Agenda and draft minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor D.M. Cundy be appointed Chair for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors, J.P Jenkins, S. Caiach, T. Evans, A.W. Jones, A. Speake, G.B. Thomas, D.J.R Llewellyn, E. Morgan, H.B. Shephardson and Mrs J. Voyle Williams.

There were no declarations of prohibited party whips.

The Chair advised that no public questions had been received.

[NOTE: Mrs A. Pickles had earlier declared a personal interest in this item.]

The Joint Committee considered a report on the Carmarthenshire County Council’s Well-being objectives for 2017/18.  The Joint Committee noted that the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 required the Council to set Key Improvement Objectives Priorities (KIOPs) each year and that the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 required all public bodies to:-

·       Set and publish Well-being Objectives

·       Take all reasonable steps to meet those objectives

·       Publish a statement about Well-being Objectives

·       Publish an annual report of progress

·       Publish our response to a recommendation made by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

The Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) highlighted to the Joint Committee that the new Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 would place a Duty on public bodies to consider and improve the well-being of Wales, by taking into account the needs of future generations when taking decisions.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) informed the Joint Committee that for 2017/18 the Key Improvement Objectives Priorities and Well-being Objectives would be integrated. 

The Joint Committee watched a short animation, which explained the positive impact the Well-being of Future Generations Act would have throughout a young girl’s life.  Following the animation, the Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) delivered a presentation which explained what was required by the Council in order to comply with the Act and how the well-being objectives were developed.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) stated that each of the Council’s Well-being Objectives 2017/18 were developed to comply with the Act, which stated that public bodies must carry out sustainable development, improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. This included the adoption of the 5 new ways of working, which demonstrated that that the sustainable development principle had been applied.  It was explained to the Joint Committee that the 5 new ways of working would encourage collaboration, avoid duplication of effort between public bodies and tackle some long-term challenges.  In addition, in order to ensure that those public bodies listed in the Act were working towards the same vision, the Council’s well-being objectives were linked to the 7 National well-being goals which the Act had in place.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) explained that the Council was required to publish an annual report showing the progress they have made in meeting their objectives.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) informed the Joint Committee that guidelines on the Act had been created and were available to Members to take away with them.

With regard to consultation on the objectives, the Assistant Chief Executive (Regeneration & Policy) informed the Joint Committee that in addition to the Member Seminar held in October 2016, consultation was part of the Well-being Assessment for Carmarthenshire assessment and over 2500 responses were received to shape the Council’s well-being objectives. We also took the opportunity to consult on the draft set of objectives as part of budget consultation and nearly 600 responded with high levels of agreement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.