POLICY STATEMENT
1. DOCUMENT PURPOSE
This policy statement has been prepared in response to completing the Finance and Governance Toolkit for Community and Town Councils.
Part 1, Theme C, Statement C.2 of the toolkit asserts – The community engagement strategy is reviewed periodically. A ‘no’ response was annotated against this statement.
The council has a proactive community engagement strategy but the extent of the council’s plans, policies and processes impacting upon and forming part of the strategy need to be drawn together under a single composite statement to capture all the information sources and other measures employed by the council when conducting any form of community engagement.
This policy statement will serve as an over-arching document and will reference the key sources of information influencing the community engagement strategy while identifying other measures including the resources and mechanisms at the council’s disposal when working for and with the various communities throughout the council’s administrative area.
2. WHAT IS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Community engagement is the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity or special interest to address issues affecting the well-being of those people. Therefore a community can be regarded as a particular place or it can be extended to a group of people who have something in common with one another.
3. COUNCIL PROFILE
The council is made up of 21 elected members representing seven electoral wards.
The council’s geographic area is approximately 26.78 square miles, with a population of 23,354 and surrounds the urban centre of Llanelli. Its boundaries extend from the Loughor Estuary in the east up to but not including Burry Port in the west and skirts the Gwendraeth Valley in the north. The area is made up of the villages and districts of Bynea, Cwmbach, Cynheidre, Dafen, Felinfoel, Five Roads, Furnace, Llwynhendy, Ponthenri, Pontiets (south of the railway line), Pwll, Sandy and Swiss Valley. Welsh is spoken as the first language by the communities in the Gwendraeth Valley.
4. SOURCES OF INFORMATION INFLUENCING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
4.1 COUNCIL STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The council is committed to working for and with the local community to help improve general well-being while acting as a local voice to safeguard key services.
4.2 COUNCIL STRATEGIC PLAN
The Strategic Plan sets out the council’s strategic aims based on a clear statement of purpose and core values. The plan is intended to provide an overall framework to focus the council’s activities, investment and spending priorities. These are set out in more detail in annual service plans, incorporating service objectives, key tasks, performance measures and related targets.
The plan’s aim is to improve the quality of life (well-being) for today and for future generations. The plan is used as a tool to ensure the council works for and with the communities it represents. The plan aids the council by guiding it to meet people’s needs and respecting their rights, helping the council to deliver better services.
The plan is a working document and is reviewed from time to time in line with legislative changes or major policy development. It is important that the plan represents the aims and ambitions of the council. Therefore, the plan is reviewed in line with the council’s ordinary election cycle. This ensures it remains relevant and reflects the views of the newly elected council.
4.3 ANNUAL SERVICE PLANS
Service plans provide the basis for on-going performance review, to ensure the provision of high quality services which meet the needs of the public. In doing so the service plans provide focus to the activities of councillors and staff predicated upon clear organisational goals and outputs. The formulation of the service plans form an integral part of the annual budget process and provide focus on various activities and projects that are subject to community engagement opportunities.
4.4 WELL-BEING STATEMENT
The Well-Being statement is more fully set out in the council’s Strategic Plan and it describes the council’s commitment to the principle of sustainable development to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 defines sustainable development and the Act has put in place seven national well-being goals. The council embraces these well-being goals and places them at the heart of its forward planning and decision making arrangements to improve the general quality of peoples’ lives within its administrative area.
4.5 WELL-BEING COMMITMENTS
These are more fully set out in the Strategic Plan and act as key drivers impacting upon the council’s community engagement strategy. Two important measures on community engagement entail working with other stakeholders in a collaborative way to find shared sustainable decisions and involving the diversity of the population in the decisions affecting them, when and where it is appropriate to do so.
4.6 COUNCIL WHOLE PLACE PLAN 2015-2030
The Llanelli Rural Area Whole Place Plan was borne out of genuine concern by members of the council to better understand the hopes, fears and aspirations of the communities served by the council. As the closest tier of government, living and working in the local community, providing day to day services that help people live safe and fulfilling lives, it is important for the council to stay connected with local people and work together with them to help improve everybody’s quality of life.
Whole Place is a way of helping everyone work together to improve the lives of the council’s population, through its sustainable development. The plan supports the council’s vision of helping to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential and live in safe and caring communities. The plan has been developed following a detailed analysis of statistics and data covering the Llanelli Rural area and extensive consultation with local communities via a series of community workshops. Nine workshops were held involving over 120 people supplemented with a street based community survey held across the area and an online survey designed to identify local priorities for change. The council received over 250 individual survey completions from a representative cross section of people by gender/age and location. A series of interviews were also undertaken with larger local employers located across the area, whereas targeted workshop and survey work was undertaken to reach under-represented groups, in particular young people and eastern European migrants.
Analysis of the workshops and surveys confirmed a number of issues that local people were most concerned about along with other interventions to improve general quality of life across the council’s area. These are detailed in the Whole Place Plan document. The council looks for opportunities to engage with community partners to address the issues of concern.
4.7 CAPITAL PROGRAMME
The council has devised a capital programme up to the next set of local government elections in May 2027 to help improve people’s quality of life. The programme has been developed through member engagement with local communities on a ward for ward basis to help address local issues. Delivery of the programme will be funded by the council through earmarked reserves and also a combination of external grant support. The council has identified new projects in six of the seven electoral wards and is embarking upon various community engagement initiatives to inform and shape the new facilities and services to be borne out of the work programme. In addition to the six new projects the council intends to continue with an ongoing large scale project in the seventh electoral ward to ensure parity across the council’s administrative area.
4.8 CARMARTHENSHIRE PUBLIC SERVICES BOARD LOCAL WELL-BEING PLAN
The council takes all reasonable steps towards meeting the local objectives in the local well-being plan that has affect in its area. In this regard and when the Public Services Board publishes or renews its well-being plan, the council will consider and review the local objectives contained in the plan alongside its own objectives for the year ahead.
In doing so the council will form its own judgement of what steps it will be reasonable for it to take towards meeting the local objectives in its area, on the basis of its own knowledge and consideration of the circumstances and characteristics of its area.
Furthermore, it will report annually for each relevant financial year, detailing the progress it has made in meeting the objectives contained in the local well-being plan prepared and published by the Public Services Board.
4.9 CARMARTHENSHIRE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
The Carmarthenshire Local Development Plan (LDP) sets out the spatial vision for the future of Carmarthenshire. Included in the LDP are land-use planning policies and proposals which are used in the determination of planning applications and in guiding future opportunities for investment and growth. The LDP has a direct effect on the lives of every resident of the county as well as major implications on investment programmes, other plans and strategies, communities and landowners alike. The council is guided by the LDP when responding to planning application consultations.
4.10 DEMOGRAPHIC DATASETS AND STATISTICS
The council uses data available from the Wales Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD). This online tool analyses common themes to measure an area’s level of deprivation, into small areas referred to as Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) across Wales. The council also references the Office of National Statistics to interrogate population and employment statistics. In addition to this the council also analyses the Research and Statistics webpage at Carmarthenshire County Council. This is useful when needing demographic data to build an understanding of the council’s ward profiles using common datasets and metrics in order to benchmark general well-being and to compare and contrast areas and to better identify local need. The council’s community engagement work is heavily influenced by these online datasets.
5. FACILITATING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
When conducting community engagement activities the council can call upon the following measures:
- A regular Council/committee cycle providing a monthly schedule of meetings to facilitate the governance and discharge of its functions through timely transparent decision making arrangements. The council is able to endorse community consultations by officers regularly reporting to the council and its committees.
- Employing a dedicated Community Development Officer (CDO). The CDO’s role is to promote proactive community development opportunities through the council’s annual work programme. The CDO acts as an important interface with the community and oversees the day to day community engagement process for the council. Part of the role entails close working with councillors to help address ward issues and developing community initiatives to support general well-being. The CDO attends/keeps informed on third party community benefit projects and funding opportunities and feeds this back to members and stakeholders within the community.
- The council determines an annual budget and through this it funds community development opportunities and limited financial assistance to community groups.
6. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MECHANISMS
The council utilises the following mechanisms to facilitate effective community engagement:
- Collaboration with other public sector partners and community groups;
- Local member knowledge and contacts;
- Promoting opportunities through the council website and social media channels;
- Updating physical ‘community noticeboards’ with relevant/important information;
- Calling public meetings to discuss changes to services or to consider controversial issues affecting the wider community;
- Issuing community newsletters and press releases;
- Using community planning tools such as conducting planning for real exercises to facilitate community development opportunities;
- Holding workshops and paper-based and online surveys;
- Promoting and highlighting information and activities through the council’s annual reporting procedure;
- Facilitating public participation at council meetings;
- Council complaints and compliments system.
7. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT TRIGGERS AND OPPORTUNITIES
The following community engagement triggers and opportunities present themselves when:
- Sharing good news stories celebrating council successes and achievements;
- Contemplating community asset transfers from other stakeholders, including Carmarthenshire County Council;
- Considering controversial planning matters or planning applications;
- Developing council community based services;
- Acting as a local voice in regard to safeguarding local services;
- Trying to better understand and support community needs by analysing datasets and statistics on local demographics;
- Developing community participation opportunities in what the council does;
- Promoting the use of the Welsh language in council communications and communicating with people in the language of their choice;
- Consulting and listening to the public in designing and improving services;
- Handling complaints expeditiously using the council’s complaints procedure as a means of proper redress for people;
- Continuing to work in partnership with community groups and organisations to enhance the communities they represent;
- Holding public meetings concerning major schemes and projects;
- Promoting public consultation and when gathering information by means of satisfaction questionnaires and general surveys as part of an ongoing process of self-assessment and improvement;
- Directly assisting community projects or indirectly by signposting on to appropriate services and stakeholders.
- Establishing new relationships within the community to help people who are in some way at a disadvantage to get a ‘better deal’.
8. POLICY STATEMENT REVIEW
This policy statement provides an overview of the council’s community engagement strategy and will be kept under periodic review to ensure that it accurately summarises the council’s position and remains fit for purpose. The review will align with the review parameters of the council’s Strategic Plan as referenced in paragraph two of 4.2 above.
