Social Partnership report

The purpose of this report is to outline the process of setting the Centre for Digital Public Services’ (CDPS) well-being objectives in relation to the social partnership act.

The CDPS is an arm’s length body of the Welsh Government Digital. Our vision is that public services are designed around the people who use them and are simple, secure, and convenient. The CDPS will come under the Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 at the end of the financial year 2025 to 2026.  

This social partnership report has been prepared by Lauren Power and agreed by the workforce.  

The intended effect of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act 2023 (SPPP Act) is to improve the economic, social, cultural, and environmental well-being of people in Wales by strengthening the role of social partnership within strategic decision-making. Involving both employers and workers in key discussions regarding improvements to well-being recognises and values the unique contribution and expertise brought by those directly engaged in public service delivery when addressing shared challenges and seeking innovative solutions.  

The SPPP act states that: to seek consensus or compromise a public body must include its recognised trade unions or other representatives of its staff in the process of setting objectives or making decisions, by (in particular). 

1. consulting them at a formative stage of the process, and  
2.  otherwise involving them throughout the process by 

 (i) providing sufficient information to enable them to properly consider what is proposed, and  

(ii) providing sufficient time to enable them to adequately consider what is proposed and respond.

The full text of the SPPP Act is available here: www.legislation.gov.uk/asc/2023/1/contents/enacted 

As a small organisation, the CDPS does not currently associate with any trade unions, however this may change in the future. In the meantime, to comply with the Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act, CDPS has established an Employee Forum. This forum consists of 13 partners from various departments, who are consulted on wellbeing objectives and internal matters such as policy amendments, benefits, and changes to processes. 

To ensure diverse representation in decision-making, we have made the forum open for voluntary participation, ensuring that all departments are represented. 

We meet quarterly as a group to address matters raised by employees, review wellbeing objectives, and provide input on new policies or proposed amendments. 

The Employee Forum also had access to a shared board, where the objectives and steps are stored. They could comment and suggest amendments as needed throughout the objective setting process. This collaborative process resulted in adjustments, including a reduction in timeframes for one of the objectives and clarifications to wording, ensuring a clearer understanding of our actions. These discussions enabled us to reach a consensus through a positive and collaborative process. 

The forum was consulted regarding the FutureGen's objectives on three separate occasions: 

1. The first draft of the objectives 
2. The second draft of the objectives, including steps toward achieving them 
3. The final approval of the objectives and associated steps 

As part of our ongoing training on social partnership and public procurement, a facilitated session was delivered by Lauren (who attended the Future Leaders Academy 2023/24) to the entire organisation, several months prior to the commencement of the objective-setting process. 

We have also circulated key reading materials on the Social Partnership Act, including: 

• Getting Ready for the Social Partnership Duty: Paratoi ar gyfer y Ddyletswydd Partneriaeth Gymdeithasol | LLYW.CYMRU 
• Getting Ready for the Social Partnership Duty | GOV.WALES 

Additionally, we have subscribed to the relevant newsletter to stay informed of developments. 

Two representatives for CDPS attended the Social Partnership Conference held at the OpTIC Centreon. We remain committed to attending all future events to ensure we stay actively engaged in this space. 

All new starters are required, as part of their onboarding, to familiarise themselves with the Future Generations, Social Partnership, and Public Procurement Act. They are also provided with a link to our internal board, which outlines our organisational objectives in their onboarding kit.  

As part of our commitment to social partnership, we aimed to ensure that our wellbeing objectives were shaped collaboratively and aligned with the views of our employees. An example of this is, the employee forum was tasked with reviewing the first draft of our objectives and providing feedback on any areas that did not reflect their perspectives.  

To facilitate this, we organised a one-hour session where partners engaged in a detailed discussion, offering their insights, suggesting amendments, and debating key points. Through this open dialogue, a consensus was reached, resulting in a set of revised wellbeing objectives that better reflected the collective input of the forum. This collaborative process not only strengthened our commitment to inclusivity but also ensured that the objectives were both meaningful and representative of the wider workforce. 

Outcome: All have approved and reached consensus on the objectives.  

This case study shows how we collaborated with the employee forum and sought consensus from all partners throughout the process.  

Consultation and Collaboration 

CDPS wanted to ensure collaboration and input from across internal services and specialisms whilst setting our objectives. To ensure inclusive engagement across the organisation, Lauren facilitated a workshop designed to help staff understand the wellbeing objectives and provide their input in shaping them. The workshop was attended by 37 members of staff, with the workshop being run 6 times across a period of 5 weeks. All staff members were given the opportunity to contribute and attend a workshop, given the opportunity to input in a one-to-one setting if required. 

This process ensured we documented feedback and gathered ideas from across the organisation. 

The workshop consisted of several questions intended to help us set our wellbeing objectives: 

• Where will CDPS be in the next 25 years? 
• What are we trying to achieve? 
• What impact do we want? 
• What problem are we trying to solve? 

The answer to these questions formed our 4 main wellbeing objectives by finding the key themes across the answers given by staff.  

The second half of the workshop was intended to gather our steps which will help us work towards the objectives. Staff were asked to think about each wellbeing objective, what we’re doing well, and what we aren’t doing well toward these goals. These answers were then themed to each draft objective and used to create our steps.  

The premise of this workshop was taken from the guidance provided in the future generations report.

Drafting Objectives: 

We then started affinity sorting the suggestion from staff and set our draft objectives. We want to ensure they were specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) wellbeing objectives and ensure coherence with CDPS’s overall mission and values as well as the future trends report. We also identified organisations we could collaborate with when delivering our objectives.  

Objectives and Strategic alignment  

Our wellbeing objectives were set on 3rd March 2025 and published on our website on 30th March 2025. As of now, we have been operating in alignment with the Act for one month 

Our published objectives can be found within our wellbeing statement. 

We will ensure we remain focused on achieving our wellbeing goals by integrating a way of working workshop at the start of each project, we will ensure teams understand the five ways of working and how their projects/products align with specific wellbeing goals. This will enable us to track progress through relevant metrics and insights, ensuring continuous alignment with our objectives. 

Additionally, we will prioritise projects and products through our front-door process that directly contribute to advancing our wellbeing objectives, ensuring that our efforts are concentrated on promoting the wellbeing of future generations. 

At the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS), we recognise the vital role that social partnership plays in achieving meaningful, long-term impact. Our commitment to collaboration, transparency, and inclusivity underpins everything we do, and we see social partnership as a powerful enabler of positive, sustainable change.