North Wales Regional Leadership Board - where is Third Sector?

For those that know me they will probably say that its not very often that I am stuck for words but I was asked a question last week  and for which I could not give an answer. The question was not could I  give the winning combination for the next Lottery draw on Saturday because if I could  anticipate the winning numbers I know which worthy causes in Denbighshire would qualify for the windfall but the question was more mundane namely - Who actually sits on the North Wales Regional  Leadership Board and what do they do /discuss.? When I explained I don't know because Third Sector do not have a representative on the Board there was a quick supplementary in the form "Why is the Third Sector  not on the Board ". Now that's where I stumbled as I have no idea at all as to why the sector is not represented - we have asked in fact we did submit a formal request many months ago . The individual who asked me the question was obviously well briefed in the issue as they quickly rattled off the following statistics  which were intended to highlight how significant the third sector is :

So for completeness here are the stats for North Wales only:

16,035 third sector organisations actively work across each of the 6 County areas. (WCVA stats)

If you extrapolate the figures I have for Denbighshire as being fairly typical across North Wales you will find that in total we have :

120,000 volunteers delivering  huge range of services from housing through to community safety, lifelong learning, youth clubs, old peoples clubs etc etc - the list is endless.
27,000 paid staff who support the thousands of volunteers mentioned.
Annual income of £420 million raised by a variety of methods from local jumble sales, coffee mornings through to contracts and service level agreements with  statutory bodies.



So as you can see the Third Sector is a significant provider of  public services across the whole range from community associations/ organisations, voluntary organisations, social enterprises, not for profit bodies, cooperatives , self help groups, charities, faith groups, housing associations and mutual organisations.


Therefore as the person posed the question to me I would simply like to pose the same question to the members of the Regional Leadership Board who I understand consist of the following.:

Chief Executives of each of the 6 County Councils
Chief Executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
Chief Officer of North Wales Fire and Rescue
Welsh Local Government Association representative
Welsh Government representative.
Chief Constable of North Wales Police ( who I understand is Chair of this Board although not completely sure)
plus etc etc  - not sure of any others and as I am not on that Board and so I can't be absolutely certain - what I do know for 100% certainty is that Third Sector are not there.

I hasten to add I am not bidding to be the North Wales representative on the Board  as without doubt we have tremendous talent and expertise within the sector and I am sure  there will be someone or possibly two who would welcome the opportunity .

If anyone reads this blog I would welcome your thoughts and please be honest in that do you think Third Sector should be on the Regional Board and have some part to play in the strategic direction that public services will take in the future  or is it best left to the statutory agencies?