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RESOLVED to note the update of the Chair of the CTM PSB.
RESOLVED to: 1. Consider and acknowledge the work of the Community Safety Partnership and its multi-agency approach to community safety issues, and 2. Consider and acknowledge the work undertaken in respect of community cohesion
RESOLVED defer the item to the subsequent meeting of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee in July 2026.
The Chair welcomed everyone to the virtual meeting of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Public Services Board, Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
Members noted that, as set out within its terms of reference, their core statutory functions include the Five Ways of Working (as set out on the agenda).
The following declarations of interest were made pertaining to the agenda: Councillor Sera Evans, RCTCBC – “My employer is referenced in the reports at Agenda items 6 and 8”
The minutes of the hybrid meeting held on the 19th January 2026 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.
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RESOLVED to note the update of the Chair of the CTM PSB.
The Chair of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg PSB, Mr Paul Mee, provided a verbal update on several areas of focus of the PSB over the last period, including the health inequalities work stream that has now been established. Following initial discussions in January progress has been made establishing an additional work stream and working group to take forward the ambitions of the PSB around tackling health inequalities and community wellbeing. The Chair indicated that a number of representations and nominations for that work group from across partners in the region were received with initial meetings held on the 12th and 24th of March to establish the working group, agree its membership and develop the scope and terms of reference. This coincided with Welsh Government progressing its ambition for Wales as a marmot nation and following a targeted expression of interest exercise with six local authorities from across Wales. The Chair explained that Merthyr Tydfil Council has been selected to receive a national package of support to develop health equity systems and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council will also be supported as an early adopter for the Marmot Nation initiative. building on some of the work that's already happening in RCT. The Chair added that part of that early adoption is to explore how this work can be progressed through the PSB and so bringing Bridgend into that piece of work across the CTM region. The Chair provided an update on progress of the working group which has established its membership with very good representation and commitment and with some preparatory work on the draft terms of reference, which the final version will be considered at that next meeting. The Chair set out the aims around developing a system-wide approach to tackling health inequalities and promoting community wellbeing with the aim of developing a single shared understanding of health equality, avoiding duplication, identifying gaps, securing alignment and connections between organisations. The Chair acknowledged the previous comments of the PSB JOSC regarding the need to deliver specific tangible outputs and outcomes and so with that in mind, he added that the PSB has taken the opportunity to identify a number of specific activities for the work stream. Firstly, to identify existing and planned work across the region, to identify work that contributes to health inequality and explore any gaps in provision and opportunities for greater alignment and collaborative advantage. The Chair cited some examples which include some of the place based and hyper localised approaches, work around the UK government Pride of Place programme, the Health Board's proactive care approach, which has been developed and links this in with the Regional Partnership Board, the Health Determinants Research Collaboration in RCT, whose objectives includes sharing the learning from the HDRC. The Chair referred to the Welsh Government's Health Equality and Marmot initiative and the Public Health approach to tackling serious violence (which links in with some of the work to be included on the agenda in today's meeting). The Chair added that other actions include looking at good practice and effective programmes across Wales and the UK, evaluating how successful those have been, how applicable they would be in CTM and developing new or alternative service models or pilots for those place-based hyper-localised approaches. It also includes looking at system-wide strength-based approach, engaging with partners and communities and embedding the eight marmot policy objectives into the work of the PSB, and providing some strategic oversight of the Welsh Government Health Equality Initiative for CTM. The Chair set out the Working Group’s intention to develop a work plan which will be agreed by the group and then reported back to the PSB through the newly appointed Chair of that work stream, Mr Ellis Cooper, Chief Executive, Merthyr Council, and supported by Mr Phillip Daniels, the Executive Director for Public Health with the Health Board. The Chair was pleased to announce that work is now progressing and taking shape. The Chair referred to other significant areas and a consideration for the Public Services Board is the work around the Climate Change Risk Assessment (which also forms part of the agenda at today’s meeting). The Chair explained that the PSB received an update on various subgroups that are taking forward work under this work stream much of which will be updated to the JOSC in some detail in the meeting today. The Chair emphasised that the subgroups are well established with their membership and have a clear purpose and they are now focusing on delivering some tangible items of work around Climate Change. He added that as part of an update to the PSB, Natural Resources Wales presented some information around on the governance and ambitions around the Taff catchment plan and the work that NRW are leading to establish a whole system, fully integrated long-term plan for building resilience across the River Taff catchment, from the Upland watershed in the Bannau Brycheiniog to Cardiff Bay, work which was welcomed by members of the PSB. He added that the Chief Executives from across the region have since attended the first meeting of the Strategic Board overseeing that work. The Chair advised that the Community Safety Partnership update was received by the PSB with two key messages to report, firstly, the increased complexity and risk that the partnership is managing around community safety, and secondly, the pressure on the capacity to respond to this risk and demand. He stressed that this was the case around the channel panel, which is the process that is designed to safeguard vulnerable individuals at risk of radicalisation and the capacity to respond to the number of domestic homicide reviews and safeguarding reviews that the Regional Safeguarding Board are dealing with at the moment and more generally the administration and analyst capacity in the Community Safety Partnership more generally. The Chair explained that the Service Board did request a risk assessment and resource report to be brought forward to the next meeting in July so that the PSB can address some of those issues. The Chair outlined other updates that were received by the PSB such as an update from the Chair of the Workforce Wellbeing Subgroup, an update from Cardiff Capital Region who were seeking some engagement with the PSB around their child poverty strategy. The board was asked to note the preparation, approval and publication of the annual report arrangements, which will need to be finalised in advance of July's meeting. The Chair provided some concluding thoughts from the past year as the PSB has reviewed and refocused its priorities. It has established some new work streams and new groups to take forward important areas of work, for example, around Climate Change and Health Inequality which are now quite well established and are very much now focusing on delivering tangible work for the region. The Chair’s next focus is to continue to strengthen the governance arrangements as previously agreed. He anticipated that the PSB will establish a high level framework within which the PSB can work, report progress and hold itself to account which the Chair hoped would assist the JOSC with its work plan and deliberations. He also referred to consideration of the sustainability of the partnership support arrangements, resource arrangements across some of the partners, such as those around community safety and funding, so that there is the capacity to deliver the PSB ambitions. It was RESOLVED to note the update of the Chair of the CTM PSB.
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RESOLVED to: 1. Consider and acknowledge the work of the Community Safety Partnership and its multi-agency approach to community safety issues, and 2. Consider and acknowledge the work undertaken in respect of community cohesion
The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager, provided an overview of the regional Cwm Taf Morgannwg (CTM) Community Safety Partnership Board (CSP) with a particular focus on ‘Promoting Cohesive Communities’. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager referred to Section 4 which sets out the journey that CTMCSP has been on since the review was undertaken in early 2023 to consider community safety arrangements covering Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and RCT local authorities, covering the lead up to the first meeting on Board meeting on 2 July 2024 and a workshop in October that year to identify priority areas of work. Namely, these were identified as being: 1. Preventing violent crime including domestic abuse and serious violence, 2. Promoting Cohesive Communities, 3. Creating safe spaces. Whilst agreeing to keep meeting time allocated to ‘hot topics’, i.e. emerging trends or challenges that need to be resolved or escalated outside of identified work, the sub, or delivery boards, of the CSP also report on a highlight exception basis, and this information is shared with PSB, the most recent example being set out at Appendix Two. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that Section 5 of the report provides an overview of work done in each of the priority areas as follows: ‘Preventing Violent Crime’ -the work aligns to the work of the Serious Violence Duty and Board as well as elements of the VAWDASV and Youth Justice with much data around this objective to identify trends and inform targeted interventions, particularly for young children and people affected by violence, including domestic and sexual violence. The initial strategic needs assessment in January 2025 identified key statistics and findings for serious violence; one area the SNA did identify as a hot spot location was educational settings. A partnership approach is being conducted to review this and the drivers of the violence, including learning from other local authorities. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager referred to the recent media attention about plans to roll-out the ‘Weapons in School’ protocol developed by Cardiff nationally with work to refresh the SNA and have local problem profiles is underway. ‘Creating Safe Spaces’ priority - this has largely been progressing on a project basis, maximising initiatives that prevent crime and disorder in town centres and ensure visible, meaningful consequences for those responsible. There has been a particular focus on ASB and street and retail crime. The implementation of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 – “Martyn’s Law” – in relation to publicly accessible building is also an area of focus and links this priority to the ‘Protect’ agenda under the UK Government Contest strategy. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager advised that at a recent CSP meeting it was agreed to share learnings around making public sector assets more secure and creating a security culture for our workforces. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager referred to Community Cohesion and ‘Promoting Cohesive Communities’ as one of the most active areas for the CSP in recent times as it covers topics including housing pressures, demand on temporary accommodation, tensions around Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), resettlement and dispersal schemes and a potential link to the Prevent agenda, as well as global and political tensions The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager explained that a session looking at ‘Promoting Cohesive Communities’ and in particular HMOs took place in January 2025 in the Probation Offices in Bridgend, which included Cohesion Officers from across the region along with representation from the Housing sector. The meeting considered community perspectives on new settings, good practice and how to build on processes already in place, the challenges that managing an HMO poses from a community safety perspective and the need for providing reassurance to communities and managing disinformation and mistrust, particularly on social media. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager advised that discussions on the different intended audiences for HMOs and community sentiment on this took place, for example, family settings are likely to be viewed much more favourably than single occupancy, although this is where there is the biggest demand and need is. She explained that a process map of the decision around the approval of a HMO was drafted to understand where CSP can influence and inform, acknowledging that there is already a robust process around registered HMOs and the process for housing individuals. Unfortunately, this obviously won’t cover unlicensed / unregistered HMOs but the information sharing processes are confirmed. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that following incidents of potentially harmful misand disinformation being spread on-line in both RCT and Merthyr in early 2025, the Chief Constable called a ‘gold emergency’ meeting to discuss cohesion concerns. Friday morning ‘Cohesion briefing’ meetings were established between police and local authority officers, particularly Cohesion Officers and Resettlement Officers to share information, understand concerns and share best practice / challenge. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager advised that the Friday Cohesion meetings use the Experienced, Evidenced and Potential approach to help understand community dynamics before they turn into harm and have a shared thinking and sense making tool to support early intervention, inform judgement and partnership-led action. The approach seeks to understand community tension by considering: • Experienced – How people feel, and valuing this. Community perception is a legitimate form of intelligence. • Evidenced – What we can evidence, to bring balance and discipline and verify information across the partners • Potential – What might reasonably happen next based on anticipated and foreseeable community harm. It is not prediction. Last summer the Chief Constable contacted local authorities to brief on community tensions and seek agreement to work together on a set of priorities which led to the establishment of a Strategic Working Group and the development of a Community Cohesion Collaborative Agreement that was presented to local authority Chief Executives at a meeting on 16 September 2025. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager referred to the Collaborative Agreement which is set out at Appendix One to the report and covers governance arrangements for the work, joint goals and shared commitments. The Chief Executives continue to meet on a six-weekly basis with the Chief Constable, receiving a highlight product from officer groups that cover tensions across South Wales, escalations and a picture of current cohesion. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager explained that the purpose of the Partnership Tactical Meetings which take place just before the Chief Executive meeting, is to provide • consistency of approach across South Wales, • assurance that partners are working to the same framework and language of risk, • confirmation that similar issues are being interpreted proportionately in different local contexts, and • reflection on whether the Collaboration Agreement is being delivered as intended. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager clarified that the Communications Group have established a shared Teams Channel allowing information to be shared quickly, and with the right people which has been particularly useful in the run up to the Senedd Elections and addressing concerns over ‘deep fakes’ and AI as well as sharing developments about concerns, such as the recent ‘school wars’ as seen in Cardiff and Swansea. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that Cohesion is a standing agenda item for the CSP, and Chair of the Public Services Board (PSB) has also requested it be added as a standing item at their board meetings. The Friday morning meetings also continue to be held and provide the opportunity for information to be shared around community tensions, rumours and intelligence fed in through the tension monitoring forms and the community tension indicator (CTI) document so that action can be taken, and good practice shared. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that the CTM CSP is working to understand how this work integrates with the Welsh Government Cohesion work plan and funded local authority cohesion officers. To this end, the March CTM CSP meeting received a presentation on the annual workplan from Cohesion officers working across Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Western Bay. The update covered the background of the WG Cohesion workplan and how this has changed and developed since first devised. The Objectives in the Cohesion workplan are set nationally but provides flexibility for local delivery to meeting local needs. Community Cohesion Principles have also been devised. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager advised that information gathering and tension monitoring forms were developed by Cohesion officers to capture intelligence about communities and improve understanding. Training and awareness sessions have been delivered through the Cohesion teams covering a range of topics, and complimenting training secured for the region through the Home Office ‘Preventing Radicalisation’ fund. There is also ongoing work with young people across a range of avenues, some examples are covered in the report. She added that Cohesion work also looks at how to best build grass roots capacity, drive cohesion and mitigate tensions by working with the third sector and delivering small grants. These grants have been used to support a range of relevant activities. In conclusion, the Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager advised that the regional CSP and wider structure is continuing in its commitment to take a multi-agency approach to CTM feeling and being safe. On the 26th March the CSP met to discuss a full and varied agenda, including preparedness for the upcoming grass fire season, asylum dispersal schemes and engagement with communities and training (Ask for Angela). PSB Officers also attended to consider the CSP roles and requirements around integrating strategic assessment requirements with the PSB Well-being Assessment, and how the work can be taken forward. The Board also discussed the demands being placed on local authorities around Counter-terrorism, particularly Prevent and Channel and the risks around these so an options paper is being written for the next PSB meeting. Members thanked the Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager, for a very detailed progress report and raised the issue of the importance of encouraging social cohesion for residents with permeability of new developments, which promotes connectivity and accessibility. Another Member was pleased that the lived experience had been taken account, so that residents feel they are being listened to is key. However, concern was raised regarding whether there is sufficient resource and manpower to deliver all the work and initiatives which are happening across Cwm Taf Morgannwg. A request for a summary or glossary of terms for Members to be able to navigate the number of acronyms and operation names in the report was made for future reports. In response to a query regarding the RAG rating within the report which had changed from green to amber, the Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager referred to areas such as substance misuse which carries a high level of risk and harm to our communities. The focus being on areas which are not ‘green’ because there is extensive governance arrangements that exist under the sub boards to make sure that delivery is ongoing and it's only really the challenges or the good practice that the CSP can look at. The Chair of the PSB added that with regards to the issue of capacity and resource risks around community safety, the PSB has requested a report around that. The Chair referred to the channel prevent arrangements which is important work around ensuring vulnerable individuals don't become radicalised. He added that within the serious violence agenda, there is an increase in trend around violence fixated individuals, which is a particular pressure as well. The Chair recognised the additional duties that have been placed on community safety around serious violence, for example, the expectation to produce a needs assessment and a strategic plan specifically for serious violence. The Chair advised that the Buvidal moratorium that is referenced in the update relates to a fixed sum of funding that comes through Welsh Government to area planning boards to support particular treatment for opioid addiction and the simple fact that the demand for that is greater than the available funds to resource it. He added that there are challenges around the treatment arrangements but it is limited in terms of the capacity to deliver it. He recognised the risks that are present, some of the funding, some of them around demand and the changing nature of the environment in terms of risk around radicalisation. A Member queried the type of data that was used to identify the hotspot location of educational settings and what lessons have been learned from the outcome of that SNA to prevent violent crime in educational settings. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager explained that it was led by colleagues in South Wales Police who drew on data experiences from Public Health Wales, Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board and school data such as exclusion data, reasons behind the exclusion data, and attendance at A&E. All the information that is available across the partnership was used in addition to other data such as violence against women, access and domestic abuse services. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager referred to other influences such as high profile issues in school and referring back to the violent fixated ideologies coming through, increasing concerns over students attending school, with weapons on their person or social media reporting of having weapons on their person. And then in the context of that, there's been much government roundtable discussions and the development of the Cardiff weapons in school protocol. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that it was also about what targeted interventions can be used, how are we improving our preventing or the prevent training in schools that reducing any risk and mitigation of radicalization, accessing extreme content online, looking at those who are on exclusions or reduced timetables, how are they then using the rest of their time? Are they at risk online? Are they being influenced by things like the use of social media. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager emphasised the importance of training evolving along with a fast paced and changing environment by using experienced people with lived experience to deliver training. They may have first-hand experience of being radicalised themselves and being an extreme former extreme right wing member to break down any stereotypes of what someone who is radicalized look like, what someone who is posing a threat to the community looks like, and being very nuanced in how that's delivered. She added that it is important to consider who your audience is and how to engage them rather than switch them off, make them patronised, or make it feel like this only happens in big cities rather than the communities that we see. In response to a concern regarding the increasing number of bullying cases at Primary School level and how we can target that behaviour before it reaches the Secondary School, the Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that the agenda profile for problematic children that are escalating through the ASB process is getting younger with the Youth Justice system reporting a similar younger age profile. She explained that youth engagement officers are working with South Wales Police more in primary school settings, looking at school incident forms and encouraging schools to report any racist concerns, not necessarily hate crime, but certain language used, if they're identifying certain trends. Welsh Government Cohesion Officers are also able to work with schools in addition to the South Wales Police youth engagement officers. A Member raised a query regarding HMOs, specifically how we can ensure they are placed in the right location to support the needs of the local communities and the local authorities and how can we ensure the purpose of the HMO in the first place is being fulfilled. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager explained that Clear Springs, Home Office initiative to acquire properties to ensure that we satisfy our requirements to support a silent dispersal with information on whether the property will be multiple occupancy, single occupancy or family occupancy in the address. Specific factors are outlined, crime statistics in the area, whether the area is already a saturated space, whether it's close to a substance misuse provision, which may not be appropriate, whether it's close to a school, all are considered to assess whether we would support it going forward or not. However, the Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager did acknowledge the obligation on local authorities to satisfy a certain number of bed spaces and the demands on that sits without outside the realm of community safety partnership. Having discussed a specific case within the RCT area, a Member referred to the, in some cases, lack of supported element in the step up accommodation which can impact on local community tensions regarding pressures on services such as social care. The Member emphasised the importance of the schemes, and understanding the full implication they have on the community for example, a housing scheme specifically for veterans coming out of the criminal justice system, the community needs to understand the potential impact and ongoing provision required for that individual to allow them to get back on their feet and support them in their life. The Chair of the PSB clarified that there are planning considerations around the development of new housing in multiple occupation and in terms of their operation, there are licensing requirements, both mandatory and in some local authorities, additional licensing requirements, but those principally concern the condition of suitability of accommodation for habitation and fire safety. The Chair of the PSB alluded to the considerations and controls in terms of the interaction with the Home Office around the asylum seeker dispersal model, where there is the opportunity to object to the use of HMOs for that purpose in locations where it is sensitive, yet also operating under a Home Office direction to cooperate in terms of the asylum seeker dispersal mode. The Chair of the PSB further explained that houses of multiple occupation do have a role in the housing market as well as meeting some of our responsibilities around discharging homelessness duties and supporting individuals such as veterans. With the homelessness duties extending to prison leavers and people with offender backgrounds the Chair acknowledged that it is a hugely difficult and challenging issue but added that there is a whole series of controls and measures in place for the local authority and partners to use to manage and control those facilities. Further to a query regarding hot topics and how they are prioritised and how a topic at a local level may be picked up as a hot topic, the Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager explained that recurring topics or an issue that flares up and needs a response, would be considered as an item on the agenda or whether it is a community safety partnership rather than single agency issue. But she also stressed that there is no fixed agenda so if there is a recurring problem that needs partnership addressing, then it would be added. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager advised that an evidence base is required to take things forward, so if your antisocial behaviour officers have not already highlighted the issue, the critical thing is to make sure that everything is being reported in through 101 or 999 if it's a threat to life or emerging priority, just to make sure that there are targeted police interventions, maybe approved patrolling of areas. In the case of nuisance driving, as ever, it is very difficult to catch people in the act of doing it so evidence needs to be logged to make it so difficult and to deter people from going to that place in the first place because there are increased patrols or maybe mobile CCTV deployed. The Chair of the JOSC was pleased to have the collaborative agreement in place and asked whether it was having an impact for our residents and our frontline staff and Communities in terms of feeling the benefits of that. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager acknowledged that unfortunately, community safety is one of those areas where it is not obvious where progress is happening and that is often is where we're having an impact and success. But in terms of the practical sense of it, the teams channel that the Community Engagement officers are all now using it is very much a success. The Partnership and Community Safety, Partnership Manager highlighted the structures in place, the governance, the improved shared understanding of the challenges that the CPS is facing, that we are looking at the South Wales Police footprint and the influences that are coming down the M4 or at the A470. She added that there is better information sharing and an information sharing protocol in the context of the Crime and Disorder Act. The Partnership and Community Safety Partnership Manager explained that where information is needed, it is made available, shared appropriately and disseminated with the right audience and the partnership tactical meeting is doing a good job of tracking. In conclusion, the Partnership and Community Safety Partnership assured Committee that to ensure delivery against the commitments of the collaborative agreement, a restock of where we are and what we anticipate the future escalations to be, will be undertaken. It was RESOLVED to: 1. Consider and acknowledge the work of the Community Safety Partnership and its multi-agency approach to community safety issues, and 2. Consider and acknowledge the work undertaken in respect of community cohesion
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RESOLVED defer the item to the subsequent meeting of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee in July 2026.
Following advice from the Service Director, Democratic Services, Welsh Language & Communications, Members concluded that in view of the meeting not being quorate, Members would not be able to formally move the recommendations or be able to provide the report with correct level of discussion it required. It was therefore RESOLVED defer the item to the subsequent meeting of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee in July 2026.
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