This plan was developed during 2022/23 through an integrated and collaborative approach including discussion with the people who deliver our services, workshops with our Council Members to consider the proposed outcomes from their knowledge of the people living within their wards, and a public consultation with people across Wrexham including those with protected characteristics. We also looked at a range of evidence including:

• Published data and statistics, for example, Census 2021 data.
• What we know about our communities from local evidence and research about people's health and well-being.
• Messages and feedback from involvement activities we have undertaken with service users and communities over the past year.
• Progress against our existing council priorities and other work areas.

Alongside the evidence mentioned above, our council priorities have been informed by the Wrexham Public Services Board Well-being Assessment. The Public Services Board (PSB) Well-being Assessment for Wrexham was produced following extensive research and engagement with people across Wrexham. The work carried out by the PSB was extremely useful and raised some key areas of focus for consideration for our council priorities, which were developed alongside the PSB Well-Being Plan and objectives. The PSB Well-being Plan seeks to improve social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being across Flintshire and Wrexham.

Developing our Equality Outcomes

To ensure we are working towards a fairer County Borough, we carried out research including a review of our previous equality outcomes and considered data and evidence from national reports, North Wales’ information and localised information. The analysis undertaken has suggested a number of areas that our work could focus on. More information is available on our Equality, Human Rights and Community Cohesion page under the Equality Outcomes section. 

Consultation

In order to obtain feedback on our proposed council priorities and outcomes, we carried out a public consultation during February and March 2023. This included engagement with representative groups with protected characteristics (as defined under the Equality Act). We asked if the priorities and outcomes we had identified in our draft Council Plan were the right areas to focus on and if there were any other things we should include. 

Consultation methods included:

• Online survey on ‘Your Voice’ platform.
• A printed survey available for those unable to engage digitally.
• Engagement with community groups as part of their own regular meetings (e.g. Warm Spaces and other groups supporting people with differing needs).
• A focus group held with Senedd Yr Ifanc Wrecsam/Wrexham Youth Parliament.
• Engagement at community events, with community councils, with Wrexham County Borough Council staff and with trade union representatives. 

Further detail is available in our full consultation report available on our website under the Equality Outcomes section.