A THREAT to the establishment of a Gwent wide body to support social care has passed after councillors who threatened a holdout backed down.

Monmouthshire County Council’s ruling cabinet had agreed in September to join with the other four councils in Gwent to form a single team to support each authority’s social care workforce and oversee training and qualifications.

However backbench independent and Conservative members of Monmouthshire County Council used “call in powers” to force a second look at the decision.

As a result the council’s people scrutiny committee was able to hear from social services officers, and the cabinet member for social care, Ian Chandler, on why the cabinet had agreed to join with its neighbours to run one Gwent-wide social care workforce development service.

The committee could have referred the decision back to the Labour/Green Party cabinet with reasons why it should reconsider or to the full council to make a decision.

But following the call in meeting seven of its eight members agreed to accept the September decision of the Labour/Green Party cabinet.

Cllr Chandler said there would be no impact on how social care is delivered, or managed by the council locally, and there was no financial saving involved as staff, and the funding for them, would transfer to the new service to be hosted by Caerphilly Borough Council which already operates a partnership with Blaenau Gwent.

The Green Party councillor said: “The workforce development team trains staff and students to go through the accreditation process by Social Care Wales so they can be accredited.”

Cllr Chandler said Monmouthshire and the other councils have small teams dealing with increasingly complex registration and qualification requirements and said: “They can pool resources and specialise in different areas and work more effectively as part of a larger team.”

Independent councillor for Llanelly Hill, Simon Howarth, who had instigated the call in, was the only member to vote against accepting the decision and instead said the decision should be referred back to the cabinet.

He, and several other councillors, said they were unhappy there had only been a limited opportunity to scrutinise the decision before it was taken by the cabinet, after it had been added late to the council’s forward work planner.

Cllr Howarth said the single service had been in the planning since 2024 but said members, and those in other councils, hadn’t been considered in consultations and said: “I find that quite astonishing.”

Independent councillor for Chepstow’s Bulwark and Thornwell ward Sue Riley, who supported the call in, said councillors hadn’t had the opportunity to “properly understand the implications, risks and accountability.”

Social services director Jane Rogers said the service already works across many different partnerships and said they work well.

“There might be a perception larger authorities hold sway in practice that doesn’t appear to be the case,” said Ms Rogers who reminded members Monmouthshire County Council will still be held accountable by Social Care Wales which provides grant funding for workforce development.

Abergavenny Pen y Fal ward councillor Maureen Powell said she is 89 “and I don’t need looking after yet” and supported the council entering the partnership as “we have to think of the people we are providing the service for and not get too parochial.”

Cllr Powell said councillors had to accept finances require closer working together: “In an ideal world Monmouthshire would have plenty of money and run everything itself, sadly that’s not the case and we need to be able to work with other people to get the job done properly.”

Council chief officer Matt Gatehouse also said the authority is a member of many partnerships and if councillors, or officers, aren’t happy with its outcomes “there is always the option to exit built in from the outset.”