Annual Self-Assessment 2024-25

SA1 - Well-being Objectives (continued)

SA1.7 - We will support the Welsh language within communities and through schools

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • Our commitment to the development of the Welsh language in the county is reflected in the Corporate Strategy 2025-30, Welsh Language Strategy 2021–26 and the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan 2022-31.
  • Much of the information in this section is taken from the Welsh Language Standards Annual Report 2024-25. This was considered by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its June 2025 meeting and adopted at Cabinet in July 2025.
  • The number of calls to the Council’s Contact Centre made in Welsh has increased slightly by 2% from 6,764in 2023–24 to 6,903 in 2024-25.
  • The time that customers must wait for their call to be answered (queue time) when calling the Council’s Contact Centre has increased slightly for both English and Welsh languages when compared to 2023-24. Callers to the Welsh language line now wait an average of 32 seconds (an additional 1 second) and callers to the English line waiting an average of 53 seconds (an additional 8 seconds). These queue times are well within the service target for 2024-25 which, as last year, is currently for calls to be answered within 2 minutes on average. This target applied equally to both English and Welsh language queues.
  • Number of users of the English website has decreased by 24%, while numbers of users of the Welsh site has decreased by 40% since 2023–24. These decreases may be due to the other channels we have introduced which also provide customers with information including social media, My Account and Alexa reducing the need to solely rely on the website for information.
  • Overall, there is continued growth in the number of customers registering for My Account and to receive communication through the medium of Welsh or English with an increase of 9.6% for the English account and an increase of 7% for the Welsh account.
  • Interest in the Council’s Facebook pages continues to grow, though at a reduced rate for 2024-25. Likes for the English language Facebook increased by 4%, likes for the Welsh language page increased by 1.25%.
  • Compared with 2023-24, written translations of all lengths in 2024-25 have increased by 15%, simultaneous translation has increased by 31%, from 5 in 2023-24 to 16 in 2024-25.
  • We had 2 complaints in 2024-25 relating to Welsh language service delivery standards (Standard 158). The complaints related to information displayed in Welsh that was thought to be poorly translated and an error in sending a response in English when it should have been sent in Welsh, it had been handled and acknowledged in Welsh.
  • Welsh language skill levels decreased by 11.8% from 868 in 2023-24 at Level 1 or above to 765 in 2024-25 and remained static at 170 at Level 3/4 in 2023-24 compared to 169 at Level 3/4 in 2024-25. A review of the Welsh language skills self-assessment process is ongoing.
  • There were 100 Health and Safety related training courses delivered through the medium of Welsh, a decrease of 8.7% compared with 2023-24. This slight decrease may be due to many factors including the timing of renewals for mandatory courses e.g. every 3 years.
  • A designated tutor funded by the National Centre for Learning Welsh delivers the Work Welsh courses to Council staff. During 2024-25, 168 staff attended Work Welsh classes and 93 attended Community courses at various levels. The overall total Council staff learners is 261, an increase of 28% compared to 2023-24 (203 learners). Learn Welsh Pembrokeshire also offer courses which are available at various times and locations throughout Pembrokeshire.
  • The designations of Welsh language requirements on posts advertised has remained largely static since 2020-21 across all designations:  7% Welsh language essential, 78% Welsh language desirable, 1% Welsh to be learnt and 14% Welsh not required.
  • On 1st July 2024, Cabinet formally approved the offer from the WLGA to host the 2026 Eisteddfod (opens in a new tab) in Pembrokeshire on a site in Llantood.  2026 marks the 850th anniversary of the Eisteddfod in the Dyffryn Teifi area. Preparations are well underway for the “Eisteddfod y Garreg Las” which will be making its first visit to Pembrokeshire since 2002. Held next year from 1st- 8th August, it will be a unique collaboration with neighbouring counties, with the catchment not only including the whole of Pembrokeshire, but also extending into western areas of Carmarthenshire, and southern Ceredigion. The traditional Proclamation Ceremony, held in Narberth on 17 May 2025, was a resounding success.
Education
  • Our new 3-11 Welsh medium school in Pembroke, Ysgol Bro Penfro, was officially opened by the Education Cabinet Secretary in January 2025. The new build represents further investment in Welsh medium primary education in Pembrokeshire and a significant means of contributing to the Council’s Welsh in Education Strategic Plan. Ysgol Bro Penfro opened for pupils in September 2024 and currently has 148 children on roll.
  • In relation to the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP), the overarching target of increasing the number of children in Year 1 being taught through the medium of Welsh has continued to be met. As at the baseline year of 2020, 292 (22.8%) children met this criteria. In 2024-25, the number had fallen to 287 (25.7%), but this is set against a further decline in the year group cohort, i.e. a decline of 167 pupils between 2020 and 2025. See Evidence - Welsh Medium Year 1 pupils (Source: PLASC).
  • The launch of the Welsh language oracy retrieval platform, Meistroli, marked a major innovation. This was complemented by reading and writing question banks in Welsh added to the Carousel learning retrieval platform, creating a comprehensive resource set for language development to support coherence and progression between year groups and independent learning (homework). Overall, retrieval practice has progressed from a promising initiative to a system-wide improvement strategy. The growing resource base, teacher engagement, and innovative Welsh-language developments position Pembrokeshire as a leading authority in embedding retrieval to support long-term learning. The next phase will benefit from sharper impact analysis and continued alignment with curriculum goals.
Youth and Community Education
  • Work Welsh classes continue for Council staff via the work Welsh tutor. Learning Pembrokeshire continue to provide Welsh language courses and events for Welsh learners at all levels across Pembrokeshire through Community education Centres.
  • We have progressed the recommendations made by Estyn in 2023 regarding Welsh for Adults. This has included strengthening strategic planning, sharpening processes for evaluating teaching and learning and strengthening processes for monitoring and tracking. We have reviewed the staffing model creating an additional tutor post in place of sessional tutor hours and changes have been made to the delivery model.
  • We have developed Welsh Language provision in partnership with Menter Sir Benfro in two key service areas: Youth provision and activities and as part of mainstream ACL provision. A number of workshops and St. David’s Day/youth activities have been delivered through this partnership.

Evidence – how do we know?

Education

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Hosting the Eisteddfod in 2026 will help us to progress our support for the Welsh language and culture within our communities.
  • Use the support and best practice guidance provided via the Promoting Compliance Programme 2024-25 of the Welsh Language Commissioners Office to support implementation and compliance with the standards, support the development of the next 5-year Welsh Language Strategy 2026-2031, and review of the Internal Use of Welsh Policy.
  • Complete review and pilot the new process for the Welsh language skills self-assessment to simplify the process, to increase the number of completions and to support annual reporting requirements.
  • Respond to requirements emerging from the new Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Bill. Aimed at giving every child in Wales a fair opportunity to speak Welsh independently and confidently, whatever their background or schooling, support for schools will include working with the sector to increase the number of staff able to work through the medium of Welsh, developing the language skills of the existing workforce, and providing Welsh language learning materials.
  • Consider further catchment changes where applicable.
  • Further examine changing language categories of existing Dual Stream, and English medium schools where appropriate.
  • Review Welsh for Adults provision and align with funding target. 
  • Develop and monitor Post-16 Welsh Medium partnership to increase pupil numbers accessing post-16 provision. 

 

SA1.8 - We will focus resources on delivering core services such as highways, waste and recycling, public protection and leisure and culture that contribute to communities’ quality of life, ensuring residents live in neighbourhoods that are clean, green, safe and active

A number of these updates cross-reference with SA1.4 and SA1.5.

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

Environment
  • In 2024-25, the Council had the opportunity to loan a 16t EV recycling vehicle. Having given it a challenging route, positive feedback was received from the crew. The Council will continue to explore EV options with future vehicle loan options available.
  • Fly-tipping reduced in Q1 and Q2 of 2024-25, dropping from 190 incidents to 156. Unfortunately, there was a big spike in fly-tipping in Q3, rising to 253 incidents (61% increase). This was a possible knock-on effect of issues with waste and recycling collections and changes to collection days over the Christmas period. Whilst fly-tipping incidents began to reduce again towards the end of the year, there were a total of 807 fly-tipping incidents in 2024-25, an 18.2% increase from 2023-24. More work is needed going forward to reduce fly-tipping.
  • For the fifth year running, the Council has exceeded Welsh Government’s recycling target, which for 2024-25 was raised to 70%. PCC’s average recycling performance for the year was around 72%, although this has not yet been verified by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). This was lower than expected to due continued issues with the wood off-taker, in which an outage at the facility resulted in wood being held in storage rather than recycled. New contracts with contingency sites have been made (subject to NRW permits) to ensure this does not happen again in the future.
  • The Council met the Welsh Government target of zero waste to landfill in May 2024, and no further waste has been sent direct to landfill by PCC. The remaining waste to landfill figures for 2024-25 represents what off-takers are sending to landfill, such as rejects from Energy from Waste (EfW) processes that cannot be recycled.
  • Construction on the Pembrokeshire Eco Park, located in Milford Haven, was completed and the facility opened following the obtaining of an Environmental Permit in October 2024. The Eco Park became fully operational by December 2024.
  • Since March 2024, the Council has been making efforts to address the odour coming from Withyhedge Landfill Site, following a petition by members of the public. While the Council’s pursuance of legal action against Resources Management Limited (RML) was unsuccessful, this, along with the strength of public concern and action taken by NRW, led to increased urgency for the company to carry out measures to mitigate the escape of odours from the site. An update report was taken to Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee in June 2025. The report noted that air quality monitoring of Hydrogen Sulphide has been occurring near the site, and the Council receives weekly monitoring reports to allow for interventions when needed.
  • Fly-grazing incidents have risen in the latter half of 2024-25 and is an issue affecting particular localities.  Fly-grazing can create negative impacts and concerns for communities in terms of public safety, property damage and animal welfare.  The Council continues to work in partnership with the police and other relevant stakeholders to address the issue, including work to develop a joint policy which will set out our approach.
Infrastructure
  • Pembrokeshire has continued to lead in coastal adaptation in 2024-25 though significant challenges remain for certain coastal adaptation schemes in locations like Newgale and Amroth.
  • A listening exercise around Welsh Government’s 20mph speed limit policy was undertaken between May and October 2024 with residents, businesses and community representatives across the county. This identified that there are concerns that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not appropriate for Pembrokeshire’s diverse and predominantly rural road network. As a result, the Council will be undertaking a review of the implementation of the policy across the county over the 2025-26 financial year.
  • There has been significant development of the Regional Transport Plan (RTP) throughout 2024-25. This is as a result of good collaborative working across the region, public consultation and support from the region’s Cabinet administrations. The RTP will be submitted for approval by Welsh Government in 2025-26.
  • Highway performance remained generally satisfactory in 2024-25, despite the year-on-year cuts. However, some trends have begun to emerge, such as increased pothole instances and rising complaints about potholes.
  • Council officers have been working closely with Transport for Wales (TfW) regarding Bus Reform and the introduction of Bus Franchising, planned to be introduced in 2027. These changes mean that decisions about bus services (routes, timetables, fares, hours of operation and service quality standards) will be made by Welsh Government and TfW, working in partnership with local authorities and Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs). Bus operators will be able to bid for contracts to run services to these specifications. The proposed base network was presented to Cabinet in November 2024, and Cabinet agreed to endorse these plans.
  • Construction for the Haverfordwest Interchange commenced following a groundbreaking ceremony in early 2025. The project includes the construction of a modern bus station and multi-story car park in Haverfordwest town centre. Construction is due to complete in late Spring/early Summer 2026.
  • Development of the Milford Haven Public Transport Interchange project continued in 2024-25, with an update report presented to Cabinet in October 2024. Cabinet supported the continuation of the scheme, approving the grant application going forward into the 2025-26 financial year. The project will include an improved railway, bus and car facilities at Milford station, and the development of a future proofed scheme which will enable additional services (such as an hourly train service). Construction is planned to start in Autumn 2025 ready for completion in October 2026. 
Culture, Leisure and Registration
  • Progress was slower than desired regarding condition surveys for Tenby and Pembroke swimming pools, but work was completed in 2024-25. Building Maintenance have ensured that legionella risks are managed effectively, pool tiles are addressed as they become evident (Tenby), structural columns are repaired (Pembroke), additional lighting is installed, and outside rendering is made safe. In March 2025, additional funding was agreed by Cabinet to undertake an additional level of detail through intrusive works. This will provide visibility into areas of the pools that a standard visual inspection cannot achieve, and ensure that Cabinet are given sufficiently robust information and costs to make an informed decision on investing in extending in the life of these assets.
  • A new library needs assessment was completed in 2024-25, agreed by Cabinet in December 2024. This document demonstrates the positive impact that public libraries have in a range of areas such as health and well-being, learning, child and adult literacy, supported employment, economic growth, digital inclusion, combating social isolation, and enriching lives. Public engagement around the document showed that people value and need a safe and welcoming community space, support from staff, a place to find information, and books and resources. As a result of the Library Needs Assessment, the Library Service now has a clearer understanding of the needs of the communities it serves, as well as an awareness of different suggestions for change.
  • Work was conducted with Visit Pembrokeshire and other partners to complete a refreshed Destination Management Plan for Pembrokeshire. The new plan was formally adopted by Cabinet in April 2024, and this has supported a joined up, strategic approach to sustainable tourism development in Pembrokeshire.
  • There were 1,343,131 visits to leisure centres in 2024-25, surpassing the year’s target by 2,610 visits. Leisure facilities performed excellently throughout the year, and a 1% growth target has been set for 2025-26 as a result.
  • There were 356,928 total visits to libraries in 2024-25, an increase of 2.4% from the previous year. This is despite a reduction in opening hours for Milford Haven Library, the temporary closure of Narberth Library for relocation, the temporary closure of Tenby Library to replace shelving, and mechanical issues for the Mobile and Library at Home vehicle, which will be replaced in 2025-26.
  • Throughout the year, the Heart of Pembrokeshire project (a flagship regeneration scheme in Haverfordwest) has made good progress under challenging circumstances. Challenges included pressure on the budget, programme (funder deadlines) and restrictions due to archaeology, the historic environment and the natural environment (rare bats). Fundraising for the post-completion fitout project was successful with a stage I National Lottery Heritage Fund award. Additionally, the Haverfordwest pop-up museum, located at the Riverside Shopping Centre, continued to operate throughout 2024-25 following its opening in March 2024. The museum is planned to be relocated back to Haverfordwest Castle when it reopens in early 2028.
Public protection
  • The Service continues to be challenged by ongoing vacancies and long-term staff absences. Considerable work has been progressed in the development of a Workforce Plan for the service, which is as a result of continued recruitment challenges across the Trading Standards and environmental health service areas. A suite of incentive schemes including Gateway Payments and Golden Hello has been agreed and will be rolled in over 2025-26 in an attempt to fill long standing vacant posts.
  • The demand for empty property support continued in 2024-25 and, as of June 2025, there were 1,469 empty properties in Pembrokeshire (empty for over 6 months). An Empty Property Action Plan and a list of problematic empty properties has been developed as a result. Less progress was made on the delivery of this plan than hoped due to high service demand, loss of staff and the time taken to recruit replacements. The Council has also signed up to participate in the Welsh Government’s Empty Homes Grant Scheme, with match funding identified from the council tax long term empty properties premium. This scheme supports the renovation of empty properties to make them safe to live in and improve their energy efficiency. There have been 70 applications to date for the scheme in Pembrokeshire.
  • Public Protection did not resume collecting, validating and reporting on performance measures for the Corporate Scorecard during 2024-25 due to loss of key business support staff, and the subsequent time required for recruitment and familiarisation. This will remain a priority going forward into 2025-26.
  • Service demands continue to be high with the private sector housing teams dealing with over 1000 service requests in 2024, public health teams with over 1500 and licensing teams with nearly 4000.  These numbers have trended upwards steadily since 2019.
  • Innovative channels such as the Noise app continue to see high demands and improved customer satisfaction and the ability to record incidents of disturbance when officers cannot be there.  There have been several high-profile enforcement and prosecution cases in 2024 and the team continue to make use of novel enforcement tools such as community protection notices and in 2025 has seen a development where Ateb Housing Association being provided with delegation to take limited types of anti-social behaviour enforcement.  It is hoped that the ability to take early intervention steps will recue workloads for our public health team and help with sustained tenancies for Ateb.
  • Despite challenging and significant vacant posts the Trading Standards service has continued to prioritise certain national enforcement priorities which are aimed at protecting the most vulnerable in our communities, focussing on the activities of rogue traders, on protecting vulnerable consumers from scams and on the sale of illegal tobacco and non-compliant vapes, including the sales of these items to minors, which presents a significant issue to health and wellbeing. Investigations have unearthed serious and, in some cases, persistent offences being committed, which have resulted in both the seizure of non-compliant products and criminal prosecutions.
  • A Food Safety and Standards Service recovery plan, reflecting workforce planning developments and updated assumptions was submitted to and approved by Cabinet in December 2024, with the aspiration of realigning with the national Framework Agreement and Food Law Code of Practice by the end of September 2026.  Despite these challenges, as at the end of 2024-25, the Service had through the combination of measures reduced the overall backlog of overdue inspections to 650 premises from 1337 which were overdue at the start of 2023-24.
  • Despite service demands, the service has continued to enforce its regulatory powers to ensure the protection from harm to the public and animals, with a number of successful prosecutions having been completed. 

Evidence – how do we know?

Environment
Infrastructure
Culture, Leisure and Registration
Public protection

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

Environment
  • Implement the Environmental Services Strategy 2025-30.
  • Continue work with Enviro-crime in an effort to reduce fly-tipping incidents in 2025-26.
Infrastructure
  • Complete a review of the School Transport Policy.
  • Review the implementation of the 20mph speed limit policy across the county.
Culture, Leisure and Registration
  • Complete refurbishment works to Tenby and Pembroke swimming pools.
  • Negotiate and enter into a new grant agreement with Visit Pembrokeshire and progress the delivery of the Destination Management Plan. 
Public protection
  • Resume collecting, validating and reporting on Public Protection performance measures.
  • Oversee delivery of an Empty Property Action Plan, and implementation of empties back into use.
  • Review the services’ Workforce Development Plan.
  • Implement triage exercise for services, to ensure prioritisation and demand management of service requests.  

 

SA1.9 - We will develop a strategy to reduce poverty and inequality

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • Delivery of the Pembrokeshire Tackling Poverty Strategy published in early 2024 continues, led by the Poverty and Inequalities working group of the PSB.  The sub-group meets regularly to oversee delivery of actions and to collaborate on delivery of grant funded projects.
  • Pembrokeshire’s second Poverty Summit held in April 2025, with a continued focus on exploring local issues and identifying creative solutions to combatting poverty in Pembrokeshire.  Workshops were held to encourage attendees to consider positive action that can be taken to help resolve issues around poverty. 
  • Following the 2024 Poverty Summit, feedback suggested that the event was quite hard-hitting in its main messaging. Many attendees did not initially realise the extent of poverty in Pembrokeshire. This year’s Summit took a more balanced approach, giving the message that whilst poverty was not going away, there is positive and proactive work that can be done to support and help people.
  • This years’ Summit included a presentation on the new LIFT (Low Income Family Tracker) Platform.  This software was purchased in early 2025 and uses data from a number of sources to identify those who may not be claiming benefits they are entitled to, enabling the Council to pro-actively reach out to those people to support them with making a claim.  The first campaign for the platform is currently being prepared.
  • A Communications and Collaboration Strategy is currently under development to ensure that people are aware of the LIFT Platform campaign. This includes engaging with elected Members and reassuring members of the public that the letters they may receive about this are genuine.
  • Based on actions within the Tackling Poverty Strategy, a lived experience sub-group is also being developed involving individuals affected by poverty, to examine and explore their experiences of accessing available support services and systems.
  • Particularly successful has been the People PWR welfare rights project aimed at` improving finances and improving futures of those disadvantaged.  The project has received 506 referrals, with £261,834 financial gains generated for Pembrokeshire families (with families benefiting on average c£3,000).  The project has also supported families with food bank referrals, fuel vouchers and help with accessing the Discretionary Assistance Fund.
  • We increased the uptake of universal free school meals for primary school aged children from 68% to 73%.  This promotes healthy eating as well as tackling child poverty.
  • Most recent child poverty rates (opens in a new tab) are reported online .  For Mid and South Pembrokeshire constituency area for 2023-24 relative poverty has increased to 26% up from 24.3% in 2022-23.  This compares with figures of 21.8% for the UK and 24% for Wales.  Data for small areas shows that child poverty in 10 of Pembrokeshire’s 71 LSOAs, over a third of children are in relative poverty and that one LSOA, Garth 2, has a rate of 47.2% which is within the top 5% highest rates for LSOAs in the UK.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Review the Tackling Poverty Strategy on an annual basis to ensure the content is relevant and up to date and that the lived experiences of people are appropriately reflected.
  • Establish the lived experience sub-group and integrate recommendations from the group into the work of the Poverty and Inequalities working group.
  • Reflect on feedback from the 2025 Poverty summit before starting to plan for the next summit in 2026 to ensure the summit meets the needs of those working to support those in poverty in the county.
  • Further strengthen the membership of the Poverty Group by inviting representation from schools onto the group - school staff are often the first to see how poverty affects children and young people in our communities.  

 

SA1.10 - We will build a culture of good governance in the Council to enhance trust and confidence in our decision-making processes

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • During 2024-25, the Council worked on the remaining outstanding actions in its Corporate Governance Improvement Plan (CGIP).  These actions were based on findings in Audit Wales’ 2022 Public Interest Report as well as the first phase of its follow up report in 2023. Many of the actions in the CGIP depended on changes to the Constitution which were agreed in October 2023. 
  • Progress against the Corporate Governance Improvement Plan was considered by Council at its May 2024 meeting.  Training for senior officers and Members on the Constitution and related issues such as Code of Conduct has been built into the Council’s calendar with regular events being held each February and this addresses concern around Officer/Member relationships.  Some of the actions in the Plan were dependent on Welsh and UK Government timescales, for examples changes brought about by the (delayed) procurement legislation was introduced in February 2025, and this is commented on in the Resources section.
  • In March 2025, Audit Wales completed the second phase of its follow up report.  It found that the Council continues to make progress in addressing the recommendations in our Report in the Public Interest, but it is not clear how it is assuring itself that the actions it is taking are sustainable and will achieve the intended impacts.  Audit Wales has not issued any new recommendations in its report but has stated it intends to continue to monitor the Council's progress in implementing the existing recommendations as part of our ongoing assurance and risk assessment work.
  • While outstanding actions in the CGIP continue to be delivered, and Audit Wales indicating that they will issue no further recommendations in regard to this work, the Council has asked the panel for its Panel Performance Assessment to have a specific focus on governance.  This is for additional assurance and to take advantage of any opportunities to further strengthen our governance processes through learning from external, independent perspectives.
  • The Constitution continues to evolve with a change to the executive scheme of delegation agreed on 7 March 2024.  The Constitution continues to be reviewed to ensure that the aims and principles of the Constitution are given full effect and minor changes were agreed in both October 2024 and May 2025.  A committed Constitutional Review Committee continues to support the Monitoring Officer and Head of Democratic Services to deliver this work.
  • Many decisions are delegated to officers.  In 2024-25 we agreed a protocol for recording and publishing officer decisions.  The protocol differentiates those decisions which need only to be recorded and more significant decisions (for instance, those that involve expenditure over £100k of where there may be notable political, public or reputational interest) where a decision should be published alongside other committee papers.  This will address inconsistencies identified in previous years.
  • Our Participation Strategy contains actions around encouraging participation in the planned 2027 local government elections.  Further details are in the consultation and engagement section (see section 2.3).  Progress in delivering the Strategy is overseen by Democratic Services Committee.
  • At its 3 July 2025 meeting, the Democratic Services Committee considered a report on the Adequacy of the Democratic Services Functions.  Essentially, this is a report on the work undertaken by the Team in 2024-25 and the challenges it is facing.
  • The report concludes that given that there will need to be induction training provided for Members following the 2027 elections the current member training budget is insufficient, and an increase has been recommended.  The report also noted that although the resources allocated to the Democratic Services function are adequate there is little flexibility for the team to take on additional work.
  • Notably, we reviewed the petition scheme and Petitions – twelve petitions were processed in this period compared to 10 the previous year, five were debated at an Overview and Scrutiny Committee and three at Full Council.  Three were rejected as they did not meet the criteria for submission and one is still gathering signatures.  The scheme is currently under review having been considered by the Constitutional Review Committee and the Democratic Services Committee and a number of recommendations have been made to Council to improve the scheme. The scheme was reviewed by Council in May and a number of changes were made.
  • In 2024-25 we agreed a survey of both Member engagement and meeting times, work that was undertaken in 2025-26 and reported to 3 July Democratic Services Committee.
  • All Overview and Scrutiny Committee chairs and vice-chairs were invited to training on chairing skills in 2024 which was led by the Welsh Local Government Association.  Additionally, the Chairs produce an Overview and Scrutiny annual report which sets out the work each of the respective committees has undertaken during the year.  This was considered in each committee’s June 2025 cycle.
  • All Councillors are subject to the Code of Conduct and compliance is overseen by Standards Committee (whose remit also extends to Pembrokeshire’s Town and Community Councillors).  Standards Committee considered a report detailing numbers of complaint that dealt with via informal resolution (five) or via the Ombudsman (twenty-five) in 2024-25.
  • Last year we commissioned a report into the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission’s recommendations were in line with the Council’s own policy.  All 77 T&CCs will continue (a number of minor boundary changes) though the number of Cllrs and Wards within T&CCs will reduce.  This provides a stability for work with communities but does not address concerns raised by the sector itself around difficulties in recruiting Clerks and maintaining the organisational and governance systems that all T&CCs, no matter how small, are required to have in place.
  • The Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2024-25 was considered by Governance and Audit Committee on 10 July 2025 and approved by Council on 17 July 2025.  The AGS complements the self-assessment, and its conclusions are part of the evidence for this assessment.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Continue to prepare for the 2027 elections and associated Member training and development via the Working Group of Democratic Services Committee that was established in early 2025-26.
  • Consider improvements to Overview and Scrutiny Committees and/or how they engage with the public.
  • Continue to undertake training in the Council’s Constitution and decision-making processes.

 

SA1.11 - We will be a financially sustainable and resilient Council managing our resources and assets effectively and efficiently, for instance by reviewing and optimizing our corporate estate

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • Information on the Council’s financial position is reported quarterly to Cabinet, the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the Governance & Audit Committee. The 2024-25 Budget Outturn report was considered by Cabinet at its 7 July 2025 meeting.  This contains a wealth of information, including performance data.
  • Councils are facing significant budget pressures that cannot be addressed by councils alone.  The following summarises the challenge that the recently commissioned Independent Working Group on Sustainable Local Government for the Future is seeking to address by provide recommendations to the next Welsh Government.
    • Despite recent increases in the funding allocated to local government, budgetary pressures following the cost-of-living crisis; Covid; and increasing demand for services like social care mean that many councils are having to cut or pause many non-essential services – and the current fiscal and political environment means that further significant increases in funding are unlikely.
  • The rate of inflation impact on the Council’s real spending power over the medium term.  Throughout the first two quarters of 2024-25 inflation (CPIH) was at 3% or below before climbing to around 3.5% at year end.  At the time of writing, the UK inflation CPIH rate is 4%, double the Bank of England target of 2%.  The Office for Budgetary Responsibility predict inflation will remain at around 3.7% towards the end of 2025, then reducing to 2.3% in 2026 with a further reduction to the target rate from 2027.  See Appendix F of July Cabinet’s Budget Outturn papers for more detail on how we are planning for the impact of inflation on Council services.
  • Whilst it was understood that 85% of the additional Employers National Insurance contribution (NIC) costs for the public sector in 2025-26 will be funded in Wales this did not materialise, leaving a £1m in-year pressure for 2025-26 and a £1m base budget pressure for 2026-27.
  • We proposed advancing the meeting date for deciding the 2024-25 Budget by two weeks to allow more time for extended discussion, but Council decided to defer its deliberations until March 2025 when Welsh Government funding was confirmed.  At the budget meeting itself, Standing Orders were suspended to allow consideration of an alternative budget.  The agreed increase in Council Tax was 9.35% a Band D equivalent for County Council purposes of £1,651.97. 
  • In view of the challenges to approve a budget over the past two years, the Council is seeking support and independent perspectives as part of the forthcoming Panel Performance Assessment around financial sustainability.  Specifically, we have asked the Panel to look at if there is a ‘One Council’ approach to financial planning, resource allocation and demand management which places the authority on a sustainable financial footing over the medium and longer term, and if not, what improvements we can make in future to strengthen this area.
  • Following recruitment into the Financial Services team in 2023-24, members of the team were supported through accounting technician apprenticeship and professional accounting qualifications. This has had a positive impact on the team resulting in improved staff retention and staff morale.  The team has sufficient capacity and resilience that a recruitment freeze was in place in 2024-25 and workloads were re-prioritised.  This was a short-term measure that resulted in five vacancies which are being filled in summer 2025.  Based on the level of interest for posts, recruitment difficulties are much less acute than they were two years ago.
  • Recruitment and retention in the Revenues and Benefits is more of an issue but this is in the context of a reducing workload due to the migration of working age housing benefit cases to Universal Credit and the potential for using IT to simplify processes and reduce workload.  Nonetheless, there has been recognition of the need to increase capacity both in Council Tax to reflect the increased workload caused by the council tax premiums, and in the recovery team.
  • The revenue outturn financial position reported to Cabinet in July 2025 confirms the Council’s net expenditure for 2024-25 at £301.5m, having accounted for appropriations to and from reserves, an underspend of £2.0m.
  • This represents an improved position from the £1.4m projected service overspend reported at Quarter 3 (Q3) this is due to:
    • Receipt of additional grant income during Quarter 4,
    • Grant underspends used to offset core expenditure during the final quarter (where conditions allowed),
    • Early progression of 2025-26 budget savings,
    • Continued vacancy savings,
    • Continued moratorium on non-essential expenditure,
    • Further increase in investment income and reduction in capital financing costs.
  • For most of the financial year, we were projecting an overspend so it is a real achievement to have underspent across the financial year despite Children’s and Adults’ Social Care Services being overspent by £6.5m. 
  • The July 2025 Cabinet Budget Outturn report contains much more detail on how budgetary pressures were managed.  It also comments on the appropriation of £1.228m to the General Fund that has arisen from additional council tax collected from previous years arrears and from self-catering properties that have transferred from Non-Domestic Rates to Council Tax, and the reasons why it is prudent for this to be allocated to reserve.  The remaining £2m underspend will be appropriated to the initiative fund reserve so that we continue to have resources to invest in improvement and prevention projects to realise future cost avoidance/budget saving opportunities.
  • The majority of Council services under-spent their budget and it is clear that the moratorium on non-essential services and recruitment (resulting in a council-wide vacancy management saving of £2.4m) played a part in this.  Capital Financing costs were £4.176m lower than budgeted as a result of slippage in the Capital programme.  Both of these saving mechanisms have an impact on the quality of services.  Underspends in some services (such as Highways) have been put into reserve to enable catch up programmes in future years.  Both Education and General Fund Housing and Homelessness (services which were overspent in previous years) were underspent in 2024-25.
  • The services that overspent are largely within Social Care. Children’s Services overspent its rolling budget of £31.556m by £5.649m (17.9%).  Within this budget heading Children’s residential care is the largest single item.  The largely preventative Approved Lodgings, Personal Advisors, the family Placement / Children with Disabilities staffing teams and Residence Orders budgets were underspent.  The picture for Adult Social Care is more complex it overspent its rolling budget of £80.127m by £0.872m (1.1%).  Whilst Nursing home placements, Supported Accommodation and Day Services were overspent, other areas such as Assessment & Care Management £0.593m underspend as a result of vacancies.
  • During 2024-25, 41 of our 61 schools overspent the funding they received with 13 schools finishing the year with deficit balances. Individual schools have a responsibility to set a balanced budget and that remains the expectation and requirement. During 2024-25 it was recognised that the financial support provided through the school financial support and guidance SLA was no longer sufficient to support schools in preparing and monitoring licensed deficit agreements to bring them back into surplus over the MTFP. As a result a joint finance and education Accelerated Change Programme (ACP) bid was submitted and approved to provide additional capacity to assist Headteachers and Governing Bodies to identify new cost savings through financial and curriculum benchmarking, supporting headteachers and governing bodies to identify areas of their operation that are inefficient through comparison with schools which are efficient in these areas. An existing member of the education finance team will transfer across to support this project.
  • The Medium Term Financial Plan projected a funding gap for 2025-26 of £27.4m with the funding gap over the MTFP 2025-26 to 2028- 29 being £73.6m (most likely scenario).  September 2025’s Cabinet will receive an update on the latest estimate of the size of the projected funding gap as part of the Quarter 1 2025-26 Budget Monitoring report.
  • The publication of the Council’s 2023-24 draft Statement of Accounts was delayed beyond the statutory deadline of 30 June 2024 due to delays in receiving the Property Asset valuations. The Final (audited) 2023-24 accounts were published on 13 May 2025.   The publication of the 2024-25 Statement of Accounts is likely to be delayed for similar reasons with a target date of publishing the draft Accounts now 25 September 2025.  Details were reported to Governance and Audit Committee at its July 2025 meeting.
  • During 2024-25 the Property team stabilised through recruitment to a key post and the team has been improving the efficiency with how the Council’s property portfolio is managed and maximising the financial and wider benefits it brings.  Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered how the Property service is addressing five recommendations made by Audit Wales in 2022.  This concluded that one recommendation is fully met, two partially met and two are still to be concluded.
  • A new Community Asset Transfer policy was agreed by Cabinet in November 2024.  Since this date, a number of community asset transfers are underway including a public toilet (transferred to St Davids City Council) and Fishguard Town Hall (in the process of being transferred to Fishguard and Goodwick Town Council).
  • The Council has operated Haverfordwest Airport since the 1950s.  This provides a local base for emergency services as well as promotes economic opportunities for the area), but the facility required a subsidy.  In May 2024, following a meeting with stakeholders at the airport the previous month, Cabinet agreed that a lease for Haverfordwest Airport should be negotiated and completed that will allow the airport to continue to operate at no cost to the Council.  Negotiations continued throughout 2024-25 and in April, a lease with the Directors of Haverfordwest Airport Ltd, was signed. The airport will continue to operate but at no cost to the Council. Haverfordwest Airport Ltd will take over day to day operations at the airport and Council airport staff will be transferred as part of the lease.
  • The new Procurement Act came into effect in February 2025 (delayed from summer 2024) and all new Procurement activity will need to follow this new legislation, as shown in the revised Contract Procedure Rules. This has major implications on how procurement is conducted within the Council and training and capacity building across the Council has commenced.
  • How we undertake procurement can bring benefits to the local economy and in 2024-25 49.4% of our spend was with local suppliers, up from 46.6% in 2023-24.  This figure is influenced by the Council’s large capital spending programme and the lack of local major construction companies.
  • We planned to complete the implementation of three IT modules for Citizens Access: “Benefits”; “Full Case Review” and “Landlords which will increase efficiency and the ability for customers to make claims / keep details up to date.  This was not implemented in year but the planning and technical IT work for delivery has been undertaken.
  • Our council tax collection rate for 2024-25 was 95.10% which is below the budgeted assumption of 98% and the 16th lowest in Wales.  The two main reasons for the decrease in performance was increased workload and a significant backlog in the first quarter (which had a knock-on throughout the year), and a number of properties moved back into Council Tax from Business Rates often resulting in a substantial back-dated bill for second homes council tax premium.  In some instances, this has resulted in balances that some taxpayers are simply unable to pay, and we are discussing payment arrangements with them. 
  • Last year we acted to reduce debt and a total of £1.8 million in Council Tax arrears has been referred to Enforcement Agents.  The recovery process has been streamlined to enable referral to Enforcement Agents more quickly.  We have recruited a staff member (as part of the Preventions package agreed in April) who is assisting with the recovery of debt including Council Tax.  This post complements more specialist social care debt recovery posts as well as a specialist debt recovery lawyer also funded as part of preventions.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Continue to place the Council on a sustainable financial footing and bridge the funding gap identified in the MTFP.
  • Implement three modules of revenues and benefits system to improve customer access and reduce administrative cost.
  • Improve the council tax collection rate and reduce outstanding housing debt.
  • Review options to procure and migrate to a new platform for our Financial Management System and the associated programme work to support this. We anticipate that this will be a significant piece of work.
  • Continue to embed the Procurement Act.
  • Work with schools and their governing bodies to address schools’ deficits.
  • Continue to progress our Strategic Asset Management Plan.
  • Rebasing the capital programme, to ensure the dates capital expenditure will be incurred and the Council will need to borrow are accurately reflected in the capital financing costs included in the budget.

 

SA1.12 - We will enhance the development of our workforce, improving skills and opportunities as well as tackling issues of recruitment and retention

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

  • Absence levels in 2024-25 continued to be in the lower quartile when benchmarked across Welsh Local Authorities. The number of working days lost per employee was 10 days per year compared to an All-Wales average of 11.7 days. Reasons for absence have become increasingly complex and managers are supported by our Employee Relations Team to navigate through conflict in the workplace, long term chronic illness and the impact of personal emotional trauma. Emotional and mental health continued to be a major contributor to absence levels in 2024-25. 38% of all referrals to Occupational Health were mental health related, with 70% linked to personal reasons. However, the launch of the mental health anti-stigma campaign in 2018 continues to show results, and the Occupational Health Service now coordinates and provides clinical support to 70 mental health champions.
  • There has been great success in the pro-active programmes of well-being support, such as quarterly events that highlight well-being to colleagues and an annual Winter Wellness clinic where staff can access flu and covid vaccines. Multiple drop-in wellness clinics in collaboration with our Leisure colleagues were held across the year, providing a friendly environment for staff to enquire about wellness classes, gain information on Wellness Eligibility Membership, undergo a Boditrax scan (body composition analysis), and discuss any results. The Council has also promoted national events, such as Cycle to Work Day on 1st August 2024.
  • The Voluntary Severance Scheme (VSS) and Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme (VER) continued to be promoted in 2024-25, with applications to the scheme considered by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The policy has enabled the Council to respond to budgetary pressures and has supplemented existing HR policies and procedures, as a means of achieving the required reductions in the workforce whilst helping to avoid compulsory redundancies.
  • The Future Workforce Plan (FWP) has been a guide for HR in a landscape of skills gaps in key professions. Whilst the overall position was much improved in 2024-25, there were still some posts that remained difficult to recruit due to national skill shortages. The Pay Structure Maintenance Policy was reviewed to look at additional pay rewards to recruit and retain staff in some critical professions, and the Workforce Panel continues to monitor and ensure governance of these arrangements.  As part of the FWP, a master list of critical roles has been collated, and work continues to progress on succession planning for all roles identified.
  • Pembrokeshire County Council was awarded the Gold Award under the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme in September 2024, at a ceremony at HMS Cambria in Cardiff. This is as a result of positive practice in recruitment and support for the Armed Forces community. Additionally, as of 1st April 2024, the Council introduced a Guaranteed Interview Scheme at the corporate level for veterans and their spouses or partners. Updates on the progress of this scheme are shared with the Pembrokeshire Armed Forces Forum. Any vacancies within the local authority are advertised and shared with armed forces platforms and there is now a dedicated armed forces intranet page for Council employees.
  • The Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act 2023 became a duty in April 2024 and HR engaged positively with this new Act throughout the year. The framework on consultation was amended to align with the Act, and the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) Forum was renamed the Social Partnership Forum. During the year, the Chief HR Officer and the Chair of UNISON gave a joint presentation in Swansea on the positive examples of social partnership within Pembrokeshire.
  • Pembrokeshire County Council’s Gender Pay Gap reduced from 1.6% in 2023-24 to 0.8% in 2024-25. This is partly due to a rise in men taking part-time roles, but predominantly due to bottom loaded NJC pay rises over the last years to ensure we track the rise in the National Minimum Wage.
  • Whilst the Employee LGBTQ network did not progress as envisaged in 2024-25, we continue to celebrate PRIDE and will endeavour to promote and support this network, other employee networks and employee champions to mitigate the impact of an increase in remote working.
  • The Health & Safety team have been focussed on the further development of the EVOTIX health and safety platform which will ensure best-practice hazard and risk management processes, to proactively identify, assess and control hazards for safer, healthier workplaces. The occupational health management module and referral was the latest workflow to be to be progressed into the system.
  • Staff volunteering and fundraising events were also promoted throughout the year. Pembrokeshire FOCUS newsletters shared information on volunteering opportunities of the day, online volunteering fairs and Volunteers Week, encouraging staff to get involved.
  • Throughout the year, the Learning & Development team created the new ‘Feedback, Focus, Future’ (FFF) personal development system, as a replacement for the old POD employee appraisal system. This initiative introduced a new approach to performance management, giving employees recognition for their hard work and providing them with an opportunity to speak about how they are getting on in their role. The new system was developed in response to an employee engagement survey, which indicated that employees did not feel listened to and did not feel able to speak openly about issues they were facing. The FFF system soft-launched in March 2025 and a suite of training for managers and staff was rolled out to support this. 

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

  • Ensure a successful first phase rollout of the Feedback, Focus, Future staff performance framework, with a review of its implementation by March 2026.
  • Ensure that the critical posts identified in the Critical Role Risk Register have succession plans in place to spot talent and develop staff for future leadership roles.
  • Release the Manager Launch Pad, a programme designed for new managers.
  • Increase the number of managers trained in use of mediation to diffuse work conflict.
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