Developing catchment partnerships in Merthyr and Ely
The challenge
The Natural Resources Wales People and Places South Central Team wanted to develop Water Catchment Partnerships across the region. The aim was to bring together the organisations operating in the area with remits and duties around the water environment, in order to build and improve the relationships, communication and partnership working. The intention was to realise benefits in terms of opportunities for collaboration, proactive planning, and skills building; however we recognised early on that bringing together busy professionals would be best achieved through an initial focus on specific issues and action taking.
The approach
In February 2022 we adopted a ’60-day challenge’ approach, bringing the regional stakeholders together to explore place-based practical solutions to a challenge common to all of them. The design and facilitation of the working sessions provided the opportunities for collaboration, shared learning and relationship development.
Two working groups were arranged by locality (Merthyr and River Ely) to work in parallel to develop their responses to the challenges on a local footprint. The role of Co-production Lab Wales role was:
- to design and facilitate the sessions with the burgeoning network,
- to equip participants with tools and techniques to work together effectively,
- to provide mentoring and support to the constituent members, and
- to harvest and share the learning generated throughout.
The outcome
By the end of the challenge in May 2022, the groups had made meaningful progress in responding to local issues through gaining experience of working together, developing an infrastructure allowing them to do so, building relationships, and moving towards a more collaborative working culture across the region.
We created a Catchment Partnership toolkit that captures the learning gained throughout the project, and equips the Partnerships to sustain and grow, build participation, and explore further challenges in the future.
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