part of Engagement and Consultation.  See SA2.3 Consultation and Engagement.
  • The Council continues to publish Gender Pay Gap data with the report for 2024-25 published in April 2025.  The report provides information on pay for men and women as well as people from different ethnic origins.  In 2024-25 based on median hourly pay, women for the Council earnt the same as men.
  • The Equality in Employment Report 2023-24 was published in April 2025, the 2024-25 report is being developed and will be published in due course.   The report aims to provide the wider public and stakeholders with information on the Authority’s employment practices, as well as allowing the Authority to establish how it was meeting its employment objectives in its Strategic Equality Action Plan.
  • ‘insport’ is a Disability Sport Wales programme delivered with the support the of Sport Wales, which aims to support the physical activity, sport, and leisure sectors delivering inclusively of disabled people. Sport Pembrokeshire and Pembrokeshire Leisure are the first local authority partner nationally to achieve the insport Partnerships Gold standard (December 2024). Achievement of the Gold standard means that an inclusive approach is embedded within strategies, programmes, and thinking. The achievement recognises the efforts in creating opportunities that ensure everyone, regardless of ability, can participate and thrive in physical activity and sport at a level of their choosing.
  • Throughout 2024-25, we continued to provide practical support to refugees and asylum seekers through the Migration Partnership Team.   The team organise a range of events throughout the year to support community integration. In the community, the Migration Team events, and integration programmes support this action. The team works closely with multiple services, particularly colleagues in Education, to ensure successful pupil integration.  Youth services provide both 16+ and 11+  days out, as well as activities and residentials helping to settle and forge friendships and the DWP, Future Works, Employability and Maximus help families find work.   We also work with volunteers, family support and the police and are working on a programme of wellness events. 
  • During 2024-25 we directly employed 75 disabled people with 56 being on the supported employment programme.  The programme assists people to achieve greater independence in supported work-based settings that include our factory (Norman Industries), craft workshop, shop, saw mill and cafes. 
  • Considerable work has been undertaken to identify potential additional pitches to meet the needs of the Gypsy Traveller community. This work is ongoing and a number of sites have been put forward for consideration in conjunction with review of the Local Development Plan. 
  • The Pupil Deprivation Grant (PDG) continues to fund targeted interventions, support and activities across Pembrokeshire schools to reduce the impact of poverty.  Targeted interventions include literacy and numeracy support and speech and language interventions for pupils. Pastoral and emotional support includes Counselling, drama therapy and play therapy, dedicated pastoral and well-being staff and ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants) interventions. Enrichment and extracurricular activities include increased access to sports and arts events (e.g. tennis, music lessons) trips and residential visits. Family and community engagement (FACE) includes adult education courses, family support and parent workshops. Access and equality measures include support in accessing uniforms, revision guides, hygiene packs, breakfast and after-school clubs, mini-bus access to increase take-up in off-site activities and proportional representation in pupil leadership/learner voice groups & wider school activities/clubs.
  • See SA1.1 Education for details of implementing the Raising Attainment for Disadvantaged Youngsters as a consistent framework for closing the attainment gap and proactive approaches to exclusions including providing Additional Learning Needs (ALN) support.
  • We continue to monitor community tensions with regional colleagues including preparing training and awareness events and practical early intervention tools with local authorities. A range of targeted training was developed and delivered regionally, including Victim Support-led sessions in March in response to online hate targeting the third sector.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Continue monitoring of the Strategic Equality Plan 2024 – 2028 including work being progressed by the sub-group.
  • Complete the pilot of the Integrated Impact Assessment guidance and template including feedback from users from across the authority to ensure that the framework is robust.
  • Continue to monitor pay gaps and ensure that our recruitment practices enable the council’s workforce to reflect the communities it serves.
  • Progress our revised Local Development Plan (LDP 2) including site-specific allocations that can meet the unmet need for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation and a policy to allow the evaluation of proposals for such accommodation coming forward on unallocated sites (which will mostly be for private sites).  This will include going out to consultation on focused changes made in response to the representations received providing an opportunity for representations to be made to support or object to these specific changes only.
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