A major new report outlining how Cardiff is tackling the challenges facing society has revealed greater collaboration and teamwork by public bodies in the area.
The Cardiff Local Well-Being Plan 2023-28 has been put together by the Cardiff Public Services Board (PSB), which brings together leaders and decision makers from groups including Cardiff Council, The Cardiff and Vale Health Board, Welsh Government, charities, and the fire, police and probation services.
Its aim is to improve the economic, social, environmental, and cultural well-being of Cardiff by strengthening joint working across the city’s public services.
The new plan sets out the PSB’s priorities over the next five years and contains ‘Well-being Objectives’ and the steps the public services will take to improve Cardiff for all its residents.
Cardiff Council leader Cllr Huw Thomas, the chair of the PSB, said: “A key element of the report is an appraisal of the way all the different groups have worked together. The pandemic saw unprecedented levels of partnership working and now the recovery presents us with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to work together even more collaboratively to reduce inequities, improve population health and respond to the climate emergency – key to our ambition to create a stronger, fairer, greener capital city.
“The new report acknowledges that all the groups across Cardiff have responded to this challenge and are working even more closely than ever.”
The Well-Being Plan has been produced as a complementary document to the Council’s recently published Corporate Plan and incorporates the same seven objectives:
- Cardiff is a great place to grow up
- Cardiff is a great place to grow older
- Supporting people out of poverty
- Safe, confident and empowered communities
- A capital city that works for Wales
- One Planet Cardiff
- Modernising and integrating our public services
Its structure includes an outline of how these seven objectives are reflected in present-day Cardiff but also projects the PSB’s vision of what it hopes the city will become over the next five years, and explores a number of Partnership Working initiatives including:
- Gaining UNICEF Child Friendly City status
- Improving childhood vaccination/immunisation uptake
- Reducing and ultimately preventing the uptake of smoking in children and young people
- Establishing integrated, locality-based health and care services
- Working towards becoming a Dementia Friendly City
- Implementing the Real Living Wage across the public and private sectors, increasing the number of accredited Living Wage employers to 300, from the current level of 197, by November 2025
- Increasing the percentage of people with a healthy weight and increasing physical activity levels, particularly in the more deprived communities
- Tackling all forms of violence against women and girls, domestic abuse and sexual violence
- Disrupting the illicit supply of drugs
- Establishing a partnership approach to reduce the number of older people becoming victims of fraud
- Welcoming and supporting refugees and asylum seekers
- Delivering new apprenticeship and trainee opportunities
- Doubling the number of Welsh speakers in Cardiff by 2050
- Creating behaviour change, focusing on travel, energy use and food
- Improving water quality through nature-based, whole catchment solutions to water resource management
- Transitioning to a low emission public sector fleet of vehicles
- Increasing data sharing across public services, building on the successful approach adopted during the pandemic
- Increasing levels of citizen engagement in decision making
Cllr Thomas added: “We have set ourselves challenging goals for the next five years, and beyond but I am confident that the incredible workforce we have – teachers and school workers, refuse workers, social services and carers, the frontline teams and the backroom staff – will continue helping residents improve their lives in all the ways we have outlined.
“Just as we were through the pandemic The public sector and the Third Sector continue to be here for you, just as we were through the pandemic.”
