General

This final section provides a broad narrative on some key corporate or organisational areas of work from the past 12 months. More detail on some of these areas are covered in earlier sections of the report.

Panel Performance Assessment (PPA)

Section 92 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 places a duty on Councils to arrange for an external panel to conduct a Panel Performance Assessment (PPA) at least once each electoral cycle. A PPA is an independent, organisational-level assessment undertaken by expert peers, designed to support Councils in actively seeking external challenge and assurance, and embracing different perspectives around how they are performing and where they can improve.
The Council’s first PPA took place between 14 – 17 October 2025 and the independent Panel was comprised as follows:

Independent Chair: Phil Roberts - Former Chief Executive of Swansea City and County Council
Senior Elected Member: Cllr Anthony Hunt - Leader of Torfaen County Borough Council
Local Government Senior Officer: Emma Palmer - Chief Executive of Powys County Council
Peer from the wider public, private or voluntary sectors: Andrea Street OBE

During the visit, the Panel undertook a range of interviews, workshops and focus groups involving Cabinet, non-executive Members, Senior Leadership Team, Extended Leadership Team, managers, non-managers, trade unions, and representatives from various stakeholder groups and key partners of the Council. The Panel also had sight of a broad range of key Council documents, data, external reports and other evidence sources to help inform their view on how the Council is performing.
The final report (opens in a new tab) from the Panel concluded that the Council is exercising its functions effectively and meeting its statutory performance duties as set out in the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act. Overall, the report strikes a positive tone with the Panel recognising “a well-run council, with appropriate performance management frameworks in place underpinned by appropriate values and behaviours. These behaviours had an impressive degree of recognition through the organisation, down to operational managers and the frontline staff interviewed.” The report comments favourably on many aspects of the Council’s work, such as the cohesive and committed political and senior officer leadership, effective governance, strong partnership working, and in the Council’s response to date to the ongoing financial challenges.
The Panel made seven recommendations in the report where it felt the Council can further improve and develop, and these can be broadly categorised as follows:

Improving the overview and scrutiny function
Strengthening corporate capacity
Building on the existing culture of collaborative leadership
Reviewing economic development capacity
Exploring alternative approaches to resource prioritisation
Improving communication and engagement
Establishing cohesive programmes to deliver transformation

In line with the legislation, the Council was required to publish a response and action plan to the Panel’s recommendations. At the meeting of Council in March 2026 the Panel’s recommendations were accepted and the response and action plan (opens in a new tab) to address these was formally approved. Progress on delivering the action plan during 2026-27 will be reported in next year’s version of this report.

Transformation and Innovation

The Council’s transformation programme has been ongoing since 2016-17, though in more recent years the programme lacked some focus and required review. In view of this, and in the context of the extremely challenging financial climate and continuing focus on achieving significant efficiencies, budget savings and service change across the organisation, it was recognised that the Council’s approach to transformation needed to be refreshed, reshaped and reenergised.
Accordingly, in April 2025 Cabinet agreed to strengthened governance and programme management arrangements through the establishment of a new Transformation and Innovation Board with its core purpose being to provide strategic leadership and co-ordination of the delivery of existing and emerging change programmes, and to ensure these are delivered with sufficient purpose and pace. The Board also provides oversight of projects related to the above delivered through the Accelerated Change Programme (ACP), funded from the Initiative Fund, to ensure these achieve the positive improvements and financial impact anticipated.
The programme is focused on four key thematic areas as set out below:

Preventions (0-25 years old) - developing an integrated, place-based prevention system that tackles needs early, strengthens community assets, and reduces escalation into statutory services. This approach delivers better outcomes for children, young people and families while improving efficiency across services. The 0–25 Preventions Programme provides the strategic framework, bringing together Accelerated Change Programme (ACP) funded initiatives as sub-programmes that feed learning and practice into the wider system.
AI and Digital - delivery of transformative change across the Council by embedding digital and artificial intelligence capabilities into service delivery, with a specific focus on driving digital innovation, enhancing customer access, maximising value and efficiency, strengthening governance and ethics, and promoting a culture which embraces digital and artificial intelligence solutions.
Vanguard/Target Operating Model - implementing a systems thinking organisational approach, using the Vanguard methodology, to identify and reduce failure demand, remove duplication and bureaucracy, and in so doing, freeing up resource and creating capacity. The methodology is being rolled out throughout the Council to ensure opportunities are taken full advantage of, with early adopters in social services and housing yielding positive results.
Decarbonisation and Adaptation - strengthening governance arrangements for climate related oversight and decision making, integrating and embedding climate considerations into everyday operations and creating resilience to manage climate risks to service delivery and communities, across the four key areas of: corporate assets, domestic assets, transport and adaptation.

The Council’s PPA report (see above) contained recommendations in relation to the transformation and innovation programme which will be progressed via the Board during 2026-27.

Welsh Language

Our commitment to the development of the Welsh language in the county is reflected in the Corporate Strategy 2025-30, the new Welsh Language Strategy 2026–31 and the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan 2022-31. This section summarises key headlines taken from our Welsh Language Standards Annual Report for 2025-26 (opens in a new tab) which was approved by Cabinet in July 2026.
7,680 calls made into our contact centre during the year were in Welsh, which represents 2.88% of total calls received. The number of calls made in Welsh increased by 11.26% or 777 calls received in comparison to the previous year. Average queue times for all callers has increased significantly during the year, though the wait time for Welsh language callers is considerably less than those made in English. An additional five members of staff have been recruited to the contact centre to help reduce the queue time, two of whom are fluent Welsh speakers.
There has been an increase in both the number of users of the Welsh language pages of the Council’s website, and in the number of page views during the year. The Council will be launching a new website during 2026-27 and it is anticipated that this will further increase usage due to improved accessibility, visibility and searchability. My Account is the online Council account that offers a wide range of online services such as making payments, reporting problems and residents can sign up to receive notifications for a range of service delivery options. The number of users indicating a Welsh language communication preference has remained relative static over the past three years.
There have been seven complaints relating to the Welsh language in 2025-26, which included road signage being poorly translated, a planning notice being available in English only, and social media account without a link to promote the corresponding Welsh language page. Four complaints received during 2025-26 are still ongoing, where final determination has not been made by the Welsh Language Commissioner. Three of these complaints relate to whether sufficient consideration or “conscientious consideration” was given to the Welsh language when making a decision or consulting on a decision. The Council will review and update both the Consultation Protocol and Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) paperwork during 2026-27 to further strengthen guidance and resources to ensure decision-making complies with the Welsh language policy making standards.
During the year, the Welsh Language Strategy Delivery Group have reviewed the current Welsh Language Strategy 2021-26 to inform the development of the next 5-year strategy which will run from 2026-2031, which was approved by Council in July 2026. The 2026-31 Strategy’s objectives will align with Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers Strategy and reflect the Welsh Government Strategic Themes: increase the number of Welsh speakers, increase the everyday use of Welsh, and create favourable conditions (infrastructure and context).
Work is underway to improve Welsh language workforce data to support workforce planning and annual reporting. We will align workforce skills assessment with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, a widely used framework to describe language skills (basic, independent and proficient levels). This is in line with the Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025 which sets the target for all pupils to develop oral skills measured against the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
The Council has continued to support and promote the Welsh language and culture through a range of initiatives throughout the year, such as the St David’s Day parade for Pembrokeshire school children, a St David’s Day staff coffee morning, and participation in the Urdd Eisteddfod. Perhaps most significantly, the Council has been actively preparing alongside key partners and stakeholders to host the 2026 national Eisteddfod in Pembrokeshire in early August, which will mark its 850th anniversary. This event presents a unique and privileged opportunity to support and promote the Welsh language across communities, one which we hope will have a lasting impact on the use of the language and the celebration of our culture, in our county.

Equalities

The Council meets its duties and responsibilities to the equalities agenda through its Strategic Equality Plan 2024-28. The plan is monitored by the Strategic Equality Action Plan Group which meet quarterly. Cabinet approved the Strategic Equality Plan Annual Report (opens in a new tab) in December 2025 and agreed that a separate equality annual report be used to meet reporting requirements in future years rather than relying on reporting through the annual self-assessment report. This will provide a more focussed and transparent stand-alone report for Equality monitoring and reporting purposes.
The Equality in Employment Report for 2025–2026 (opens in a new tab) was published in June 2026. The report sets out the Council’s equality in employment position, based on workforce data as of 31 March 2026, and fulfils statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010 (Wales) Regulations. Positive developments include an increase in female representation in senior leadership roles, a slight improvement in disability declaration rates, with recruitment activity increasing significantly during the year. The report identifies an ageing workforce and data completeness as areas requiring continued attention and will be areas for improvement over the coming year. A new People Strategy includes a strengthened focus on workforce and succession planning to ensure continuity and retention of organisational knowledge.
The Council continues to publish Gender Pay Gap data (opens in a new tab) which provides information on pay for men and women as well as people from different ethnic origins. In 2025-26, women working in Pembrokeshire County Council earnt 100p for every £1 earnt by men based on median hourly pay – our gender pay gap. It is pleasing to report that based on median hourly pay, women in the Council earnt the same as men and is evidence that the Council’s gender pay gap has narrowed considerably (for example, in 2017-18 women earnt 77p for every £1 earnt by men).
The sub-group of the Strategic Equality Action Plan Group, the Pembrokeshire Anti-racist Action Plan Group, was established in March 2024 to provide a more focussed approach in progressing this agenda. A key priority in 2025-26 has been awareness raising and training. Members of the Council’s senior leadership team, heads of service and chief officers completed anti-racist training during June and July 2026. The training aimed to strengthen understanding of racism and structural inequality in a local government context to inform leadership decisions. The training was commissioned by the Welsh Local Government Association and funded by Welsh Government as part of their Anti-racist Wales Action Plan.
The Council’s Integrated Impact Assessment process and paperwork continues to evolve and will be reviewed to incorporate new guidance and resources received in early 2026-27 from the Welsh Language Commissioner and the Equalities and Human Rights Commissioner.

Public Services Board

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 tackling 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 and an annual report (opens in a new tab) is produced in respect of each year.
A key piece of work for the PSB to undertake during 2026-27 is to produce its next Well-being Assessment. This is a statutory requirement under the Well-being of Future Generations Act which requires the PSB to look at what well-being means for people and communities in Pembrokeshire in the context of economic, environmental, social and cultural factors. Once approved, the Well-being Assessment effectively acts as the evidence base for the development of the next version of the PSB’s Well-being Plan, in terms of establishing the objectives and priorities for the PSB over the next five-year period.

Annual Self-Assessment 2025-26