20170120 Things to note at WMCA Board

This is my perspective on matters of note, to save you from reading the 100+ pages that are associated with today’s meeting, and you may ultimately disagree with what I have chosen to highlight. If you wanted to read the papers, you can find them here.

Minutes of the Transport Delivery Committee

Head of Sustainable Travel confirmed that Transport for West Midlands was in dialogue with the Implementation Director of the WMCA Mental Health Commission, given the links between being active — notably by walking and cycling — and good mental health.

Confirming Board decisions for meeting 20161209

The last Board meeting had become inquorate by the end (no comment), so the intention is to confirm a decision taken in that part of the meeting relating to the Coventry City Centre South development.

Driving Policy Development for Devolution

The Board are being asked to approve couple of things here. Firstly, the creation of a Fiscal Devolution Group, and to extend the remit of the Health subgroup. The overall Devolution Strategy Group, led by Birmingham City Council Chief Executive Mark Rogers, is as the title suggests, notably leading on devolution negotiations with Government.

The group is working well, however:

…we need to dedicate more capacity to a number of policy issues
prioritised in the SEP or where little progress has been made with
government, such as housing, skills, employment and fiscal devolution, if we
are to develop genuinely radical proposals for further devolution. To address
this, DSG (and the CA as a whole) needs to be able to draw on a greater
resource input (principally in terms of time and expertise).

The entire list is worth looking through in detail if you are interested in the policy areas which are thought to need extra capacity — p39 of the papers. This includes things like creating robust proposals for further fiscal devolution (taxes, levies, etc.), creating regional models for employment support and skills development, health and social care integration, data sharing, supporting arts and culture, and various others.

In addition, the Board is being invited to consider the manner in which devolution policies and developments are fed back to each portfolio holder (that is, each Constituent Leader, see this link for a list). Each portfolio has a work programme which encompasses more than devolution, but it is not possible to separate these, so the manner in which they are involved and briefed needs to work.

There is in an interesting comment about needing to understand the boundary between policy development and programmes for implementation and change — I assume there is a certain amount of flow between these things. Certainly, you would hope that lessons learned from the latter would inform the former.

Contactless ticketing and fare capping

Exciting stuff — the Board are agreeing to commission a consultancy to create a roadmap, which we will follow, merrily to a world of contactless ticketing and fare-capping. These are important components of a modern, integrated transport system.

They expect this to be produced by the end of March 2017, and the costs sit within the existing Transport for West Midlands budget.

Swift Programme Update

I am very fond of my Swift card, its propensity to vanish into the streets of Birmingham notwithstanding. Anyway, shifting all of the pay-monthly customers onto it seems to have sent usage up, comme ça:

Aside from the contactless ticketing and fare-capping, these are the next priorities for Swift:

Firstly, the introduction of the child ticketing range onto the platform. Secondly, the wider rollout of Swift across the rail network; and thirdly, the wider rollout of Swift functionality throughout the WMCA area.

Notably, those of you who use nTrain and nNetwork passes are likely to see a shift to Swift, and many stations will be able to accommodate that by April 2017 — however, more work is required to do this comprehensively.

Initial discussions have also been had around introducing Swift to Redditch. And, one assumes, Redditch to Swift.

Strategic Cycle Network

The Board is being asked to approve the Strategic Cycle Network, as defined in Movement for Growth, the WMCA’s strategic transport plan. Be in no doubt that this is strategic. Still, really important to keep an eye on how much money ad political energy goes into this relative to other, bossier forms of transport.

West Midlands Rail Ltd — revised collaboration agreement

Is there a more alarming line in a report, I wonder, than:

The change has come about because of a change of opinion by the new Secretary of State for Transport.

…particularly when the SoS in question is Chris Grayling. Anyway, your alarm is warranted, as Grayling is no friend to devolution. Yes, despite having built a reputation on rampant incompetence, he is determined to retain control:

The change of thinking from the Transport Secretary reflects his concern about the benefits of full devolution of rail responsibilities across the UK. This has resulted in the Collaboration Agreement draft that has been approved by all WMR Member authorities being amended to remove reference to full devolution.

The intention is to proceed as planned to 2020, with the hope that our strength will build confidence in our ability to proceed to full devolution later. Disappointing, really.

Mental Health Commission Update

The most advanced of the three commissions is due to be launched at the end of January (having been initiated in October 2015):

The Commission has been concerned to ensure that its work leads to practical action that makes a difference to mental health and wellbeing in the West Midlands. It is therefore seeking to get agreement from relevant partners to actions published in the form of a Concordat, rather than publishing a set of recommendations.

The WMCA Wellbeing Board is to create the governance framework for the delivery of this work.

(Incidentally, the WMCA O&S is setting up a select committee-style subgroup to look at the agreements set out in the Mental Health Commission — so do get in touch if this is something that interests you.)

This item also seeks approval for a budget of £290,000 for the Mental Health Commission, which encompasses half of the salary of the Implementation Director, which is paid jointly by WMCA and the office of the Police & Crime Commissioner.

Productivity & Skills Portfolio update

A couple of things worth flagging.

For those of you interested in the range and development of the powers of the Mayor, the paper suggests that responsibility for statutory requirements around the devolved Adult Education Budget are likely to transferred to the Mayor.

On the ‘Work & Health Programme’ — which is intended to help people with health conditions or disabilities to get into work — the Department for Work and Pensions has reneged (imagine!) on its promise of co-design by saying that providers should design the programme. However, WMCA hopes to have influence by a ‘competitive dialogue’ process.

This is so, so important. The system simply does not work for people at the moment — I had one such person at my surgery yesterday, in tears. Let’s keep focus on this.

As long-trailed, there is also to be a Productivity & Skills Commission — currently lagging behind the other two commissions. It apparently now has Chair and a draft project plan.

The WMCA Overview & Scrutiny Committee intends to form a select committee around all three commissions, and I have expressed particular interest in this one. Partly because it is not moving as quickly, but mostly because it has been so hard to get this right, and getting it right is the only way to create an inclusive, strong economy.