Agenda item

That the report be received and each of the service Scrutiny Committees be encouraged to engage with the Partnerships with their respective remits.

The Chief Executive introduced a report to provide the Committee with a mid year overview of the progress of the Strategic Partnerships; the priorities for each of the Strategic Partnerships and key milestones for the year ahead.  

The Chief Executive provided background information and a synopsis of the remit of each Partnership.  He advised that some were statutory whilst others were discretionary and made reference to the eight key Strategic Partnerships working alongside the Flintshire Local Service Board (LSB). 

The Chief Executive commented that the Authority’s record of partnership working with regulators and the Welsh Government (WG) was considered positive, constructive and successful, and the LSB had also received support and interest from the WG as a working model. 

The Leader of the Council commented on the activity which had taken place during the last year and the opportunities presented through partnership working to feed into the Council’s priorities.  He said that a number of  Partnerships were key in terms of welfare reforms and provided feedback on the meeting of the LSB which he had recently attended. The meeting had also provided an opportunity to share good practice and consider how best to prepare the Authority for the challenges ahead.  

Councillor A.I. Dunbar commented on the Health, Social Care and Well-Being Strategy and the needs of older frail people.  He raised concern that some people were reluctant to request or accept health and social services to support them at home and asked how this could be addressed.  In his response the Chief Executive made reference to the range of support services provided by the Authority for older people in need of care and for carers.  He advised that the Authority was amongst one of the five top performers for managing hospital discharges and reablement to assist individuals to return home, all of which were in North Wales.   Where specific cases of concern arose regarding vulnerable older people the Authority encouraged individuals to undertake assessment.

Councillor W.P. Shotton made reference to the Children and Young People’s Partnership and said that he had raised concerns around obesity in children and young people and the risk of diabetes at the last meeting of the Lifelong Learning Overview & Scrutiny Committee.  He had requested that an item on this matter be included on the Forward Work Programme for consideration by the Committee and looked forward to receiving the Public Health Wales (PHW) action plans. 

A number of further concerns were raised by Councillor Shotton around youth unemployment and the number of young people who were not in Employment Education or training.  The Chief Executive referred to further development of the Deeside Enterprise Zone and the work being undertaken on advanced skills planning and skills matching.  He expressed the view that the Authority may not be proactive enough in promoting vocational as well as academic routes at post 16.

During discussion the Chief Executive responded in detail to the queries raised by Councillor C.J. Dolphin around youth reoffending.  He commented on the work undertaken around individuals with dysfunctional behaviour in schools and reported that the Authority performed well in preventing and managing youth reoffending at a UK level of comparison.                

Councillor A.I. Dunbar referred to the Regeneration Partnership and raised questions regarding the regeneration of local town centres.  The Chief Executive commented on the development of Masterplans for Buckley and Flint and said there was a positive view of what could be achieved to improve town centres.  However, there was limited funding to do a number of small interventions and he referred to work which had been undertaken to improve energy cost grants.  The Leader of the Council commented on the Welsh Government approval of the North East Wales Town Centre Regeneration project covering Flintshire and Wrexham.  He asked how the Committee wished to feed into the Partnership and said that the Authority needed to take ownership of the Forward Work Programme.  The Chief Executive advised that the relationship between civic leaders and businesses in Flintshire was excellent and referred to the level of expertise and ambition in accessing investment. 

The Chief Executive informed Members that each of the Partnerships reported to a Service and it was suggested that the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committees should ensure feedback to the Authority’s  representatives on the Partnerships to support the scrutiny process. 

RESOLVED:

That the report be received and each of the service Scrutiny Committees be encouraged to engage with the Partnerships with their respective remits.