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Question and Answer Session - Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner PDF 169 KB
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An opportunity to ask the Future Generations
Commissioner questions regarding Public Services Boards
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All Panel letters from the last year were sent
to the Commissioner for perusal – letters attached
Additional documents:
Minutes:
- Future Generations
Commissioner Sophie Howe attended the Public Services Board to take part
in a discussion and Q&A
- The Commissioner explained
that we are two and a half years into the Well-being and Future
Generations Act implementation
- The work has been
ground-breaking, exciting and challenging
- The legislation should
have the PSB aims first then the aims of the public bodies
- There has been a missed
opportunity to regionalise the work and the Local Authorities need to
consider whether there is an appetite to do this
- City Deals are not all
clearly linked with the Well-being Plans
- The duties under the Act
are about fundamentally changing how we do business
- Seeing this work as
process or compliance will miss the intention of the legislation
- Questions for the Commissioner
- How do you feel Public
Services Boards have been performing across Wales overall?
- It is difficult to respond
with evidence as no annual reports have been submitted yet
- Not all PSBs are working
as well as possible
- There are pockets of good
practice
- The more inclusive the
boards are (e.g. Chair, resourcing, participants) the more effective in
theory
- Members are more engaged
if they are involved in setting the agenda
- Noticed that roles are
starting to be deputised which isn’t as effective
- Workshop sessions are
better than long agendas – sometimes people are invited in to tell stories
and share lived experiences. Innovative approaches are more successful
- The local authorities were
available to provide the support for example committee support, just
because they do this doesn’t mean it should dominate the PSB
- What is the added value of
the PSB against what the Local Authority does anyway e.g. section 6 of the
Environment Act?
- There are things which are
outside of a single organisations capacity e.g. health, poverty air
pollution etc we are missing opportunities to work together
- We are developing a number
of future generations frameworks which will act as prompts to what should
be considered when developing projects
- ‘The Art of the Possible’
has been set up with a number of organisations (Wildlife Trust, Sport
Wales, Public Health Wales etc)
with an aim of drawing out good practice
- Regarding the environment,
we should be limiting grass cutting and planting wildflowers instead, it
is money saving and better for the environment
- Housing left out as a
theme
- Not involved in drafting
the legislation, education was not included either, but housing
associations are keen to work with us and we are looking at a specific
framework for housing, agree that housing is so intrinsic
- Housing should be using
new technology which is energy generating, using local businesses within
green infrastructure and looking at no fuel poverty
- PSBs need to set out how
they measure progress. Not all have measures or they have ineffective ones
e.g. children’s cases reviewed on time
- FG office has no duty to
monitor or assess goals and the legislation isn’t helpful here, there is
an appetite to monitor progress with the auditor general
- There are good examples
from Bridgend regarding adverse childhood experience (ACE) projects
(police, social services, education), renewable energy across estates,
community consultation and engagement
- There is often no
intervention in ACEs until the situation is critical, there needs to be
earlier intervention and more funding – 14% of Welsh people have
experienced 4 or more adverse childhood experiences – we must intervene
earlier to mitigate issues. Maybe think about the involvement of teachers
and sports coaches
- The legislation is about
process and raises expectation without resources. How do we fund the
demand? The action plan implementation will be essential. If the action
plans go awry what is the power to correct it?
- The power is judicial
review of the action/decision taken e.g the M4 tested judicial review and
a school closure, we will start seeing the use of the legal framework ramping
up, we need brave decisions e.g. the police funding the night time economy
project in Swansea means everyone benefits
- FGC can review public
bodies and PSBs – haven’t used them yet but have threatened them
- Planning is a priority
area now, trying to get policy and guidance in line with the Future
Generations Act. Planning Policy Wales is now in line with the Future
Generations Act
- The National Development
Framework is now the next step, there are issues in terms of systems.
Currently working closely with the Planning Inspectorate and there is a
good relationship
- Last month, the Future
Generations Act was used as a basis for refusal for planning for the first
time, there are ongoing frustrations around funding to deal with this
- Do you have any advice
for scrutiny Panels looking at Public Services Boards going forward?
- Will have much more after
the framework feedback which is coming in
- Are there examples of
good practice which you can share with the Panel?
- Examples have already been
listed above
- What do you feel are
the challenges facing Public Services Boards and their Scrutiny Panels?
- As above
- Do you think the lack
of funding for the work of Public Services Boards is having a negative
impact on their performance?
- The cost estimation was
very mechanical, it focussed on processes not outcomes
- There was no resourcing of
the cultural change, the FGC office has brought in an extra £650k in the
last couple of years to help with this
- Money should be issued for
research and to support leadership, in some circumstances, no head
teachers had been consulted on ‘Best Start in Life’
- This is the biggest
cultural change Wales has seen
- Last year we scrutinised
the budget and provided feedback, there is a lack of definition around
‘preventative spend’ but this definition has now been agreed
- There is a shift from
health spend to Local Authority spend for prevention but there are
political issues here too
- Social
care/decarbonisation/skills/mental health – we have written to the Cabinet
Secretary to ask what resources they have allocated to the sector
- Some issues with schools,
sometimes parents and teachers know nothing of the Future Generations Act
- This isn’t isolated but
people on the PSB can change this, they can look at how they are raising
awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), public bodies have to
take all reasonable steps to tackle this
- If the focus on
bureaucracy then this is getting it wrong, the focus needs to be on
outcomes, some of our mechanisms are wrong but our aspirations are great.
We need to tackle bureaucracy and deliver
- You hold to account the
PSB, we can come and support and intervene if needs be
- How do you feel
individual ward members can have a positive impact in their communities
taking into account the aims of the Public Services Boards?
- FGC was a local Councillor
for years, the issues reflect the frustrations of local wards e.g.
services not joined up
- The Future Generations Act
can be used for community planning and by Community Councils – Llanelli
currently have an interesting project using it
- Newport had ward profiles,
this allows for advocating in wards because they can identify issues
- The reference to the
Resilient Wales Goal is often misunderstood with specific reference to
guidance from the Planning Inspectorate
- The goal name should have
been different, the statutory definition is often misinterpreted e.g the
‘Prosperous Goal’ is often translated as increase of GVA. We highlight
this whenever we see it, but it is difficult
- The environment is not as
prominent as it should be. ‘Skill’s’ needs to be looked at overall in
relation to education and developing green goals etc
- Will go back to the
Planning Inspectorate to discuss it
- Regarding judicial review,
most people can’t afford it. Once the issues have been reviewed, issue the
guidance and other Local Authorities will know the outcome
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