COUNTY BOROUGH OF MERTHYR TYDFIL - COMMUNITY PLAN 2020
The Community Plan for Merthyr Tydfil - "It's Looking Good - Merthyr Tydfil 2020 - Turning Aspirations into Reality" was officially launched in the Council Chamber on 30 March 2011.
The Plan contains the vision for Merthyr Tydfil:
"To strengthen our position as the regional centre for the Heads of the Valleys, and be a placed to be proud of where:
- people want to live, work and have a healthy, fulfilled life
- people want to visit, enjoy and return
- people want to learn and develop skills to fulfill their ambitions"
The vision will be delivered through the following four themes:
- a Prosperous, Cultural and Diverse Merthyr Tydfil
- a Healthy, Safe and Fair Society
- a Sustainable Living Environment
- Learning for Life
The Merthyr Tydfil Local Service Board is responsible for ensuring that the plan is delivered for the people of Merthyr Tydfil by working with a whole range of partners. The Local Service Board consists of leaders of organisations that deliver key services to the community and has an independent Chair:
- The Leader and Chief Executive of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
- The Chair and Chief Execuitve of Cwm Taf Local Health Board
- The Chief Superintendent of Northern Division, South Wales Police
- The Chief Officer of Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil
- A senior official from the Welsh Assembly Government
Local authorities and their partners have to establish a 10-15 year strategic vision and deliver a set of priorities for improving local citizen and community well being
Mostyn James, the Independent Chair of the Local Service Board commented that "The Community Plan identifies clear priorities and goals building on the successful transformation of Merthyr Tydfil in recent years. The Local Service Board will ensure that the Community Plan is delivered through effective partnerships and partnership working and the Board will regularly review the Community Plan and report on progress".
Members of the Merthyr Tydfil Local Service Board illustrated through their speeches, their support and commitment ot the delivery of the Merthyr Tydfil Community Plan.
During his speech at the launch Gareth Chapman, Chief Executive of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council highlighted what had already been achieved in the County Borough over the last ten years including a major new shopping development at Cyfarthfa Retail Park, an award-winning upgrade to the Merthyr Tydfil Town Centre, the Merthyr Leisure Village, the investment in Cyfarthfa Park, including a new Visitor Centre and the further development and investment in Parc Taf Bargoed. He said "The Community Plan aims to deal with long term and often complex and intractable problems and priorities, which will be a challenge in the current financial climate. These priorities are interlinked and cannot be tackled in isolation and through the Local Service Board we will look to tackle these priorities on a more holistic basis".
Ian Davy, Chief Officer of Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil said “I am delighted to welcome the Community Plan as it is a very important document. It is important because it is the only document that sets out what “public services” (not solely the public sector but also the third sector) intentions are for and with communities over the next 10 years. The vision statement in the Community Plan, along with the four key themes marries with the vision of Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil which is to create a healthy civil society by supporting, representing and developing Third Sector organisations and the promotion of volunteering in Merthyr Tydfil”.
Chief Superintendent Kevin O’ Neill “I have now been in post as Divisional Commander for Merthyr Rhondda Cynon and Taff for just over 12 months. When I reflect on this period one of the most satisfying responsibilities I have been given is to be a member of the Merthyr Tydfil Local Service Board. As a resident of Merthyr Tydfil for over 50 years I am delighted to be involved with such a committed and dedicated group of individuals who like myself, are passionate about making a positive difference for the communities of Merthyr Tydfil.”
Allison Williams, Chief Executive of Cwm Taf Health Board said "As public service partners we have set an ambitious task for ourselves and I, for one, am very positive about our ability to deliver the improvements we aspire to for the Merthyr Tydfil population".
As part of the “Leader’s perspective” element of the launch, Cllr. Jeff Edwards, Leader of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council said that the Community Plan “identifies a long term vision for the County Borough, based on a set of shared priorities. It aims to address the challenges; we face in the County Borough including worklessness, health, educational attainment and deprivation. We, as organisations cannot do this alone. There is a key role for the community and for councillors, in our community representative role to meet the challenges facing the County Borough in the current economic climate”.
In officially launching the Community Plan, Dr. Chris Jones, Chair of Cwm Taf Health Board said “Merthyr Tydfil has an important legacy of strong communities and citizens. The challenge now is for the Council, Third Sector, Police, Local Health Board and Welsh Assembly Government to work together with the communities to create a future for which we can be even prouder".
A Public Summary of the Community Plan will be circulated within the next edition of CONTACT – The Community Magazine for the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil.
Please click on the following links to view the documents:
Merthyr Tydfil Partnership Board
In August 2011, the new Merthyr Tydfil Partnership Board held its first meeting at the Civic Centre.
The Partnership Board was established following the outcomes of a review (commissioned by the joint Merthyr Tydfil / Rhondda Cynon Taf Local Service Boards) to assess the effectiveness of partnership working. Consultation also took place with partners across key partnerships within the County Borough during the setting up of the Board.
The Partnership Board amalgamates the existing executive groups of the Children and Young Peoples Partnership (Board), Community Safety Partnership (Executive Group) and Health, Social Care and Well Being (Core Group) and will comply with any statutory requirements whilst recognising the need to have a manageable sized Board to be effective.
A centralised Partnership Support Team has also been established, using
existing partnership support staff. Aligned to the team will also be Voluntary
Action Merthyr Tydfil’s partnership staff.
Members of the Partnership Board include representatives from the Local Authority, Health Board, South Wales Police and South Wales Police Authority, Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales Fire Service, Probation, Court Service, Merthyr Tydfil College, Merthyr Business Club, Youth Offending Team, the Youth Mayor and the Chair of the Youth Forum, Department for Work and Pensions and headteacher representatives.
The Partnership Board is jointly chaired by the Director of Community Services at the Local Authority (through his previous role as Chair of the Children and Young People’s Partnership and joint chair of the HSCWB Core Group) and the Director of Public Health at Cwm Taf Health Board.
At the first meeting of the Partnership Board, the Joint Chairs identified that “The establishment of the new Merthyr Tydfil Partnership Board is a key opportunity for the existing three partnerships to come together to adopt a holistic approach to tackle local priorities. The Board will consider new ways of working collaboratively to effectively tackle the many themes that cut across the work of different organisations and partners”
At its first meeting, the Board discussed the following:
- The format for future meetings, setting the direction for service delivery and holding providers to account, with service improvement from a citizen’s perspective with a clear focus on delivery.
- An allocated item on the agenda for the Youth Mayor to report back.
- The development of a consistent and robust performance management framework building on the current Ffynnon developments.
- The need to measure outcomes and impact and not just outputs along with the development of a results based accountability approach to the work of the Partnership Board - where are we know, where are we going and how will we get there?
- The need to ensure that the Partnership Board and its work is visible to the community and that two to three key messages to be identified at the end of each meeting for partners to disseminate to their individual organisations.
The joint chairs have also been tasked with identifying a clear set of priorities for discussion at the next Partnership Board meeting which will include the following issues:
- Recognising cross cutting themes and the need to adopt a holistic approach on how best to deliver against the priorities of the Partnership Board.
- Considering new ways of service working collaboratively across partners/authorities/organisational boundaries.
- The breaking down of silos between existing plans and strategies and service delivery.
- The need for a smaller number of innovative, focused and flexible delivery/task and finish groups with identified priorities along with an identified lead manager for each delivery/task and finish group.
Information on Future dates for the Partnership Board and Terms of Reference of Partnership Board can be found under the document links section of this page.
Current Strategies and Plans are availabel to download from the document links section of this page. This page will be updated with the most up to date documents when they become available.
Merthyr Tydfil Compact
What is the Merthyr Tydfil Compact?
The Compact is a partnership agreement between the third sector and the public sector in Merthyr Tydfil as represented by the local authority and the NHS community in Merthyr Tydfil. It provides a framework within which the development of shared aims, objectives, mutual respect and understanding will assist the ability of public and third sector partners to improve the quality of life for the people of the County Borough.
Codes of Practice
The Compact Board have approved final versions of the first five Codes of Practice to be developed since the new Compact was launched. They have been approved by Merthyr Tydfil Council and Cwm Taf Health Board. They are:
- Volunteering
- Partnership Working
- Mediation and Disputes Resolution Process
- Commission Accomplished: A Public Sector Code of Practice for Commissioning Third Sector Services
- Governance Code of Practice for the Third Sector
Further details on the Merthyr Tydfil Compact and the Codes of Practice can be found on Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil’s web-site by following the link under the External Links section to the right.
Commission Accomplished
The two-year Commissioning Policy Development Project was established in 2009 with the primary aim of producing a Public Sector Code of Practice for Commissioning Third Sector Services in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf. The Project had its roots in the Merthyr Tydfil Compact, for which the development of a Funding and Commissioning Code of Practice was a key objective.
Thanks to a successful funding bid to the former Rhondda Cynon Taf Teaching Local Health Board's Big Idea Fund, it was possible to employ a part-time Commissioning Policy Development Officer to undertake the work.
Further details on the Commissioning Project can be found on Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil’s web-site by following the link under the External Links section to the right.
A commissioning website – “Commission Accomplished” has been developed for third and public sector organisations in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taff. This website was developed by the Commissioning Policy Development Project.
Its purpose is to support local public sector commissioning and the implementation of Commission Accomplished: the Public Sector Code of Practice for Commissioning Third Sector Services in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
The “Commission Accomplished” link can be found under the External Links section to the right.
