Services on the ground

Who It's For

Leaders and managers in councils, NHS Wales, policing, fire, housing and charities delivering services with partners across Wales and England.

Overview

This half-day Explore looks at how frontline public services are governed and how they work together. It begins with NHS Wales and its seven Local Health Boards, then policing under the Policing Protocol and the announced reforms, and three models of fire and rescue governance, including the South Wales intervention. It compares these with local government, sets out where housing sits, from housing associations to Awaab's Law, and examines MAPPA, the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and JESIP. It closes with an England and Wales comparison and live cases, including the Manchester Arena Inquiry.

Aims

This Explore aims to develop leaders who understand how the services they work alongside are governed, can trace accountability before acting, check rather than assume when working across the border, and build partnerships with clear duties and handovers so that people are not lost between organisations.

In summary, you will be able to:

1. 1Compare how health, policing, fire and housing are governed in your area and what that means for joint work.
2. 2Apply simple checks to confirm which rules apply before acting across sector or national boundaries.
3. 3Plan multi-agency work that keeps duties, handovers and accountability clear while structures change.

What you'll develop

Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:

1. 1Compare who commissions, who provides and who is accountable in the split English system and the directly run Welsh system.
2. 2Explain the separation between elected accountability for direction and resources and the chief constable's operational independence under the Policing Protocol.
3. 3Distinguish the combined fire authority, single authority and commissioner led models by who governs and how directly each is accountable to the public.
4. 4Distinguish the chief constable's operational independence from the officers advise, members decide relationship in councils, and trace the accountability chain before you raise a concern.
5. 5Apply a two-part check of nation and landlord type before relying on any rule, including Awaab's Law and renting law on each side of the border.
6. 6Apply practical questions about duties, handovers and a shared picture, alongside the four conditions for partnership, when your work crosses a boundary.
7. 7Use the four checks to avoid common mistakes when your work crosses the England and Wales border.
8. 8Plan practical steps for leading in your own context while structures are redrawn, including treating implementation dates as planning assumptions.