Welcome to the first instalment of our Joint Working Journal for 2025! It’s a short one from us today as we’re getting into the swing of the new year and adjusting to some significant changes.   

2024 brought with it some real challenges, with the difficult financial climate affecting organisations across the whole sector. Unfortunately, we had to make the tough decision to cut roles within the West Glamorgan team to ensure the long-term sustainability of our work. This has been an incredibly hard process, as our team is at the heart of everything we do.  

We truly appreciate the contributions of the colleagues who have left us and wish them all the very best in their future endeavours. While these changes are never easy, we are committed to adapting and finding new ways to continue facilitating positive and productive partnership working. 

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Steering and Advisory Board 2 (SAB2) 

This edition of our Journal focuses on Steering and Advisory Board 2 (SAB2), which met on 7^th January. Members received an overview of the work of the Emotional Well-being and Mental Health Programme, which included an update on the implementation of the regional Emotional and Mental Well-being Strategy. 

A key development has been the creation of the new Commissioning Model workstream, which has considered the feedback received from Third Sector providers and is in process of arranging a workshop to codesign an options appraisal of existing commissioning models. People with lived experience will be involved in the process in order to ensure the outcomes of the future commissioning model are coproduced to meet the needs of those using services. The needs of the public will be the driver in terms of how a future Commissioning Model is designed and delivered.  

Work to develop a regional Well-being Framework is also underway. The lead for the ‘Cementing it Together’ workstream has embarked on a series of workshops to pull together existing Well-being Frameworks to devise an approach that best suits our region.  

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Regional Commissioning Programme 

SAB2 is set to see some changes this year, as the brand new Regional Commissioning Programme will be established and will report to the board going forward. 

A workshop designed to initiaite this work programme is scheduled to take place on 24^th January. Its aim will be to explore opportunities for joint working by reviewing the Market Stability Report findings and scoping out how organisations can collaborate to add value. Participants will also share their learning and set out the regional priorities for commissioning.   

We look forward to bringing you further updates on the progress of this new programme in a future edition of our journal. 

That’s all from us for now – take care and we’ll be back with more news after the next SAB 😊