Annual Self-Assessment 2022-23

6. SA4- Working With Partners and Customers

7. SA5- Well-being Objectives

8. Conclusions

Page Menu

SA4- Working With Partners and Customers

SA4.1 Partnership working

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.
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. It is chaired by the Council’s Cabinet Member for Corporate Improvement and Communities.
The PSB has a collective duty to improve the economic, environmental, social and cultural well-being of people and communities in Pembrokeshire. The PSB has established a clear vision for its work which is to “unlock the power and potential of Pembrokeshire’s people and communities so that our people are happy, healthy and live well, our communities are kind, safe, resourceful and vibrant, our economy is green and thriving, and our environment is protected and enhanced.”
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 process for developing the new plan was completed in 2022-23 and its Well-being Objectives are to:

Support growth, jobs and prosperity and enable the transition to a more sustainable and greener economy
Work with our communities to reduce inequalities and improve well-being
Promote and support initiatives to deliver decarbonisation, manage climate adaptation and tackle the nature emergency
Enable safe, connected, resourceful and diverse communities

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 and its key priorities for developing regional strategic planning for transport, delivering regional aspirations for energy and economic development, and preparing for the region’s first ever strategic development plan.
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 Council is also a key player 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.
In 2022-23 the Council joined with Carmarthenshire County Council and Swansea Council to form Partneriaeth, the new education consortium which has replaced previous arrangements under ERW. The anticipated benefits of the move to Partneriaeth are greater value for money, transparency, stronger governance on decision-making and higher quality professional learning. A report on the consortium’s work during its first year can be found in the evidence section below.
The West Wales Care Partnership is the statutory regional partnership board established under the Social Services and Well-being Act to oversee the transformation and integration of health, social care and well-being services in west Wales. The partnership brings together the three local authorities in West Wales (Carmarthenshire County Council, Ceredigion Council and Pembrokeshire County Council), Hywel Dda University Health Board and representatives of the third and independent sector. The partnership is in the process of producing its second Area Plan, a key document which sets out how it will deliver its strategic objectives over the next five years. A new Population Needs Assessment, which provides the evidence base for the development of the new Area Plan, was published in June 2022.
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 will be focused over the next 12 months on the production of a new strategy which will set out how partners will work together to address these issues moving forward.
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.
Measures to strengthen the Council’s internal governance and monitoring arrangements of its strategic partnerships, following a review by the internal audit service, were outlined in last year’s report. However progress to deliver some of this improvement activity has been slow and further work is required and therefore remain as part of the forward looking improvement actions set out below. Internal audit are scheduled to undertake a follow-up piece of work in the summer of 2023 and this will provide extra focus and direction on this activity.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

Support the delivery of the PSB’s Well-being Plan for Pembrokeshire.
Continue to play a key leadership role in all of the Council’s key strategic and regional partnerships.
Key Strategic Partnerships – list to be reviewed to ensure it is up to date and accurate.
Partnerships Procedure – to be reviewed, updated and circulated 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.
Partnerships governance arrangements - each partnership to re-visit various control and oversight policies, to include whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, data sharing and risk registers, to allow the members of the Partnership to be aware of the process to be followed should any concerns be raised.

Current performance - 3

Improvement phase - 2

2021-22 performance - 3

2021-22 improvement phase - 3

SA4.2 Consultation and Engagement

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

The Council uses a wide range of consultation and engagement techniques in order to deliver services that meet our customers’ and communities’ needs. These range from one-off consultation on service specific issues to continuous programme of engagement and involvement by customers, especially our own housing tenants.
Cabinet adopted a Participation Strategy (opens in new tab) on 9 January 2023. The aim of the strategy itself is to encourage public participation in decision-making by the Council itself and the making of decisions in partnership or in conjunction with any other person. The Council’s Democratic Services Committee oversaw the production of the strategy and the consultation on the draft.
We agreed a Petition Strategy, which links to the Participation Strategy, at Council on 3 March 2022, and is a practical example of how the Council is making it easier for people to influence democratic participation.
The Council’s Engagement HQ system encourages public participation in consultations. One of the advantages of the Engagement HQ system is that it allows the Council to maintain an overview on all consultations launched. In 2022-23 there were 18,000 visits to the consultation part of the Council’s website, approximately half the number that did so in 2021-22. Around 10% of people who visited the site were engaged (i.e. completed a survey), which is a lower proportion than in 2021-22 when the percentage of those engaged with was 14%. For 2022-23, there was a slight increase in the percentage of people who were informed (e.g. watched a video) or who were aware (e.g. looked at a page at least).
The main formal questionnaires people engagement with were: Budget 2023 2024 Consultation Report; Draft Local Toilet Strategy 2023; Draft Well-being Plan 2023 – 2028; City, town and community Council Member and Clerk Questionnaire; Choice Homes Allocation Policy Review. Some major projects attracted relatively little interest e.g. a questionnaire on the Brynhir development or setting rent levels.
There is a strong link between cross over between consultation and engagement and equalities (SA3.4). The number of responses to consultations we receive, whilst allowing an accurate picture of the total population, will have low the numbers of respondents from protected characteristics (albeit the percentage response from protected characteristics is still in line with the percentage of the overall proportion).
We also consulted and engaged with our own workforce and details of the 2022-23 staff survey can be found in the Workforce Planning section (SA2.4). In addition to this work, we also engaged on internal communications such as a weekly roundup of key news stories.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

Recommission and retender consultation software.
Consider how consultation and engagement supports our work with communities (see SA5.6).
Strengthen on-going methods of consultation and engagement, especially around customer voice and consider how these influence the design of our internal performance management system.

Current performance - 3

Improvement phase - 2

2021-22 performance - 3

2021-22 improvement phase - 2

SA4.3 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.
For the 2022-23 financial year, the Council received 819 complaints, with 96% of these being resolved at the informal Stage 1 level. These figures compare similarly to the preceding year. The remaining 4% of cases advanced to the formal Stage 2 level which requires an independent review of the complaint.
80% of complaints were resolved within the national timescales. 19% fell outside of this period after being extended with the agreement of the complainant, a reduction from 28% the previous year. The remaining 1% was completed within 6 months due to the complexity of the complaint.
As at the end of the 2022-23 financial year, 44 complaints were referred to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, a similar figure to the previous year (2021-22 – 39).
None of the complaints referred to the Ombudsman were upheld, which provides assurance that the Council’s complaints handling process is robust and effective.
Reports on both quarterly and annual complaints data have been considered by both Governance and Audit Committee and Cabinet during the year.
The complaint process for schools received a ‘limited’ assurance rating following an external review by the Internal Audit service. Consequently, a service level agreement has been presented to schools to strengthen these arrangements.
The Council likes to understand what we do well and what our customers’ value, with compliments being fed back to the respective services which can strengthen morale. In 2022-23, the Council received 299 compliments on services provided. This figure was a decrease on the number of compliments received in 2021-22 (334).
During the year, the Council has become the first authority in Wales to implement a bespoke iCasework system which integrates information relating to the handling of complaints, subject access requests and Freedom of Information request. Once fully embedded this system will help streamline and strengthen the Council’s management of these processes through removing duplication and unnecessary administration.
The system will also support the Council to use complaints information to drive corporate improvement through the more effective generation of data. This will include ensuring that lessons are learnt from complaints where complaints have been upheld and identifying service areas where complaints are commonly received so appropriate improvement actions can be taken.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions – what can we do better and how?

Implement and embed the new iCasework system within the Council to improve the complaints handling process which will deliver efficiencies in approach to the Council’s customers and remove unnecessary administrative processes.
Use the information gleaned from the new iCasework system to drive corporate improvement and to address common or consistent areas of complaints.
Develop appropriate performance indicators for complaints which can be benchmarked with other authorities in Wales and provide assurance that the Council’s complaints process is robust and effective.
Deliver training and guidance to both Corporate and School staff continuing to ensure that there is a consistent approach of handling complaints across the Council.

Current performance - 2

Improvement phase - 2

2021-22 performance – n/a

2021-22 improvement phase – n/a

ID: 10976, revised 25/10/2023