Good Council Practice

Welsh Local Government Decarbonisation Planning Review Interventions – Land-use and place-based approaches (Powys CC)

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:56:00 GMT

The Welsh Local Government Decarbonisation Planning Review on the current state of Decarbonisation Planning in Welsh Local Government analysed interventions listed in councils’ Decarbonisation plans were according to four priority areas including Buildings, Mobility and Transport, Procurement, and Land Use. These areas reflect the priority areas identified by Welsh Government Net Zero Carbon 2030 for public sector.

Powys County Council is using a place planning approach to focus on carbon, climate adaptation and biodiversity. This new town approach is set to be replicated in 9 other towns across Powys.

Development of the click and collect system for library books (Powys CC)

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 12:49:00 GMT

Powys County Council libraries were unable to continue with the facility to reserve books through the Library Catalogue during the pandemic. A different system was urgently needed to allow customers to request ‘book collections’ to be picked up from selected libraries or delivered to their door, the council came up with the Library Order and Collect Service.

The council worked with the Library Service to develop a customer centred process which involves a customer facing web form triggering automatic workflow and emails to appropriate library locations. The council also developed an admin interface where Library staff can view the requests and select a date when the books will be available for collection. This action triggers an automatic email to the customer to notify them. Library staff then put together a collection of books suiting the customer’s tastes and leave them ready for collection on the date advised.

There is also an ‘assisted-service’ version of the above developed for customers who prefer to interact by phone. This uses the same process and forms as the self-service version, but all communication is by phone.

Web-based food parcel and welfare calls system (Powys CC)

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 12:45:00 GMT

The Web Team at Powys County Council developed a web-based system in response to assessing whether eligible people were in need of regular food parcel deliveries, monitoring the wellbeing of vulnerable residents on a weekly or fortnightly basis and responding to needs for support from Powys Social Care or Community Connectors volunteers.

The system used ‘shielding people’ data and other internal ‘vulnerable individual’ data, which the council stored in a database. By clicking on a name from a list a web form opens for call handlers to record customers’ answers to questions based on an agreed script. The council developed automatic triggers to email Adult Social Care or Community Connectors or generate a food parcel request (if eligible) based on customers’ answers to the questions and the nature of the support needed.

Between April 3rd and August 14th, a total of 23,791 calls were made by Powys County Council staff resulting in:

649 Welsh Government food parcels being ordered
438 requests for a call back from the resident's local county councillor
459 requests for help with basic care needs which were passed on to ASSIST
1,654 referrals to PAVO's Community Connector Service (of these 1,076 wanted help with food, 373 needed help with their prescriptions and 205 wished to talk to a volunteer)
150 referrals over safeguarding.

Supporting Food Banks (Powys CC)

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:30:00 GMT

The Powys County Council Regeneration Team, Grow in Powys helped the Powys foodbanks to manage the challenges and changes brought about by COVID19. The team managed the Food Poverty Grant from the Welsh Government, distributed by the WLGA. The revenue grant of £11,602.08 was split between the seven food banks in Powys. The additional Capital funding grant of £13,477.00 was to support organisations access, store and distribute extra supplies of good quality food, by purchasing equipment such as freezers.

During lockdown the food banks had the funding to purchase smart phones or laptops to enable agile working. Due to the shortage of chest freezers, under the counter freezers were sourced in one case. The Llandrindod hub noted a 300% increase in demand. Cwmtawe Action to Combat Hardship could store substantial stocks of bread and baked goods in its new freezer. Through the engagement with communities in the areas of Ystradgynlais and Hay-on-Wye, additional outreach food banks were set up.

The Newtown Food Bank, funded by the Salvation Army said: “We have had to close our shop and along with it, the chance to continue raising our own funds through sales of our goods. We immediately turned to your funding to help us.”

Community Connectors in Powys (Powys CC)

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 08:50:00 GMT

Powys County Council, Powys Teaching Health Board and Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO), as key partners of Powys Regional Partnership Board , established a Community Sector Emergency Response Team (C-Sert) to coordinate and support emergency response to people in the community who may be affected by COVID 19 through formal and informal volunteers. The CSERT, with the assistance of thirteen Community Connectors based around the county, arrange practical support for vulnerable (shielding and non-shielding) residents from local volunteers through local support networks. In terms of services offered through the CSERT, is provided with shopping and medication collection as well as a befriending service to help tackle loneliness and social isolation. Powys has around 4,000 volunteers across the county at any given time. The CSERT have been very pro-active in increasing formal volunteer support during the pandemic