Well-being Objective 4 - Our Council - Pembrokeshire County Council

Well-being Objective 4 - Our Council

A financially sustainable, well-governed Council, with a workforce equipped to support the people we serve.

Assessment of current performance - how well are we doing?

General

Alongside ten other councils, we undertook the ‘Let’s Talk’ residents’ survey last summer (results were reported to November 2025 Cabinet (opens in a new tab)). A number of the questions relate to the Council as a whole.

Only 28.9% of survey respondents indicated that they were fairly or very satisfied with the way Pembrokeshire County Council runs things and 36% said they trusted the Council. These figures are around average when compared with other Welsh councils. People who lived in our main towns and younger people were less likely to be satisfied compared with the headline figure.
55% of respondents thought the Council provides services of a high quality (which is above the average for other councils) but again, people living in our main towns were much less likely to agree/strongly agree.
42% of people thought the Council provides services that represent value for money, around the Welsh average.
Just over a quarter of respondents thought the Council takes residents’ views into account when making a decision or acts on the concerns of local residents. Whilst these results emphasise that the more work is needed around engagement, they are also higher than the Welsh average.

The Council continues to embed the Vanguard methodology across the organisation and is seeing positive results in many areas, including education, social care and IT. Vanguard is a systems thinking organisational approach which helps leaders understand and improve systems from the user’s perspective and is aimed at improving processes, tackling failure demand, reducing transaction costs and creating capacity. Longer term it is hoped that the methodology becomes ‘business as usual’ as the default way of managing and delivering Council services.
During the year, Cabinet took the opportunity to review and revise its Programme for Administration to reflect on progress made since the original document was approved in January 2023. The revised document places a greater focus on outcomes which have been delivered to date, as well as a review of the forward-looking aims and aspirations to ensure that these are still relevant and that issues which have emerged since the production of the original document are picked up.
Information on the Council’s financial position is reported quarterly to Cabinet, the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the Governance & Audit Committee. The 2025-26 Budget Outturn report was considered by Cabinet at its 6 July 2026 meeting. This contains a wealth of information, including performance data.
Previous self-assessments have commented that Councils are facing significant financial challenges that cannot be addressed by Councils alone. This was also the situation for the 2025-26 year, and it is unlikely that council funding will be reformed in the short term in order to resolve financial challenges. Whilst the new Welsh Government has said it is committed to making Council Tax fairer, it is unclear whether a planned revaluation of homes as part of council tax reform will take place in 2028.
The continued increase in level of demand, complexity and cost of packages within our School ALN provision, Children’s Services and Adult Services, together with the rate of inflation impacts on the Council’s real spending power over the medium term. During the second quarter of 2025-26 inflation (CPI) rose to 3.8% before falling to 3.4% at year end. The current uncertainty surrounding the impact of the war in the middle east and the continuation of higher fuel and energy pricing has resulted in an upward revision of inflation assumptions for 2026-27, with revised Bank of England assumptions increasing to 3.5% instead of falling to 2% by the end of the year as predicted.
Work is underway to identify how to bridge the projected funding gap for 2027-28 and the MTFP 2027-28 to 2029-30.

Resources/Finance

The budget setting process for 2026-27 was similar to previous years, including consultation with stakeholders, Trade Unions and a number of members’ seminars, which worked through how the funding gap for 2026-27 of £14.7m would be met. We advanced the meeting date for deciding the 2026-27 Budget by two weeks to allow more time for extended discussion if required, and further details are in the 2026-27 Council budget/Medium Term Financial Plan report (opens in a new tab) . A balanced budget for 2026-27 was approved.
The Council’s net expenditure for 2025-26 was £321.0m, having accounted for appropriations to and from reserves, with an underspend of £5.6m. Details were reported to 6 July 2026 Cabinet (opens in a new tab). A summary is below:

Education budgets outturn position shows an overall underspend of £0.464m (0.4%), supported in part by additional grant income received late in the year. However, school balances have reduced significantly, with £1.257m of balances used during 2025–26 as a result of increased staff costs. There has been a notable increase in the number of schools in deficit.
Social Care & Housing budgets outturn position shows an overall underspend of £2.409m (1.7%). Across Children’s and Adult Services, the overall position reflects a mix of underspends driven by strong demand management and increased income contributions. There is a clear strategic shift toward more independent, cost-effective care models and prevention, which is delivering short-term savings, but pressures continue due to increasing complexity and cost of care packages.
Chief Executive budgets outturn position shows an overall overspend of £0.573m (25.6%) this is largely due to the time required to implement the restructure changes required to deliver the £1.4m efficiency target and increased pressures in Law and Governance
Resources budget outturn position shows a £0.052m (0.7%) overspend. Vacancy management savings within the support services have been used to offset the increased cost of software.
Place budget outturn position shows an overall underspend of £1.095m (3.8%) largely driven by significant underspends in Highways & Transport due to vacancies, lower costs, and additional grant income.
Slippage in the Capital Programme has resulted in delayed borrowing costs. An underspend of £3.937m (28.2%) in Capital Financing Costs, offset by reduced Investment Income of £0.118m, has contributed towards the net budget underspend for 2025-26.
Additional Council Tax income has resulted in £2.4m more than anticipated being collected during 2025-26 as a result of the collection of arrears from previous years and properties moving from Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) to Council Tax and qualifying for the Second Homes Council Tax premium as a result of not meeting the required 182-day occupancy threshold.

A key action for the 2026-27 budget and beyond is understanding and prioritising the financial implications of capital schemes which are on the horizon. In 2025-26, services were engaged in initial prioritisation which will allow further work to profile, review affordability and prioritise, due to be considered by Cabinet in autumn 2026.
The external audit of our Statement of Accounts for 2024-25 is still on-going. This was due to challenges receiving the asset valuations and the implementation of an international accounting standard that sets out how organisations must account for leases in their financial statements (IFRS16), as well as the long-term sickness absence of two key members of staff. The draft Statement of Accounts was published on 12 November 2025, and Audit Wales commenced the audit of accounts on Monday 17 November 2025. The audit is substantially completeand it is likely that Governance and Audit Committee and Council will consider the 2024-25 accounts at their September 2026 meetings.
During 2025-26, we made good progress on replacing our financial management system. The new system (TechnologyOne) will improve reporting and, over time, reduce demand on the finance team. The new system is due to go live from 1 April 2027.
We developed a staff training programme within Finance with the objective of growing our own professional Accountants to support succession planning in the future.
Our council tax collection rate for 2025-26 was 94.0%, down from 95.1% in 2024-25 and 20th in Wales, with arrears increasing to £19.5m. The reason for the decrease in performance was that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) transferred a large number of properties into Council Tax from NDR, often resulting in a substantial back-dated liability for second homes council tax premium. Some of these properties’ owners are appealing the VOA’s decision, but there is a substantial backlog in the VOA hearing these appeals. As Pembrokeshire has a high number of holiday lets, our council tax collection rate is affected more than most other local authorities.
Collection rates for housing rents (99.03%) and non-domestic rates (99.38%) improved. We also increased the total debt collected and 2025-26’s figure was 94.2%, an increase from 89% in 2024-25. Debt recovery has been strengthened by streamlining processes, recruiting additional staff and analysing debt to enable a more targeted and effective collection approach.
The revenues and benefits service continued to progress digital transformation (Citizens Access and automation).

Human Resources

Workforce planning activity has taken place across the organisation and has begun to influence thinking around critical roles, future capability and succession planning.
We implemented a more structured and proactive approach to colleague engagement, building on learning from the 2022 staff survey and responding positively to the 2025 survey through leadership workshops, directorate engagement and the establishment of a Staff Engagement Working Group. The results are being used to identify key areas for action, part of our “You Said, We Did” approach. An action plan is expected to be published this summer.
Leadership development activity, including regional partnership working, has supported internal progression into senior roles. In Social Care, learning and development oversight has improved significantly through better recording and monitoring, increasing organisational visibility of workforce development activity.
The introduction of on-line manager‑led sickness correspondence has improved efficiency and reduced administrative workload. Progress has also been made in developing and piloting digital recruitment processes as part of broader system optimisation work.
The Council has a long-standing constructive relationship with its recognised Trade Unions and continues to work collaboratively through the Social Partnership Forum on a range of key workforce issues to ensure staff voices are heard in decision making processes, particularly on issues relating to employment conditions, staffing changes such as restructures and policy development and workforce wellbeing.
A new People Strategy has been produced which sets out how the Council will plan, support, and develop its workforce to deliver its strategic objectives. The strategy will play a central role to ensure the Council can attract, develop, engage and retain the people needed deliver these objectives now and in the future.

Audit, Risk and Information

We have continued provision of robust assurance over governance, risk management and internal control arrangements. The 2025-26 Annual Governance Statement (AGS) was considered by the Governance and Audit Committee on 7July 2026 and approved by Council on 16 July 2026. The AGS identified seven cross‑cutting priorities for improvement which are reflected in this self-assessment: financial stability; transformation and innovation; timeliness of statement of accounts; contract management; our County Farms estate; school improvement and workforce capacity, recruitment and retention. In addition, the AGS found a specific significant governance issue relating to fleet management and operations.
We increased fraud detection and financial recoveries, reflecting effective and targeted counter fraud activity.
We maintained strong performance in complaints handling, Freedom of Information Act and data protection, despite rising demand.
We continued development and support of risk management processes across the Council. The corporate risk register is reported to Cabinet and the Governance and Audit Committee on a quarterly basis.

Procurement

During 2025-26 a significant piece of work for our procurement team was ensuring organisational compliance with revised contract procedure rules, a requirement of the Procurement Act 2023 which came into effect in February 2025. This has major implications on how procurement is conducted within the Council and, throughout the year, training and capacity building across the Council was undertaken.
Some parts of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 came into force at the end of 2025-26 and work to meet these new duties, such as producing socially responsible procurement objectives and a new procurement strategy, commenced in 2025-26. Socially responsible procurement objectives were agreed by Cabinet at its July 2026 meeting, and a full strategy will follow later in 2026.
A practical but important way the Council supports businesses is by paying invoices promptly and in 2025-26, we performed well and paid 99.8% of invoices within 30 days in the context of £200m annual third-party expenditure.

IT

The Council relies heavily on IT, and keeping systems secure and functioning properly requires significant investment. In 2025-26, all council laptops were upgraded to Windows 11 so that they can be kept secure more easily. We have a rolling programme of replacing devices and last year 3,900 replacement devices were issued across schools.
We have worked in partnership with broadband providers and Swansea Bay City Deal to improve coverage and connectivity. From a starting point of just 5% in 2019, Pembrokeshire reached 75% gigabit capable coverage in June 2026. Work in future years will focus on extending coverage further, particularly in harder to reach rural areas.
AI and Digital is a key workstream in the Transformation and Innovation programme and a number of projects are currently being delivered to ensure the Council is taking advantage of advancements in technology. Examples include the development of a new website and intranet, enhanced customer digital solutions for housing repairs, revenues and benefits and adult social care referrals. The Council has also worked with a technology partner over the past 12 months to assess the state of AI readiness and to identify how and where AI could most effectively be deployed to improve services, reduce costs and take pressure off employee workloads.

Democratic Services and Law and Governance

The strength and transparency of decision making is key to the Council’s purpose. A review of the democratic services function was considered by Democratic Services Committee on 2^nd July 2026. A report on the 2025-26 work (opens in a new tab) of our five Overview and Scrutiny Committees, which oversee decision making and contribute to policy development, was considered at their June 2026 cycle.
The number of formal meetings held was little changed in the year, with more delegated Director decisions being recorded but fewer informal meetings (e.g. panels and working groups). The number of decisions that were called in increased to five. This is much higher than in most local authorities. Our Panel Performance Assessment report observed that the call-in mechanism was used frequently, despite being intended for exceptional circumstances.
Members of the public continued to engage with the Council’s formal decision-making processes. The number of petitions received increased from 14 in 2024-25 to 18 in 2025-26, but the number of number of submissions to Council and to Overview and Scrutiny committees reduced. Webcast meetings were viewed 23,376 times, 9% less than in 2024-25, and three quarters of views were of the website archive.
Examples of outcomes from overview and scrutiny committees’ work in 2025-26 include: maintaining a focus on the scrutiny of the Council’s net zero plans by re-establishing a working group, ensuring back-bench member representation on the Transformation and Improvement Board, highlighting disrepair in some of the Council’s county farms, highlighting concerns over the use of asymmetric weeks by some schools, establishing a politically balanced Rural Communities Working Group, facilitating public engagement on local environmental quality issues, and contributing to the development of initiatives such as community co‑location pilots.
Our Panel Performance Assessment found that there was a lack of clarity around our overall scrutiny function and recommended the Council should undertake a comprehensive review of its scrutiny function to ensure it is fit for purpose and adds value across the organisation.
The Council continues to deliver its Participation Strategy and during 2025-26, a working group focusing on the induction of new members was established that has refreshed the Diversity and Democracy Action Plan, and considered updates to the Diversity and Democracy Pledge, the Fair Campaign Pledge, the Democracy webpages and the prospective candidates’ information packs. The group’s work will continue into 2026-27.

Evidence - how do we know?

Improvement actions - what can we do better and how?

Production and external audit of the Statement of Accounts. Ensure these are published and audited by statutory deadlines with robust assurance and an unqualified audit opinion from Audit Wales.
Address financial challenges by setting: a balanced 2027-28 budget, a balanced 2027-28 to 2029-30 Medium Term Financial Plan, addressing school balances and prioritising the capital programme up until 2041-42.
Deliver our People Strategy 2026 – 2030, adopted by Cabinet at its 6 July 2026 meeting. This sets out how we will attract, develop, engage and retain the people we need to deliver the Council’s priorities now and in the future. The issues it addresses include succession planning and recruitment and retention challenges; creating a workplace where everyone feels respected, valued and able to excel and enhancing employee well-being and maintaining robust job evaluation processes. Recruitment and retention issues are a common theme throughout this self-assessment as well as a priority for improvement in our Annual Governance Statement.
Approve and implement our Socially Responsible Procurement Strategy.
Complete our review of our scrutiny function, one of our PPA recommendations agreed by Council in March 2026. Consideration of whether to adopt new structures is due to conclude by March 2027.
Complete actions in our Participation Strategy in advance of the May 2027 local government elections for Pembrokeshire County Council and Pembrokeshire’s 77 town and community councils.

Annual Self-Assessment 2025-26

Well-being Objective 4 - Our Council

Assessment of current performance - how well are we doing?

General

Resources/Finance

Human Resources

Audit, Risk and Information

Procurement

IT

Democratic Services and Law and Governance

Evidence - how do we know?

Improvement actions - what can we do better and how?