Improvement Review 2015 - 2016 by Pembrokeshire County Council

Pembrokeshire County Council

Improvement Review 2015-2016

w w w. p e m b ro ke s h i re . go v. u k

For a copy of this document in large print, Braille, audio tape or an alternative language please contact Jackie Meskimmon on 01437 776613. A summary of this document available on our website or via the contact details below. This plan and its summary discharges our duty under section 15 of the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 to publish improvement information. More detailed information is available in the Improvement Planning section of our website. You can also track our recent performance by looking at integrated performance management reports that go to both Cabinet and our Overview and Scrutiny Committees on a quarterly basis. We are always keen to hear your views. If you have any feedback on this review or would like to inform the development of future Improvement Objectives, please contact us using the details provided below: Dan Shaw Corporate Planning Manager Pembrokeshire County Council County Hall Haverfordwest Pembrokeshire SA61 1TP Tel: 01437 775857 policy@pembrokeshire.gov.uk www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 5

OVERVIEW OF THE 2015/16 IMPROVEMENT PLAN ............................................................... 6

IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVES TO THE NATIONAL WELL-BEING GOALS .................................... 8

A PROSPEROUS PEMBROKESHIRE ...................................................................................... 10 REGENERATION AND TOWN CENTRES IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE ............................................................................ 10 Progress on town team element of the Objective ................................................................................ 11 Progress on strategic project element of the Objective ..................................................................... 14 Tourism ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE .......................................................................................................................... 18 Skills and other education projects ........................................................................................................... 25

A RESILIENT PEMBROKESHIRE ............................................................................................ 27

A HEALTHIER PEMBROKESHIRE .......................................................................................... 30 RECONFIGURING ADULT SOCIAL CARE SERVICES OBJECTIVE .................................................................................... 30 VULNERABLE CHILDREN OBJECTIVE .......................................................................................................................... 34 Safeguarding ................................................................................................................................................... 37 Other activities that support health ......................................................................................................... 39

A MORE EQUAL PEMBROKESHIRE ...................................................................................... 41 TACKLING POVERTY IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE ........................................................................................................ 41

A COHESIVE PEMBROKESHIRE ............................................................................................ 47 Communities.................................................................................................................................................... 47 Housing ............................................................................................................................................................. 47 Safety ................................................................................................................................................................. 49 Transport .......................................................................................................................................................... 52

A PEMBROKESHIRE OF VIBRANT CULTURE AND THRIVING WELSH LANGUAGE ................... 54

10 A GLOBALLY RESPONSIBLE PEMBROKESHIRE ...................................................................... 56 11 FINANCE ............................................................................................................................ 58 GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................................. 62 FULL WEB ADDRESSES FOR LINKED DOCUMENTS....................................................................... 64

I am pleased to introduce Pembrokeshire County Council’s Improvement Review for the year 2015-16. The Improvement Review is our self assessment of the progress against the goals and actions we set ourselves at the beginning of the financial year. Critically, it helps us identify where we need to focus our actions in future. The Review complements other assessments of performance such as those produced by Wales Audit Office and other regulators. In the context of the significant resource challenges that the Council faced in the year, as well as the legacy of governance challenges, I am particularly pleased that, based on data gathered by the Local Government Data Unit Wales. Pembrokeshire was ranked second best out of the 22 local authorities in Wales when it comes to providing local services, an improvement on our fourth best position and ‘most improved council’ position in 2014/15. During the year, we received our Corporate Assessment report from Wales Audit Office. Much of the fieldwork for this was undertaken early in 2015/16 and this has enabled us to make a headstart on issues prior to the report’s publication. We have accepted its headline finding that “The Council cannot yet provide adequate assurance that its arrangements are capable of delivering its priorities and improved outcomes for citizens”. My Cabinet is monitoring progress against the action plan which has been put in place to address this recommendation. Although the Corporate Assessment highlighted the challenges we face, Wales Audit Office noted “despite the increasing financial pressures, there have been improvements in the Council’s priority areas, including waste management, environmental health, safeguarding, social services and education”. The Council’s financial position remains very challenging. Whilst our net spending for the year was in line with what we planned not all the savings we made were in the areas that we originally planned, for instance, in adult social care where savings are taking longer to materialise. I am pleased with the progress we made during the year to plan new ways of working that will minimise the impact of budget reductions on local people. Our five year financial plans reflect the advice we commissioned from expert consultants. A new Chief Executive was appointed in July 2015. This has cemented a change in organisational culture. My Cabinet continues to engage with local people and other stakeholders and the “Your Council is Changing” public consultations are a tangible example of this. I extend an invitation to our citizens, customers and partners to continue to engage with us in order to make our new vision Working together to improve life in Pembrokeshire a reality.

Introduction

1.1

This plan reports back on whether we have achieved the actions that we set ourselves as well as the impact that these actions have had on Pembrokeshire.

1.2

The plan is structured around the seven goals set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. We have decided to do this in recognition of the importance that the Act will have on how we plan and report on improvements. One of the most important changes that the new Act brings is a focus on thinking in the longer term and emphasising prevention.

1.3

We have tried to evaluate how successful we have been in meeting longer terms goals, preventing or avoiding future problems, ensuring that decisions are informed by the views of local people and stakeholders and identifying how we have taken proper account of other organisationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; priorities in the way we deliver services.

1.4

Section 2 describes the five Improvement Objectives in the 2015/16 Improvement Plan. Section 3 shows how the Improvement Objectives link to each of the seven national Wellbeing goals that were introduced by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Section 4 to 10 are structured around these seven goals

1.5

Section 5 reports on the two Improvement Objectives and actions that fit best with a Prosperous Pembrokeshire. These are the Regeneration and town centres Improvement Objective and tourism and the School improvement Objective, skills and other education projects.

1.6

Section 6 reports on actions that fit best with A Resilient Pembrokeshire. These include waste, bio-diversity and flooding.

1.7

Section 7 reports on our reconfiguring Adult Social Care Services Objective our Vulnerable Children Objective and other actions, such as Safeguarding that contribute to a Healthier Pembrokeshire.

1.8

Section 8 reports on our Tackling poverty Improvement Objective and other actions that contribute to a more Equal Pembrokeshire.

1.9

Section 9 reports on actions that contribute to a Cohesive Pembrokeshire. These include Communities, Housing, Safety and Transport.

1.10

Section 10 report on actions that contribute to a Pembrokeshire of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh Language.

1.11

Section 11 reports on actions that contribute to a globally responsible Pembrokeshire. This includes climate change and issues such as refugees.

1.12

Section 12 reports on Finance. This information has been extracted from our Statement of Accounts. 5

2 Overview of the 2015/16 Improvement Plan

2.1

Our 2015/16 Improvement Plan was structured around the six themes of the Single Integrated Plan. This plan will be replaced by the Pembrokeshire Public Services Board’s Well-being Plan from spring 2017.

2.2

The 2015/16 Improvement Plan contained five main priorities, called Improvement Objectives. These are listed below. We listed a number of tasks for each of the Improvement Objectives that are key to their delivery. We also listed a number of other actions that were relevant to the overall Single Integrated Plan theme. IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE 1:

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT We will challenge and support our schools to consistently improve learning outcomes and help children and young people reach their fullest potential, particularly at Key Stage 4 (GCSE). IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE 2:

VULNERABLE CHILDREN We will build the capacity of schools and services to enable vulnerable children and young people to be safe at home and in school and reach their potential. IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE 3:

REGENERATION AND TOWN CENTRES We will enable, facilitate and deliver schemes that contribute to a competitive, productive and sustainable economy. IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE 4:

RECONFIGURING ADULT SOCIAL CARE SERVICES We will continue to change how we provide adult social care services to improve efficiency and sustainability. IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVE 5:

TACKLING POVERTY In line with Welsh Government’s national priority, we will take a Pembrokeshire wide, co-ordinated approach across all departments to help to prevent poverty, help people into work and mitigate the impacts of poverty.

2.3

The actions that we planned to undertaken under each Improvement Objective are listed under each Improvement Objective section. We have included a commentary on a number of other actions that we planned to deliver in each of the sections in order to cover the very wide range of services and duties that the Council delivers.

2.4

We have reported on a range of performance indicators to demonstrate how we are making progress. Some of these are nationally defined indicators that are comparable across all 22 Welsh Councils, others are local performance indicators that have been developed in response to particular challenges in Pembrokeshire.

2.5

National performance indicators are collated into the Local Government Data Unit annual report referred to in the Foreword. Further details on this report, which judged Pembrokeshire County Council as the second highest performing Council in Wales, are available on the Local Government Data Unitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website http://www.dataunitwales.gov.uk/

Improvement Objectives to the national wellbeing goals

3.1

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 came into force during 2015/16. This is one of the most significant pieces of legislation that the National Assembly has put in place for how public organisations plan services. The emphasis of the Act is on planning for the future and it introduces seven national well-being goals. The Act complements new ways of working for health and social care as required by the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014.

3.2

The seven national goals in the Well-being of Future Generations Act interlink; however, we have included actions under the goals where they arguably have the strongest fit in order to structure this report. Most actions will contribute to more than one goal.

3.3

We have drafted separate chapters for each of the goals. The chapter headings list the headline areas that are included in each chapter. The national performance indicators that we are required to report, along with any relevant performance indicators, are included at the end of each chapter.

3.4

We will be developing a set of Pembrokeshire specific well-being objectives that link to the seven national well-being goals in the next few months. These will be included in a new Corporate Plan that will be agreed by Council in March 2017.

3.5

The Corporate Plan will also incorporate Improvement Objectives as the legislation which requires us to produce these is still in force.

4 A Prosperous

Pembrokeshire 4.1

We set two Improvement Objectives in 2015/16 that are relevant to a prosperous Pembrokeshire. These were for regeneration and town centres and school improvement. Both of these are longer term objectives that will require resources and time to fully achieve and we are evaluating whether we have been successful by looking at what the longer term trends are, and whether we are continuing to make progress, rather than basing our judgement on a single year’s results.

4.2

In terms of context, Pembrokeshire has relatively low unemployment rates and rates of poverty. However, the proportion of people who are working, but are on low pay, is higher than in other authorities. Gross median household income for 2015 is £464.80, a little lower than the Welsh average. Whilst the local economy requires a wide range of skills, there tend to be more jobs in lower skilled occupations than in more prosperous areas of Wales. Pembrokeshire’s relative position has changed little over the past year.

Regeneration and town centres Improvement Objective 4.3

We set an Improvement Objective for this topic due to concern from members of the public about the appearance and vitality of Pembrokeshire’s town. A key part of our strategy is to work through town centre teams and other partners. Our overall success measure was to maintain or reduce retail vacancy levels.

4.4

We can only influence the vitality of towns, as broader macro-economic factors are more likely to impact on relative performance. Economic pressures, such as changes to shopping habits continue to put pressure on town centres. Between 2015 and 2016 the proportion of on-line retail spending increased by about 15% across the UK whilst the amount spent in shops fell by about 3.5%1.

4.5

2015/16 was the third year we set an objective for town centre improvement. We have assessed our progress (whilst sharing good practice) through annual town team conferences. We plan to commission a formal evaluation of our work in this area in the Autumn and this will inform how we approach this work in future. Assessments from previous years suggested that our resources for town centres were spread too thinly. We have already made changes in our approach and 2015/16’s work was more concentrated on the County town, Haverfordwest, and was more strategically driven, for instance by developing a masterplan.

http://www.retailresearch.org/onlineretailing.php 10

4.6

We supported a number of projects that contributed to the vitality of all towns. The paint scheme continued and proves popular and a final report as its impact will be produced by March 2017. Gateway signage has been installed in each of the six main towns and free public WiFi is being installed in ten Town Centres and tourist destinations across Pembrokeshire. This £160,000 investment will be completed by autumn 2017. We have discussed the on-going maintenance costs of the schemes with relevant Town Councils. We have committed to the maintenance and licences for the three year pilot period with businesses/Town Councils taking on the running costs and all ten Town/Community Councils have signed up service level agreements in relation to long term commitments.

Progress on town team element of the Objective Fishguard and Goodwick 4.7

Previous Improvement Reviews have highlighted that Fishguard and Goodwick is our most successful town team and was awarded £50,000 from the Welsh Government Town Centre Partnership funding for 2013-16. The Team has a dynamic development plan as the focus for its activity. The minutes from the team’s meetings, along with its development plan and a list of completed projects, are available on its website.

4.8

During the year, the Town Team developed a number of marketing projects including a new town logo, updated website, new Fishguard Bay app, town maps, Dylan Thomas walk leaflet and a ‘where to eat’ booklet.

4.9

The Team has acted as a focal point for a number of different groups / projects that are aiming to regenerate Fishguard and Goodwick and its wider area. For instance, the Aberjazz festival is growing and is attracting internationally renowned musicians. The ‘Refreshing North Pembrokeshire’ project seeks to boost the visitor economy across North Pembrokeshire. Transition Bro Gwaun has also been active and arranged a Transition Towns Carbon Reduction Event, a Transition Towns Regeneration Conference as well as setting up the North Pembrokeshire Sustainable Tourism Group.

4.10

The Council is undertaking a number of projects in Fishguard & Goodwick, such as redevelopment of the former junior school and the associated Chimneys Road Link. These have progressed, but are not yet at a stage where work on the ground has commenced. Further details are in the transport sub-section.

4.11

There is evidence emerging through planning and building regulations applications that the combination of the town team approach and Council investment has stimulated new private sector investment. The major transformation project – the re-development of the port and creation of a marina – is progressing through the consenting process

Pembroke Dock 4.12

The Town Team was re-launched three months before the start of the financial year and held a competition aimed at school children to redesign its logo. The team is focused on improving the environment, improving footfall and giving a better impression of the town. It has actively encouraged people in the town to get involved.

4.13

The Town Team worked to deliver a number of events. In September, the “Bungee off the Bridge” event saw 90 participants bungee jump off the Cleddau Bridge and raised £21,500 for local charities. The Town Team held successful Beer Festivals in March 2015 and February 2016. The Town Team also worked on a pop up cinema event on 21 May 2015 which was held in the Market Hall. More than 200 Star Wars fans attended and the event built upon the towns association as the home to the only full-size Millennium Falcon spaceship prop ever made. The town team contributed the Christmas Fair and lantern parade. Local Environmental projects included Town centre finger signage and new bins with dog waste holders.

4.14

The major transformational project – the Martello Quays marina – was given a twelve month extension to the Delivery Agreement by the Council. Other private sector investment is showing early signs of improvement.

Pembroke Town Team 4.15 The Pembroke Town Team has identified short, medium and long term plans supported by funds from the Town Council. 4.16

The group delivered a number of projects for environmental improvement including the paint scheme, painting of street furniture, planting of shrubs, bulbs and hanging baskets. Funding from the town centre fund has been the catalyst for getting financial commitment from Pembroke Town Council. Public spaces have been enhanced such as building a Barbeque area on the Commons. The town trail was re-launched. The existing plaques were replaced and the information updated. The three mile route is marked out in 30 numbered, bronze circular plaques, installed in the pavements at various points along the way.

4.17

The Town Team are looking at number of projects in the future. The Team hope to build on Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society’s work to erect a statue of Henry VII (who was born in Pembroke Castle) and develop this into a theme for marketing the Pembroke. Last year the Society held an event to unveil a miniature of the statue and both the Team and Town Council have agreed to match fund the cost of the actual statue. Other priorities include a skate/play park, a viewing area at the Mill Bridge, and improvements to Castle Pond and the South Quay area. The group are also working with Arriva Trains Wales to enhance the rail station and with Pembrokeshire County Council on air quality improvements.

4.18

The High Street continues to benefit from improvements funded by European Grants and the Castle is expanding the range of events that are staged.

Haverfordwest Town Team 4.19

The Town Team has been instrumental in building partnership working between the Town and the County Council. It is the intention of the Town Team to work on a Masterplan for the County town. The Masterplan has drawn on the Confluence’s Projects ‘Big Map’ events (see below for further detail). It has four key themes which build upon the strengths of the town (such as the river and historic buildings) as well as four key projects, such as re-using vacant buildings, improving the public realm and improving how different parts of the town link together.

4.20

The Town Team have undertaken a number of environmental enhancement projects including the river cleaning, planting and paint scheme. They also helped deliver a number of events which had been well received including the raft race, Haverfoodfest and Easter egg hunt and a Christmas Festival and a temporary ice rink over Halloween weekend.

4.21

The Arts Council and ourselves supported the Confluence project continued throughout the year. The Big Map gave people in Haverfordwest the opportunity to engage in an experimental mapping of the town’s riverside to share their ideas, hopes and aspirations for the town. Further details about this as other cultural projects, such as the proposals for a new Library are in the Culture section.

Milford Haven 4.22

Milford Haven Town Council, through one of its sub-committees, has undertaken the role of the town team in 2015/16. Its discussions centred on local environmental issues such as the appearance of vacant buildings and littering.

4.23

During 2015/16 work was undertaken on resolving the future of 70a – 80a Charles Street (the Motorworld building) which is vacant and becoming an eyesore. In April 2016, Cabinet passed the recommendation that the building be demolished. The cost of this will be funded from the Town Centre Loan Fund and following clearance, the site will be passed over to a housing association for re-development into new residential properties.

4.24

Milford Haven Port Authority continued to develop its Milford Dock Master Plan which aims to regenerate the entire Milford Dock area encompassing Milford Marina and Milford Fish Docks. It is anticipated that the regenerated docks could create in the region of 600 jobs as well as creating new opportunities for the local fishing industry. The development was granted outline planning permission in February 2015. A development consultant was appointed in April 2016.

Tenby 4.25

The Town Team worked with Tenby Town Council to replace railings above North Cliff on the Norton and continued to work on improvements to Battery Gardens. The Town Team continued to support events, such as Tenby Arts Festival as well as contributing to Christmas festivities.

4.26

The Town Team facilitated the conservation of the Town Walls by funding a bat survey around the Five Arches (this was partially closed temporarily in February 2016 due to concern about the condition of some of its masonry).

Progress on strategic project element of the Objective 4.27

We have promoted the benefits of Enterprise Zone status. In February 2015, Welsh Government extended the Zone both geographically to include parts of Haverfordwest and the north of the County and for a further 3 years. The Enterprise Zone and Welsh Government have funded an economic strategy for the County to guide the work of the Board and County Council. This strategy is due to go to be considered by Cabinet in the Autumn.

4.28

We have worked with the Swansea Bay City Region. The project has developed throughout the year and has the potential to significantly improve digital infrastructure, improving road and rail gateways to Ireland and help shape investments in health services. In July 2016, Cabinet approved a £50,000 contribution to support the development of a detailed Swansea Bay City Region City Deal Proposal to the Chancellor and Secretary of State in anticipation of an announcement in the Autumn 2016 Budget Statement.

4.29

We progressed developing a food business park project in the County. We have identified that there is a need for food-grade premises in Pembrokeshire and that locating businesses in a cluster will allow them to share support services such as temperature controlled storage, distribution, business support and a shared showroom. We are actively pursuing funding for the development (for instance, from the Enterprise Zone, or European funding). We anticipate that the final cost of the project will be around £4m and that it has the potential to create 56 jobs in its first phase.

4.30

The main building at the Bridge Innovation Centre is fully let. Occupation of the adjacent growth unit remains well below our target following the voluntary liquidation of the Torquing Technology group in November 2015. The Bridge Innovation Centre hosts Pembrokeshire’s Fab Lab which was set up during the year. This independent Charity offers an open access lab with the latest digital fabrication equipment, where people can build, design or engineer pretty much anything that they can think of using modern techniques of digital design and manufacture. We have supported the organisation by providing space for it, along with a small capital seed fund.

Assessment The graph below shows changes in retail vacancy rates in our town centres. The Local Development Plans define the geographic area which is the town centre for planning purposes. This shows that vacancy rates have increased in the longer term for our larger towns: Fishguard, Pembroke Dock, Haverfordwest, and Milford Haven all have vacancy rates that are higher than the national average. Retail vacancy rates have fallen since 2013 in Pembroke and Tenby (where retail vacancy rates have halved since 2013) but it is not clear to what extent the Town Team’s activities have contributed to this fall.

The planned independent evaluation will look at the longer term sustainability of the town team approach. Town teams require resources for co-ordination and on-going budget pressures will make it harder for us to prioritise this work. In addition, external funding which has sustained Fishguard and Goodwick town team finishes in Autumn 2016. Our approach to town regeneration evolved in 2015/16 and is now more strategic and is more collaborative. For instance, in Milford Haven, the Port Authority through the Milford Dock Master Plan is driving projects with considerable redevelopment potential. In Haverfordwest, the Master plan process is defining a vision as well as providing energy and a sense of confidence that the recent decline of the town can be reversed. A number of capital investments are planned in the town which have the potential to create a critical mass, however, implementing any master plan will require time, resources and a concerted will to succeed. Master plans are being considered for the five other Town Team settlements. In Pembroke, the work that the Town Team undertook in previous years has led to tangible improvements in 2015/16. The Team has helped focus the marketing of Pembroke onto its Tudor past. Our progress for more strategic economic development projects was broadly successful. Through the Enterprise Zone, and Swansea Bay City Region, we have the opportunity to contribute at a much more strategic level to the development of the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy and capitalise on the local economyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strengths in the energy sector. The decision to leave the European Union will have a significant impact on how Pembrokeshire accesses external regeneration funding in the medium term.

Tourism 4.31

We progressed a number of projects to support Pembrokeshire’s tourism industry. In order to improve strategic support for the whole sector, we commissioned consultants to work with key partners in the sector to develop alternative delivery models for Destination Partnership Pembrokeshire (such as a mutual organisation with a much greater control over its day-to-day running from the industry itself). By the year end, the consultants have produced a business plan that demonstrates how a new organisation might work. Over the summer, we have considered this alongside the potential for including Tourism within a broader Culture and Leisure Trust (see Culture section for details).

4.32

We have worked with Welsh Water / Dŵr Cymru to develop a ‘Great Welsh Water Park’ at Llŷs-y-Fran reservoir. Outline plans for the development – which include an interactive water playzone; a water sports activity centre and cycle hub; and improved fishing and walking facilities - were presented to our Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The £4 million development is subject to Dŵr Cymru obtaining additional European funding.

4.33

The Council provided loan funding to the Saundersfoot Harbour Commissioners to support site assembly for a major European funded coastal centre / excellence project. Phase one of the project was completed in summer 2015.

Measure of Success PL9 Average time taken (days) from registration of a planning application to issuing a decision (excluding section 106 agreements from 11/12).

PIA030 Total % of spend with Pembrokeshire based suppliers for the year.

PA12 Percentage occupancy rate of Council owned industrial units (based on m2)

RG24 Percentage of let (Pembrokeshire County Council owned) floor space at the Bridge Innovation Centre (BIC)

14/15 Actual 63.5

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

75.5



The 20% difference between the result and the target was due to the Department clearing a significant number of backlog applications. A small number of very old applications distorted the average whilst reducing this backlog the Division determined 80% of applications within 56 days. 56.4

55.1



The Council must ensure that its procurement activity is legal and offers value for money. It is important however to measure the level of our expenditure that goes to Pembrokeshire business even though we have no direct control on this indicator. 89.8

89.5



16,031 m2 out of a total of 17,915 m2 was occupied as on 31 December 2015. Percentage of occupied units in the north of the county has remained the same at 91.5%, occupancy in the central area increased from 94.2% to 95.9% and in the south occupancy decreased from 87.2% to 85.7%. 95



We continue to have more lettable space available to lease (1,561m2 compared to 1,031m2 in the previous year). 1,381m2 is currently occupied. Target has not been met due to 1) lease being rescinded on two offices 2) one company going into liquidation which led to one office being released. There are a number of applications in the pipeline which should help to improve performance during 2016/17. 16

Measure of Success RG24 Percentage of let (Pembrokeshire County Council owned) floor space at the Bridge Innovation Centre (BIC)

RG31 Percentage of shops (class A) vacant in: Fishguard Haverfordwest Milford Haven Narberth Pembroke Pembroke Dock Tenby

RG33 Percentage of THi grant spent in Haverfordwest

14/15 Actual 95

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT



9.0 9.0 16  17.0 17.0 18  21.0 21.0 18  2.0 2.0 2  6.0 6.0 7  15.0 15.0 19  5.0 5.0 3  Vacancy rates have got worse in Fishguard, Haverfordwest, Pembroke and Pembroke Dock. Changes in consumer behaviour (on-line sales) and challenging retailing conditions at the macro level create difficult local conditions which lead to shops being vacant. 0

3.1



Two grant payments were made during 2015/16 totalling £82k. Planning issues, now resolved, resulted in the delayed commencement of one project. Grant funding of £1M has now been allocated for 11 planned projects, this should see an increase in the amount of grant spent in 2016/17. RG38 Regeneration funding secured

£1.3M

0.5M

£1.55M



Funding secured from: 1) Active Inclusion £51,289; 2) Workways+ £1,393,900M; 3) Major Events £30,000; 4) Visit Wales £16,000; 5) Town Team funding £60,000. RG40 Numbers supported on employment and skills projects

RG41 Number of wifi installations in town centres

1396

1239

This is lower than the target but can be explained by a reduction in customer flows and recommissioning arrangements. There was a backlog of Employment Support Allowance customers awaiting DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) work capability assessments and reassessments which accounted for the reduction in referrals received. -

Target was based on having Wifi in x3 town centres - Haverfordwest; Fishguard and Pembroke. A decision was made during year to install Wifi in x10 town centres as a “package deal” which has meant target was not met for 15/16. Agreement has now been made with Town Councils where Pembrokeshire County Council provides capital funding and the Town Councils provide the revenue stream. Additional towns to those stated above include Milford Haven; Pembroke Dock; Tenby; St Davids; Newport; Narberth and Saundersfoot. 17

School improvement Objective 4.34

4.35

We set an Improvement Objective for this area as attainment at GCSE for schools overall does not compare well with other areas. 2015/16 was the third year that we set an Objective for school attainment.

We set ourselves five key actions for this objective and all these actions will impact on future performance rather than the figures reported in this Review. Actions were to: raise the overall standard of leadership and classroom teaching, especially for secondary schools; addressing the gap between pupils who are entitled to Free School Meals and those who are not, improving attendance rates; progressing our 21st Century School building / refurbishment programme; and implementing our programme of school re-organisation.

4.36

Our report on addressing the gap between pupils who are entitled to Free School Meals and those who are not, is in the Equal section of this Review.

4.37

Actions which cut across all areas of our effectiveness for Education include strengthening the leadership of the service by appointing a permanent Director for Children and Schools. We are continuing to explore options for additional strategic leadership capacity. We are in the process of agreeing a new Education Vision which has five objectives focused on the needs and aspirations of learners. The aim of the Vision is that it supports a sustainable change so that Pembrokeshireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance is not merely average but is outstanding in Wales.

4.38

In order to raise attainment in secondary schools, in conjunction with ERW, we developed a Strategy entitled Every Lesson Counts, Every Pupil Counts. The Plan has been monitored on a monthly basis. Both the Plan and its Monitoring Update were considered by our Children and Families Scrutiny Committee. In addition, we have commissioned an impact evaluation of the Plan, including whether the actions we delivered will continue to have an impact into the longer term.

4.39

Examples of the specific actions we have taken to raise attainment include: promoting staff training, including leadership training (National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership programme) has been completed for identified staff at Tasker Milward and Sir Thomas Picton school; asking all Head Teachers to provide a monthly updates for the pupils receiving targeted interventions; a revision and improvement package for GCSE, identifying and developing specific skill gaps for improved results; commissioning additional teachers of Maths in Tasker Milward; and facilitating ongoing links between Ysgol Bro Gwaun and Greenhill and the Cotswolds school.

4.40

The impact of these actions has been positive. Throughout the year, we have seen improvements in the depth of pupil level knowledge demonstrated by some schools, however there are still concerns about the outcomes that some schools consider acceptable and consistency of processes used to track pupils. There is increasing confidence that Head Teachers and Chairs of Governors are able to discuss in detail performance of pupils and interventions being received and schools are implementing targeted strategies to improve outcomes. Elected Members are fully involved with the challenge and support of schools and there is additional capacity within the Directorate to address strategic and sustainable change. 18

4.41

There is a time lag between improvements being made and attainment going up. Whilst the main measure for Key Stage 4 (GCSE results), Level 2 + including English/Welsh and Maths increased a little between 2014 and 2015 our relative position compared to other authorities declined. Our relative position for several other Key Stage 4 measures declined including both average wider points score and the average capped wider point score measures.

4.42

Provisional results for the June 2016 GCSE results show some very good areas of improvement. Five schools increased their Level 2 inclusive indicator by at least five per cent. Overall, we anticipate that our Level 2 inclusive indicator will be approximately 59%, around the median average for local authorities in Wales. These results will be formally reported in next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Improvement Review.

4.43

There are marked differences in attainment rates across Pembrokeshireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s communities. The following map shows the percentage of students in 2013, 2014 and 2015 achieving Level 2+ including English/Welsh and Maths (years have been combined to produce more reliable figures).

Map showing the percentage of pupils achieving five or more GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and Maths over the past three years

4.44

The level of poverty in a community as well as pupilsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own circumstances influences attainment. When levels of poverty are taken into account, some of our more deprived communities such as Llanion and Monkton have levels of attainment that are the same or better than Pembrokeshire as a whole. However, even when levels of deprivation are taken into account, the levels of attainment in parts of Milford Haven still lag behind those for Pembrokeshire. Some areas that have low rates of pupils entitled to free school meals have levels of attainment that are lower than might be expected.

4.45

Attainment levels for pupils for younger age groups tend to be better than attainment at GCSE level. The percentage of pupils aged 7 meeting the Foundation Phase indicator increased and we maintained our relative position compared with other authorities. The percentage of pupils aged 11 who achieved the core subject indicator at Key Stage 2 was almost unchanged on the previous year, though our performance relative to other authorities declined a little. However, initial results for both Foundation Phase and Key Stage two assessments taken in June 2016 point to a decline in performance and we are clarifying this position.

4.46

Our actions to improve attendance included completing attendance reviews in all our secondary schools, with written feedback provided to each school on strengths and areas for development. We are repeating this process in the Autumn term of 2016, and we will review schools on a termly basis if we deem it necessary. The reviews highlighted strengths to be shared as well as some areas for development. Attendance officers are now providing reports for all schools across Pembrokeshire with more than 7% absence with any follow up actions.

4.47

We have changed how we follow up students who are late and identified that our previous practice of locating a Pupil Support Officer in reception to telephone the parents of late students was not an effective use of resources. We have reviewed how other authorities have improved attendance to see what best practice we can learn. We have contacted schools in neighbouring authorities that been successful in raising attendance and have, following an evaluation of Swanseaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success in this area, decided to implement a more rigorous application of the ERW process and will be preparing schools and attendance teams for this new way of working over the next six months.

4.48

We have reviewed our policy for issuing Penalty Notices for non-attendance. We did not receive any request from schools to issue these during the relevant reporting period for this Review (September 2014 to summer 2015). However, Penalty Notices are now being issued and their effectiveness is being monitored. Of the 23 Notices issued, the pupilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attendance has improved in 19 of these cases subsequent to the issuing of the Notice.

4.49

The work we have undertaken is having some success in raising attendance levels in primary schools. Attendance levels are increasing and this increase is in line with that for Welsh Primary schools as a whole. Attendance in secondary schools is proving to be more problematic; attendance levels compared to other Welsh authorities has also declined. Attendance remains a priority for 2016/17 and beyond.

Reporting year

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

Pembrokeshire Primary

93.25

93.93

93.48

94.87

95.01

Wales Primary

93.30

93.85

93.68

94.78

94.95

Pembrokeshire Secondary

91.33

92.62

92.18

93.37

93.20

Wales Secondary

91.36

92.14

92.63

93.61

93.86

4.50

2016/17 estimate 95.10

93.3

The attendance of pupils who are entitled to free school meals (eFSM) is lower than those who are not. In primary schools the attendance of eFSM pupils in Pembrokeshire has been in line with or slightly above that of eFSM pupils nationally over the last few years. In the secondary phase there has been no trend of improvement over the last few years, and in 2014/15 we reached a position where attendance of pupils eFSM was 1.7pp below that of their peers nationally

4.51

We continued to progress our 21st Century Schools programme and to implement a programme of school re-organisations. Our progress for the programme has been independently assessed through an Office of Government Commerce Gateway Review. The review undertaken in February 2016, close to year end, concluded that Phase One of the Programme has progressed well and all these projects (for instance in Tenby for Welsh and English medium schools, Johnston and Broad Haven) are likely to deliver successfully.

4.52

Phase two projects are progressing and the Gateway Review commented on the speed with which alternative plans have been put in place for Welsh Medium Secondary schooling in Haverfordwest as well as for Pembroke Learning Campus. The contract for Pembroke Learning Campus was signed in May 2016 and the new school is anticipated to be open in September 2018 (demolition work on the current school site will continue until May 2019). Making progress on English Medium Secondary schooling for Haverfordwest has proved to be more difficult. In order to develop a solution, Council agreed in July to authorise the Director for Children and Schools to work up proposals for secondary school provision in Haverfordwest, Milford Haven, Pembroke, Tenby and Crymych, and that regard is given to dovetailing this provision with existing proposals for Fishguard and St Davids.

4.53

Further Gateway Reviews will provide an independent evaluation of our progress and help us manage the financial and construction risks associated with the project. Measure of Success

EDU002i The percentage of all pupils (including those in LA care) in any local authority maintained school, aged 15 as at the preceding 31 August, that leave compulsory education, training or work based learning without an approved external qualification EDU003 Percentage of pupils assessed at the end of KS2, in schools maintained by the local authority, achieving the Core Subject Indicator, as determined by Teacher Assessment

EDU004 Percentage of pupils assessed at the end of KS3, in schools maintained by the local authority, achieving the Core Subject Indicator, as determined by Teacher Assessment

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

0.1

0.4

0.0

0.1

0.2

ď&#x192;ł

One child (out of 1,286 children) left compulsory education, training or work based learning without an approved external qualification. More robust tracking measures have been implemented with schools to identify vulnerable learners and implement necessary interventions where appropriate. 88.7

86.4

89.0

88.6

88.1

ď&#x192;˛

Local authority KS2 improvement strategies have been revised. Programmes of support are underway for schools identified as requiring improvement in each of the core subject areas. The effective practice introduced in 2014 of comparing national test results with teacher assessments and pupil targets will be extended this year to ensure every pupil is appropriately challenged and supported to achieve their potential. 81.1

81.2

82.0

84.5

84.1

ď&#x192;ą

Target exceeded. Revised local authority strategies continue to be monitored and tracked. Challenge Advisers and the ERW (Education Regional Working) team Leaders of Learning are deployed to targeted departments across the local authority.

Measure of Success EDU006ii The percentage of pupils assessed, in schools maintained by the local authority, receiving a Teacher Assessment in Welsh (first language) at the end of Key Stage 3 EDU011 The average point score for pupils aged 15 as at the preceding 31 August, in schools maintained by the local authority

EDU015 a)The percentage of final statements of special education need (SEN) issued within 26 weeks, including exceptions b) excluding exceptions EDU016a Percentage of pupil attendance in primary schools

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

15.5

17.2

15.7

14.1

17.8



Performance has declined over the last 2 years. One reason for this is the numbers of pupils who transferred from Welsh medium settings to English medium either within or outside of the local authority. 554

530.4

560

545

539



Target for this measure is difficult to predict due to the variety of qualifications (including vocational) available. Focus on literacy and numeracy across all departments and continuing challenge from local authority staff is beginning to improve the quality of teaching across all subjects. Good practice in teaching is being shared across all departments. 39.5 64.5 85 100 68.1 T 85.7 95.6 91.7 100 94.5 T During 2015 there has been a significant improvement in the performance to complete the statutory assessment process within compliance time. The improvement in performance can be attributed to an evaluation of processes and job responsibilities that have been successfully implemented.



94.9

94.8

95.0



Pupil Support Officers continue to focus and challenge schools where the “C” code (other authorised circumstance) is being used to record pupil absence. EDU016b Percentage of pupil attendance in secondary schools

EDU017 Percentage of pupils aged 15 at the preceding 31 August who achieved the level 2 threshold.

LP20 Percentage of 16 year olds that are not in education or employment (NEET)

93.4

93.6

93.2

93.9



Target was not achieved and was below the previous year’s result. Pupil Support Officers will challenge secondary schools and look carefully at the use of non attendance codes during 2016. Unauthorised family holidays have increased this year. 53.2

55.5

63.6

54.2

58.3



Disappointing result. Review of strategies by LA officers has resulted in monthly targeted interventions and monitoring being introduced. All schools need to improve to ensure Pembrokeshire performs at the Wales average level. One of Pembrokeshire County Councils 2016/17 Improvement Objectives is school improvement, particularly at Key Stage 4. 3.3

2.8

3.8



NEETs figure fallen over the last 2 years partially due to a reduction in post 16 funding and a lack of available traineeships in the county. We will lead the development of a European Union funded project which will target those that have left compulsory education, who are undecided on a post 16 learning opportunity and/or do not have the skills and aptitudes to secure employment. 23

Measure of Success LP21 Rate of exclusion per 1,000 pupils for al pupils a) 5 days or less b) over 5 days

SE10 Foundation phase indicator which analyses outcomes of pupils at years 1 & 2 for : a) Language, literacy & communication b) Mathematical development c) Foundation phase indicator

SE11 Key Stage 4 level 1 monitoring – percentage of pupils achieving 5 GCSE’s SE14 Percentage points gap between attainment for students eligible for free school meals (FSM) and those who are not, at Foundation Phase; KS2; KS3 and KS4 (Level 2 Threshold incl. English / Welsh & Mathematics) YTH002 Percentage of interventions by youth workers in schools leading to an accredited outcome at 16 years of age

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

34.1 1.1

26.7 1.6

15/16 Target 60 1.0 See comments

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

43.8 0.7

 

The definition of this measure has been amended during 2015/16 to bring it into line with the way Wales Government records and reports exclusion data. The targets set last year are no longer comparable, although historical actual data has been re-calculated to enable year on year comparisons to be made. There is more work to be undertaken in how Pembrokeshire schools and the local authority work together to reduce exclusions from schools to a figure more in line with that seen nationally. 89.4 86.6 91.8 91.1 88.0 T  91.6 88.7 92.6 91.7 89.7 T  88.7 85.2 90.0 89.2 86.8 T  Results better than the Wales average. Interventions continue to ensure positive outcomes. The “Moving on Together” programme has been effective in improving provision and pupil outcomes in target schools. This programme will continue this year with a further cohort of targeted schools. Identified teachers attend a series of local authority led courses and then their improvement activities are monitored and quality assured. Best practice is shared with all schools. 94.8

94.0

95.4

94.4



Disappointing result. Review of strategies by local authority officers has resulted in monthly targeted interventions and monitoring. 18 16 16 10 15  15 18 14 14 16  32 24 27 21 22  33 34 27 35 33  Performance has improved at all levels apart from at KS4 which is disappointing. The KS4 figure resulted in an immediate review by local authority officers with interventions and a focus on Maths and English at KS4. 81

80.5

90.0



More effective identification of young people by schools to undertake the programme along with the use of the VAP (vulnerable application process) tool enables appropriate interventions and has resulted in result exceeding the target.

Assessment School attainment at GCSE improved slightly in absolute terms for the June 2015 examinations, but declined in relative terms compared to other authorities. Preliminary results for the June 2016 assessments (and which more fully reflects the work undertaken in the year) indicate that Pembrokeshire’s GCSE results are now close to the average for Wales as a whole. Whilst this result shows good progress, once Pembrokeshire’s relative levels of deprivation are taken into account, it is still lower than the level that might be expected. We are committed to continuing to improve attainment into the future. The increase in GCSE attainment for June 2016 demonstrates that the additional focus we gave this area during 2015/16 resulted in improved outcomes. We will continue to monitor progress for primary schools where recent results suggest that previous improvements in attainment may not be as embedded as we had hoped in some schools. Progress on improving attendance is also proving to take longer than we had hoped however, attendance is slowly improving. Independent assessments of our C21st schools programme show that, most of the projects are being delivered effectively. We will continue to work through options for English medium education in the Haverfordwest area and post 16 education more generally in 2016/17. Skills and other education projects 4.54

We undertook a number of other education related projects that contribute to the prosperity of Pembrokeshire.

4.55

During the year, we developed projects to improve the skills of those furthest away from the labour market. The Council is the lead for the Cynnydd project which looks to work with people who are most at risk of disengaging from education and training. This £19m project (£13m of which is EU funding) will tailor support to the needs and aspirations of each young person. Our understanding is that as Cynnydd is an approved EU project, Welsh Government will honour its funding allocation. The Cam Nesa project, which also European Funded and is not yet operational, will improve the life chances of young people who are already not in education, employment or training (NEET).

4.56

The Council operates Norman Industries, a supported employment programme, which was re-launched in July 2015 as a social enterprise. This was met with a positive response and an increase in orders. The continued focus on marketing, sales and production costs is expected to realise a 60% increase in sales.

4.57

4.58

During the year, we completed the preparation work for the Workways Plus project, a major European Union funded project which works with long term unemployed and economically inactive people to help them overcome barriers to employment and volunteering. The project started in September 2016 and operates across Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. Workways Plus works with participants to find out about their experience, current situation and what they want to achieve and puts together an action plan for the participant. Support can be facilitated includes work related training and qualifications, accessing volunteering opportunities and work placement

We have re-formulated the management of the Music Service in order to save costs. We continued to develop our Community Youth Work services and we begun discussions with the voluntary and community sector youth work organisations on a formal framework for collaboration. In order to improve the governance of our Adult Learning Service, we have set up Pembrokeshire Learning Network Strategic Board. The Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s membership, includes further and higher education providers, and third and community sector providers at a senior level.

5 A Resilient

Pembrokeshire 5.1

Pembrokeshire’s high quality environment underpins many of our key industries such as tourism and agriculture. A wide range of organisations have responsibility for protecting and enhancing our environment, however, we have a number of specific duties for areas such as waste management, land use planning, bio-diversity and conservation, as well as a role in flood prevention.

5.2

We did not set an Improvement Objective for the environment last year. This was because we considered that other areas of the Council’s business presented more immediate challenges. However, we are committed to protecting and enhancing Pembrokeshire’s environment and are under no illusions about the size and scale of future environmental challenges

5.3

We undertook a number of actions around waste management. We have made good progress for this area and have reduced refuse disposal costs, our use of landfill sites, and we continue to have one of the highest recycling rates in Wales.

5.4

We monitored our new waste contract to ensure efficiency savings and income generation are on target. This is a joint contract with Ceredigion and the waste collected is sent to Sweden by ship where it is used in energy from waste facilities. This first shipment of waste sailed from Pembroke Dock in August 2015.The amount of waste going through the contract is exceeding initial predictions and spending remains on track. Discussions with third parties have progressed well with a number of other authorities and companies now disposing of some of their waste through the contract. This has enabled us to collect a royalty fee.

5.5

We optimised waste collection routes following the introduction of fortnightly collection and this has resulted in further savings for refuse collection. We decided to cease provision of free black bags for residual waste in order to save costs. We also made savings by ensuring that non-domestic properties are paying for business waste rather than using domestic waste services. This has achieved £40,000 additional income has been achieved through new trade waste agreements.

5.6

In order to save costs, we have closed our Civic Amenity Sites for two days a week during the winter period along with the introduction of new working arrangements and standardising of working hours. These changes were made following a consultation exercise with customers of the service and the results of this consultation led to changes from our initial proposals.

5.7

We have negotiated with Town and Community Councils on the delivery of local environmental services in communities such as flower planting and bedding plants and play areas. Nine Town and Community Councils have agreed to pay for the supply of plants (we have continued to maintain and water bedding plants supplied via ourselves) and two Town and Community Councils have decided to undertake the flower planting themselves. Community park inspection regimes have been established and these are supporting the operation of play areas. Community funding bids have been received, allocated and the successful communities informed.

5.8

Other local environmental services where we have looked to involve Town and Community Councils in their delivery include public toilets where Town Councils now have direct contracts with Danfo UK Limited, the Council contractor that cleans and maintains the toilets. Our new arrangements for public toilets have not led to a reduction in quality. We were recognised in the annual Loo of the Year Awards for being the number one local authority in the UK for providing public toilets. Over half of our 73 toilets won gold or platinum awards. In addition, Danfo UK Limited were awarded best external contractor in Wales for the work which they undertake with us.

5.9

One of our longer term priorities is reducing the risk of flooding. Climate change risk projections consistently stress that the severity and frequency of flooding is likely to increase in future. We have continued to participate in the Wales Coastal Flooding Review which is the national response to improving Walesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resilience to coastal flooding.

5.10

We completed flood protection work at Amroth and have progressed or completed design work for schemes at Little Haven Flood and at Newport / Parrog Tidal. We have commenced work on the Newgale Adaptation Plan and held a consultation on this in May 2016. This is a long term project to address the likelihood of the existing shingle bank coastal defence being breached several times a year in two decadesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; time. The action plan identifies six actions including evaluating options to do with changing the route of the existing highway as well as commitment for on-going community engagement.

5.11

Town and Community Councils have an important part to play in making our communities more resilient to civil contingencies, for instance by develop their own community emergency plans. We held successful pilot exercises in Saundersfoot and Pembroke during the year, and following their validation this is now ready as an off the shelf exercise for other communities.

5.12

We published an update of the State of Wildlife in Pembrokeshire in April 2016. This focused on the current condition of fourteen species and nine habitats and the likely trend for their condition over the last five years in Pembrokeshire. The report found that whilst there have been some successes and that some features are now improving, the majority of features assessed are in poor or moderate condition and the overall trend is still declining. On a more positive note, the features assessed as in good condition or with improving trend have all been the subject of sustained conservation effort. The report concludes that if Pembrokeshire is going to play its part in fulfilling the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international commitments on halting biodiversity loss and reversing its decline, there will need to be even more sustained commitment to, and greater investment in, long term conservation projects and monitoring programmes.

Measure of Success STS006 The percentage of reported fly tipping incidents cleared within 5 working days WMT004b The percentage of municipal waste sent to landfill

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

97.1

93.1

96.2

95.3



Small decline in performance year on year, but just ahead of target. 15.4

29.4

14.9

18.1



More waste was diverted from landfill that had been anticipated due to the introduction of the Energy from Waste (EfW) contract. WMT011 The percentage of municipal waste received at all household waste amenity sites that is reused, recycled or composted WMT009b % municipal waste collected by local authorities and prepared for reuse and/or recycled, including source segregated biowastes that are composted or treated biologically in another way. STS005b The percentage of highways and relevant land inspected of a high or acceptable standard of cleanliness

70.2



60.2



Performance maintained year on year. 65.4

56.2

64.9

Small reduction in performance. The amount of black bag waste we collect every year has increased at a higher rate than the amount of waste recycled. 98.9

96.9

98.5

96.5



Small decline in performance year on year, but ahead of target.

Assessment We continue to perform well for waste reduction and recycling. We made considerable progress for this agenda in 2014/15 and during 2015/16 we maintained performance; some indicators improved a little, others marginally declined. The work we are doing with Town Councils, which is often centred on local environmental issues, is an example of the broader changes in service delivery that we are planning to make in future. We will be working much more collaboratively with other organisations find shared solutions for shared problems. Our ‘State of Wildlife’ report has monitored trends for the health of our key species and habitats. Though the report highlights that the resilience of these is an issue and cannot be taken for granted, it also found that where we have taken action, then this has been effective.

A Healthier Pembrokeshire

6.1

We set two Improvement Objectives which fit best under the health goal. One is for reconfiguring adult social care services where we wanted to improve efficiency and sustainability of services and the second is our Improvement Objective on vulnerable children.

6.2

Much of the information relating to social care in this section has been summarised from the Annual Report of the statutory Director of Social Services. The full report gives more detail on how our social care services are evolving so that they can meet the challenges we are likely to face in future.

6.3

Health is a much broader agenda than social care, safeguarding and promoting exercise and almost all of the actions that we have reported on in this whole plan will have an impact on health and well-being.

Reconfiguring Adult Social Care Services Objective 6.4

We chose this objective as we want to change the emphasis of social care onto prevention, re-ablement and support within the community. The work we undertook in 2015/16 was a continuation from previous years. Preparation for the implementation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 underpinned this work and our Improvement Objective is consistent with its aims. Implementation necessitated revising policies and procedures, training staff and redesigning forms and electronic systems. We set four actions under this objective.

6.5

The first action we set was improving service quality by implementing the quality assurance framework. This is being embedded and a multi disciplinary Assurance Monitoring Group is now in place. This will share and aggregate provider intelligence, as well as discussing an appropriate commissioner response. The groups will strengthen the interface between commissioning, safeguarding, partner agencies and CSSIW. An escalating Concerns Protocol has been reviewed and agreed by partner agencies.

6.6

The second action was to ensure other resources were targeted at early intervention and prevention such as providing good quality information to customers and building the capacity within communities. Our model for preventative services was developed through joint working with a range of partners such as the Health Board and third sector organisations. The model supports the developments of a spectrum of services ranging from information and advice through the PIVOT model of community based services, to more intensive and targeted interventions such as re-ablement. The PIVOT model (Pembrokeshire Intermediate Voluntary Organisations Team) has been a particular success and has strengthened the connections between Town and Community Councils, third sector organisations and community groups. 30

6.7

Our third action was to review our current contracts with the independent community and voluntary sectors. This work has included a review of domiciliary care packages, information and advice contracts (especially their fit with the Social Services and Well-being Act), and reviewing high cost residential placements. The work of our commissioning hub is central to this work. For domiciliary care, our programme of reviews is progressing. Approval panels in Adult Care ensure all assessed needs meet eligibility criteria and that reablement is maximised prior to agreeing domiciliary care. We have completed the mapping of all current service level agreements with the third sector and information, advice and assistance will be included as part of the service provision in new contracts and will be a key part of the new Carers service. Social Workers are reviewing the needs of clients in Supported Living settings. For high cost residential placements, work is ongoing and savings are being realised by reviewing packages of care to ensure that the right-sized package of care is being offered following meetings set up with providers to discuss implementation of any changes.

6.8

The impact of these changes can be seen in some of our performance indicators. The rate of older people supported in care homes has reduced in line with our policy to support more people to live at home. There has been a substantial reduction in the number of domiciliary care hours following reablement and an associated reduction in the number of customers receiving ongoing long term support.

6.9

Our fourth action was to continue to develop targeted reablement services to ensure people are enabled to maximise their independence. All reablement referrals are now routed through our brokerage section. A new operational post has been created to interface between this and the contractor on care management issues. This improved communication and the clear reablement pathway has improved throughput, reduced delays and supported timely transfers for those who require further long term care. This has also released social work time that would otherwise be engaged in direct communication with the provider.

6.10

Our key success measure for these actions is maintaining spending on adult social care within budget. Whilst our net spending has increased by an average of less than 1% year on year between 2013/14 and 2015/16, the 2015/16 outturn expenditure for adult social care was £0.191m higher than the revised estimate (and £1m higher than originally budgeted). One of the reasons why our expenditure was a little higher is that it is taking longer to make planned savings. Of the £1.91m savings we planned to make, £0.81m was made within the year. Planned savings that were not made in 2015/16 have been rolled forward to this financial year. The council continues to scrutinise and interrogate data to influence strategic change that promotes and maximises independence and maintains older people living in their own homes and communities.

6.11

There are a range of other actions we currently provide directly to adult care customers such as day care, residential care and supported employment services. The improvements we planned across all of them aim to promote independence, help prevent needs escalating and make the best possible use of resources.

6.12

We have made some progress on day opportunities, though there is still more work to do. A Day Opportunities forum is now in place and we are developing an approved provider process for day opportunities. We started a consultation on possible options for Tenby Social Activity Centre. Following feedback, we decided to undertake further and wider consultation before making a decision on the future of the Centre.

6.13

We continued to work with the voluntary sector to build community capacity. We used external funding called the Intermediate Care Fund to do this work. During 2015 – 2016 this funding was used to support a range of projects (including the PIVOT project) to: further community resilience and capacity for independent living; enabling independence in the community for people discharged from hospital; and re-ablement.

6.14

Outcomes from the projects were evaluated and many testimonials were received from customers who were extremely satisfied with the support provided. “I’m most pleased with the service I’ve received and I’m now able to go out and about as I was doing prior to my injury, including taking the bus and visiting family” “Found her hospital discharge experience much better this time than previous” 32

6.15

We have also invested in improvements at one of our residential homes, Hillside, which has provided additional step up/step down beds to support hospital discharge, respite care beds and a new day service.

6.16

A self-assessment of the Learning Disabilities service was undertaken in preparation for a national inspection of care and support for adult people with learning disabilities. The opening paragraph in summary of the report stated “The Authority recognises that improvement is needed across the board in the care and assessment that it provides for people with learning disabilities”.

6.17

In response to the recommendations we developed a robust and detailed action plan which was agreed with CSSIW. These actions will bring about the required changes in the delivery of learning disability services and already, improvement is evident. This plan is closely monitored by CSSIW and the support and commitment of senior managers and Members in the Authority, ensure timescales are met. CSSIW will undertake a follow up inspection before March 2017.

Assessment We continue to make progress on our Improvement Objective to reconfigure adult social care. The actions that we have undertaken continue to emphasise prevention, providing services in community, rather than institutional settings, working with the health sector and providing specialist reablement services to reduce needs for people following a spell in hospital. However, it is taking longer than we anticipated to make these changes and, as a result of this, there are now budget pressures within adult social care. The inspection of our Learning Disabilities highlighted that we need to make improvements in this area.

Measure of Success SCA001 The rate of delayed transfers of care (DToC) for social care reasons per 1,000 population aged 75 or over

SCA002a The rate of older people (aged 65 or over) supported in the community per 1,000 population aged 65 or over at 31 March

SCA002b The rate of older people (aged 65 or over) whom the authority supports in care homes per 1,000 population aged 65 or over at 31 March

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

0.16

4.8

0.5

1.43

4.9



There has been an increase in the number of DToCs, resulting from challenges in sourcing domiciliary care packages and complexity of cases. However, effective joint working has supported a result that is within the top quartile and is better than the Wales average. Data 65.8 67.3 60 54.3 not reliable This indicator measures care packages in place on the last day of the period. It does not take into account a variety of other ways in which we support older people in the community. Population size and the prevention/early intervention work streams/services will impact on result and this continues as a key priority.



15.3

18.8

15.3

18.0



We continue to make good progress and reduce the number of care home packages. This result is within the Wales top quartile of 16.25 for 2014/15. 33

Measure of Success SCA007 The percentage of clients with a care plan at 31 March whose care plans should have been reviewed that were reviewed during the year SCA018a The percentage of carers of adults who were offered an assessment or review of their needs in their own right during the year SCA020 The percentage of adult clients who are supported in the community during the year

AC015 The percentage reduction in the planned domiciliary care hours of customers who have completed a period of reablement during the year AC025 Those surveyed who agree their quality of life has improved because the service they received has made things better for them AC027 Deliver savings that equate to 4.5% of the 2015/16 net budget

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

90.4

80.0

91.6

83.0



A target programme of reviews has resulted in a good result which is also slightly improved on last year's performance. 100

88.3

100

91.4



Planned activity to engage with carers has contributed to this good performance. 91.3

85.2

86.7



This performance is reflective of intermediate care options, including reablement, that are available to service users to support independence. Continued joint working ensures people receive the right support. This is a reflection of the reablement pathway that includes direct referrals from health. 57

77.7



Good performance continues supported by joint working and the integrated reablement pathway. 96

Result is calculated from an annual survey in which 400 users responded to. -

4.5

See comments

The 2015/16 Adult Services revised net expenditure budget of £44.241m was overspent by £0.191m (0.43%).

Vulnerable Children Objective 6.18

We set this objective to cement improvements that we have made in previous years on improving children’s services and integrating parts of our education and children social services. We want to ensure that improved outcomes are achieved by all children and young people, including vulnerable young people. We set ourselves five actions under this Objective. These five actions are focussed on children’s social care issues.

6.19

The first action was to improve our capacity for preventative work and to ensure that staff from a range of backgrounds work together in order to do this. We reviewed how our Team Around the Family (TAF) service works and how it is funded. The TAF team continue to bring partners together to offer bespoke support plans to families and in 2015/16 it 34

received 30% more referrals than it did in 2014/15. In addition, the Manager of the Team has supported Families First commissioned projects to implement the Joint Assessment Family Framework (which ensures that all agencies and the family agree how they will work together to achieve agreed outcomes) and to broaden the concept of TAF within Pembrokeshire. The impact of this work is a contribution to the reduction in number of children and families whose issues have escalated to the point that they are children in need, or require child protection. 6.20

The second action was to maintain operational capacity for child protection services by reducing vacancy rates so we are less reliant on agency workers. Capacity monitoring is part of weekly Team Managers' meetings. Recruitment against any vacancies is progressed as speedily as possible. This has resulted in a low ratio of agency staff to permanent staff and capacity issues are monitored corporately. Through the Social Care Workforce Development Programme Partnership we have continued to promote careers in social care and to hold events that bring people who are interested in working in the sector together with potential employers. We have also developed skills within the Education workforce needed to deliver services to children with Additional Learning Needs. A learning needs analysis was completed, minimum training standards established, and accompanying courses rolled out. Over the course of last year, 33 training events took place and 1,346 people took part, 97% of whom rated the quality as good or excellent.

6.21

The third action relates to how schools help vulnerable pupils. We have analysed data relating to pupils with additional learning needs and have used this to provide bespoke support in conjunction with that provided by Challenge Advisors. Individual pupil targets have been reviewed especially those where there is cause for concern. In addition, we have restructured the Behaviour Outreach Team which provides support to schools. A service level agreement has been prepared which sets out the conditions that the schools will expected to adhere to for the use of the additional funding and its use will be monitored through an annual multi-agency meeting.

6.22

Whilst the relationship between this work and the number of exclusions is complex, we were pleased that the number of exclusions for both primary and secondary schools has fallen. The emphasis that we have put on early intervention and prevention is also resulting in a fall in the number of children with a ‘School Action Plus’ designation (the second of three tiers of support for children with Additional Learning Needs) from over 2,000 in 2014 to 1,409.

6.23

Portfield Special School, which focuses on pupils with complex needs, was recognised as offering best practice by Estyn. It noted “The range of inclusion options has enriched pupils’ learning experiences significantly and helped them develop a much wider range of individual interests”. We also reviewed the pilot of the Learning Resource Centre, which offers a specialist service for 12 pupils at Ysgol Bro Gwaun, and have agreed to establish this permanently for from Sept 2016. We now have 13 Learning Resource or Autism Centres based within primary or secondary schools across Pembrokeshire.

6.24

Our fourth action was integrating services for children with a disability across Education and Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services, to deliver a better service and better support as children grow into young adults. This has been achieved and Children with Disabilities now come under the Inclusion Service. As part of this work, we brought various activities in-house to create an Inclusion Support Service with some 120 children receiving a social work service and 32 children accessing the activity service. The service prioritises providing early help and a point of contact for parents concerned their child has Additional Learning Needs. A Parent Partnership Service for children with additional learning needs as well as disabled children has been launched. This provides a wide range of information for families and its work is supported by inclusion support workers. During the year, we commenced a review of our short breaks respite service at Holly House. We anticipate that this review will complete in the 2016/17 financial year.

6.25

A related issue is improving our performance for issuing Statements of Special Educational need. All of these statements were issued within the target of six months. We are now concentrating on streamlining the annual review process and we have worked with schools to improve the quality and consistency of information supplied so that reviews go more smoothly.

6.26

Our fifth action was to develop a service that can meet all the needs of our most vulnerable children such as those who are looked after. In order to achieve this we established a Looked After Children Psychology Service. Advocacy services were also reviewed and a more focussed service has been re-commissioned. The education of Looked After Children has been given a sharper focus and reports are taken to Corporate Parenting Board. These actions have been reflected in improvements in performance and the percentage of children looked after at 31 March who have experienced one or more changes of school, during a period or periods of being looked after, which were not due to transitional arrangement, in the 12 months to 31 March 2016 is much improved (14.67% in 2014/15 to 8.23% in 2015/16).

6.27

We have used a range of success measures to determine how successful we have been for protecting vulnerable children. There is some cross-over with measures for safeguarding, and these are included in the table below.

6.28

One of the main outcomes that we wanted to achieve through this Improvement Objective was to put more emphasis on prevention and on reducing levels of need thereby reduce the number of young people who need to access statutory social services. The number of looked after children has remained at or around 125 for the past three years and lower than the 2012 figures. The number of open child protection cases has dropped from 64 in March 2015 to 59 in March 2016. The number of children in need (those children who receive the least intensive level of statutory services) at 31 March 2015 was 287 this dropped to 219 at 31 March 2016.

Assessment We have made good progress on our Improvement Objective for vulnerable children. We have re-focussed children’s social services, services for children with additional learning needs on early intervention and prevention. This is resulting in fewer children needing intensive levels of support. Our performance against children’s social care indicators is good with many indicators in the top quartile for Wales and we have also improved our performance against indicators relating to additional learning needs such as the speed with which statements of educational special needs are issued. Safeguarding 6.29

We continued to embed the policies and practice we have established for safeguarding. Whilst this is no longer an Improvement Objective, safeguarding remains one of our priorities and one of our Cabinet Members has this area of work as part of their portfolio. Our work to promote and support safeguarding cuts across age groups and includes both vulnerable adults and children.

6.30

We have continued our work to implement the “Signs of Safety” model in children and adult services. Positive feedback from staff, families and Inspectors has confirmed our decision to adopt this model. The aim is to reduce risk and danger by identifying areas that need change, while focusing on the families’ strengths, resources and networks. The ease and clarity with which the voice of the child is now documented and heard has a powerful impact in all situations but particularly in child protection conferences, where it helps focus attention on the key areas of risk.

6.31

In order to establish a strong process for ensuring the voice of children and young people are heard we have recently developed and implemented Practice Standards for practitioners which set out the importance of including the child’s voice in service-delivery and planning. We adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in March 2014 and every child has the right to have their say and be listened to when decisions are being made about them.

6.32

In order to promote understanding about advocacy services that are available, we have developed a bi-lingual Advocacy Booklet which will be shared with staff and the Corporate Parenting Board in June. Preparations are also underway for the distribution of the qualitative survey to all children aged 7-17 who have a care and support plan (and their parents/person responsible for the child) in September. Young people continue to be involved in the recruitment of staff, for example four young people took part in the selection interviews for the Head of Children’s Services last year

6.33

The 2014 Social Services and Well-being Act introduced regional safeguarding boards. The Regional Mid and West Wales Safeguarding Children Board, CYSUR, is now in its second year, and delivers the Safeguarding Children Board functions across this region. During the year we completed the work needed for the Regional Safeguarding Adult Board to become operational in April 2016. We host both Boards, and the employment of the staff who support them. The work of the regional group is complemented by a local operational group. This is the key multi-agency partnership for driving the children’s safeguarding 37

agenda in Pembrokeshire and the group has engaged young people through the Junior Local Safeguarding Children’s Board as well as organising a multiagency conferences in September 2015. 6.34

6.35

One of the key workstreams delivered by CYSUR this year was around Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). A regional CSE Prevention Strategy set out the priority areas for multi-agency work which included recording and sharing information and raising awareness of CSE amongst front line staff. A CSE Prevention Conference took place in March which gave organisations the opportunity to hear about and discuss the regional and national context. It was clear from the evaluation of the conference that delegates’ awareness, knowledge and confidence of working with CSE was raised, with one delegate commenting “A well organised informative day with some inspirational speakers”.

Our safeguarding work is dependent on having a skilled workforce. We work through the Social Care Workforce Development Programme (which operates on a Dyfed-Powys footprint) in order to do this work. A wide range of training and development courses is provided to the social care workforce including the independent and voluntary sectors. In 2015-16 4,442 staff were trained, a 5% increase on the previous year which included 2,473 from the independent and voluntary sectors. This training has covered support for newly qualified staff as well as post graduate training for experienced and senior social workers. Aside from training, key areas for the Social Care Workforce Development Programme include recruitment initiatives and, together with colleagues from Careers Wales and Jobcentre Plus, we organised Careers Information Days in schools and a Social Care Careers Information and Jobsfair.

Measure of Success EDU002ii The percentage of pupils in local authority care, in any local authority maintained school, aged 15 as at the preceding 31 August that leave compulsory education, training or work based learning without an approved external qualification SCC001a The percentage of first placements of looked after children during the year that began with a care plan in place SCC002 The percentage children looked after at 31 March who have experienced one or more changes of school, during a period or periods of being looked after, which were not due to transitional arrangement, in the 12 months to 31 March.

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

0.0

1.2

0.0

0.5



Robust tracking and monitoring ensured that no pupils in local authority care left compulsory education, training or work based learning without an approved external qualification.

100





Year on year performance maintained at 100%. 14.7

13.5

8.2

11.9

Improvement in performance and target beaten.

Measure of Success SCC004 The percentage of children looked after on 31 March who have had three or more placements during the year SCC033d The percentage of young people formerly looked after with whom the authority is in contact at the age of 19 SCC033e The percentage of young people formerly looked after with whom the authority is in contact, who are known to be in suitable, nonemergency accommodation at the age of 19 SCC033f The percentage of young people formerly looked after with whom the authority is in contact, who are known to be engaged in education, training or employment at the age of 19 SCC037 The average external qualifications point score for 16 year old looked after children, in any local authority maintained learning setting SCC041a The percentage of eligible, relevant and former relevant children that have pathway plans as required

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

11.4

9.0

8.7

9.8







Improvement in performance, target achieved. 100

93.3

100

93.2

Year on year performance maintained at 100%. 93.3

93.1

100

94.4

93.5

Improvement in performance. One out of 18 young people not in suitable non emergency accommodation.

59.5

44.4

60.7



The small numbers used to calculate this measure (8 divided by 18) can lead to large percentage changes year on year. A number of formerly looked after young people cannot be engaged in education, training or employment due to a number of reasons including health issues (x2) and being a full time parent (x2). 226

276

280

504

269



Significant improvement in performance, although the small numbers used to calculate this measure can lead to large percentage changes year on year. 99

91.2

100

93.5



Improvement in performance and target met.

Other activities that support health 6.33

Leisure centres and other facilities that we provide, that enable people to be active, continue learning and stay in touch with other people, have a positive impact on physical and mental health and well-being. We completed the refurbishment of Tenby Leisure Centre which now has expanded gym facilities in April 2016. The dance studio, sports hall and pool changing facilities were also upgraded. The project’s timescales and costs increased due to a number of factors and a detailed report explaining these was taken to Cabinet in March 2016. We completed the new climbing wall at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre which was partly funded by the Community Covenant Grant. The 12 metre high main wall has routes of varying difficulty giving climbers of all abilities something to challenge them. We also introduced an inclusive charging structure for leisure services and introduced a Passport to Leisure card for people in receipt of benefits. 39

6.34

6.35

We were one of the first local authorities in Britain to pilot smoke free beaches. The issue was discussed by our Overview and Scrutiny Committees Cabinet prior to the voluntary restriction being applied in Little Haven in March 2016, alongside restrictions in smoking for play areas. The reason we wanted to do this was to denormalise smoking to in order to reduce the rates of young people taking it up. We will evaluate the pilot’s success and a report will be presented to the Authority's Cabinet once the trial period concludes.

Housing has a significant beneficial impact on health. Information on this is included in the Cohesion section

Measure of Success LCS002b The number of visits to local authority sport and leisure centres during the year where the visitor will be participating in physical activity, per 1,000 population

LSPI7 School swimming: Percentage of children achieving the National Curriculum swim test at year 6 LSPI9 Net promoter score (NPS). The score is calculated from customer response to a simple question “would you recommend this service to a friend”. Scored from 0-10 (10 being the most likely). Customer promoters are the 9’s and 10’s, neutrals 7’s and 8’s and detractors score 6 and below. NPS is calculated at the % promoters minus detractors.

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

10,125

8,662

10,180

9,804

8,409



Factors influencing a reduction in visits include building works at Tenby and a reduction in the number of users "paying and playing" (on the day) despite an increase in usage by members. With the planned completion of the refurbishment project at Tenby Leisure Centre and a full year effect of the climbing wall at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre, it is anticipated that visits should improve during 2016/17. 86.3



Improvement on previous year. Performance ranks as joint first in Wales. NB Result relates to exams sat June/July 2015. The average pass rate for Wales was 75%. 51



1,537 responses were received from customers (an increase of 180 compared to the previous year). The refurbishment of Tenby Leisure Centre (which has over run) and the introduction of car parking fees at St Thomas Green Haverfordwest have had a detrimental impact on the 15/16 result. The Net Promoter Score feedback continues to provide us with daily customer feedback and comments. This allows us to respond instantly to customers concerns, complaints and compliments.

A more Equal Pembrokeshire

7.1

The national goal for a more equal Wales aims to create a society that enables people to fulfil their potential no matter what their background or circumstances. This goal underpins much of the work that we do and the objectives that we have set.

7.2

Whilst relatively few of our communities have high levels of poverty (as measured by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation) , our larger towns all have areas where a comparatively high proportion of people have a low income and can be considered to be deprived communities. In turn, this has a wide ranging impact on the life chances of people who live in these communities. Many of our services make a positive contribution to the Tackling Poverty agenda and we decided to make this an Improvement Objective in order to better co-ordinate this work. Rural poverty, whilst more difficult to quantify, is also clearly in evidence in some of our smaller communities.

7.3

The actions we set were in the context of significant changes to the benefit system. The introduction of Universal Credit began in Pembrokeshire November 2015, and we coordinated the use a small grant to facilitate delivery of digital and financial inclusion, housing benefit management and personal budgeting support. Although the number of claimants is comparatively small, and the timetable for introducing Universal Credit has been extended, we anticipate that the impact of the continued roll out of Universal Credit, will be substantial.

Tackling poverty Improvement Objective 7.4

A draft tackling poverty strategy was produced in 2014 with the intention of producing a final plan during 2015/16. Throughout 2015/16, the document was considered and refined by Overview and Scrutiny Committees. Our Tackling Poverty Champions also met with the Deputy Director from Welsh Government and took this opportunity to share good practice. However, a final plan is still in the process of being produced and may now be implemented as part of other corporate or partnership plans.

7.5

Our first two actions related to developing how Welsh Government tackling poverty grants work. We extended Flying Start (which gives children a head start in life) to Neyland. We reviewed Families First funding (a programme that helps children, young people and families, in or at risk of poverty, achieve their potential) so that the projects that are supported through the fund have a better fit to addressing child poverty. Our understanding is that the focus of the Flying Start programme is changing and a further review will be undertaken and implemented by October 2017.

7.6

7.7

Three actions related to educational attainment. The main one of these is to close the gap in attainment between pupils entitled to free school meals and those who are not. We also set actions for using Pupil Deprivation Grant to provide informal learning opportunities for families through Springboard as well as extending the summer learning programme to Haverfordwest.

In order to address the underperformance of pupils entitled to Free School Meals at Key Stage 4 we have completed an analysis of the use of Pupil Deprivation Grant for targeted interventions at Key Stage 4 across all secondary schools and identified good practice at primary level to be shared with secondary schools. This report was presented to our Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee in April 2016. The report noted that if more schools used detailed provision mapping to analyse the impact of interventions then it is likely that the Grant would be more effective. As the grant is delegated to schools, the primary responsibility for ensuring that its use is evaluated is with school governing bodies. However, we will continue to promote best practice to governing bodies and we have been working with the Sutton Trust to develop a toolkit.

7.8

We undertook an analysis of Local Authorities across Wales to identify local authorities or schools that have demonstrated rapid improvements in the performance of their pupils entitled to Free School Meals and in order to share best practice. We also agreed to develop the principles for a strategy to address underperformance of pupils entitled to Free School Meals at Key Stage 3

7.9

Based upon the results of examinations / assessments taken in summer 2015, the Free School Meals attainment gap improved for Key Stage 2 aged children, but got worse for Key Stage 4 children. The increase in the gap at Key Stage 4 is disappointing particularly as preliminary results for June 2016’s examinations suggest that this gap is not closing.

7.10



KS2 (Core Subject Indicator). The gap for Pembrokeshire for June 2015 is 14.1 percentage points. This gap has closed each year for the past four years and is smaller than the equivalent Welsh figure.



KS4. The gap is 34.5 percentage points. The gap has grown since June 2013’s exam results. Pembrokeshire’s June 2015’s figure is 1.9 percentage points larger than the equivalent Wales figure

Our two other education actions were delivered. Springboard delivered family learning opportunities across six schools and the extension to the summer learning programme was successful. Although we fell slightly short of achieving our target of 30 children engaging (27 children attended) this was much higher than the 10 children who attended the previous year. This enabled much more extensive targeted intervention to address the attainment gap in children living in poverty both in Pembroke Dock and Haverfordwest Communities First areas.

7.11

We set two actions for working in partnership with Job Centre Plus and other agencies. The first of these was to work in partnership to deliver basic information technology skills sessions in libraries for customers referred from Job Centres, including those in long term unemployment. The project was much more successful than we anticipated. Approximately 2,500 jobseekers attended the skills sessions in job clubs in our libraries which covered topics such as how to write a CV, get an email address and use the universal jobs-match web resource. The outcome of these training sessions was positive. A high proportion (86%) of attendees felt that they were better prepared to deal with job searches as a result of the sessions. The project emphasises the vital role that free internet access in libraries has.

7.12

During the year we worked closely with Job Centre Plus to test potential locations for a joint facility for benefits and advice. In July 2016, Cabinet agreed in principle to a co-locating with Job Centre Plus in North Wing, subject to full feasibility, designs and detailed costs. We are now working through these in detail with Job Centre Plus. We consider that the project has potential to offer customers a better service as well as being more efficient and making better use of office space.

7.13

As an organisation with one of the largest spending powers in Pembrokeshire, we have a role to play in providing training and recruitment opportunities for young people who are not in education, employment and training (NEETS) by building them into our contract requirements through community benefit clauses. We appointed a full-time Community Benefits Officer (CBO) in June 2015 on an initial 12 month contract. In the first eight months we have achieved a range of outcomes including helping over 100 unemployed people and supporting over 100 apprenticeships, and supporting over 900 qualifications. The monetary value of contracts and the benefits they realise runs into tens of millions of pounds and community benefits are being measured across a range of contracts such as transport for Education; domiciliary care and reablement, operation and maintenance of public toilets; as well as waste and housing repair contracts.

7.14

We also undertook actions around tackling poverty through improving aspects of housing. For our own stock, we continued to invest in improved energy efficiency measures, including new boilers and double glazing. Implementation of rolling programmes continue as per our business plan; a new window framework to be tendered next year and the heating tender to be extended by one year from May. We also co-ordinate specialist housing support services which enable vulnerable people to live in the community. Last year, we agreed programmes to help those in receipt of Supporting People to manage their money independently.

7.15

Our improvement plan for 2015/16 included a range of measures for tackling poverty. These were grouped into three categories: preventing poverty; helping people back into work and mitigating the impacts of poverty. Further details are in the table below. We met almost all the targets we set.

7.16

7.17

Indicators that stand out where we performed particularly well include the number of referrals from Job Centre Plus and Citizen Advice Bureau run ICT sessions at the libraries (where our performance was over six times higher than our original target) and indicators relating to housing benefit.

The speed with which new housing benefit claims are processed improved from 27 days in 2014/15 to 21 days in 2015/16. This improvement meant that in relative terms, we have changed from the lower quartile to above average compared with other local authorities in Wales, Scotland and England. We also improved how quickly we processed changes of circumstances from 7 days to 5 days. We achieved this improvement despite a reduction in resources by using new software which automates claims that have been received automatically. The impact of this is that successful claimants will not have to wait so long for payment of their benefits

Assessment We have made progress in implementing most actions that tackle poverty. The main area we need to concentrate on is the educational attainment of young people entitled to free school meals, especially at Key Stage Four. The draft vision for Education and Learning has an objective that all pupils engage and participate and are able to fulfil their potential no matter what their background or circumstances. We also need to consider how best actions around tackling poverty might be co-ordinated. The plans and partnership structures that we will develop in order to deliver the well-being plan are well placed to deliver on tackling poverty work.

Measure of Success CC010 Take up of free quality childcare places by eligible children (2-3yrs) in flying start areas CC011 Percentage of children who will achieve the expected level at Foundation Phase in : 1) Language / literacy / communication; 2) Mathematical development; 3) Personal social development in Flying Start areas CC012 Percentage of children reaching their development milestones at 3 years of age in flying start ED01 No. of learners engaged on Springboard courses

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

96.4

271 places for free childcare were taken. -

89.3

75 out of 84 children reached the expected level at Foundation Phase.

84.1

253 out of 301 children reached their development milestones. Target exceeded.

400

516

Measure of Success ED02 Number of qualifications achieved through Springboard courses IC53 Number of children who will benefit from a targeted programme of bespoke summer learning activities using library/cultural services resources in communities first areas PMPC020 Number of traineeships provided to 1618 year olds PMPC021 Number of apprenticeships taken up by young people

PMPC022 Number of work experience placements taken up by young people IC50 Number of referrals from JC+ and CAB run ICT sessions at the libraries

IC51 Percentage of JC+ referrals attending job clubs in the libraries achieving at least 1 of the 3 mandatory requirements for entitlement to Universal Credit IC52 Percentage of JC+ referrals attending library job clubs who feel better prepared to deal with job search

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

100

101

Target exceeded. -

Places were allocated for 32 children in two schools (Fenton Primary in Haverfordwest and Pembroke Dock Community School), but 5 children did not attend meaning target was missed. -

Links with contractors have been improved which has enabled result to exceed target. -

Target exceeded due to the employment of a Community Benefits Officer which has improved links with local authority departments and contractors. Improvements have also been made to how data and opportunities are monitored / recorded. -

200

1,533

Better than target. -

Note that data shows the number of attendances at libraries and includes multiple visits by the same person. This performance represents a huge success story demonstrating the positive impact that public libraries can have on peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives. With around a third of the Welsh population digitally excluded, and higher than average proportions of jobseekers falling within that category, the free access to the Internet that libraries provide is a powerful resource which through partnership working is being utilised to help jobseekers get back into work. -

628 people had achieved at least 1 of the 3 mandatory requirements, and in many instances achieved 2 or 3 of the requirements. This demonstrates the positive impact of the sessions that are being undertaken in our public libraries. -

Of those who completed an evaluation form, 87% agreed or strongly agreed that they felt better prepared for job searching. This is significantly higher than the target of 60%, and highlights the importance and value of the library job clubs.

Measure of Success MBMEE1 Overall energy efficiency rating of our housing stock

RS04 Average number of days taken to process new housing benefit claims RS05 Average number of days taken to process changes of circumstances to existing housing benefit claims AC030 Percentage of people in receipt of supporting people funded services who are assessed as needing support to manage their money will demonstrate an improved ability to manage their money independently, as a result of the support provided

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

Target achieved through capital investment to improve housing stock through a programme of central heating upgrades and installation of double glazing. -

20.7

Better than target. -

This is a good result exceeding target. This reflects the good outcomes being achieved for those we provide with support.

7.18

We undertook a number of actions to improve how we approach equalities work. We set up a multi-agency Pembrokeshire Voices for Equality group whose aim is to give Pembrokeshireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s equality communities a stronger and more co-ordinated voice. Membership is open to groups or people representing the interests of the people who share one or more of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010.

7.19

We worked with other local authorities in the region to develop a questionnaire to inform the development of new Strategic Equality Plan. The survey will covered issues of race, sex, age, religion and belief, disability, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment and partnership status. The new strategic equality plan is still in the process of being developed.

7.20

Pembrokeshire has a relatively large number of people from a Gypsy Traveller ethnic minority background. During the year we progressed a Gypsy Traveller accommodation needs assessment, which is one of the requirements of the Housing Act (Wales) 2014. This document is used to inform the Local Development Plan and it predicts a slower growth in need for additional pitches than previous work had suggested.

A Cohesive Pembrokeshire

Communities 8.1

Much of the work that we do across the national Well-being goals relies on working with communities. Examples include town teams for regeneration, community organisations who provide learning and training organisations, working with Town and Community Councils on local environmental issues, through to setting up community libraries. In addition, there is a core of work that we undertook on strengthening the relationship we have with communities and improving communication.

8.2

We held a series of wide ranging consultations with the community following on from the initial Your Council is Changing events held in February and March 2015. This included a series of employee engagement events in May and June 2015, specific sessions concerning Future Library Services and Adult & Community Learning Centres in June, July and September and a second round of eight public events in October 2015. The purpose of the consultations was to get local people’s and local stakeholders’ views on a range of issues including our organisation’s culture and governance, our savings proposals and future direction of the organisation. Although the October events were not as well attended as the ones in the Spring they were well received. A feedback document was produced and was available on our website. An example of one of the comments we received was: “ Well done keep it up! New culture slowly breaking through.”

8.3

In order to strengthen liaison arrangements with Town and Community Councils we have identified County Council link officers to work strategically with Town Councils. This pilot project will run throughout 2016/17. We also consulted on developing a Charter with Town and Community Councils to improve communication between ourselves and the sector.

Housing 8.4

Housing has a significant impact on many of the national Well-being goals, including health, however it has a particular contribution to play in helping communities to be vibrant, selfsustaining and cohesive. Affordable housing is a long-standing issue for Pembrokeshire.

8.5

We continue to prioritise affordable housing within our Housing and Planning services and 140 new units of accommodation were delivered during the year. Of these, nearly 30 were developed without using capital grants. In March 2016, Council decided to levy a Council Tax premium on second homes from April 2017 as a way of addressing housing need. At least 50% of any money raised will be used for the provision of affordable homes and the remainder will be used to support local services. Affordable housing is one of our long47

standing priorities. During the past three years, and through working with partners, we have delivered an average of 125 homes a year. 8.6

8.7

We are making progress with strengthening our tenancy management service, though this work has been delayed a little as we have prioritised implementing new homeless legislation. We have started to plan how we can provide a more responsive service, for instance, by having more tenancy management “patches” which will be funded from the increases in the rents and service charges we have made in order to comply with Welsh Government. Further planning will continue in 2016/17.

We have implemented a range of improvements to how housing adaptations work and this resulted in a 47 day improvement in how quickly adaptations are processed. Examples of improvements include: implementing the new adaptations policy, changing how we work with contractors, and greater support for customers with the application process.

Measure of Success PLA006b The number of additional affordable housing units provided during the year as a percentage of all additional housing units provided during the year

PSR004 The percentage of private sector dwellings that had been vacant for more than 6 months at 1 April that were returned to occupation during the year through direct action by the local authority VOIDS2 Average cost of void works

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT



The number of additional affordable homes has increased from 80 to 158 compared to the previous year. The number of new dwellings completed has also increased from 254 to 301. The Wales average for 2015/16 is 36%. The scope of the Service to influence this performance is limited. The relatively low numbers involved means that annual fluctuations can be great. 2.42

11.8

2.0

1.8

11.1



28 properties brought back into occupation during the year, compared to 30 in the previous year. It has become apparent that the overall uptake of the Welsh Government “Houses into Homes” scheme locally has slowed. £3,603

£3,250

£3,559



There was an 11% increase in the number of voids properties completed during the year (497) compared to 445 in the previous year. All of the framework contractors were used in order to prevent a backlog of void properties and excessive turnaround times. Subsequently, there was an additional increase in costs due to more expensive contractors being used. VOIDS3 No. of voids occurring as a percentage of total stock

8.7

9.9



Exit interviews have commenced with outgoing tenants and where a problem can be alleviated this is then expedited to the building maintenance team to avoid a termination of tenancy. In order to sustain tenancies, new tenant visits have commenced. With regards to evictions, if this is likely to happen, then arrangements are put in place to prevent this happening with referrals being made to internal and external support agencies.

Measure of Success VOIDS4 Percentage of void properties which are refused three or more time

PSR002 The average number of calendar days taken to deliver a Disabled Facilities Grant

PSR8 Percentage of applicants surveyed who stated that the Disabled Adaptation Service is good or excellent

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

9.2

10.4



The welfare benefit changes which came into effect in April 2013 are still impacting on our voids performance due to the decreased demand for larger properties. Enhanced analyses of refusals by property type, location and reason have been put in place. More photographs have been placed on the website used by prospective tenants to apply for homes to enable the customer to make a more informed choice prior to bidding. Properties where there are more refusals are reviewed to explore any work that could be done at an earlier stage in order to have a successful let. 361

231

290

314

241



The target was set on the basis of changes to policy and improvements to the process that were anticipated to impact on DFGs completed during the year. The amended policy under which adaptations are delivered came into effect on 1/2/15 and has had a significant impact on improving performance towards the target in 15/16. The planned introduction of an internal agency to deliver adaptations has been delayed awaiting legal advice on the procurement arrangements; this has recently been received and the procurement process should begin soon. The agency approach should improve the time taken to deliver an adaptation once it has been approved. The support provided to customers with the application process and subsequent reductions to the time limits given to customers to return paperwork are both contributing to the improved result which should continue in 16/17. 90



The result has exceeded the target set. This is likely to reflect the continued efforts within the team to improve performance, although there are no readily identifiable factors influencing result.

Safety 8.8

We continued to develop a range of actions to improve safety in Pembrokeshire. Pembrokeshire is a safe place (though surveys consistently show that local people are still concerned about crime) and overall crime levels have fallen year on year.

8.9

We support the Pembrokeshire Community Safety Partnership, ‘Safer Pembrokeshire’. This brings together statutory agencies to discuss crime and safety issues. We developed new terms of reference for the partnership, and as well as providing a co-ordinating role for a range of safety activity, the group remains the focus for how we contribute to the PREVENT anti-terrorism agenda.

8.10

We continued to develop CCTV in Pembrokeshire. A report was commissioned by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner into CCTV across the Dyfed-Powys area which was published at the beginning of the year. This suggested that Pembrokeshireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s provision and working practice could be used as model. We continue to work with a range of organisations, including Town Councils, to provide CCTV cover in key locations across the County.

8.11

One of our long-standing priorities is reducing anti-social behaviour. The number of incidents recorded each month has steadily fallen over the past five years to around 50% of 2011 figures. However anti-social behaviour still accounts for around half of all incidents recorded.

8.12

During the year, we implemented the Community Trigger provision in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2014. This gives victims the ability to hold statutory agencies, including the Council, to account for the way they have tackled anti-social behaviour. The trigger can be used when the threshold has been met, for instance if there have been repeat incidents within a certain time period. We also commission services through Gwalia, who offer a support service to victims of anti-social behaviour in Pembrokeshire. This support extends to problem solving groups and case conferences and mediation processes.

8.13

Domestic Abuse remains a high priority for us. We continue to raise awareness of Domestic Abuse issues and services available through various events held throughout the year including the County Show and White Ribbon Day (a campaign to encourage men and boys to get actively involved in showing their commitment to ending violence against women and girls).

8.14

The One Stop Shop in Haverfordwest continues to gain strength, and is able to offer drop-in sessions in conjunction with specialist domestic abuse organisations. As well as managing the Independent Domestic Violence Advisor service, these organisations provide programmes to support people who are in, or who have just left, abusive relationships as well as a Counselling Service.

8.15

We also continue to be involved in a range of training activities, for instance with the Police and with Magistrates. Last year we developed a training package for our own staff and also advised other officers within the Council on how domestic abuse awareness can be integrated into other training

8.16

Our public protection teams have a role in promoting a safe Pembrokeshire. We operated one of three Local Alcohol Action Area pilot projects in Wales. This project, completed in May 2015 and a final evaluation report has been produced. There have been several successes as a result of this project, with the key ones being improved action planning, standardising of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Behave or Be Bannedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; scheme across Pembrokeshire, information sharing and the Street Pastor scheme being extended to other towns following its success is Haverfordwest.

8.17

Other examples of work include consumer protection where we worked to educate and inform people on scams. We warned householders over scams that we have become aware that are running in the County (such as a fake lottery), prosecuting rogue traders who target vulnerable people under consumer regulations. For instance, our Older Persons Strategy highlights the work that we do in this area.

8.18

We continued to improve road safety by implementing engineered road safety schemes and continuing to promote training and road user awareness courses. We completed physical road safety schemes (through Safe Routes in Communities funding) in Goodwick, Milford Haven, and Pembroke Dock We also completed shared user paths along alongside Thornton Road, Milford Haven, Bird Cage Walk to Bush Street in Pembroke Dock and in the vicinity of St Mary's School, Pembroke Dock.

8.19

Road Safety education, training and publicity projects included the Year 12 young driver programme, Pass Plus Cymru (for people who have just passed their car test) as well as Drive For Life, which is a refresher course for older drivers. We have supported specific motorcycle training courses such as Dragon Rider and Ridersafe. We continue to promote road safety initiatives in schools such as the National Standards Cycle Training and Kerbcraft.

8.20

It is better to measure the success of road safety initiatives using longer term trends as figures vary from year to year. Figures show a steady improvement from the 2004-2008 average although the total for 2015/16 was higher than that for 2014/15.

Measure of Success HC1a Total no. killed/seriously injured (KSI) in road traffic collisions PPN009 Percentage of food establishments which are 'broadly compliant' with food hygiene standards SCY003a The percentage of children & young people referred to the Substance Misuse Service by the Youth Justice Team for a substance misuse assessment that commence the assessment within 5 working days of the referral date SCY003b The percentage of children & young people identified through the substance misuse assessment as requiring treatment who receive a tier 2,3 or 4 service within 10 working days of that assessment

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT



Collisions are not an exact science and experience spikes of highs and lows from year to year. Our long term target for 2020 is 58. 96.2

94.2

96.5

95.6

94.2



Target narrowly missed. 2,105 out of 2,201 food establishments "broadly compliant" with food hygiene standards. 94.1

100

44.4

88.0



Please note that the small numbers used to calculate this measure (4 DIV 9) can lead to large changes in the reported result between quarters. One young person refused to engage with the service; one was transferred to probation; one moved out of county and two people missed the target due to a failure to refer to the substance misuse team - new procedures have been implemented to reduce these incidents in the future. 100

100

88.9

97.0



Please note that the small numbers used to calculate this measure (8 DIV 9) can lead to large changes in the reported result between quarters. One young person refused to engage with the service which meant 100% target could not be met.

Measure of Success DA1 Number of domestic incidents per 1,000 population

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

8.0

8.4

9.1



Domestic incidents are on an upward trend. Data for this measure is obtained from Dyfed Powys Police. ASB1 Number of anti social behaviour incidents per 1,000 population

43.1

33.1



Antisocial behaviour is at a lower level than that experienced during the past 3 years. Data for this measure is obtained from Dyfed Powys Police.

Transport 8.21

Pembrokeshire’s geographic location and rural nature mean that transport and communications are an important issue. We continued to work on a range of projects to improve transport and communication to, from and within the County.

8.22

We will continue to develop and construct paths for walking and cycling. These will help us meet our duty to provide a network of routes for active travel under Welsh Government’s Active Travel Bill. By September 2016, we will have completed mapping existing walking and cycling facilities in the areas designated under this legislation. We continue to develop a network of shared user paths and details are included in the preceding Road Safety section. Aside from safety and transport benefits, these paths will also make a significant contribution to health by making it easier for people to incorporate exercise into their daily routine.

8.23

In July 2015, the £8 million Bulford Road improvement scheme was opened by Edwina Hart, Welsh Minister for Economy, Science and Transport. This scheme, improves access to some of Pembrokeshire's major industrial sites and was funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh Government's Local Transport Fund together with match funding from Pembrokeshire County Council.

8.24

We will continue to implement a range of road improvement schemes during the forthcoming year. These include the Maidenwells Relief Road which is part of a wider scheme to improve access to strategic employment sites on the Haven. During 2015/16 we engaged with the community and landowners. A local public inquiry was held as part of the Compulsory Purchase and Side Road Orders process. This is now complete and we envisage construction work on the Relief Road will commence late October 2016, with completion by June 2017.

8.25

We started construction of the widened Glasfryn Road in St David's in January 2016. This will improve traffic flows in the area and will also address potential traffic concerns for a proposed community housing development at Glasfryn Lane. We also completed work at Thomas Parry Way roundabouts in Haverfordwest which will improve access to any future developments at Slade Lane. 52

8.26

We continued to progress the Chimneys Link road improvement scheme. This scheme is a vital piece of the jigsaw for broader regeneration plans for Fishguard. During the year we clarified how the scheme will be progressed and obtained funding to design the scheme. During the year we will also finalise a further bid to complete the construction of the road.

8.27

We continue to support public and community transport. We have developed a proposal to replace a number of existing rural bus services with a combination of Bwcabus ‘fixed’ route services and ‘demand responsive’ type services. Demand responsive services, which require pre-booking by passengers, allow services to be tailored to the needs of users and will provide greater opportunities for those areas currently served by infrequent market day services and those with no bus service. We are waiting to hear whether funding has been granted.

8.28

We have improved how public transport facilities such as Pembroke Dock and Fishguard rail stations link to the rest of the transport network. Fishguard & Goodwick Station car park extension and station building extension was completed along with bus stop and car parking facilities at Pembroke Dock. The Haverfordwest to Crundale footway scheme was substantially completed.

8.29

Passenger numbers on Pembrokeshire's coastal buses increased nearly 2,250 last year despite some reductions in the service as a result of budgetary pressures. This is partly due to extra stops on the Celtic Coaster 403 service, which covers the St Davids Peninsula, and to the increasing popularity of the coastal buses. The service caters for a wide range of users. In a survey of passengers last year, most people (34%) said they used the coastal bus to go walking, while 15% of people said they used them to go to the beach, and 12% for a scenic tour.

Measure of Success THS007 The percentage of adults aged 60+ who hold a concessionary bus pass

THS012a Percentage of principal (A) roads that are in overall poor condition THS012b Percentage of nonprincipal/classified (B) roads that are in overall poor condition THS012c Percentage of nonprincipal/classified (C) roads that are in overall poor condition THS012 Percentage of principal (A) roads, non-principal (B) roads and non-principal (C) roads that are in overall poor condition

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

75.4

85.8

73.3

85.6



Pembrokeshire’s performance compared to the Wales average (86%) might be expected to be below average – where the cohort of Authorities includes large urban authorities. 4.9

4.1

4.5

4.6

3.7



5.0

4.0

4.3



10.8

17.2

11.0

7.5

15.9

9.1

11.9

6.6

11.2

 

M M

Improvement for all types of roads, in particular for non-principal C roads (which make up 70% of our road length). Investment based on condition surveys and road hierarchy has resulted in continued improvement.

A Pembrokeshire of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh Language

9.1

Libraries and the arts make a significant contribution to people’s well-being. The national goals recognise this and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 cites cultural well-being as one component parts of sustainable development. Culture and the Welsh Language also contribute to the other national goals. The link between culture, language and health is well known, but cultural projects can also contribute to other areas, such as regeneration and therefore prosperity.

9.2

We progressed re-locating the County Library to Haverfordwest town centre. Following January 2015’s Cabinet report we decided in April 2015 to site the new building, in the current Riverside market building. The new facility will offer a much wider range of services than the current County Library such as a fully integrated Tourism Information Centre, a Life Hub zone (with access to financial and health information) as well as a coffee shop and a national standard art gallery. The co-location of these complimentary services under one roof and on one floor level offers opportunities to grow the library service and provide a greater range of services to users. This has been possible due to a partnership with the National Library of Wales, and Welsh Government who have provided nearly £300,000 towards the cost of the project . Our planning committee delegated the power to approve the development of the facility following the end of the consultation period in September 2016.

9.3

A necessary consequence of this decision was closing the market. We handled this sensitively and we worked with market traders to find them suitable alternative premises. We consider that there will be a net economic development benefit as we anticipate the venue could generate close to £1 million of spending in the local economy and create eight to 15 additional jobs. The new County library is one of the projects in the Haverfordwest Masterplan. It is hoped to start work in the autumn 2016 with an opening date some 12 months later.

9.4

Our Archive has achieved official Accredited Status in the year. The Archive Service Accreditation provides an archive service with a mark of external recognition and official endorsement. It follows the official seal of approval awarded to Pembrokeshire Archives earlier this year as a place of deposit under the Public Records Act.

9.5

We took steps to secure the future of Scolton Manor. This houses the County Museum Service, a Green Flag country park and sculpture exhibits in addition to a bee keeping centre as well as volunteering and work experience opportunities for adults with disabilities through Future Works and Norman Industries. We have developed business plan for the site to continue to reduce the subsidy that it requires with the aim that it breaks even within a four year period. In order to do this, we need to resolve ownership issues, and in February 2016, Cabinet agreed in principle to purchase the building. Negotiations with Scolton Manor’s owner (the Welsh Church Act Fund), and the resolution of legal issues are still on-going. 54

9.6

We also started to explore options for a Heritage Centre. A stakeholder group has been set up and is examining the potential for a facility which provides a first class heritage tourism experience, perhaps using attractions elsewhere in the UK such as the Yorvik Centre or the Canterbury Tales as a model. The stakeholder group will report back to Cabinet throughout 2016/17.

9.7

The Confluence Project is a three year arts and regeneration project that is supported by the Arts Council and the County Council. The project began in 2014 and last year two events were held. A follow up ‘Big Model Workshop and Open Day’ was held in summer 2016. Other projects commissioned through Confluence included Black Diamond which “harnessed the sonic power of the river to create a rave track with local musicians” and the Pembrokeshire Drover which refers to the bygone practice of herding livestock to market via historic routes. A public art commission is scheduled for 2016/17.

Measure of Success LCL001b The number of visits to Public Libraries during the year, per 1,000 population

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

4,985

5,526

4,490

4,168

5,374



Performance has been heavily hit by the impact of funding cuts which resulted in significant reductions to library opening hours; a reduction of two thirds of the mobile library service; cuts to the book fund and other service reductions. In addition, virtual visits in 15-16 have had to be calculated using a comparison between April 14 and April 15, with the percentage change (a drop) applied across the virtual visits for 14-15 to provide this year’s figures. This is due to an ongoing issue with the self-service system provided internally which should be resolved during 2016/17.

9.8

Throughout 2015/16 we undertook a range of actions to implement new Welsh Language Standards. At the end of March 2015, the Welsh Language Commissioner issued a timetable for work during 2015/16 that culminated with many of the new standards coming into force on April 2016.

9.9

During the year we planned for the implementation of these changes, for instance, by arranging for staff training, changing policies and contract documentation, making provision for more simultaneous translation and translating a wider range of documents, for instance committee minutes and agendas.

9.10

The impact of these changes is a significant increase in the range and type of transactions with the Council that customers can undertake through the medium of Welsh. A practical example is using spoken Welsh in reception centres. We will continue to implement changes throughout 2016/17. These changes have a resource implication. We estimated that the cost of implementation could be as high as £1m. However, ways of achieving the standards without such significant costs will have to be identified and only a £300,000 pressure has been built into the budget for 2016-17.

9.11

In addition, we commented on a Welsh Government consultation on Draft Revisions to Technical Advice Note (TAN) 20 - Planning and the Welsh Language. This document will shape how our planning policies support the vibrancy of the Welsh Language within communities. 55

10 A Globally

responsible Pembrokeshire 10.1

We continue to improve energy efficiency and reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide that we emit when using energy. We are converting lighting in many facilities to Light Emitting Diodes which are much more efficient. We completed upgrades to Tenby Multi Storey Car Park, leisure sports halls and pool halls, as well as to libraries and Scolton Manor. We continue to improve insulation in facilities and improve the efficiency of plant, for instance fitting variable speed drives to pool pumps at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre. We also fitted new biomass boilers at the Centre

10.2

We continue to look for cost-effectives ways to generate power and fitted photo-voltaic cells to a sheltered housing project. The rainwater harvesting system at Thornton Vehicle Workshop is outperforming expectations, and is reducing the environment impact that the facility has.

10.3

We continued run the Sustainable Schools Award scheme. This acknowledges pupils' work and understanding of sustainability. The award covers seven topics; energy, transport, community citizenship, biodiversity, water, waste, health and global citizenship. It is split into three stages, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Ten schools progressed to a higher level of attainment throughout year.

10.4

The conflict in Syria has resulted in very large numbers of refugees being displaced and there is now a UK scheme for accepting and settling refugees. In February 2016, Cabinet set up a multi-agency group to develop a detailed action plan including financial implications for the County. A subsequent report to Cabinet agreed our participation in the Scheme and over the period of the Scheme we will welcome 10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 12 families to the area.

Measure of Success OAEV61b Number of schools to have progressed to a new level of bronze, silver, gold or acorn attainment

14/15 Actual

14/15 Wales

15/16 Target

15/16 Actual

15/16 Wales

DOP

QRT

ď&#x192;˛

Nine schools progressed to a new level of attainment during 2015/16. Three schools were ready to progress to a new level of attainment during the early part of the summer term 2016 (and therefore were not included in the 15/16 actual) explaining why target was narrowly missed this year.

CAM037 Percentage change in 2.0 5.8 3.0 T the average Display Energy Investment in energy reduction projects and a staff energy Certificate (DES) score within efficiency drive (in response to environmental commitments and LA public buildings over 2 major budget cuts) have seen a marked reduction in energy use in 1,000m the captured buildings. Notable example projects include LED lighting to leisure sports halls and pool halls, variable speed drives to pool pumps, LED lighting to libraries and Scolton Manor, pipe and valve insulation in plant rooms, heating control upgrades, Cultural Services energy champions initiative ongoing (mirroring the successful Leisure energy champions), PV solar panels, new pool covers, new biomass boilers at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre. No Wales data as this measure was introduced during 2015/16.

11 Finance

11.1

The Council’s Corporate Governance Committee approved our 2015-16 Statement of Accounts on 27 July 2016. We were part of a pilot project (with one other authority) to close our accounts two months earlier than in previous years. Details of the accounts can be found on our website in the section which lists details of Committee reports. SOA Approval

11.2

The 2015-16 budget was made against the backdrop of significant financial pressures. We needed to £12.3 million of cost reductions/efficiencies in that year, following £12.9m in 2014-15 (though 2016-17’s cost reductions/efficiencies target is even higher at £16.3 million). Our cost reductions/efficiencies target for 2016-17 is higher due to a number of factors including loss of AEF, additional demand for services as a result of demographic change, and pay and prices increasing by more than inflation.

11.3

Our Medium Term Financial Plan sets out the size of the financial challenge that we face. MTFP 2016-17 to 2019-20 The Plan is in two sections. The first section identifies the financial challenge. In March 2016, the projected funding gap over the period of the MTFP (on a worst case scenario) was £52.5m. The second section of the Plan deals with meeting the financial challenge. This includes a high level analysis of the potential for ten transformation programme opportunities to deliver improved services for customers and future cost reductions/efficiencies from 2016-17 through to 2019-20.

11.4

The following tables provide an overview of our spending during 2015-16. The information is based on our Statement of Accounts. In the tables, the original estimate is the budget that Council approved for the financial year (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016). The revised estimate is determined in October, with actual expenditure determined once the financial year has ended.

11.5

Council Tax and Revenue Expenditure. The Council again set the lowest council tax (County Council component) in Wales for 2015-16 Band D equivalent of £801.04 an increase of 4.5% over the previous year. Table A summarises how your money was spent, funded by Aggregate External Finance (AEF); revenue support grant and the share of income allocated by Welsh Government from the non-domestic rates pool, and money raised from council tax payers, from fees and charges and specific grants. The 2014-15 position is shown for comparison purposes.

Education Services Social Care – Children Social Care – Adults Housing General Fund Housing Revenue Account (Ring Fenced) Highways & Transportation Services Culture & Related Services Planning & Development Services Environmental Services Council Tax Reduction Scheme Central, Corporate & Democratic Services Court Services Vacancy Management / One Off In Year Savings Net Cost of Services Levies Net Investment Income Capital Financing Costs Total Net Expenditure

Actual Original Net Revised Net Actual Net Expenditure Expenditure Expenditure Expenditure 2014-15 2015-16 2015-16 2015-16 £000's £000's £000's £000's 88,326 86,745 86,749 86,227 13,529 13,343 13,364 13,069 43,164 43,389 44,241 44,431 1,223 1,254 1,101 1,024 -

8,822 7,547 2,497 11,820 7,230

8,397 6,905 2,030 11,161 7,511

8,385 6,923 2,063 11,423 7,305

7,764 6,680 2,047 10,931 7,212

4,656

4,140

3,877

5,365*

253

210

215

216

185,646 7,019 (525) 10,613 202,753

184,966 7,037 (609) 11,346* 202,740

(1,200) 189,067 6,949 (486) 11,684 207,214

183,885 7,019 (488) 12,371 202,787

*Includes appropriations to Reserves 11.6

Capital investment is the money spent on constructing and improving buildings, infrastructure and other assets. The Council’s capital investment policy is centred around the provision of high quality business and other facilities together with the rationalisation and improvement of its infrastructure and building stock.

11.7

The capital investment programme expenditure and funding for 2015/16 is summarised below with the 2014/15 position shown for comparison purposes. Capital investment totalled £33.3m compared to an estimated programme of £41.7m. Where delays to schemes have occurred, the projects and the associated funding provision have been carried forward.

2014/15 Actual Expenditure £000's Expenditure Education (including 21st Century Schools Programme) Social Care Highways & Transportation Housing - H.R.A. Housing – General Fund Culture & Related Services Planning & Development Environmental Corporate Services Project Match Funding Total Expenditure Financing Capital Grants & Contributions Capital Receipts & Capital Fund Earmarked Reserves Borrowing

2015-16 Actual Expenditure £000's

2016-17 Original Estimate £000's

6,448

11,156

56,563

196 13,377 6,006 2,752 1,073 1,114 2,065 1,570

304 8,257 7,625 1,338 1,464 1,443 1,021 645

34,601

33,253

50 9,214 10,512 1,345 1,190 6,008 2,560 950 1,000 89,392

19,816 5,370 2,186 7,229

19,594 9,011 2,940 1,708

49,333 29,184 2,875 8,000

There were significant changes made to the Housing Revenue Account in 2015-16 with the abolition of the (negative) subsidy system and the introduction of a self-financing system, which resulted in an additional £80.7m of Public Works Loan Board debt being taken at the beginning of the year. However, the Housing Revenue Account working balance remains unchanged at £752,000. The financing of the council housing service is ‘ring-fenced’ with customers funding the cost of the service through the rent they pay. As part of the changes made to how the Housing Revenue Account works, we need to increase rents to Welsh Government target rent levels. Rents were increased by 2.7% (inflation plus 1.5%) plus £1.50 per week for 2015-16, subject to the rent levels being below target rent.

The annual running costs and income in respect of council housing for 2015-16 is summarised below:

2015-16 Housing Revenue Account Income Rents - Dwellings Other Total Income Expenditure Management & Maintenance Negative Subsidy Capital Financing Costs Other Total Cost

2014-15 Actual Outturn £000's (19,002) (1,110) (20,112) 12,978 6,546 340 248 20,112

Original Estimate

Revised Estimate

Actual Outturn

£000's

(19,835) (1,252) (21,087)

(19,835) (1,157) (20,992)

(19,825) (1,225) (21,050)

13,824

14,391

14,896 (3) 6,054 103 21,050

6,830 433 21,087

6,167 434 20,992

Glossary

Affordable housing

Any housing (e.g. for rent, for purchase, or for part rent, part purchase) that is available at less than market rates.

Average point score qualifications

A measure of pupilsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; results in GCSE or work-based qualifications

21st Century Schools programme

This is a major, long-term capital investment programme to build and refurbish and build school buildings throughout Wales.

Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)

A statutory organisation which regulates the delivery of early years and social services in Wales.

Core subject indicator

The percentage achieving the expected level in English or Welsh (first language), Mathematics and Science in Key Stage 1-3 and at least GCSE Grade C at Key Stage 4.

Delayed transfers of care

This is sometimes called bed-blocking. This can happen when someone has been in hospital and no longer requires medical services, but requires additional services to be in place before they can go home. It is often our responsibility to ensure that these services are in place.

Disabled Facilities Grant

A grant that is available to adapt the home of someone living with a disability. An example of the work that has been funded is the addition of level access showers.

Domiciliary care

This is the delivery of a range of personal care and support services to individuals in their own homes. It is also known as homecare.

Estyn

Her Majestyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales. Its purpose is to inspect quality and standards in education and training in Wales.

Foundation Phase

The statutory curriculum for all 3 to 7 year old children in Wales.

Improvement Plan

This shows how we plan to make improvements to our services. It is a statutory plan required under the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009.

KS2

Key Stage 2, the final year of primary school. Pupils are aged either 10 or 11.

KS3

Key Stage 3. Year 9, the middle year of secondary school. Pupils are aged either 13 or 14.

Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009

Power to legislate for community planning and local government improvement in Wales has been devolved to the National Assembly for Wales. A Measure is the term used that was used to describe legislation drawn up by the Assembly Government.

Looked after children

Children that the Council has taken into care. Looked after children are placed either with foster carers or adoptive parents. However, the Council retains a legal responsibility for their welfare (we are their â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;corporate parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;).

Municipal waste

Waste collected directly from households, through civic amenity sites, from litter bins or through street cleaning.

PWLB

The Public Works Loan Board is an Executive Agency of HM Treasury. The PWLB's function is to lend money from the National Loans Fund to local authorities, and to collect the repayments

Reablement

A package of services for people who need support to live in their own homes independently. These services encourage and support people to do as much as they can for themselves, doing tasks with them rather than for them.

Residual waste

Waste which cannot be re-used, composted or recycled such as low grade plastic waste like cling-film.

Source segregated biowastes

Waste that can rot down and is collected separately from general household waste. An example of this is our new cooked food waste collection service that is being rolled out across the County.

Special education need exceptions

The definition for this performance indicator recognises that there are certain circumstances in which the normal 26 week time limit for issuing a statement should not apply. These are listed in Welsh Government Regulations and include factors such as the need to seek further advice from specialists.

Strategic Equality Plan

A four year plan we produced which shows how we will meet out duties under the Equality Act 2010.

Full web addresses for linked documents Every Pupil Counts, Every Lesson Counts

http://mgenglish.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/Published/C00000283/M00 003386/AI00024413/Item6KS4attachment.pdf?LLL=0

Every Pupil Counts, Every Lesson Counts Monitoring Report

http://mgenglish.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/Published/C00000283/M00 003514/AI00025574/Item6iiKS4actionplanupdate090616.pdf?LLL=0

Statement of Accounts

http://vmmoderngov1:8070/mgAi.aspx?ID=26157&LLL=0

Annual report of the Director of Social Services

http://vmmoderngov1:8070/Published/C00000281/M00003741/AI0 0026620/$DirectorofSocialServicesAnnualReport.docxA.ps.pdf?LLL= 0