Agenda, decisions and minutes

As noted above.

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

Councillor Jeff Evans declared a personal interest in respect of Item 3 – North Wales Fire & Rescue Service.

Councillor Euryn Morris declared a personal interest in respect of Item 5 – Gwynedd & Anglesey Public Services Board – Annual Report 2023/2024 as he is employed by Gwynedd Council.

Councillor Dylan Rees declared a personal interest in respect of Item 3 – North Wales Fire & Rescue Service as he is the Chair of the North Wales Fire & Rescue Authority. Councillor Rees expressed that he considered that whilst the declaration was a personal interest, it was appropriate for him to leave the meeting during discussion of the item.

To receive a presentation by the Chief Fire Officer of the North Wales Fire & Rescue Service :-

·                 Current service provision on the Isle of Anglesey;

·                 Resilience, challenges and affordability of the current service delivery model on Anglesey;

·                 Joint working between the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and the Isle of Anglesey County Council

As the Chair had declared an interest and left the meeting the Vice-Chair took the Chair for this item only.

Councillor Margaret M Roberts was elected to serve as Vice-Chair for this item only.

The Vice-Chair in the Chair welcomed Mr Stewart Forshaw, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Mr Anthony Jones, Head of Planning, Performance and Transformation and Mr Eilian Roberts, Area Manager from the North Wales Fire & Rescue Service to the meeting.

A presentation was received by the Deputy Chief Fire Officer as regards to the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service profile, Anglesey Fire Stations, Local Authority Funding, Partnership Working, Business Fire Safety and Community Engagement.

The following were points of discussion by the Committee:-

·         The Vice-Chair ascertained the potential challenges the Fire & Rescue Service would face if both bridges across the Menai Straits were to close, and an emergency was to occur on the Island.  The Area Manager responded that occurrences of closure of the bridges have occurred due to high winds, and it is concerning that this will occur more frequently due to weather patterns due to climate change.  He noted that as a Fire & Rescue Service it is important to put pressure for a third crossing across the Menai Straits.  The Chief Executive appreciated the support of the Fire & Rescue Service for the Authority’s campaign for a third bridge as the resilience of the bridges are concerning as the population of the Island increases immensely during the holiday season, and the Port of Holyhead, which is the busiest port in Wales.  He noted that any data and examples the Fire & Rescue Service could afford will support and strengthen the campaign for a third bridge.

·         Reference was made that the majority of Fire Stations on Anglesey are listed as as ‘on-call’ only with a low percentage rate of daytime availability.  Questions were raised as to what extent does this pose a risk to residents and what plans are in place to improve availability across the Island to the future. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer responded that daytime availability of Fire Officers can be a challenge but on average the response time to a fire occurrence on Anglesey is 13 minutes.  The Holyhead Fire Station is available each day with support of a second appliance from the mainland. He noted that an Emergency Cover Review was undertaken by the Fire & Rescue Service recently and one of the options but forward to the Fire Authority was to turn the Llangefni Fire Station into daytime availability station, but it was rejected.  However, work is currently being undertaken to consider where the 3 most suitable locations could be identified for full-time availability across North Wales.  Further questions were raised as to the difficulties within recruitment of people within rural areas.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer said that recruiting from rural areas can be a challenge especially with daytime availability.  The Emergency Cover Review considered affording full time Fire Stations within rural areas to give sustainability and job opportunities within the communities,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To receive a verbal presentation by the Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust :-

·       Current service provision on the Isle of Anglesey;

·       Resilience, challenges and affordability of the current service delivery model on Anglesey

·       Joint working between the Welsh Ambulance Services and the Isle of Anglesey County Council

The Chair welcomed Mr Jason Killens, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Services, and Ms Estelle Hitchon, Director of Partnerships and Engagement, to the meeting.

The following were points of discussion by the Committee:-

·         Questions were raised as to how long patients on Anglesey wait for an ambulance to respond following an emergency call and what plans are in place to improve the respond times.  The Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Services responded that it is dependent as to the category of the emergency call and from where the ambulance is responding to the call.  He noted that on average the ambulances will not respond from the Ambulance Station but from an Emergency Department when they have concluded an emergency response to another patient.  The respond time for patients who are categorised as requiring emergency assistance (category red) i.e. heart attack, seizures, and unconscious patients, is 8 minutes in 65% of calls.  The target, at present, nationally and locally is currently not been achieved with a response time up to 10 minutes, which does vary, during the day and evenings.  The Chief Executive further said that funding from Welsh Government has seen the Ambulance Services investing considerably over the last 4 years in the recruitment of over 400 front line clinicians to the service.  However, emergency calls categorised as life-threating, have doubled and there have been significant delays in handing over patients to Emergency Department across the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board.   Whilst the Ambulance Service has invested to improve the service to increase efficiency, with Paramedics and Clinicians within communities that do not need an ambulance to take patients into hospital, the pressure on the Ambulance Service continues.  The Director of Partnerships and Engagement said that development of staff is taking place on the Island with Emergency Medical Technicians training to become Paramedics. 2 Paramedics have also joined the team on Anglesey which will allow for patients to have fully qualified staff to attend and to be able to prevent people from going into hospital.  Further questions were raised that some patients are having to wait for hours for an ambulance to attend.  The Chief Executive agreed that some patients who have no life-threating illnesses are having to wait long periods of time for an ambulance to attend and waiting outside A+E departments.  However, this is the reflection of the situation that exists across the emergency care and adult social care services.

·         Questions were raised as to what the arrangements for prioritising requests are when there is significant demand on the Ambulance Service.  The Chief Executive responded that all emergency 999 calls are categorised on the time that the emergency service will respond.  There are long delays in the transfer of patients into A+E departments with queues of ambulances waiting outside which results in further delays to respond to additional emergencies that the ambulance service receives.  The delays in transferring patients are a result of problems with the flow within the hospitals, with patients who are medically  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To submit a report by the Chief Executive.

 Submitted – a report by the Chief Executive for consideration by the Committee.

The Chair said that the Portfolio Member for Corporate and Customer Experience would present the report as the Leader of the Council, Councillor Llinos Medi, has resigned as Leader as she has been elected as the Member of Parliament for Ynys Môn.  The Committee congratulated Councillor Llinos Medi on her election and paid tribute to her work for the benefit of the residents of Ynys Môn.

The Portfolio Member for Corporate and Customer Experience said that he wished to thank Councillor Llinos Medi for the work she has incorporated into the Public Services Board.  He noted that the report reflects what has been achieved as a Board to improve the well-being of communities during the period 2023/2024. The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 places a duty on public bodies to improve the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of Wales. The Act also established the Public Services Boards with representation from public bodies and the third sector.  He referred to the Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board well-being aims to mitigate the effects of poverty; improve the achievement of children and young people and support communities to work towards zero net.  The Portfolio Member for Corporate and Customer Experience further said that the priorities align with the Well-being Plan and objectives of the Public Services Board with regards to the Healthy Weight Plan and the Welsh Language.  He gave examples of the work achieved by the Board over the last year which were incorporated within the report. 

The following were points were discussed by the Committee:-

·         Reference was made that the Annual Report discusses the first year of the Well-being Plan : 2023-2028.  Questions were raised as to what added value was introduced by working in partnership.  The Gwynedd & Anglesey Public Services Board Programme Manager responded that all the Board Members have shown a willingness to work in partnership within the Public Services Board to improve the priorities and well-being of the residents of Gwynedd and Anglesey.  The partner organisations can share experiences which have seen immense improvement over the years.  She gave examples of the work undertaken by the Board in addressing the challenges of organisations in the recruitment and retention of Welsh speaking staff and 17 organisations have shared their good practice in the recruitment of staff.  Questions were raised about whether the pay structure could be a reason why young people are leaving the Island.  The Programme Manager responded that the pay grades for employment was not the main reason why people were not applying for posts within the 17 organisations that were consulted with.  Many of the problems in recruitment are practical reasons i.e. as to how the job description has been complied which might result in people thinking that their Welsh ability is not up to the required language skills.  The Programme Manger further referred to the Active Travel Plan that has been discussed within the Board and the Isle  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To submit a report by the Scrutiny Manager.

The report of the Scrutiny Manager setting out the Partnership and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee’s indicative Forward Work Programme for 2024/2025 was presented for consideration.

It was RESOLVED:-

·       To agree the current version of the forward work programme for 2024/2025;

·       To note the progress thus far in implementing the forward work programme.