Pembrokeshire will share a commissioning role for social care with its neighbour Carmarthenshire on a long-term basis (writes Katy Jenkins).

An interim head of strategic joint commissioning was created in 2015 and was meant to last 12 months.

The Pembrokeshire incumbent took on the joint role and is still in place now after the interim arrangements were extended.

On Monday (June 25), the senior staff committee was asked to approve making the role permanent and make a recommendation to full council that it does the same.

The role has a total salary and benefits of £200,000 but saves Pembrokeshire £21,000 with ‘consistency across the region’ potentially resulting in savings of ‘hundreds of thousands’ director of social services Jonathan Griffiths said.

His report to the committee states: “Based on the proposed cost split, the costings for the 2 senior posts will be £91k for Pembrokeshire County Council and £109k for Carmarthenshire County Council.”

Clr. Jamie Adams asked if the service was ‘dealing effectively with the health board to ensure costs are fairly apportioned’ and if it had ‘enough fire power to fight the good fight.’

Mr. Griffiths said developing ‘robust structures’ across the two areas would allow for differences in capacity and the ability to hold the health board to account.

“The salary was uplifted in order to recognise the additional responsibilities for the joint role, specifically the breadth of remit across both counties, direct responsibility for commissioning and contracting for social care and support arrangements across the two counties (eg. care homes alone in excess of £20m) and the responsibility of bringing together and managing a new regional commissioning team,” adds Mr. Griffiths’s report.

Councillors agreed the recommendation be sent to full council for approval.