Councils in South West Wales met on Friday to discuss further opportunities to work together and deliver services jointly after achieving Excellence Wales finalist status.
Leaders and Chief Executives representing the Regional Partnership Forum for South West Wales have met in Neath Port Talbot to discuss opportunities for collaboration across two key areas – education and regeneration.
Chairing the meeting, Cllr Alun Thomas (Neath Port Talbot), said:
“Local authorities across South West Wales have a strong track record of collabortation which we are very proud of particularly during these turbulent financial times. Given the current climate, it is more imprortant than ever that councils demonstrate their ability to come together jointly to deliver the best value for money for the services they provide to the public. We are delighted that both our collaborative projects to date have been recognised at a national level through the Excellence Wales awards scheme..”
Cllr John Davies, Leader of Pembrokeshire Council added:
“We have taken a measured and incremental approach to regional working in South West Wales and we are confident that our approach is adding value to local service delivery. It is a pleasure to see that the hard work of staff and partners involved in two of our regional initiatives has paid off.
Firstly,the second Regional Funding Fair that took place in June this year was invaluable in providing community groups,voluntary organisations and social enterprises with direct access to important information on funding matters. The event, jointly run by local authorities and County Voluntary Councils was particularly timely given concerns over the future of public services funding and demonstrated the region’s strong commitment to collaboration on funding issues.
Secondly, in April this year we launched the Shared Legal Services Project to facilitate closer collaboration between staff in the legal teams across all six South West Wales authorities and encourage greater sharing of resources and expertise.”
