Monmouthshire Opposition Councillors Cast Doubt on Plans for Gwent’s Social Care Workforce Integration

PLANS for Gwent’s five councils to work closer together on supporting their social care workforce have been thrown into doubt by Monmouthshire opposition councillors. 
They have used “call in” powers to force a second look at a decision by their council’s cabinet to join the area’s other councils in forming a single Gwent-wide social care workforce development service. 
As a result the council’s people scrutiny committee will hold a special meeting on Thursday, October 8 to consider the decision.  
The cross party committee, on which the Labour group holds four of the nine seats, can either accept the decision made by the cabinet in September, refer it back to the cabinet with reasons why it should look again or refer it to the full council for a decision. 
When the Labour and Green Party run cabinet gave its go-ahead to joining the service Ian Chandler, the cabinet member responsible, said the decision recognised Monmouthshire is a “small” council operating in a shared labour market and faces difficulties maintaining its workforce development support.   
The Gwent-wide social care workforce development service will be responsible for workforce planning as well as training and qualifications and working with universities and colleges and provide data on the workforce across the five local authority areas.  
Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent borough councils have shared a workforce development service for the past 12 years and social care directors from the five authorities proposed a county wide, regional service following a review in 2024. 
Independent councillor for Llanelly Hill Simon Howarth has called the decision in, supported by independent members Sue Riley and Jill Bond and Conservatives Jan Butler and Rachel Buckler. 
The Green Party’s Cllr Chandler previously told councillors the eight full and part time staff in the council’s existing workforce development team had been “fully consulted” and no redundancies were expected with staff to transfer under TUPE employment protection regulations. A workforce development grant, and match funding from the council, would also transfer to the new service. 
But the call in notice states the councillors have “fundamental concerns” over the impact on staff and claim the decision wasn’t placed on the council’s forward planner which notifies councillors of upcoming decisions. When the cabinet approved the decision Cllr Chandler said it was added to the planner “late” when it was realised it required the cabinet’s consent, rather than being an operational issue for officers. 
The call in also claims other authorities had taken the decision at their full council meetings though Cllr Chandler has also previously said that isn’t correct, while the call in also cites the financial impact being beyond a threshold amount for cabinet decision and a lack of discussion with “service users”. 
The scrutiny committee will meet at 10am on Thursday, October 8 at County Hall in Usk.  ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

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By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​