Public Services Boards (PSBs) are required by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to produce local well-being plans every five years, on the basis of an assessment of well-being needs in their local areas, setting out well-being objectives and proposed steps to meet them.
Following from our previous work in 2021 providing briefings to PSBs to assist them with their well-being assessments, in 2022 the Wales Centre for Public Policy was asked by the Welsh Government to lead a series of workshops for PSBs on ‘what works’ in particular areas of well-being, with the aim of this evidence feeding into the creation of their well-being plans.
WCPP were asked to deliver workshops in two areas: poverty and improving well-being from a community perspective.
PSB well-being assessments identified multi-dimensional poverty as a key barrier to well-being facing many people and communities in their areas. WCPP utilised findings from our review of poverty and social exclusion for Welsh Government to explore and present the evidence from a local PSB perspective. Inputs to the primary poverty workshop included effective poverty strategies, evidence on what works in a range of areas relevant to PSB priorities, and long-term activities to help boost economic prospects for an area and its people. The workshop pack provides a recap of the workshop, synthesising evidence from a number of WCPP research projects to present evidence with a PSB ‘lens’, and providing an overview of the discussion from participants on what this evidence means for PSBs. A supplementary workshop explored the role of live data dashboards and tools in helping PSBs identifying those in poverty and at risk of poverty, with inputs from Data Cymru and Ceredigion PSB. A recording of this workshop is available below.