Ely and Caerau Community Plan

Blog

February 14, 2024

We are gathering together the views of people of all ages across the whole of Ely and Caerau. We want to decide together what we can do to strengthen our community and help each other out. We’re asking:

What do we have?
What do we need?
What do we want to change?

Some of what we identify will be things we can work together to change ourselves. For other things, we will need support from those in power who have the budgets and resources to make change. We’ll use the information we gather to make a community plan for Ely and Caerau, working together with Cardiff Council and the Public Services Board to agree a plan with defined budgets and timescales. We aim to do this by March 2024.

This work is with the support of the Welsh Government, Cardiff Council and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office, who are funding our new Community Engagement Team. It’s a chance for real people living in Ely and Caerau to raise our voices in an organised way, to share our ideas with the people who make decisions about what happens in our community, and be part of making things better for our communities.

ACE does this all the time – listening to our communities and working together to bring positive change. There’s a lot we can do when we join together our strengths, skills, experiences and resources. We want as many people as possible to share their ideas and contribute to this community plan, so please get in touch at communityplan@aceplace.org to have your say, or share your views in our online survey here.

There are a lot of people involved in this work! To find out how the Community Steering Group, the Public Service Board Working Group and the Ministerial Reference Group are working together to co-create the community plan, read more below.

We will do this through 3 groups working together:

1: The Community Steering Group is about 15 people, all of whom live or work in Ely and Caerau. This includes community leaders (e.g. who run a sports or community group), school leaders, faith leaders, etc. The Community Steering Group will meet each month to look at the views of community members that have been gathered by community engagement workers at ACE. They will talk about the common themes that are emerging, the most urgent priorities, and what next steps we might take. As well as looking at how we might strengthen our community through the groups and organisations that already exist here, this group will also make ‘asks’ of the Public Services Board.

2: The Public Service Board working group includes people who have the knowledge and authority to make decisions in key parts of local government, including representatives from Education, Fire, Police, Health, Social Services, etc. They will also meet once a month, including representatives from ACE and Cardiff Council, to look at the views of community members and the recommendations of the Community Steering Group, and work on drafting a Community Plan. They will send their work in progress back to the Community Steering Group, so that we can all work on it together over the coming months.

3: The Ministerial Reference Group is a group selected by the Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, to support the development of the Community Plan for Ely and Caerau. They will be updated on how things are progressing and will support the work however they can. They include representatives from the Police, Education, Health, Cardiff Council, and also people like the Children’s Commissioner for Wales.

ACE – Action in Caerau and Ely are helping to co-ordinate this work, so you will see Becky Matyus, Hywel Squires and Catherine Boult all around Ely and Caerau in the coming months asking people what they think about our communities; what we have, what we need, and what we want to change. We want as many people as possible to share their ideas and contribute to this community plan, so please get in touch at communityplan@aceplace.org