Introduction to North West Wales Area Statement
This theme captures how this Area Statement is at the start of an ongoing way of working an iterative process encouraging us to work together with continuous feedback and discussion
These Area Statements summarise discussions from the last couple of years. We are continuing engagement on Area Statements and are adapting our plans for future events and workshops due to the coronavirus pandemic. Please use the feedback boxes on each Area Statement page to find out more.
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During our engagement events, stakeholders told us what they felt were the priorities in relation to how we collectively work together to develop the Area Statement for North West Wales. In practice this means:
We would like to achieve the following qualitative outcomes and also develop an effective way of measuring them with our partners:
Our stakeholders suggested the following quantitative outputs:
To facilitate the development of the Area Statement, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) held three workshops in North West Wales during July 2019 and a session for staff. Based on these discussions it is clear there was support for a cross cutting Area Statement theme looking at the different ways of working to ensure a sustainable and engaging process through the development of the whole North West Wales Area Statement. More information and detail on this can be found in the Introduction to the Area statement.
During the second engagement event, participants identified wider issues in the North West as the following:
The maturity of discussion analysis undertaken by the independent facilitator indicates in some areas the themes have developed further than others at this stage e.g. sustainable tourism and opportunities for resilient ecosystems. See the full report on Facilitation and Engagement Support, September 2019, Wellbeing Planner.
We wish to continue to develop on these initial discussions, developing actions where ideas are more developed whilst starting new conversations once our theme focus groups have had time to establish and develop each theme in more detail. See next steps for more details.
Stakeholder vision for this theme so far:
There are various models that we can look at in developing the North West Area Statement processes under the Ways of Working theme.
“Various terms are used to describe collaborative approaches to service delivery in the UK e.g. outcomes focus, asset – based, person centred, service user involvement, co-production etc. What they all have in common is an underlying philosophy which values individuals, builds upon their support systems and considers their place in the wider community. This approach requires a move away from service-led or top down approaches to one of genuine citizen empowerment, involving service users and their communities in the commissioning, design, delivery and evaluation of services”
- Ruth Dineen, Director of Co-production Training UK, Production and Service delivery: Strategies for Success, June 2012
At the heart of the 'Ways of working' theme, as well as across the Area Statement process more generally, collaboration with others in the commissioning, design and delivery of actions identified across the North West Area Statement and evaluating our collective actions to embed a continually developing delivery process is evident.
This theme was developed as a result of stakeholder feedback over the need to understand and embed new ways of working, alongside measuring the short, medium and long-term impact that the North West Area Statement will have.
This theme is at the heart of everything we need to do and that is why it is the second cross cutting theme.
From our initial stakeholder analysis, NRW identified 500 potential stakeholders with an interest in the Area Statement process in North West Wales. We recognise that stakeholder lists are dynamic and will change at different times throughout the process.
Broadly defined as the partners that work with NRW to deliver the Area Statement. These are people we’ve had face-to-face meetings with, and who attend our events. Similarly, we attend their events. Key players will have their own networks and resources to add to the Area Statement and will have their own strategies and policies to integrate within the process and towards any outcomes.
Broadly defined as deliverers and doers - it’s probably within their day job. These people are local facilitators: they will know someone who can help, they will have expectations about support, funding and resources, they will mostly want to help and they will have a lot of evidence, local data and expertise.
Broadly defined as the people without direct involvement, but who have a local interest and local influence.
Broadly defined as people and organisations that are recipients of information. We can broadcast to them, but they will expect to feedback during any exchange of information.
NRW wants to keep this stakeholder analysis under review and broaden it out to wider stakeholders as we develop the process. We recognise the Area Statement process matures into delivery and evaluation phases, that stakeholders’ interest will also change, so we will continually revisit the stakeholder analysis at different stages of the Area Statement process.
The independent facilitator (the Wellbeing Planner) concluded that it is clear from engagement events and associated feedback, that the Area Statement process is new to everyone and represents a change of how NRW has worked in the past - requiring an adjustment by everyone involved.
With issues around clarity of the role, trusting the process and uncertainty of change the Drexler and Sibbet Team Performance model (forming, storming, norming and performing model) provides a tool to assist the development of the North West Area Statement. Of interest are the first four stages in developing a team (orientation, trust building, goal clarification and commitment). This is the starting point for work with the theme focus groups and as the work develops and moves closer towards the (implementation, high performance and renewal) phases.
On 14th May 2020 NRW plans to hold another stakeholder meeting to bring together everyone who has contributed to this process to-date to review the opportunities and agree collaborative next steps for the North West Area Statement process.
We will establish theme subgroups to develop the area wide vision for this theme – with a broad remit and wide representation. We will identify potential partners and interested individuals and groups, gaps in knowledge and linkages with local strategies and action plans.
We will use the information gathered during the stakeholder engagement events (external, internal, with partners such as the National Parks Authority) to guide the activities of these thematic subgroups.
Each thematic subgroup will need to review what information and data we have so far, plan who we talk to next, look for theories of change, identify barriers and how to overcome and explore opportunities for appropriate action. The Area Statement will be an iterative document that will change and evolve over time. The subgroups will be responsible for determining when plans need to change and who needs to be involved in that process (the governance of the Area Statement).
The suggestions that are taken forward as ‘Lily Pad’ projects are designed to build stakeholder trust and cohesion through working on defined interventions. They use this experience to ‘leap’ on to the next, maybe less certain step in the Area Statement process that has been mapped out by the theme subgroups, and ‘learn through doing’ along the way. In this way, issues around stakeholder engagement and co-design and delivery might be better understood, and concerns addressed.
From this will be able to engage with and enthuse a broader group of stakeholders beyond the wider environmental sector in a targeted way and with a stronger focus on involving and engaging local groups and individuals. This could mean a variety of approaches, including: social media, traditional media, community meetings, drop-in sessions and the strengths of our partners so that we’re all working together to deliver the Area Statement vision and ambitions.
Co-producing the Area Statement and the priority actions means sharing the responsibility with others for the design, content, actions, delivery and monitoring of the Area Statement for North West Wales. We will build on known best practice and gain an understanding of the needs of others. By pooling our resources together, it will allow us to develop new ways of working that are smarter and will benefit the whole of the North West Area Statement work.
We intend to look at new methods of measuring how much impact our actions have had for each theme. We will test our approach to see if it works or not. We will then be able to effectively measure how much change has occurred before and after our activities.
It is possible to look to other sectors and countries to look at detailed theories of change. The human behaviour change model is derived from a US Medical model and is an example of the many approaches this theme may consider in developing a behaviour change model for North West Wales.
Performance indicators and base line information must also be explored in order to establish effective ways of measuring the actual change that has occurred from trialling different interventions across all the North West Area Statement themes.
“Organisations need to better understand and incorporate behavioural insights to achieve their goals. Given the complex nature of problems and the difficulties in testing behavioural insights, the best way to turn behavioural science insights into real change is to close the gap between science and practice, and truly work together”
We welcome opportunities for the public to engage with us at any stage of the Area Statement process. We plan to hold community drop in sessions and workshops during 2020 to help us develop research, look into opportunities and talk to us about your community ideas and consider how they might be funded.
There is also a feedback form and an Email address: northwest.as@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk should you wish to write to us with your ideas.