Social Partnership - Annual Report (2024/25)

5. Case Study - Social Partnership Workshops

As a means of enhancing a greater understanding of social partnership, WG arranged three separate conferences across the country with the event in Swansea, held in late September 2024 being attended by officers from the People, Digital & Policy (PDP) Division as well as some CCC trade union representatives. This was very well received by those in attendance and led to the Chief Executive considering that it would be advantageous to engage the expertise and independence of an external provider, IPA, to facilitate some Social Partnership workshops. The intention being that these workshops could further develop and maintain a positive working relationship by emphasising the importance of effective communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

IPA are a leading authority on Partnership working having been previously sponsored by Welsh Government to develop and deliver a programme of facilitated training workshops for organisations in the public sector in Wales.

In January 2025 IPA provided their proposal for delivering separate workshops to the Trade Unions and to senior managers including the Corporate Management Team (CMT) and other Heads of Service who regularly engage with the Trade Unions. The Trade Unions were asked for comment, and it was agreed that these workshops should take place in March 2025.

The workshops were held on 4th and 6th of March and set out to consider Social Partnership from the perspectives of the Trade Unions and Senior Management by:

• Exploring the Trade Unions’ and CCC Senior Management’s perspectives on working in partnership.
• Understanding the thinking behind the Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act (Wales) 2023 and the principles of partnership working.
• Identifying any perceived barriers to working in partnership and ideas on how to work through them. 

After reviewing the information gathered at the workshops IPA recommended the facilitation of a joint workshop involving CMT and trade union representatives, aimed at answering two questions:

1. How far can we go in developing a partnership approach at this time? 

2. What will we all do to work together to develop this?

The workshop took place on 15th May 2025 and led to the Chief Executive seeking the agreement of the Trade Unions to provide the Council’s Cabinet with a communique which would reflect the positive outlook engendered at the meeting. The agreed text included the statement:

“We believe that the outcomes of this workshop will pave the way for a more collaborative and effective partnership. We are committed to continuing this positive engagement and building on the strong foundations established during this session. The workshop was one where truths were shared from all parties but most importantly it was a very positive meeting and provides us with a strong foundation for a much-improved working relationship in the future”.