Annual Self-Assessment 2023-24
Conclusions
This section concludes the annual self-assessment report and draws together actions for the organisation as a whole.
2023-24 was the most challenging year for the Council’s finances since its creation and whilst measures to balance the budget in-year had an impact, the outturn for 2023-24 saw an overspend by services of £3m. One-off non service adjustments and additional council tax collection reduced our final deficit to £0.25m. Updated projections of the size of the spending gap for 2024-25 and beyond will be updated prior to December 2024 Council. As at Quarter 1 2024-25 the most likely funding gap for 2025-26 is £31.5m.
Through the Corporate Governance Improvement Plan we have continued to improve governance processes, the single largest action of which was adopting a new Constitution in October 2023. Audit Wales will assess our progress on meeting recommendations later in 2024-25.
During 2023-24 we clarified our priorities through a new five year Corporate Strategy as well as the performance management systems that sit underneath this. Progress has been made on implementing Power BI to visualise this data. More work is needed on linking the Corporate Strategy to our Medium Term Financial Plan
Last year, increases in demand for both adult and children's social care represented a key strategic risk for the Local Authority. This is due to the increased difficulties associated with fulfilling statutory obligations within the financial envelope afforded to us, and resultant budget pressures associated with increased spending on care and support packages to respond to increased complexity of need.
In 2023/24, these pressures were particularly acute in Children's Services. Our response, "Operation Salus" brought together, as a coherent programme of work, a number of initiatives. This included a significant injection of additional staffing in our Child Care Assessment Team which responds to Child Safeguarding concerns from across the County. As well as an increase in our capacity to respond to demand, Operation Salus also brings together a series of prevention initiatives that are designed to maximise the opportunities to live safely with their families, and where this is not possible, to be supported through loving community based alternatives. Such efforts do not only represent better outcomes for children and families; they will also play a large role in reducing the Council's reliance on out of County residential placements which come at considerable cost.
For adult social care, 2023/24 has been something of a transition year. A new Head of Service has adopted a systems thinking and intervention approach, complemented with a programme of strengths based conversation training to drive a new service model predicated on taking the time to understand what matters to residents, and resolving issues as early as possible, by working in partnership with individuals, families and the wider community. A Care Inspectorate Wales inspection of Adult Services in April 2024 underlines the fact that despite these improvements, there is still more to be done, specifically in relation to consistency of practice around safeguarding and timeliness of assessments and reviews.
A high quality and sustainable Social Services offer remains a top priority for the whole Authority. This has been exemplified in 2024 by the creation of the Pembrokeshire Social Services Improvement Board, which is chaired by the Chief Executive with attendance from senior officers, key practitioners, as well as Cabinet Members and Scrutiny Chairs. The Board provides corporate support for and oversight of both adult and children's services improvement plans and to establish the basis for sustainable social services in Pembrokeshire.
Recruitment and retention of employees across many services remains an issue. This issue is not just confined to Pembrokeshire though our peripheral location exacerbates recruitment issues. We agreed a workforce development strategy during 2023-24 which sets out how we will become an employer of choice. We continue to put much more emphasis on apprenticeships and graduate entry schemes and ‘grow your own’ routes into more specialist roles such as social care employment.
We adopted a strategic asset management plan in February 2023, the foundation for addressing many long-standing issues with property and asset management. Progress on its implementation has been hampered by significant recruitment issues though some significant projects have progressed, such as a mechanism to run Haverfordwest Airport in a cost-neutral way. Throughout 2023-24 is has become clear that in order to improve our management of assets, we need to build capacity across a much broader range of disciplines, including building maintenance. This is essential if we are to prevent problems with buildings becoming worse.
Education in Pembrokeshire continued to improve in 2023-24 and can be considered to be on a sustainable footing for further improvement in the future. This is most notable in that overall inspection outcomes are in line with the view of the local authority in relation to its schools and none of our schools are placed in statutory category with Estyn. However, demand of Additional Learning Needs services continues to grow and budget cuts are reducing our ability to support these needs. We have also started to review the number and location of school places. Whilst these are very difficult decisions, as school rolls drop, so does funding and with it the ability to provide preventative services.
We adopted a new housing strategy in 2023-24 and in December 2023, the first residential properties built by the Council in more than 25 years were handed over to ourselves; an important moment in our Housing Development Programme. Further new build council housing will be completed in future years increasing the supply of accommodation (through leasing, acquiring houses or by building new affordable homes) but this is in the context of a substantial and concerning increase in homelessness. The scale of the issues (be it the supply of affordable housing or the cost and technical difficulties of decarbonising our housing stock) should not be underestimated.
The successful Celtic Freeport bid, building on previous projects focused on green energy, means that Pembrokeshire is well placed to exploit the economic opportunities arising from decarbonisation. We have worked throughout 2023-24 to do the necessary planning and preparatory work needed to make the Freeport flourish. Projects to regenerate Haverfordwest and Pembroke town centres have continued and careful management has been needed to keep these projects within their funding envelope. 2024-25 and beyond will see the outcomes and benefits of these for local people.
Our performance on services that protect the local environment, such as waste and recycling and street cleaning continue to perform well and are amongst the best performing in Wales. However, Pembrokeshire’s environment continues to experience pressures such as high levels of phosphates in protected rivers, pressures that are exacerbated by climate change. The Revised Local Development Plan was progressed throughout 2023-24 to the point where it will be considered by Council in September 2024 for formal consultation.