CONSULTANTS will be brought in to help continue Powys County Council (PCC) services, journey of improvement.

And they will be funded by those services’ own budgets.

The information was revealed as part of a reply to a series of questions asking the PCC leader, Cllr Rosemarie Harris, how the new improvement boards would work and be held to account?

Under the questions at anytime protocol, Liberal Democrat councillor and former Brecon and Radnorshire MP, Roger Williams, (Felinfach), asked: “What assessment has been made of the financial requirements, staffing requirements and scrutiny implications for the establishment of the new Improvement Boards?”

Cllr Rosemarie Harris (Llangynidr) who heads the Independent/Conservative administration, explained: “The boards will be supported within existing resources which will predominantly be staff time.

“The funding of the external experts will be through service budgets with the exception of the support to education which will continue to be funded by Welsh Government for now.”

Cllr Harris says that these changes will “formalise existing arrangements” and financial or staffing pressures should not be a problem.

Cllr Harris added that there would be no extra work for scrutiny committees as they will be looking at information that is “already available”

“Scrutiny will be able to provide value adding feedback to the Cabinet/EMT (Executive Management Team) to ensure the organisation continually improves,” said Cllr Harris.

In July, PCC were told by the Welsh Government that the work of the independent Improvement and Assurance Board would be wound down finishing later this autumn.

Taking it’s place will be a system of five internal improvement boards.

Sitting at the top, will be a Corporate Assurance Board which meets monthly, is expected to be chaired by Cllr Harris and would take an overall look at improvement.

Four other improvement boards will be set up at service level, for education, social services, housing and highways, transport and regeneration.

These boards will be chaired by the respective portfolio holders.

This approach is meant to provide flexibility and other services with problems could also find themselves with their own improvement board.

The Improvement and Assurance Board was established in March 2018 to: “assist the leader in driving forward the required change and improvement in the local authority.”

It followed the highly critical report by the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) into PCC’s Children’s Services which was published in October 2017.

Following the critical Estyn inspection in September 2019, the Education Service was added to the board’s remit.

The board is chaired independently by the former chief executive of Swansea Council, Jack Straw.

He is expected to give a final report this autumn as part of the handing over process.