Developments In Partnership / Collaborative Working. The Scrutiny Committee has previously urged the PSB to reflect on its visibility and increase efforts on public / community engagement, and we were pleased to hear about initiatives that have been taken, for example work under Well-being Step 4 – Making Swansea Safer, More Cohesive, and Prosperous, which is led by the Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue Service. These included events arranged to broaden the awareness of partners’ work and improve networks, particularly amongst those who engage directly with our communities, providing opportunities for collaborative working. One of these, a ‘Walking in Our Shoes’ Event, arranged by the Fire & Rescue Service, was held on 17 October. We noted a further event on 17 November will focus on ‘Safeguarding Swansea - Building safer and stronger communities, together’, to bring together a diverse range of organisations to discuss ways to improve safeguarding across Swansea. Thank you for including Scrutiny Committee Members in invitations. We asked about the success of the pop-up Community Village held in June in Castle Square, which you reported was very well attended by members of the public, and the future development of this type of initiative across Swansea, including the potential for utilisation of community buildings. We noted that this community safety village event was ‘piggy-backed’ on the Welsh Firefighters Fitness Challenge, which helped to attract footfall. It was good to hear that many partner organisations were represented at the event, and that it resulted in the referral of around 55 Home Fire Safety visit requests, and around 130 engagements with families on the day, with positive feedback received from both partners and the public. We welcome efforts being made to find ways to promote this and other future events. We acknowledged that increasing public engagement is challenging. You felt the City Centre was suited for this event, but the model could be replicated elsewhere to support community engagement across other parts of Swansea. We hope that you find the contents of this letter helpful and would welcome any comments, however we do not expect you to provide a formal response. However, we do expect the PSB to be aware of and consider our views. Please report our letter to the next available PSB meeting. The Committee will follow up on progress / developments in six months. We have currently scheduled this for Committee meeting on 19 March 2024. Yours sincerely, Chair, Scrutiny Programme Committee x...
