Agenda item

To consider a report by the Planning and Performance Officer (copy attached) which reviews the effectiveness of the Council’s approach to impact assessing its decisions and seeks the Committee’s views on how Members can support effective challenge and scrutiny of these impact assessments

11.40am – 12.15pm

The Cabinet Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets introduced the Planning and Performance Officer’s report (previously circulated) which presented the Committee with an update on the implementation and the effectiveness of the Council’s approach to impact assessing its decisions, using its web-based Well-being Impact Assessment. During his presentation the Lead Member informed the Committee that Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) had been in existence for some time, however they had not always been effective or subject to sufficient challenge or scrutiny. With the introduction of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, Denbighshire had taken a proactive decision to develop a Well-being Impact Assessment to incorporate all aspects of the Act’s requirements whilst still meeting other legislative requirements, for example the requirement to undertake EqIAs. In adopting this approach the Council had developed a sector-leading web tool to facilitate the undertaking of WIAs, an approach which had been cited as good practice by the Wales Audit Office (WAO).  By undertaking the WIAs using this tool councillors were then presented with the information in an easily understandable set format which would aid the decision making, whilst all officers would be required to consider the impacts on all well-being goals and the sustainable development principle.  This ensured that a consistent approach was used to undertake the WIA on every occasion.  The Lead Member drew the Committee’s attention to the differences that had been realised through undertaking this approach, including better decisions and more effective challenge of the WIAs.  Nevertheless, there was room for further improvement, hence the reason for reviewing their effectiveness.

The Lead Member and the Planning and Performance Officer advised that the WIAs examined as part of the review had been of variable quality, some suffering from subject bias by the author, and others clearly not being commenced early enough in the planning stage for the proposals under consideration.   Work was currently underway with officers to emphasise the need to commence the WIA early on during the formation of a proposal or project and to continually update it throughout its lifetime.  This was particularly important in relation to major projects the Council was planning to undertake.  The Critical Friends Group process for challenging WIAs had proved particularly useful and there were plans to formally resurrect this process going forward.  Elected members’ support for the process was key for it to succeed as was their role in effectively challenging the WBIAs presented to them.

Responding to members’ question the Lead Member and the Planning and Performance Officer:

•        confirmed that not all WIAs were quality checked. The Business Improvement and Modernisation Service relied on officers to approach them for assistance and advice if they were struggling with completing WIAs. However, in some services i.e. the officers dealing with the Local Development Plan (LDP) there was a high level of expertise in completing WIAs and officers from all services were encouraged to work together where possible in order to produce high quality WIAs;

•        confirmed that Denbighshire County Council owned the copyright for the WIA web tool. A number of other local authorities had shown an interest in it and Conwy County Borough Council was looking at using Denbighshire’s tool, however Denbighshire did not envisage it becoming a major income generating stream for the authority;

•        advised that there was a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document on the Council’s intranet as an aid to councillors and officers to challenge WBIA’s; and

•        agreed to give consideration on how best to give personal support to councillors to effectively challenge WIAs going forward i.e. through the provision of a session to Council Briefing, smaller group training and development events etc.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee:

RESOLVED: - subject to the above observation and the provision of support to all elected members in relation to developing skills to effectively challenge and scrutinise Well-being Impact Assessments, to receive the findings of the review of the Well-Being Impact Assessment Process.