Bevan Foundation

rISSUeE 18 WINTEvR 2011 iew

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Please return this form with your payment to: The Bevan Foundation FREEPOST RSHC - XZZU - UTUU The Innovation Centre, Festival Drive, Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, NP23 8XA Contents ISSUE 18 WINTER 2011

2-5 Ian Blair 26-27 Huw Tough on crime, tough on the causes of Vaughan Thomas crime: and tough on those trying to stop it Change and tough choices for public 6-9 Mark Drakeford services Putting money in the pockets of the poorest 28-29 Paul O’Shea Why we are 10-11 Ken Skates striking for our pensions A firm foot on the ladder 30-31 Elin Jones 12-13 Ana Palazón Will Scotland break-up the United Kingdom? Stroke: a human rights issue 32-33 Nick Bourne 14-15 Peter Mackie and Suzanne Fitzpatrick The Silk Commission: devolution’s last word? Homlessness legislation: the landmark review 34-35 Michelle Matheron 16-17 Mike Hedges Voices for change Lessons from further education 36 Fanta Bamba 18-19 Dave Adamson A peaceful life in Wales A polycentric south east Wales 38-39 NEWS

20-22 Mark Barry 40 Find out Connecting the region more about … Walker Smith Way 23-25 Alun Jones From docks to Dr Who

Thanks to Peter Slater for photos. From the Editor

The thread running through all the articles in this issue of Review is “challenge”. From the

challenge to the current devolution settlement raised by Scotland to people’s ability to challenge

the political system, from the challenge facing public finances to the challenges facing the various

public services, and the considerable challenges faced by individuals, families and communities – all this and more is explored admirably by our many distinguished contributors. ‘ ‘‘ The agenda is massive, and despite the numerous calls by contributors for the Bevan Foundation ‘ to address it, we simply do not have enough resources to do so. We are grateful to our members and advertisers for your support to date – but we need more support to take these critical issues forward. Please help the Bevan Foundation to make an impact by encouraging others to support us as well. Victoria Winckler Director

1 C RIME AND JUSTICE

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime: and tough on those trying to stop it

Ian Blair , Lord of Boughton, former Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and member of the Bevan Foundation, questions the proposed reforms to policing and argues for a longer view to tackle the problems of anti-social behaviour and crime.

2 Bevan Foundation review n 1993, an until then little-known shadow Home constabulary and magistracy, working with the Secretary, one Tony Blair, stole the issue of law agencies and agents of social cohesion, the Iand order from the Conservatives by his churches, the housing associations and the trade recognition that crime mattered to the working unions, together with the caretakers, park-keepers, class and with a clarion declaration of the need to bus conductors and families, would prevail. be ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of The first blow to this was the Miners’ Strike, crime’. which many interpreted as the police becoming In the 16 years that have followed, crime, anti- more of a national, London-driven institution than social behaviour and criminal justice have become one in tune with community concerns. But even centre stage of British politics in a way which after that, a consensus existed at a parliamentary would have been anathema just a decade before. and local government level that matters were best Perhaps only the economy as a whole and, to a dealt with in a non-party way. Even as the Miners’ lesser degree, education and war have occupied so Strike was in progress, two contrasting events are many column inches and are talked about anything instructive. Early in the decade, there was much like so much on the doorsteps. It is not surprising public concern over a higher- that the Coalition Government has decided to than-normal number of legislate about some of these issues: it is, however, neonatal deaths at ....the basic facts unfortunate that its flagship in this policy area, the Birmingham Children’s remain that most Police and Social Responsibility Bill, has at its heart Hospital. In an acrimonious ‘criminals come the creation of directly elected Police and Crime debate in the House of from socially and Commissioners, a strategy to which the strongest Commons, the then health educationally of objections have been mounted by local secretary was forced to deprived authorities (including Wales, where even the view defend his position after being backgrounds. of the Assembly has been overridden). accused of not doing enough There are four interlinked issues: policing and its to address the problem. A accountability structures, the handling of anti- short while later, West social behaviour, the local face of criminal justice Midlands Police accidentally shot a toddler dead and the way all three are portrayed in the media. I during an armed raid. In contrast to the health will deal with each in turn but the important point case, there was no political disagreement over the I would seek to make is that they are all interlinked – and all interlinked by issues of class and social exclusion. For the basic facts remain that most criminals come from socially and educationally deprived backgrounds, as the data on those arrested in the riots proves beyond doubt, and that the political and media debate about what should be done about them, to them and for them has polarised over the last two decades between a model essentially concerned with crime control and one concerned with diversion and reparation. After the Second World War, it was possible to discern a meeting of the minds between One Nation Toryism and old Labour. There were two broad agreements, first, that matters of law and order were not amenable to party politicking and, second, that most offending, if dealt with a proper mixture of social deference and intelligent interference, would be grown out of. A local

3 A whole series of present policies ‘point to the likelihood of the failure of integrated position adopted by the then creation of the idea of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders intervention. Home Secretary: that this was an by Labour was an acknowledgement of this, as the operational matter for the local opposition to them by both the Libertarian Right chief constable – a very serious and Liberal Left went on to prove. matter indeed, but not one for The dreadful case of Sarah Pilkington near party politics. The same position would have been Leicester was the nadir of how difficult all adopted by almost all police committees, as police this can be. At its heart was the sustained authorities were then called: whatever the bullying of a single parent with two children persuasion of the majority party on the with learning difficulties at the hands of a committees, there was a consensus that party gang, a significant member of which was a politics should be left at the door of the meeting child also with such difficulties, at the same when it came to policing. special school as the two victims. The police Enter Tony Blair. It was as shadow Home were called repeatedly to deal with what Secretary in 1993 that he pledged to be “tough on were, individually, petty acts of spiteful crime, tough on the causes of crime”. Speaking in vandalism: they failed to pick up the the aftermath of the murder of the toddler James pattern, probably because they did not see Bulger, Blair wanted to take back policing as an it as a ‘policing’ problem. In that they were issue from the Conservatives. (The Tories believed partially right: this was a case crying out for that policing, like defence, was their natural integrated action by housing, social services possession.) What followed was a bidding war over and education. The result was that Fiona toughness between Blair and the Home Secretary, burnt herself and her daughter alive. Michael Howard. The part about being “tough on A whole series of present policies point the causes of crime” was lost as anti-social to the likelihood of this failure of behaviour and violent crime, and how draconian integrated intervention, this failure of you could be in dealing with them, moved centre localism, this failure to understand the stage in British politics for the first time. And there balance between criminal sanction and they have stayed ever since. Behind the politicians supportive reaction being likely to be came the right-wing press, highlighting gruesome repeated in the years ahead. And the crimes, urging ‘Sarah’s law’ and demonising the awfulness of it all is the failure to look at hoodie. No one outdid the red-top end of the the bigger picture: what is desperately Murdoch empire and its influence remains, despite needed is a long, dispassionate look at the events surrounding phone-hacking. By 2007, a the way in which the agencies involved in MORI poll found that crime was ‘bigger source of interaction with these wicked issues concern for Britons than the citizens of any should work together. There are models equivalent western European nation and even the available. The MAPPA process which United States’. brings together probation, local Meanwhile, on almost any measure, crime had authorities and police in the monitoring of been falling since 1993. Levels of violent crime in potentially dangerous offenders being released into England and Wales are very similar to those in the community is one, as is the integrated other major European countries. And this is where response to children at risk. anti-social behaviour emerged as a new description However, the Coalition government resolutely of an old problem. Hoodies are a new phrase for declines to take heed of those lessons. Along with hooligans, for rockers and mods, for thugs: they the Prison Service, the Probation Service remains are part of most developed societies. Most of what part of the National Offender Management Service they do is not easily amenable to pure criminal (NOMS), instead of being more closely connected justice intervention. Most of it stems from poor with local social services and the police. The police parenting, low self-esteem and inadequate are faced with the introduction in November 2012 educational and career opportunities. Most of it is – in Wales as well as England, despite opposition grown out of but while it lasts its impact on local from the Welsh Assembly, as well as the House of communities and, in particular, their most Lords – of directly elected Police and Crime vulnerable members, is profoundly dispiriting. The Commissioners, elected on a mandate not to deal

4 Bevan Foundation review Anti-social behaviour is a new ‘description of an old problem ... its impact on local communities is with issues at a local level but at the level of profoundly current police force size, which will give one dispiriting. elected politician the interesting balancing act of representing the different concerns of the publics, say, of Wrexham, Flintshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey or of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, with all the attendant risks of popularism and the tyranny of majority views. Meanwhile, local magistrates courts are being closed. However, perhaps the most obviously lost opportunity is the U- turn over short sentence prisoners. On the basis of an apparently Damascene conversion, the Ministry of Justice had proposed dramatically to reduce the number of prisoners serving short – and therefore usually useless – custodial sentences. Hopes rose that these would be replaced by the kind of Intensive Alternative to Custody schemes being piloted with huge success by the very same Ministry of Justice. These schemes involve real toughness: a mixture of help with literacy and numeracy, with parenting and interview skills, combined with randomly enforced curfews, drug and alcohol testing, attendance centres and restorative conferencing, succeeded in being both successful at getting people into employment and being seen by those on them as being part of a tougher regime than being in prison. Their funding is discontinued and no reduction in sentencing tariffs will now happen. All these things are complex. All these things are essentially local. All these things take time. Perhaps the convulsions over phone-hacking will shift both politicians and media away from simplistic solutions to complex problems. Perhaps the Big Society will bloom. Perhaps the Bevan Foundation will be able to set an agenda for social justice in Wales that will be an inspiration worthy of its founder’s name. Perhaps. We have to keep trying. But what we really need is some kind of Royal Commission to take the kind of long view that the government seems unable to contemplate.

5 PO VERTY Putting money in the pockets of the

6 Bevan Foundation review the poorest

With the prospects for eradicating poverty looking increasingly remote, Mark Drakeford , Assembly Member for Cardiff West, questions the focus on work as the solution and suggests that the ‘social wage’ is a better option for helping people on low incomes.

he recent report on Poverty and Social number of both workless and partworking Exclusion in Wales (Joseph Rowntree families. Full-working (where all adults have a TFoundation 2011) makes sobering reading. It full-time job or, in couple families, where one confirms a picture which has become clearer over has a full-time job and the other a part-time the recent past. The first half of the Blair decade, one) will become the norm. between 1997 and 2002 were years of Four different reasons occur to me as casting considerable progress in reducing poverty amongst doubt on the feasibility and desirability of families with children and pensioner households. setting out in this policy direction. Unemployed childless people of working age, The first lies in the inimical nature of however, did very badly; slipping between the contemporary economic policy to such a goal. cracks of the New Labour mantra of ‘work for For more than twenty years, Britain has those who can, security for those who can’t’. embraced a supply side approach to job- Then, in the second half of the Blair premiership, creation, explaining unemployment not as a progress stalled for children and pensioners, while shortage of jobs, but as a shortage of skills. The the incomes of unemployed people without 2011 JRF Report traces the substantial success children continued to become further and further of raising skill levels within the Welsh population detached from those of the community around of working age. Yet rising levels of worklessness, them. especially amongst young people where the Now, in post-2008 austerity Britain, this year’s improvements in qualification levels are report provides an account, not of progress stalled, concentrated, demonstrate the limitation in this but of progress reversed. Across a raft of ‘one club’ approach to employment policy. The indicators, the position of disadvantaged groups is Welsh economy needs a demand-side, as well as worsening, even as cuts in social welfare provision a supply-side, approach to job creation. The have only just begun to gather pace. Welsh Government’s commitment to a young In presenting the report, its main author, Peter people’s Job Fund is a welcome step in that Kenway of the New Policy Institute, suggested that direction, but the macro-economic climate a radical new policy direction is needed in Wales if remains unhelpful and often directly hostile to the targets for child poverty reduction are to be job creation on the scale which the Kenway met. His analysis concentrated on the relationship prescription would require. between work and poverty. In the New Labour Secondly, even if jobs could be created, other lexicon, work was always meant to pay and to policies currently being pursued at Westminster provide families with the best route out of poverty. will mean that more people will be in pursuit of In practice, for families with only one earner this is them. Raising the pension retirement age has a a relationship which does not hold good. In direct effect in increasing the number of people Kenway’s contention: needing work. Reducing eligibility for long-term …higher level of parental employment necessary to sickness and incapacity benefits is being put into approach the target requires reductions in the practice by reviewing existing Incapacity Benefit

7 The link between economic growth ‘and individual prosperity has been broken.

claimants against the Work Capability Assessment lifted by the tide, but to ride it further and faster process. Citizens Advice Scotland report that fully than others. 66% of those undergoing the assessment are Now, however, something more fundamental found ‘fit for work’, and thus propelled into the appears to have taken place, so that even on its job market. Against that background, a child own terms , the metaphor appears to have broken poverty reduction strategy which relies upon down. According to the TUC and others, since having more people in work seems less like rolling about 2005 in the United Kingdom (but since a stone uphill than attempting to run up a 1975 in the United States) a ‘great dislocation’ downward escalator, itself getting faster and faster. appears to be occurring, in which the benefits of Thirdly, the strategy has to be tested against economic growth are concentrated amongst those emerging evidence of one other major change in already in the best financial position, while those in the British economy. Ever since the foundation of the bottom two-thirds of the distribution have no the welfare state, at least, competing economic share in it at all. The link between economic theories have had one essential thread in common. growth and individual prosperity has been broken. Whether it be Keynesian demand management, Those families who need to step-up the level of Thatcherite monetarism, or the ‘trickle-down’ of their economic activity in order to avoid poverty Reaganomics, each believed that, as economies are, we know, most likely to do so through grew, so growth would produce benefits for the employment in the low-wage economy. If, whole of the working population. Some would get however, such jobs no longer bring a share in better off faster than others, but all would share in increased prosperity, then they will do little to close the fruits of growth – a rising tide would float all the gap between children in such families and boats. Those of us interested in policies which do those whose incomes enjoy real-terms increases. something for those living in poverty rightly tend Fourthly, we must ask if this is the sort of society to join this debate by asking about what happens we wish to produce. Conventional policy analysis to those who have no boats, and simply get left of the post-Thatcher period has divided the stranded on the shore. Moreover, to make an population into the ‘work rich and cash poor’, on inroad into relative poverty, those at the bottom the one hand, and the ‘cash rich and time poor’ end of income distribution have not only to be on the other. Families were either working very hard, materially well off, but with very little free time, or were without work, materially badly off, but with lots of time at their disposal. The danger must be that a strategy of lifting families out of poverty by increasing their participation in low-paid, real-terms-static work will produce a generation of households which are both cash poor and time poor at one and the same time. There are many important arguments advanced by feminists, and others, which highlight the ways in which ‘care’ work goes unrecognised in capitalist economics. As well as concerns at the financial efficiency of a work-based strategy, there are serious questions to be asked (as, to

8 Bevan Foundation review be clear, does and so on; and they leave cash which otherwise the Report itself) would have had to be spent, in the pockets of the about its social user. And, to echo a favourite saying of the founder consequences. of the welfare state, William Beveridge, a pound left Clearly, it is in the pocket of a poor person does more good than not enough the same pound left in the pocket of someone who simply to be has less need of it. critical of the To the four objections to a work-based strategy, policy proposals outlined earlier, a fifth might now be added. Such an which the 2011 approach, inevitably, creates a rift between those in Report puts work, and those without it. New Labour attempted forward. to finesse this distinction with its slogan of ‘work for Without some those who can; security for those who can’t’. There change in were many policy successes which travelled under direction, as its authors very persuasively that banner, and an investment in ‘making work pay’ demonstrate, the current highly unacceptable which puts the benefit cutbacks being forced levels of poverty in Wales will only grow still through by the current Westminster coalition to further. What, then, might we do instead? At this shame. Yet they still produced, as a matter of policy, point, it is important to remind ourselves that the a severe deterioration in the relative poverty of JRF report is one into both poverty and social unemployed single people, and childless couples, of exclusion – and that these terms are not identical. working age. Peter Kenway, in a different, 2009, Of course, poor people are more likely to be research paper for the JRF concluded that Job socially excluded, and the socially excluded are Seeker’s Allowance, in such circumstances was now more likely to be poor. But that isn’t necessarily so. worth only half of what it was 30 years ago, relative My contention is that, since 1999, successive to the average level of consumption. ‘By contrast’, as Assembly governments have used the devolved he notes, ‘over the previous 30 years (that is, from powers available to concentrate on the latter, the foundation of the welfare state in 1948 up to rather than the former condition. The major levers 1978), JSA’s predecessor maintained its value relative for conquering or creating poverty lie at to the average level of consumption’. Similar Westminster. In the Assembly’s hands are the policy objections might be made on behalf of those for possibilities which address social exclusion and whom a work-based strategy has little to offer, which, when skilfully designed, can have some because of long-term sickness and disability. impact on poverty, too. In some ways, it has been By contrast, the social wage approach has the merit an attempt to recapture some of the policy ground of reaching everyone, regardless of work status. It which, back in the 1970s, when Barbara Castle narrows, rather than widens the gap between those was Secretary of State at the DHSS, was called the who are in-work and out-of-work poor. Of course, ‘social wage’ – policies pursued by the government such an approach does not match what could be which had a ‘cash equivalent’ impact on the achieved by a government committed to incomes of poorest families. redistribution on the one hand, and a demand-side What examples are there already of such policies strategy for dealing with unemployment based on in post-1999 Wales? The list is extensive and living wages, and a narrowed gap between those at familiar: free entry to museums and galleries, free the bottom and top of income distributions on the prescriptions, free breakfasts in primary schools, other. Those waiting for the arrival of such a nirvana, free swimming in local authority leisure centres for however, may well be at the bus stop for quite some children, in holidays and at weekends, free parking time. In the meanwhile, the Assembly can do more in hospitals, free bus travel for pensioners and than strategise and wring its hands. Welsh people with disabilities, fee levels for Welsh Governments have already demonstrated a practical students held at the original £3000 level, council commitment to putting in place measures which tax levels one-third below the English average. reduce social exclusion and put money in the pockets My argument is that each of these measures of the poorest. serves a dual purpose: they reach out to citizens Now is the time to make more use of a policy lever who might, otherwise, not be able to afford access which is economically efficient, socially just and in to services in culture, transport, education, health our own hands, here in Wales.

9 CHIL DREN

people leave the care system and begin the process of setting up for a life on their own at just 18 or sometimes, very worryingly indeed, at an even younger age. When this goes wrong the cost to the state can often be enormous in later life because these individuals are ill-equipped to deal with the transition to independence. Good evidence exists which suggests that those young people who leave care at an earlier age tend to struggle in their later lives and have a higher instance of substance abuse, homelessness, unemployment and poorer educational attainment – indeed these young people Ken Skates , Assembly do less well with their careers generally. This is why, Member for Clwyd South, when the Assembly asked for Members to submit won the new Assembly’s ideas for the first private members ballot since the first ballot to bring forward Assembly took on its new powers, extending the backbench legislation – period in which a young person can stay in care was one area where I felt the Assembly, in here he explains why he’s partnership with the Welsh Government, could have chosen the support given to a really positive influence. children leaving care at age For a worrying number of people leaving care, 18 as the subject of his Bill. their young adult lives are characterised by drift and impermanence. Professor Ian Sinclair describes leaving as ‘ the Achilles heel ’ of the care system. Whatever good work has been done by a range of dedicated and often very committed professionals in A firm foot the system up to that point is often lost because young people find themselves without the skills base to make the successful transition to managing their adult lives. on the ladder The aim of my Bill will be to try and help level the playing field for young people in care approaching the age of 18 and apply the same standards to them f you think back to the time when you left home, as we do to children that are not in care. Each child the chances are that for those of us lucky enough is different and will need their own tailored and Ito have grown up in a stable and loving family, phased support, but the Bill could allow care place- there was no big day of fleeing the family nest. ments to continue, possibly up until the age of 25. Leaving home often comes in phases and we go on Not only is supporting ‘looked-after’ children in to benefit from it emotionally, psychologically and their transition from care the right and just thing to financially, or simply from just being able to ‘pop do, but it also makes prudent economic sense on back on the weekend,’ for many years afterwards. behalf of the Welsh taxpayer. In their recent report The security of knowing that we can count on ‘In Loco Parentis ’, the think-tank Demos mapped someone for support if things don’t go to plan is out the cost to the taxpayer of the transition/post- vital to the transition to adult life for every young care journeys of two children, living outside London, person and part of the reason why the average age and examined their cost to the state from age 16 to of leaving home for most young people in the UK is 30. The child who stayed in care until she was 18, now 24. went on to university and secured a graduate job Yet in Wales in 2011 some of our most fragile, cost the state £20,119 by the age of 30. However a our most vulnerable and our most damaged young second child who left care at sixteen and a half cost

10 Bevan Foundation review Ensuring we as corporate parents provide the the state £111,923 as a result of unemployment, of child protection, ‘ stability and underemployment and mental health problems. strengthening the support necessary That means that with a little extra investment up voice of children in the to our young front, between the ages of 16 and age 30 there national debate and people to enable was a cost saving to the state of £91,804 on just raising overall them to get a one child in care. standards of care. In firm footing as It’s an attempt to address the negative spending terms of care-leavers they begin their cycle that the public sector can often find itself in: lots of good work has adult lives. been done in making sure we stay in touch GREATER LEVELS OF PUBLIC with care-leavers past SPENDING ON PROBLEMS the age of 18, but the fact remains, as the ASSOCIATED WITH FAILED Children’s Commissioner has pointed out in his TRANSITIONS recent report ‘ Lost in Care ’, this support is often LESS RESPOURCES patchy across Wales and we need to be doing more. AVAILABLE TO SPEND ON My hope is that we can construct a Bill that will LOOKED AFETR ensure that where care has successfully achieved WORSENING SOCIAL CHILDREN/CARE LEAVERS stability for a ‘looked-after’ child, this success is not OUTCOMES BECAUSE CARE LEAVERS ARE ILL EQUIPPED lost because the young person is obliged to leave TO DEAL WITH ADULT LIFE care on reaching 18 years old. It would seek to replace the abrupt ‘cliff edge’ ending of care with gradual phases tailored to the individual young Some very interesting work has already been done person’s needs until the age of 25. in this area. In 2008 the UK Government set up the Where placement stability has not been achieved ‘Staying Put ’ pilots, which began in eleven local by the time the young person wishes to leave care, authorities in England in July 2008 and was the objective is to secure as much continuity as is targeted at assisting young people who had possible in the life of that young person by established relationships with their foster carers and enhancing current requirements for continuing offered help and support to allow them to remain contact and support until the age of 25. there until they reached 21. The results of the three- Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s year pilot is currently being looked at, but some Young People in Transition programme has shown promising early results have been noted. that with the collapse in the youth job market, The key thing to recognise here is that this is rising house prices and extension of further and about enabling young people to build on and higher education young people need more support nurture attachments to their carers, so that they can into their early 20s than they used to. It is ironic make the same phased transition to independence that as society changes in this way we are asking as those of us lucky enough to have families to rely the very people that lack this sort of family network on for support. For me this is about as big a social to cope all on their own at a much younger age. justice issue as I can think of – ensuring we as One key thing to note, however, is that this Bill, if corporate parents provide the stability and support it gets the support of colleagues, will not be a silver necessary to our young people to enable them to bullet. When it comes to tackling the problems get a firm footing as they begin their adult lives. ‘looked-after’ children and care-leavers face, there This isn’t an attempt to trap young people in a are no magic solutions. Many of the problems cycle of care into their twenties that holds them ‘looked-after’ children face as they leave care come back from making an effective transition to adult as a result of the mental health conditions, life – successful transition must reflect young instability, poor educational attainment and people’s views about the timing of their moves to emotional problems faced from a disrupted care greater independence. journey, therefore this issue has to be examined in It’s important to note here that many local the round. What it can do, however, is provide a authorities across Wales do a very good job on a better framework of support for care-leavers that day-to-day basis in terms of ‘looked-after’ children ensures they are not left to drown in the sea of new and supporting care leavers. From where we were responsibilities and daunting challenges thrown up ten years ago solid progress has been made in terms by their sudden drop into adult life.

11 H EALTH AN D SO CIAL CARE Stroke a human rights issue

Stroke is a non- communicable disease that affects thousands of people in Wales. It is also a social justice and human rights matter, says Ana Palazón , Director of the Stroke Association in Wales.

troke is a cerebrovascular disease and forms numerous chronic conditions. One third will be left part of the main non-communicable diseases with communication difficulties, including severe Ssuch as cardio-vascular and respiratory ones such as Aphasia. diseases, diabetes and cancer. Non communicable Time plays a critical factor in the clinical treatment diseases have risen to cause over 60 per cent of of strokes. It is vitally important that all (even deaths globally, and this figure is projected to rise. suspected) strokes be treated as a medical Yet, most non-communicable diseases are both emergency to save lives and to ensure injury to the preventable and treatable. brain is stopped and brain function is preserved. A stroke is a brain attack which can happen at So what does stroke have to do with social justice any age. It is the interruption of blood supply to a and human rights? part of the brain causing brain cells to be damaged It is well known that non-communicable diseases or killed. There are two causes of strokes; a are linked to a number of risk factors and haemorrhagic stroke, also known as a brain associated socio-economic determinants of health; haemorrhage; when a blood vessel bursts and with low income and marginalised populations bleeds into the brain. The other cause is an being the most affected. Tackling health inequalities ischemic stroke; resulting from a blockage (or clot) is central to achieving social justice and it is in this in the artery that carries blood to the brain. context that stroke policy, as one of the most Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in prevalent non-communicable diseases, must be the UK, including Wales and it is the third, soon to examined. become the second most common cause of adult Whilst stroke related deaths have reduced in mortality across Europe. 11,000 new strokes Wales, hypertension (or high blood pressure, the happen every year in Wales. About a third of those main risk factor leading to stroke) remains as a affected are likely to die within the first two dominant characteristic of the more socio- weeks. About a third of stroke survivors are likely economically disadvantaged communities in Wales. to make a recovery within a month and about a It is widely recognised that the prevention and third will live with moderate to severe, life-long reduction of non-communicable diseases requires a disabilities, often requiring specialist and long-term life course approach. As, for example, a support. Stroke survivors experience complex and predisposition to high blood pressure can be caused

12 Bevan Foundation review by poor nutrition during gestation and infancy, as is and the wider emotional and existential needs of ve ry much the case in developing countries. stroke survivors, many of whom contemplate an However, there are other life style factors that are immediate future of despair, may well be ignored strongly linked to high blood pressure such as because of a severe lack of specialists and patchy overuse of alcohol, regular smoking, high levels of rehabilitation services. stress, lack of exercise and poor nutrition, part icularly Most stroke survivors undergo challenging and from foods high in saturated fats and salt. transformative journeys from which they need to Age is another risk factor linked to stroke. This is emerge with dignity and self-determination. Yet, because high blood pressure, clogging of the many stroke survivors have to cope unsupported, arteries and Atrial fibrillation become more or are moved from their own homes and prevalent as the individual ages. With Wales having unnecessarily admitted into residential care. The the highest proportion of people aged fifty and medical stance must therefore be incorporated into over in the UK and, with many of the oldest living a wider and more balanced context where the below the recognised threshold of relative poverty, many attitudinal and systemic barriers that impede stroke should be, and is now, a matter of priority the social inclusion of stroke survivors can be for Wales. removed. In Wales stroke has been a ministerial priority An effective approach requires a co-ordinated since 2008. Indeed, addressing health inequalities and holistic input from a wide range of therapies has become the ‘cornerstone’ of the Welsh and services provided by both statutory and third Government’s health policy for the coming decade. sectors. Most importantly, it requires all involved to However, it took stern criticism by the Royal understand, from stroke survivors themselves, what College of Physicians in 2007 condemning stroke the solutions may be. Stroke policy must adopt a care in Wales as badly lagging behind other parts human rights-based approach where stroke of the UK, with stroke patients dying or surviving survivors are no longer viewed merely as patients with high levels of disability. The pressure was or service users, but as participating citizens, as maintained by the subsequent inquiry into stroke individuals in their own right, with their own services conducted by the National Assembly’s human histories and social needs, hopes and Health and Wellbeing Committee in 2009. aspirations. If stroke survivors are to regain control The present Health and Social Services and self-determination, with dignity and the The social Minister has commendably maintained stroke certainty that their future life after stroke is worth inclusion and care as a priority. This stance has achieved living, the interface between the individual and ‘complex long- notable and much welcome improvements. service provision must be determined by human term needs of However, these have been limited to rights principles: the right to a family life, the right stroke survivors treatment at the acute phase of the disease. to dignified treatment, the right to express one’s are highly Whilst clinical intervention at this stage is opinions and not be discriminated against. unlikely to be indisputably essential in saving lives and Political rhetoric needs to translate into reality met through preventing the onset on long-term disability, through a more strategic and concerted effort by medical many of the rehabilitation and long-term all agencies. When the possibility of making a intervention needs of stroke survivors remain by and large recovery from a stroke depends on the perennial unmet. disjuncture of two of the major components of our alone. Arguably, this is the result of two causes. welfare system; namely health and social care - not First, despite the prioritisation of stroke care to mention housing, education and employment, it over two governmental administrations, there makes the prospects of a life worth living after has been a lack of investment to match the level of stroke remote in the extreme. need across Wales; a pattern that is unlikely to Any significant change will require making change in the current financial climate. Second, choices about financial investment and the leadership for the implementation of the national rethinking of institutional structures. It will require stroke programme has been placed solely in the not only the breaking down of the monolithic hands of the NHS. However, albeit the admirable walls that have traditionally divided the Capulet improvements in clinical care, the social inclusion NHS from the Montague Social Care provision. It and complex long-term needs of stroke survivors may also necessitate the Welsh Government are highly unlikely to be met through medical exercising its newly-acquired legislative powers to intervention alone. bring together a union of the two services. The Without a shift in approach sizeable parts of question remains as to whether the forthcoming Wales will continue without any access to services, Social Care Bill will herald this feared, but long- where the full re-integration into a ‘normal life’ awaited, marriage.

13 HOUSING

A radical overhaul of n the Welsh Government’s Ten Year Homelessness legislation on homelessness Plan 2009-2019 there is a commitment to review homelessness legislation in Wales with the aim of is in prospect – Peter Mackie I ensuring legal powers are used most effectively to and Suzanne Fitzpatrick , of meet policy goals of preventing homelessness and Cardiff and Herriot-Watt where prevention is not possible, delivering swift Universities outline their and appropriate service responses. In October 2011 review of the options. Cardiff University, together with Swansea and Heriot-Watt Universities, as well as the Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD), were commissioned to undertake this review. This article introduces the structure of the landmark research and sets out how people might contribute their ideas. Since devolution in 1999 the Welsh Government Homelessness legislation in Wales: the landmark review

14 Bevan Foundation review has demonstrated its interest and commitment to North America. Equally, the It is timely improving the homelessness legislation in Wales. review will explore recent that Welsh The Priority Need (Homelessness) (Wales) Order experiences in Scotland, Government 2001 broadened the categories of people to be England and France, the only ‘ should revisit its considered in priority need, a change that other countries where approach significantly increased the number of people who enforceable rights to settled towards approached and were given support by local accommodation exist. homelessness authorities and their partners. The Homelessness The second stage of the given the (Suitability of Accommodation) (Wales) Order 2006 research aims to develop limitations of the set out minimum standards for temporary proposals for an improved legislation and accommodation in Wales and resulted in a decrease legislative framework in Wales. current social in the use of inappropriate forms of Bed and Three mechanisms will be used and economic Breakfast. These legislative changes have been to engage key stakeholders in conditions. accompanied by significant progress in the housing its development. Firstly, people options and homelessness prevention agendas (e.g. interested and involved in family mediation for young people threatened with homelessness policy will be homelessness, advice for prison leavers, and invited to attend one of three regional events being schemes to enable those experiencing domestic held in January 2012. At these events the findings abuse to remain safely in their homes) which of the preliminary research will be presented with operate largely outside of the legislation and the aim of providing a better understanding of the together they have resulted in a markedly different limits of the existing system, whilst also generating approach towards addressing homelessness in Wales ideas for improvements. Stakeholder discussion post-devolution. groups will then consider: Despite real improvements in Wales, a recent • What role should the law play in homelessness preliminary study commissioned by the Welsh prevention? Government revealed that, according to many key • Who should be supported under homelessness stakeholders, there are some notable deficiencies in legislation? the current legislation, although there is no clear • What duties should there be when someone is consensus on what these are. A key question homeless and who should be responsible to inevitably emerges – how might homelessness be intervene? addressed more effectively at a time of lessening • How can the implementation of homelessness resources, and what role should legislation play? legislation be improved? Given the apparent limitations of the legislation and Follow-up interviews will then be conducted with the current social and economic conditions which key people and an online survey will enable a wider are likely to result in increased levels of range of people to contribute their ideas. Initial homelessness in Wales, it is timely that Welsh options for an improved legislative framework will Government should revisit its approach towards then be published in February 2012. dealing with the long-standing social issue. It seems The final stage of the review will assess the logical to focus initially on the legislation which impacts of the alternative options by considering forms the central pillar of Wales’s approach. who would be able to access support (and who Moreover, the Welsh Government now has the would not), the likely nature of their experiences, necessary legislative powers to act efficiently on any and the broad implications for resources. These recommendations for change. findings would then be compared to the early The Wales review is being conducted in three report on the impacts of the existing framework, stages. The preliminary stage will explore the resulting in a much stronger evidence base to impacts of current homelessness legislation, inform the future of homelessness policy in Wales. providing a baseline against which any proposed The final report is due to be published in July 2012 improvements can be assessed; it will consider who and whilst the outcomes of the review cannot be is currently accessing support (and who is not), the predicted, it is certainly reasonable to claim that it nature of their experiences, and the broad and the subsequent decisions of the Minister will implications for resources. The UK as a whole has a constitute an important landmark in efforts to far greater emphasis on ‘enforceable’ legal rights for address homelessness in Wales. homeless people than any other country in the The review team are keen to involve as many developed world, hence the early stage of the people as possible in the research. To find out how review also aims to draw lessons from alternative, you might get involved please visit the review non rights-based, approaches across Europe and website: www.cplan.cf.ac.uk/homelessness.

15 EDUC ATIO N

Mike Hedges , Assembly Member for Swansea East, argues that the experience of change in further education shows there is more to success than the mergers and independence now proposed for other sectors.

f there is one sector of education in Wales which can claim to have been used for a series of Istructural experiments, further education (FE) is Lessons it. Amongst the recent major initiatives proposed for the education sector in Wales are the mergers of from several higher education (HE) institutions, proposed by the Minister for Education and Skills, and for schools to be directly funded by the Welsh Government and to have control over the further curriculum, which has been suggested by the Conservatives. The Further Education sector in Wales has gone through similar changes since colleges became education incorporated institutions in 1993, leaving the control of local authorities and becoming separate bodies responsible solely to a governing body. FE mergers have been a major feature of the FE system ever since. There are currently nine further education colleges, two fully tertiary colleges, five

16 Bevan Foundation review part-tertiary colleges, one Catholic sixth form Wales? Funding mechanisms and the inspection college, one adult residential college and two process put pressure on colleges to provide courses specialist institutions; this number being a that have excellent retention and attainment rates substantial reduction from the number of colleges and which lend themselves to the teaching process and institutions that were created by the Further favoured by Estyn Inspectors. Subjects and courses and Higher Education Act 1992. The Education that will benefit the Welsh economy can at times and Skills Minister, Leighton Andrews AM, has be neglected in this process. already hinted that further mergers may take place What “incorporation status” has also meant is a over the next few years. This is a proposal of which huge increase in the administrative staff within I am in total favour of. But in doing so we need to colleges, including finance and human resources look at whether previous mergers have worked, departments, generated to fill the gap left by the and whether they have worked to benefit the central administrative staff employed by local students that attend these institutions? authorities prior to incorporation. We have also My view is shaped having worked as a lecturer at seen the loss of subject advisers and support for Pontypridd College at the time of its merger with newly-qualified lecturing staff from outside the Rhondda and Aberdare, and as a Governor of college structure. This has had the effect of both Swansea College at the time of its merger with increasing non-teaching staff numbers within Gorseinon College. Many of those who have seen colleges and leaving some change up close would agree that a merger is best specialist lecturers isolated. when it is between two successful colleges (known As somebody from an We can do as a ‘Class A merger’) rather than between a educational background, I very things successful institution and a financially challenged much regret the ending of a differently in institution that has to merge for survival. When standard staff contract and ‘Wales, such as such mergers take place, it’s imperative that the grading system; however I do providing management and good practice of the stronger welcome the proposal to have financial institution takes over the new institution. What we a common contract including support for do not want is to see the weaker institution taking teaching hours and salary grade students. over the stronger with the resulting diminution of throughout Wales as existed standards. More mergers of colleges need to be pre-1982. either a merger of equals or involve a stronger We can do things differently college bringing a weaker one up to its standard. in Wales, such as providing financial support for It’s also worth reminding ourselves that further students in the form of both the Education education colleges in Wales have the autonomy to Maintenance Allowances (EMA) and the Assembly set their curriculum, just as the Conservatives want Learning Grants (ALG). In England, educational for all primary and secondary schools in Wales. grants have unfortunately been scrapped by the However, the downside of this autonomy is that UK Coalition Government which in turn has led to there is no overall strategy in place to ensure that almost half of England’s further education colleges all further education institutions provide a broad seeing a decline in student numbers. A recent curriculum. In certain parts of Wales some Association of Colleges survey showed that 49% of students, for example, cannot study motor vehicle- colleges have fewer students than last year. Fiona related subjects or become full-time GCSE McMillan, President of the Association of Colleges students, which in turn has an effect on their and principal of Bridgwater College, is on the ability to access any financial assistance, such as record as saying: Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA). ‘It is particularly the poorest students, with the Not providing a full range of GCSE subjects can lowest skill levels, who are not enrolling. These mean that some 14 to 16 year olds educated youngsters are the most vulnerable to the loss of outside the typical school environment do not get financial support…..with practical barriers such as the opportunity to complete a full GCSE the cost of bus fares being enough to deter programme. From my experience, many of the applicants. We know of students who cannot students who have stopped attending school are afford to get to college.’ either victims of bullying or school refuseniks and Schemes like EMA and ALG gave students from as such are denied the same opportunity as their low-income backgrounds a chance regardless of peers to study and pass a wide variety of GCSEs. their circumstances: a person’s financial situation We also need to face up to over-demand for should not be a barrier to accessing education. The popular subjects such as hairdressing and ask just Welsh Government is to be commended for this how many trained hairdressers do we need in policy divergence.

17 REG ENERATION AND EMPLO YMEN T

history when recession makes the background issues of the region even more intractable. Currently, I hear echoes of this view in terms such as ‘managing decline’, a euphemism for allowing the valleys to succumb to the economic pull of the coastal region and the unemployment push of the valleys economy. In this ‘Detroit’ solution, perfectly mobile labour follows the available work. I have some deep- seated moral objections to this view. Firstly it renders human labour to the status of a commodity to be bought and sold at will and to be relocated geographically at the whim of international capital. Secondly, it denies the working class population the right to belong to a place and cherish the heritage and sense of community they have created. The alternative is to find an economic repurposing for the Valleys which returns them to economic A polycentric prosperity and social viability. Much has been made of the concept of the ‘city region’ where nodes of economic growth in Europe have been identified at south east a regional level where a major city has played a pivotal role in driving the wider economy. There is much that is attractive in this model of development and the Welsh Government has established a Task Wales Group to explore its potential for Wales. However, in the political context of South East Professor Dave Adamson , Wales there has been a barrier to adopting this Director of the Centre for approach. The term ‘city region’ implies a hierarchy in which the city is ascendant. It implies that the city Regeneration Excellence is the growth node which pulls behind it the wider Wales, asks what the hinterland which serves largely as a dormitory area ‘city region’ idea has to and labour source. It suggests that the city should offer the Heads of the be the focus of resource allocation and economic Valleys and identifies development opportunities as it offers the only real some ways that valleys potential for growth. It is this understanding of the city region which has prevailed in our Valleys towns might grow. communities and their local authorities, and there inevitably there has been considerable hostility to the concept. In reality such an approach to the city region bears little examination. Cardiff itself has not n 1936 the Prince of Wales declared in Merthyr been successful in solving the problems of poverty Tydfil that ‘something must be done’ to solve the and deprivation in the southern arc of communities Ihardships he witnessed. Seventy-five years later stretching from Ely to Rhymney. More importantly we still wrestle with the economic challenges of Steve Fothergill has concluded that even major job the Heads of the Valleys region. Soon after the growth in Cardiff would have little impact in the Prince’s remark, the first manifestation of a Valleys. viewpoint emerged which suggested that the Instead I would like to invite us collectively to think valleys had outlived their economic usefulness and again about the concept of the city region. It is the most appropriate solution was to decant the critical that the close proximity of the Valleys to population to the more economically viable coastal Cardiff and the wider M4 corridor is recognised as a plain. This view resurfaces at relevant points in major potential economic driver. The potential of

18 Bevan Foundation review this relationship can be best realised by a significant investment in the connectivity between Cardiff and the Valleys region to facilitate the flow of labour and commerce between the two locations. However, we should not ignore the fact that in all counties of South East Wales an average of 75% of residents live and work within the same county and do not join a daily exodus to the coast. There is employment in the South Wales valleys in provide employment opportunities. This is not at greater magnitude than in Cardiff. This imposes a the level of allotment schemes but is the more ‘polycentric’ vision of the city region in which commercial and industrial scale production of food Valleys commercial, manufacturing and retail in the complex rural/urban environment of the centres play an increasingly important role. It is this valleys region. CREW is currently working on polycentric version that I wish to argue for. designs with visiting State University of New York So what are the key components of a polycentric students. version of the city region. Much can be gained by examining the highly successful city regions of the The care economy: we have significant levels of world? In a recent Institute of Welsh Affairs unmet care needs in our communities and conference in Cardiff, case studies of Vancouver, significant numbers of people who can provide for Manchester and Stuttgart were presented as best those needs and find work in the process. The practice models. All had a polycentric approach sector lends itself particularly to a social enterprise which saw the city as a key element of a wider model of provision. regional network of smaller centres. Interconnectivity was the key feature of the model. Live/work housing provision: we need to eschew We need a city region spatial plan which the idea of the commute. It is not sustainable in recognises the role of Cardiff but also the the long term. Our poorer communities have low limitations of its size and limited potential impact car ownership and their future should not lie in on employment outside its own boundaries. We promoting commuting to the cities. Improved IT need to support its role with growth nodes around infrastructure and the promotion of a live/work the major Valleys towns. This will involve critical economy is essential for a future of sustainable regeneration of those towns which moves them communities with strong local economies. away from their failing retail role to become places of learning, health care, cultural activities and local IT based employment: enhanced broadband economic activity which develops thriving SMEs provision can create opportunities for e-commerce, and a confident social enterprise sector. There are software design, multi-media production and the a range of economic sectors where considerable wider creative industries. We have graduates in potential exists. These are: these fields returning home to unemployment because the support mechanisms and Low carbon retrofit and community renewable infrastructure do not exist. energy: in much the way advocated in the Green New Deal (NEF, 2008), the bringing of poor valleys The Job Match programme placed over 7,000 housing stock to a low carbon performance can Heads of the Valleys people in work and employ many people for many years. We have established that they are able and willing to work experience of this in Wales with our ARBED even where the personal experience has been of programme and could rapidly deliver based on that long-term unemployment and incapacity. experience. Furthermore, communities in Wales are Developing economic opportunities for the also already pointing the way to viable forms of population is the first stage to tackling the community energy production. problems of the region. Professor Stephen Fothergill has suggested that to bring the region Local food supply: food security and cost up to the best areas of employment in England represents a significant challenge on the horizon requires the creation of 70,000 jobs. I suggest we and measures taken now to promote local food start a little less ambitiously and see what can be production at scale can secure our food future and done. I think we could surprise ourselves.

19 REG ENERATION AND EMPLO YMEN T Connecting

the t is good news that the Great Western Main Line electrification programme will extend to Cardiff Iand hopefully, in due course, to Swansea. The Welsh Government, Department of Transport (DfT) Region and Network Rail (NR) are also currently working together on a business case for electrifying the Mark Barry , transport Valley Lines. The business case needs to justify consultant, outlines the electrification of the entire valleys network, potential of the proposed including routes to Ebbw Vale, Maesteg and the Vale of Glamorgan line and not just the routes to electrification of the Merthyr, Rhymney, Aberdare, Treherbert and Barry Valleys Lines, to Island, as then Transport Secretary Philip Hammond transform the fortunes of suggested in his statement to the Commons in south east Wales through March this year. improved connections Whatever the scope, the electrification of the between communities Valley Lines will deliver immediate benefits. Electric rolling stock are less costly to run and maintain, and with Cardiff. reducing operational costs by as much as 20%; the electrified network will provide faster, higher capacity and more frequent services thereby improving access across the region. Electric rolling stock will also reduce the CO2 emissions associated with current inefficient and life-expired diesel fleet. With a fair wind, this new network could be operating by 2018/2019.

20 Bevan Foundation review I remember as a child going on daytrips to Barry Island by train but I never expected to More importantly, investment in the ‘be commuting on the same electrification of the Valleys Lines must be used as rolling stock more than thirty a catalyst for a more ambitious regional Metro that years later. Electrifying the connects all the major settlements in the region Valley Lines could bring some with a high capacity, affordable, “turn up and go” improvements for passengers, the economy and the network – the South Wales Metro. environment. South east Wales Using the electrified heavy rail network as a needs to be able to move its backbone, the Metro will be delivered people around effectively so incrementally through, for example: we must grab this chance. • Heavy rail extensions to Ebbw Vale Town, Eluned Parrott AM Hirwaun, perhaps an extension of the Rhymney line around the valley to Tredegar • A spur directly into Cardiff Airport which could significantly extend the airport’s natural Chepstow/Severn Tunnel Junction and Cardiff catchment area, enabling direct services from Central with extra stops would connect a places like Swindon, Bath, or Bristol Temple corridor currently poorly served by public Meads so helping it play a more prominent role transport and help to take some pressure of in the economic regeneration of the wider the M4. region. • New stations to serve centres of population, • Segregated, rapid bus and/or tram routes so employment sites and public services currently that the Metro provides linkages across the poorly served by public transport. valleys and not just to Cardiff, to create a truly • Fully integrated transport hubs where local bus joined up city region – this is a weakness of the services can seamlessly interface with rail/tram current valley rail network. services as well as with local pedestrians and • A tram/tram-train route between cyclist.

21 The South Wales valleys have been unable to compete for investment and jobs with the ‘seductive allure of the M4 It can also provide a especially for their staff whose quality of life and corridor. A convergence of catalyst for a major productivity is influenced by their commuting events - electrification, regeneration of the entire experience. The Metro could give the valleys a franchise renewals and city region and help new lease of life and help address the low levels European convergence address its economic of Gross Domestic Household Income (GDHI) and funding – allows the challenges; especially the economic inactivity. This, after all, is not just about possibility of a fully- high levels of economic infrastructure, it is about people, their aspirations integrated public transport inactivity in some of the and the opportunities, services and facilities system. The Welsh upper valleys and the low available to them. Government needs to provide the leadership to turn this level of GVA/capita, Clearly capital funds are restricted in the current vision into reality. which for the region as a economic climate but that should not prevent us whole is only about 81 planning for the long term, and the Metro is a Mick Antoniw AM per cent of the UK long-term project. The electrification of the Valleys average. 1 Lines is the first big step. It can be delivered by Implementing this 2018 with Department for Transport funding likely vision will require partnership and collaboration to be around £300 million. The wider Metro across the region to address a number of strategic programme will extend this infrastructure across issues. In the first instance, strategic planning the entire region in the period 2015-2030 with a needs to be undertaken on region-wide basis, further cost of perhaps £1.5 billion. This is only especially housing which should be more evenly £100-150 million a year for 10-15 years. In distributed across the region instead of contrast, the completion of the Heads of The concentrating a projected population increase of Valleys Road by 2020 will cost over £500 million, over 100,000 to 2032 in the City of Cardiff itself. 2 and the current Welsh Government transport Whilst this could lead to higher levels of budget is over £500 million per year (even before commuting, it does mean that money earned in any additional contribution that may result from Cardiff can be spent in the retail and service the devolution of powers and funding for rail sector in those communities benefiting from infrastructure). In addition to direct Welsh better connections to the employment Government spending, European funding, opportunities in the city of Cardiff. sensible borrowing, TiF and perhaps road pricing Despite the pre-eminent should all be used to deliver the Metro. As a We have the opportunity of a role of Cardiff, towns in comparator, the £1 billion extension of the lifetime to build a truly the valleys also have a Manchester Metro has secured a £500 million integrated transport role providing loan from the European Investment Bank, whilst ‘network. Cardiff and employment. Whilst we the councils of West Yorkshire recently surrounding area has a all respect the history of announced plans to pool resources to create a £1 critical mass that lends itself all the communities billion transport fund. Welsh tax payers will also naturally to a Metro system. across the region, we be compelled to contribute around 5 per cent or We all realise and support must remember that it is approximately £1.6 billion of the estimated £32 this vision in the Welsh small place – only 25 billion required to build the High Speed rail link Assembly. We can ill afford to miles from Merthyr to in England in the period 2017-2032. The question miss this opportunity and it Cardiff. If we work for us in South East Wales is therefore not ‘How has my support and the Welsh Conservative Group. together for the benefit much?’, but ‘Can we afford not to?’ of the entire region, then The South Wales Metro, starting with the Valley Byron Davies AM 1.4 million people stand Lines Electrification, is once in a generation to benefit rather than opportunity to reverse a long-term decline in the being divided by economic fortunes of the region and an geography, political history and local authority opportunity we cannot afford to miss. boundaries. Better transport does not guarantee a comprehensive utopian economic endgame, but it does widen choice and accessibly and contributes 1 ONS 2009, Regional, sub regional and local GVA. WG Regional to economic activity. Wales’s leading businesses Economic & Labour Market Profile June 2011. reinforce this message – connectivity matters, 2 ONS/WG 2008 based population projections to 2033

22 Bevan Foundation review ARTS, MEDIA AN D C ULTURE

From docks hirteen months after work started on the building, our BBC Cymru Wales drama and Tproduction teams have moved into the new to Dr Who state-of-the-art studios at Roath Lock in Cardiff Alun Jones , project Bay. The studios are a key part of the redevelopment manager of BBC of a Welsh Government-owned former brown-field Cymru Wales’s new site that in the old coal exporting days was known studios at Roath Lock, as Roath Basin. The 38 acre site, since renamed Cardiff describes the Porth Teigr, is being redeveloped in a partnership contribution they will project between the Welsh Government and property developers igloo. BBC Cymru Wales has make not only to taken a 20-year initial lease on the new studios, broadcasting but also showing significant commitment to the to regenerating the development, in the hope that we can continue in area and economy. the vein of home-grown success like Doctor Who , and be a catalyst for attracting businesses, suppliers and new creative talent to Wales. As well as acting as a catalyst for the wider industry, Roath Lock studios also represent value

Alun Jones on the set of Casualty s e l a W

u r m y C

C B B

: s o t o h P

23 ARTS, MEDIA AN D C ULTURE

for money and an extraordinary and invaluable opportunity for BBC Wales. The 170,000 square foot studios represent one of the largest investments in new drama facilities of its kind in Europe and came about as we were looking to upgrade our existing drama production facilities. On site are nine studio areas, including a double height green screen area which will be amongst the largest in Europe, as well as high-tech post-production suites, offices, costume, make-up, props and prosthetics departments. All the productions based in the studios are able to shoot and post- produce in HD, and the structure and facilities at Roath Lock are already proving to make for more efficient working – within individual productions and working across the drama slate. Roath Lock is the new home for four flagship BBC productions: Casualty, Upstairs Downstairs, Pobol y Cwm and Doctor Who . Casualty has moved across the water from Bristol and filming this side of the Severn bridge is already Roath Lock is the well underway. The series has additional ward and new home for ambulance space as well as on-site exterior lots too four flagship – there are even a couple of NHS hospital style ‘BBC productions: portakabins for authenticity. Upstairs Downstairs is Casualty, also filming, with both the ‘upstairs’ and Upstairs ‘downstairs’ sets on the same site for the first time Downstairs, making production far easier than last time, when Pobol y Cwm and the two sets were 15 miles apart. Once the second Doctor Who. series of the Edwardian revival is finished, the sets will be de-rigged and stored before the studios are transformed into those of regeneration favourite Doctor Who in Spring 2012. The production will be able to make innovative CGI use of the new green screens as well as all the other facilities Roath Lock has to offer. Pobol y Cwm , the BBC’s longest-running TV drama and one of the core pillars of the BBC’s commitment to S4C, moved into Roath Lock at the beginning of November. For the first time, Pobol will have two large studios for all its interior sets – these previously had to be assembled, dismantled

24 Bevan Foundation review and reassembled – as well as a brand new exterior entrance of the fictional Torchwood hub in the Bay lot allowing 360 degree filming for the first time for example. In October, we announced another ever. All this will make for more efficient working partnership this time with Cardiff Council – a as well as giving huge new storyline potential. tremendous supporter of the Roath Lock project. In All these programmes are already successful, but 2012, the BBC’s Doctor Who Experience will open with the new 21st century facilities and studio in a brand new building at Porth Teigr, moving spaces at Roath Lock, the hope is that they will from a successful short run at London Olympia to a continue to grow – both in storytelling and more permanent base. This opportunity to show dramatic possibilities and in audience appreciation. and tell the story of Doctor Who is also something We want the joined-up thinking that has that we hope will contribute to the area and the underpinned the development of Porth Teigr to wider economy. promote economic and creative opportunities in Just as Welsh coal exported from Cardiff Bay Wales, as well as providing a responsive physical once fuelled the industrial age, nowadays our environment for home-grown creativity and skills television exports are fuelling imaginations across to thrive alongside the best imported talent – the world in the digital age. Reviving Doctor Who building creative sustainability for the sector and in Cardiff led to Torchwood , which, alongside other for the region. Our hope is that the studios will programmes, led to delivering on the BBC’s 2008 also be useful to the independent sector. commitment to move 50% of its network But we don’t see regeneration at Roath Lock and production spend outside London by 2016. Porth Teigr in just the physical building and Alongside the strong independent sector we also landmark sense: BBC Wales is also committed to have in Wales – cue recent hits such as Sherlock (a the development of skills and talent for the next series which was created from a conversation generation of creative industry professionals. In a between two writers on Doctor Who and now sold partnership with Skillset, the independent sector by BBC Worldwide to 183 territories around the and two training colleges, we will be taking our world and counting), Merlin , and The Indian Doctor first creative industry apprentices in January 2012. – BBC Wales has been at the forefront of this BBC apprentices will split their time between resurgence. We are now an award-winning drama classroom-based learning and hands-on work centre of excellence – and the effect has been experience on BBC productions, developing much wider than just at CF5. particular specialist skills in at least one specific The age of coal may be over, but the creative, area of expertise. The selection process is digital age is well underway. With these brand new underway this autumn and hundreds of students studios, with the vibrant independent production have applied for some 24 places. Our hope is that sector and the raw talent we have here in Wales, this will continue in years to come. we’re optimistic about the future and the creative In terms of the wider economic impact, opportunities that exist. From Roath Lock, our programmes such as Torchwood have already ambition is that Wales will lead the way with its attracted visitors and income to the area. Some of new twenty-first century industry exports, taking you may have seen the memorial to Ianto Jones Wales to the world and entertaining the world that the show’s fans have created near the with top-class content. The Bevan Foundation on line www.bevanfoundation.org

25 ARTS, MEDIA AN D C ULTURE

Huw Vaughan Thomas , Wales’s Auditor General, outlines the challenges that face public services and argues that leadership and public engagement are vital for change to succeed.

Change and tough choices for public services

he Welsh public service is facing While transformation is the sustainable solution, it unprecedented levels of financial pressure. takes time to deliver. Public services need to take TAfter years of real terms increases, the Welsh action to address immediate funding gaps. Many Government now faces a funding drop of 12.4 per are looking to make savings by reducing staff costs: cent (£1.9 billion), in real terms, by 2014-15. As freezing recruitment, offering voluntary exit the Institute for Fiscal Studies reports, there has schemes and freezing pay. However, in so doing never in the past sixty years been a sustained there are risks to service delivery that will need to period of real terms cuts in public spending of be managed. The key risk is that losing key people more than two years. Five years of real terms leaves skills and capacity gaps that impact on funding cuts is uncharted territory. service quality and resilience and wider outcomes. Addressing these challenges is going to require a There is also the risk to staff morale. Keeping staff strong dose of leadership, innovation and tough engaged in new ways of working and identifying choices. As I make clear in my report A Picture of ways to save money while they face real terms pay Public Services 2011 , efficiency savings alone are cuts and the prospect of an increasing workload unlikely to be enough to meet these challenges, will require a great deal of careful leadership across particularly in the short term. Public services will public services. need to transform the way they deliver services so The financial challenges are such that some that they are more efficient and effective. That is reductions to service levels seem likely. Public likely to mean radical change: focusing on the services may need to simply stop doing some things outcomes that services need to achieve and then that are no longer a priority. Such cuts need careful redesigning services to deliver those outcomes, planning to mitigate unintended consequences. regardless of organisational boundaries. Leaders Changes to one service can simply shift demand from across public services will need to engage and cost elsewhere: for example cuts in social public and staff alike to make the case for change: services can mean an increase in demand on not just the financial case but also that healthcare services. To help public services in transformation can lead to better quality services making these tough choices, we have produced an that deliver improved outcomes. online Guide to Cost Reduction which, using

26 Bevan Foundation review Five years of examples, sets out a facing a major squeeze. Councils have prioritised real terms structured and balanced social services and education but even those areas approach to reducing costs. still face real terms cuts. The largest reductions fall funding cuts is ‘ The NHS probably faces on libraries, culture, heritage, sport and uncharted the biggest challenge of the recreation. Councils are particularly concerned territory. major public services in about the large cuts to capital funding to invest in Wales. It has the toughest local infrastructure. financial settlement of any Councils generally have a good track record of of the countries of the UK. We estimate that the staying within their budgets and are taking action NHS faces a funding gap in the order of £440 to to reduce costs in the short term across a range of £570 million by 2013-14 1. But it could be even areas, notably reducing their work-force costs. The higher. This raises two big issues for the NHS: how challenge is to manage the impact of short term to address the immediate imperative of cutting cost reduction on the quality of services and the costs to balance the books in the short term, and outcomes for people and communities. In terms how to transform itself to ensure long term of longer term transformation, Councils are sustainability. responding to the Welsh Government’s drive for The Health Minister has made clear that reform is greater collaboration with each other. However, needed. The NHS has long talked about reform there remains uncertainty about the costs and whereby more people are treated in the community benefits of some of the collaboration being and hospitals become centres of excellence for planned, and there is work to be done to ensure those that really need to be there. Delivering that that each collaborative service will deliver high change is much harder. In the past, there have been quality, accountable and better value for money some isolated examples of service change, but the local services. NHS has struggled to convince local communities My report comments positively on the work that and their representatives that change is needed not had been done under the Efficiency and just to save money, but to deliver higher quality and Innovation Programme, which has been taken safer services. With the start of a new political cycle over by the new Public Services Leadership Group. and a growing recognition that the status quo is The programme succeeded in bringing together unsustainable, there is an opportunity to make senior managers from across public services to major progress in moving towards a more cost- take responsibility for identifying opportunities for effective approach to delivering health services in transforming services and delivering savings. I Wales. hope that the new Public Services Leadership While transformation is high on Local Health Group can build on the work that has already Board agendas it is still some way from actual been done and encourage and enable more public delivery and there is an immediate financial services to take up these opportunities. challenge for the NHS. It has a track record of In summary, Wales has some good stories to tell requiring additional money from the Welsh on how public services are striving to deliver in Government to break even each year, despite rising these unprecedentedly harsh economic times. But budgets. Already this year the Welsh Government such examples must be more widespread. What is has announced an additional £103 million to the needed is strong and purposeful collaboration, NHS. However, it still faces a major challenge to good governance, bold leadership and public break even in the short term. The Welsh engagement across Wales to deliver real cost Government’s ambition for the NHS to reduce costs reductions and to manage the impact on service while improving quality and sustaining levels of users and the wider community. The Wales Audit service and jobs seems highly ambitious. The Wales Office stands ready to continue to play an active Audit Office is currently carrying out a more in- role in helping public services respond to these depth review of NHS Finances, and we intend to challenges and also to help the public to hold report our findings early in 2012. public services to account for their response. Like the NHS, Welsh local authorities will also face funding pressures with an expected seven per cent real-terms drop in revenue from the Welsh 1 The £570 million figure is based on figures in the Final Budget Government by 2013-14. While they fare better for 2011-12. Changes in the recent draft budget would result in than elsewhere in the UK, some council services are the gap reducing to in the order of £440 million.

27 PUB LIC SECTO R P ENSION S k r a D

y d n A

: o t o h P Why we are striking for our pensions Following action by thousands of public sector workers in Wales about changes to their pensions, Paul O’Shea, Regional Secretary of UNISON and a trustee of the Bevan Foundation, exposes the myths about public sector pensions.

n 30 November, care workers, paramedics, not yet been translated into an offer – this can only nurses, teaching assistants, social workers, happen in the scheme-specific talks. And UNISON Obin men, PCSOs, dinner ladies, and was in those talks, right up until 30 November and probation officers, joined millions of public sector beyond, to reach that deal. We have said from the workers for the biggest industrial action in a start that we want to reach a negotiated settlement, generation. We were strong, united and and we stand by that. determined in our action. But as is always the case, the devil is in the detail. The right-wing pensions commentators are Public sector workers have already been stung by claiming that we should not have gone on strike promises made in Parliament that were never now that the government has come forward with a delivered. In his first Emergency Budget, George new offer. But whatever government ministers may Osborne promised public sector workers earning less say, there is no new deal that we can put to a than £21,000 a £250 pay boost – easing the pain of single social worker or nurse. The recent statement the pay freeze. But for low paid local government on pensions was a marked improvement, but it has workers, this money has never materialised. They’ve

28 Bevan Foundation review Complexity, been stuck on a pay freeze for two years, Cutting public sector pensions down for many like reform, is which could stretch to three – at a time cannot be an option – the low paid will receive a necessary when inflation has been stubbornly high. only just enough to keep them above the threshold ‘ The strict trade union laws – put in place for means tested benefits when they do retire. The component of a progressive by the Tories – rather than being a ‘quirk’ of average pension in local government is £3,800 a welfare the law as Francis Maude claims, mean that year, but for women, it’s less than £2,800 – just benefits we have to take action within 28 days of £56 a week. Over half of women pensioners in the system. our ballot or it is deemed void. We have NHS receive a pension of less than £3,500 a year. been talking to the government for more Instead of trying to tear these pensions down, than eight months, but by leaving it until we should be trying to bring private pensions up to the eve of our ballot to come forward with a decent level. It is a scandal that two thirds of these new proposals, Ministers made sure action private sector workers do not get a single penny on 30 November is inevitable. from their employers towards their pension, whilst Our members voted decisively for action, but it’s top bosses award themselves generous pensions – not a decision that they took lightly. Most UNISON their average pension rates are 34 times bigger members are low paid women in the caring than the average pension in the public sector. It is professions. They go to work day in, day out, to in no one’s interest to see workers in the public or make their communities better places in which to private sector living in poverty and relying on state live and work. Indeed, with pay frozen at a time of benefits when they retire – that is just storing up persistently high inflation, they can ill afford to lose more trouble for the future. a day’s wages, but their vote shows the colour of This so-called pensions crisis is propaganda, their anger over the pensions plans to make them whipped up to allow the Westminster government work longer and pay more, all for less in their to raid the schemes to pay down the deficit. We retirement. Heavy job cuts and pay freezes at a do not believe a penny of the money raised will go time when the cost of living is ever-increasing towards pensions – it’s nothing but a hardship tax mean that people feel that have simply been on public sector workers to pay down the deficit. pushed too far. The way to rebuild our economy is not to take They know that, despite what the huge anti- more money out of hardworking people’s pockets. public sector pensions lobby says, in reality, there is The austerity agenda is killing growth, boosting no pensions crisis. Only four years ago, unions unemployment – fuelling the downturn. Our negotiated new schemes to make them affordable members are striking for their pensions – but their for our pensions and sustainable for the long term – we are not campaign for a fairer economic plan, founded in doggedly trying to retain a status quo regardless of social democratic principles, will continue long what’s going on in the wider economy. We have after we reach a deal. already agreed to new schemes that include a cap and share arrangement in health, so that any increase in costs would have to be borne by employees. The reforms also included a higher retirement age of 65, and other measures including higher contributions from members, of between 5 and 8%. These reforms have meant that the cost of public sector pensions, as a proportion of GDP, will fall, costs have been reduced even more by the switch to using CPI rather than RPI to calculate the annual increase in pensions payments. Both the health and local government schemes are in good shape, with billions more coming in than has to be paid out in pensions every year. Far from being a drain on our economy, the local government scheme is in fact a huge boost to the private sector, its funds are worth £140 billion, and own 1.75% of the UK’s top FTSE companies.

29 DEVO LUTIO N

Will Scotland break-up the United Kingdom?

s we focus in Wales on seeking solutions to our economic difficulties, on minority AGovernment politics and on a debate on further devolution via the Silk Commission, in Scotland things are happening that could change our Welsh political context forever. No-one foresaw a SNP majority Scottish Government, breaking the d-Hondt electoral system. Alex Salmond now has a full political mandate to place a referendum before the people of Scotland before 2016 and to ask the people of Scotland to vote for Independence. This Autumn, I attended the SNP Annual Conference at Inverness as the Plaid Cymru Guest t n

e Speaker. It’s clear that the SNP is on a roll. But this m n r

e is not an out-of-control rollercoaster ride leading v o G

to an independence referendum. This is a h s i t t

o disciplined, professional party wholly focussed on c S the combined aims of gaining independence for ©

: o t Scotland and promoting the interests of Scotland o h P in Government. The two aims are closely inter- The prospect of a linked and formed the basis of Alex Salmond’s referendum on the speech to conference. This was no rabble-rousing place of Scotland in Braveheart-esque speech: it was a measured and the UK has implications determined speech, a national leader’s speech – for Wales as well as outlining how much was being achieved by a SNP Government, with a considerable emphasis on the England, says economy and energy, and articulating how much Elin Jones , AM for more could be achieved with independence. It Ceredigion. was a speech setting Scotland in the international context – as a country amongst equals and gaining ever-increasing international recognition. It began with Alex Salmond being awarded an International Leader Prize for Actions on Climate Change. The speech drew attention to Scotland’s international position, hosting both the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup in 2014 – what a backdrop to an independence referendum sometime around 2015! The SNP will campaign for independence in that referendum. However, Alex Salmond is a horse- racing fan and is offering an each-way bet rather than a ‘winner-takes-all’ option. People will therefore be offered a vote for or against a so- called ‘devo-max’ option, as well as being asked

30 Bevan Foundation review their view on independence. Although undefined members are republican or euro-phile, they have as yet, it is probable that a ‘devo-max’ option clearly been persuaded that those arguments can would mean full fiscal autonomy for the Scottish be fought again in a free Scotland. Government. In tactical terms, having two Over these next few years, what will be the propositions makes life very difficult for the other implications of events in Scotland for us in Wales? political parties, especially Labour, who already We have already seen post-May an increase in have leading members supporting the notion of interest by London-based press and media in the ‘devo-max’. However, Alex Salmond prospect of Scottish independence. This will There now does not need to worry too much increase as the referendum gets closer, as the needs to be a about the other political parties in politics of independence become more hotly mature debate Scotland at the moment. All three contested, between Cameron and Miliband on the ‘ seem to be in disarray, with an one hand, and Salmond on the other. For those of on the next steps assortment of combinations from us with an interest in the constitutional following a Labour’s lack of leader to the Lib development of Wales, this debate will bring with Scottish Yes Dem’s lack of party. The SNP is it an opportunity to consider Wales’s position in a vote – burying bound to take advantage of these post-referendum UK. Or Dis-UK, as the case might heads in sand weaknesses, for as long as they last. be. If Scotland votes Yes for independence, what will serve Many factors are therefore in is left of the United Kingdom? The United no-one well. place to point towards a Yes vote Kingdom of England, Northern Ireland and Wales? for independence. The SNP forms a That is clearly not a country, but can it be a nation majority Scottish Government, with state? little political opposition. It has a There now needs to be a mature debate within strong, popular Leader, surrounded by a team of countries and between countries on the next steps very able Ministers and tacticians. The following a Scottish Yes vote, whether for independence campaign is being organised by the independence or ‘devo-max’. Our civil society, our highly-effective Angus Robertson MP. A million- universities, our businesses and all political parties pound financial bequest was received to kick-start should be engaging in this debate. Burying heads the independence campaign, and this has now in sand and waking up in bewilderment the day been boosted by a further million pound donation after the Scottish referendum will serve no-one by the EuroLottery winners. well, whichever position you take on the issue. However, the SNP is not complacent. It knows it Whilst the Silk Commission has a specific job of has to win the hard economic arguments with the work to do, it should not detach itself entirely Scottish people. That’s why the Scottish from changing circumstances that could come our Government is wholly focussed on creating way from Scotland. However, over the next few economic strength and energy sustainability. years, I hope to see conferences and seminars and Companies are investing heavily in renewables in political debates happening to discuss what Scotland and the Government is leading the way would Wales’s next steps be after a Scottish on cutting-edge marine renewable technology. referendum. Coupled with this is the recent indication that oil In my view, now is the right time to be seriously revenues will continue to flow from the North Sea addressing the constitutional imbalance in the UK. for the next 40 years. And, according to the SNP, For that to happen, mainstream English political that revenue should be bound for Scottish coffers, parties need to debate the English governance not bound for the UK Treasury. question. Will the consequence of a Scottish The SNP is keen to present independence as a referendum be a referendum on an English positive vote for Scotland. Many well-loved British Parliament? That could see us start to reach a institutions would be retained beyond a Yes vote. position of equality between the constituent The monarchy, the currency, the military and the nations of the current UK. Whether that would be BBC would be retained. There is no doubt that on the basis of a federal structure or a partnership the opponents of independence would have of independent nations, I’ll leave that as an issue played heavily on the Scottish people’s social for further discussion. attachment to those British institutions in a One thing is clear – change could be on its way, referendum campaign. The SNP has identified and and it is always better to be informed and quashed this threat. Although many party prepared, not caught out.

31 DEVO LUTION

Former Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne and a member of the newly- formerly Clerk to the Assembly. created Silk It is an immense honour to be involved with some Commission explains considerable talent in the case of my fellow the process that it will Commissioners Dyfrig John CBE, Professor Noel go through over the Lloyd CBE, Sue Essex, Rob Humphreys and Dr Eurfyl next two years and ap Gwilym as Commission members. Involving Sue, sets out some of his Rob, Eurfyl and myself as party nominees is, to my view, the correct decision. There is a clear political preliminary views. dimension and without the ability to sell any settlement politically any work would be seriously at risk from not being acceptable to the people of The Silk Commission: Wales. In addition to the four political nominees there are two very respected independent members and a first class independent chairman, well familiar devolution’s with the workings of both Whitehall/Westminster and Cathays/Cardiff Bay. The Commission’s work is split into these two parts and will last for two years, one year to last word? consider the financing and then one year to look at the powers. The establishment of a Commission the other side of a positive referendum vote to look at the financing of the National Assembly had been promised, admittedly in not the most elegant prose in the Coalition agreement in May 2010. Certain areas are off limits such as the Barnett formula, which is the subject of separate bilateral discussions between the UK Government and the Government of Wales. However, the issue of borrowing powers for the future is to be addressed by the Commission. In some quarters there already seems to have been a concerted effort to frighten the horses with talk of full devolution of all taxation to Wales stemming from the work of the Commission. That is not even remotely likely within the Commission’s terms of reference, which quite rightly require any recommendations to he Secretary of State for Wales has be consistent with the constitutional and financial announced the establishment of a framework of the United Kingdom. Also the TCommission that will look consecutively at recommendations of the Commission must be likely the financing of the National Assembly’s to command widespread support. responsibilities and then at their scope. Variously The initial meeting of the Commission took place described in its gestation as ‘Son of Calman’ and on November 4th at the Millennium Stadium. There ‘ap Calman’, it is now happily known as the Silk a draft timetable was agreed involving monthly Commission after its Chairman, Paul Silk, who was meetings and a call for evidence by February 3rd

32 Bevan Foundation review 2012. Clearly the views of people and by many discussions that I have had. organisations throughout Wales are of vital There is great force in the argument that there is importance as the terms of reference make clear, something irresponsible in a legislative body including the Bevan Foundation. Our programme having the power and responsibility for spending of work also allows for meetings with swathes of money but no power and responsibility ‘stakeholders’ – the inevitable jargon I am afraid, for raising any of that money, but we will clearly but clearly a key role of the Commission will be to have to weigh and consider all the evidence that gauge the temperature for change. The Wales we receive and we are quite rightly enjoined to equivalent of the question used in the USA to test make recommendations that are likely to political acceptability might well be not ‘How will command widespread support. this play in Peoria?’ but ‘How will this play in The second part of the Commission’s work is to Ponty’? look at the division of powers between The terms of reference are categorically set Westminster and the Assembly and in particular within a United Kingdom framework: ‘consistent the boundary between what is devolved and what with the fiscal and constitutional framework of the is not. This is a broad canvas but once again the United Kingdom.’ Obviously I will be keen to Commission is quite rightly asked to make ensure that we make recommendations that recommendations that are’ likely to have a wide provide for a strong Wales within a strong UK and degree of support’ as well as how best to resolve I see nothing inconsistent in those objectives. any legal and practical implementation issues. Against this backdrop it is good to see Similarly there are some familiar areas in energy Many members that the realist wing of Plaid Cymru won and broadcasting, for example, where we will no of the out and is fully participating in the doubt receive evidence on modifying the Conservative process. boundaries of the devolution settlement, as well as ‘party are keen The Commission will not operate other areas that may emerge. While in theory we that an without reference to the past. We will could recommend handing back powers to element of draw on the work of Gerry Holtham and Westminster there is no likelihood of this in any accountability his Commission, and will study the work but a tidying up sense, in my view. We have after should be of the Calman Commission in Scotland all just had a referendum which showed strong placed in the and the position in Northern Ireland. We support for extending powers in those areas that devolution aim to meet with both Gerry Holtham and are already devolved. settlement. Sir Kenneth Calman. The work of Gerry In performing its work on Part Two of the Holtham was considerable and provided a Commission’s programme the terms of reference superb analysis of the current situation. stipulate that the structure of the Assembly and My own personal view is that the any decision will specifically any issues relating to the election of revolve around some measure of divergence on Assembly Members are off limits. income tax, in particular, as well as Corporation I have set out here my own preliminary Tax. The so-called ‘tiddler taxes’ like air passenger assessment of the tasks we face but along with duty and stamp duty will surely not be the my felllow Commissioners I will be very much in contentious issues. Gerry Holtham considered listening mode and aware of the challenge of corporation tax, income tax, property taxes, landfill delivering recommendations consistent with the tax, stamp duty on land, aggregates tax and air terms of reference. I am optimistic, as ever. The passenger duty as possible runners in this context personal chemistry amongst the Commissioners and although we are free to look at all taxes. seems good to me and already good working Perhaps somewhat paradoxically given the more relationships are being developed. This augurs sceptical stance of the Conservative Party to well. devolution, at least historically, many members of At the risk of adding to Ron Davies’s claim for the Conservative party are keen that an element royalties - and he would be a very rich man if they of accountability should be placed in the did arise - it is oft-stated that devolution is a devolution settlement. Why should a government process and not an event. That is true but the be responsible for spending money but in no way work of this Commission and consequent responsible for raising it? It also allows some legislative action will surely be the ‘dernier mot’ freedom of manoeuvre for a Welsh Government for some considerable time on the main which many will see as desirable. This is borne out framework of devolution in Wales.

33 DEVO LUTIO N

As a unique project helping third sector apparent and we set about working to fill those organisations to understand and engage gaps to the best of our ability as the third with the Assembly comes to an end, Assembly began its new work. Michelle Matheron Senior Public Affairs If even a week is a long time in politics then it’s officer at WCVA who was involved in the no surprise that in some ways things look very project, reflects on what happens next. different now than they did at the start of the Voices project. When the project began the sector had high hopes and aspirations for what an Assembly with law making powers could do. Optimism and expectations were high as we all started on a steep learning curve towards the Assembly making its own primary legislation for Voices the first time. It soon became clear that the high hopes and aspirations had become long delays and frustrations. Organisations were spending large for change amounts of time trying to understand and negotiate the legislative system – giving evidence to LCOs in Cardiff Bay and Westminster, lobbying AMs and MPs and then often finding the requests disappearing behind closed doors of Cathays Park and Whitehall. ollowing the introduction of the Government But now that March’s Yes vote has consigned the of Wales Act 2006 Wales Council for LCO system to the past, the fourth Assembly FVoluntary Action (WCVA), the umbrella body brings with it a new era of transparency and for Wales’ national third sector organisations, legislative opportunity. This is what we’ve all been identified the need to support the sector to waiting for. The opportunities and powers are understand and engage with the Assembly’s new there but are we ready for them? powers. Former Assembly Member Jonathan Morgan In May 2008, with the support of the Big Lottery recently challenged Welsh civic society to start Fund, Voices for Change Cymru was born. The “playing catch up” to engage with the legislative broad remit of the project was to help Wales’ very programme and provide effective evidence. diverse (in both size and scope) third sector Morgan was a little harsh but perhaps fair in his organisations to understand the new legislative criticism of the quality of evidence and powers of the National Assembly and to become engagement with legislation during the third more effective in their campaigning activities. This Assembly. He was right to say that “Civic involved offering a range of different types of society…needs to be able to influence the primary support: training courses; a website; events and law making process, because Government and the one to one advice sessions. As we grappled with Assembly won’t have all the solutions nor will they the frustrations and uncertainties of the Legislative necessarily understand the problems they are Competence Order system and the Assembly’s new attempting to solve.” ways of working we also became increasingly Questions of capacity loom large over this surprised by how little knowledge some of the exciting opportunity. It can be hard for the sector organisations and individuals in our sector had. to find resources for Public Affairs work and whilst By and large the bigger, better resourced the opportunities and benefits of investment in this organisations were aware of the new powers and work are clear to many of us they are not always could see the opportunities they offered but even understood within organisations. It can also be they were not necessarily used to working in the difficult for UK organisations to understand the context of primary legislative powers. The smaller potential of appropriate investment in devolved organisations we came across often had very campaigning work; one size fits all will no longer limited knowledge of Assembly powers and do but the different opportunities presented in structures and I cannot actually recall a single Wales are not always understood by head offices in training course on which everyone knew how London with a knock on effect on resource many Assembly Members they had. allocation. We are entering a time of fantastic The sector’s capacity to engage with the new opportunity for the third sector but organisations powers was a real issue. Whether this was will need to rethink and reprioritise their ways of knowledge, skills or confidence the gaps were working to allow a focus on the Legislature that

34 Bevan Foundation review has perhaps been lacking to date. scrutiny structures work, to create legislation that is It is also important to remember that the third best for Wales. The third sector is keen to play its sector’s impact on decision making is far broader part in this but it cannot take on this responsibility than just legislation. The sector works hard on a alone and cannot be expected to fill the gaps day to day basis to influence policy direction, civil created by issues such as the number of AMs or a servants, health boards, local government and perceived lack of legal expertise. Legislation may service delivers. The focus for us must always be not always be the right way for the sector to help on making changes to improve the lives of the our members and the broader ability to raise our people we represent and this will not always be issues and progress our agenda in the round must best achieved through legislation. Yes, we certainly be appreciated and supported, we cannot be should be upping our game to be able to judged simply on the number of pieces of effectively scrutinise and suggest legislation but legislation we influence or suggest. only where it is necessary. With all of the As the fourth Assembly began, the Voices project excitement over the new powers I am reminded of came to an end. As part of its commitment to an apt quote from Jurassic Park “Your scientists support the sector WCVA will continue to provide were so preoccupied with whether or not they elements of the support previously funded under could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” We the project, through its Public Affairs and Policy must take care that Welsh legislation is not created functions. However, there is now more need than for its own sake and that we are able to use our ever for the third sector to think about how it can scarce resources influencing the things that really best work together and learn from one another in impact on the lives of our members. order to continue to influence effectively. Perhaps All of us with an interest in making Wales a the third sector does need to “play catch up” and better place for its citizens need consider how we our experience suggests that they are keen to do can use the new powers effectively, and make the so – how to support this is the challenge.

35 UNHEARD VOICES A peaceful life in Wales

sons aged eleven and five returned home from the shops bruised, bloodied and covered in birthday cake. They were identified by patrolling policemen as Northerners and were beaten to the ground. Fanta explains that it is things like your name, features, skin colour and religion that categorizes what part of the country you are from but also determines your social and political status. Fanta explains that her son, now 27, was one of the most intelligent students at his school but was vehemently denied a place at a top university because of his “foreign” background. The story of Fanta Bamba , a refugee Although having left the country almost a year from the Ivory Coast and volunteer with ago, Fanta’s family who remained behind are still the Wales Refugee Council. Interview experiencing extreme harassment. Violence conducted by Kathryn Tresilian. continues to infect the country and her son was almost beaten to death just last month. he past two decades have seen the Ivory Coast Unfortunately Fanta’s youngest son, 20, is missing. Tcaught up in a bloody civil war that has caused A young boy with similar features to her son was economic and social devastation across the African found near her village not long ago but she is yet country. Once a model of strength and stability, a to hear any official confirmation. brutal rebellion against corrupt government forces, The effects of Fanta’s political involvement are xenophobia and vicious acts of violence has unimaginable and the most recent attack is what invaded the lives of innocent civilians causing many forced her to leave the country. Her home was people to flee to neighbouring countries and invaded by an armed militant group who murdered beyond. her father in front of the rest of her family. She was After a run of controversial presidents, a fierce pulled from her bedroom window by the militants north south divide has emerged. The conflict who attacked her, raped her and left her for dead. reached its peak in 2002 when mercenaries and Fanta does not remember much from the attack guerrilla militants subjugated the country in search and was forced to be discharged early from of anti-government protesters and so-called hospital as the militants were still after her. Because Northern “foreigners”. of this, Fanta suffers from permanent memory loss Ivorian born Fanta Bamba, 46, is from the central which is impeding her studies in the UK. She is region of Bouake, she became heavily involved in registered disabled and walks with a crutch political demonstrations during her life in the because she suffered severe impact during the fall country. She was forced to flee the Ivory Coast in during her attack. 2010 in fear of her life. She now works as a As an Ivorian woman speaking out against the volunteer at the Welsh Refugee Council in Cardiff. wrongdoings of her Fanta’s chance at having a She explains her political involvement was a normal life have been destroyed. The use of her necessity to teach people about their human rights voice has caused her an incredible amount of and education, something many Ivoirians are suffering to the point where she is unable to return refused. to her own country, but the strength to find the The ethnically motivated civil war has seen courage to speak out against these horrendous acts liberation movements emerge across the country of violence in the first place is something to be and they have been heavily targeted by a commended. destructive army loyal to incumbent president Her family blame her for the death of her father Laurent Gbago. Fanta’s political actions have seen and she would be hunted down by the army if she her jailed twice in an attempt to impede the voice returned home but she continues to keep hope and of the oppressed but her undeniable devotion to anticipation for a better life. Fanta has experienced the movement has driven her to continue her work indescribable acts of inhumanity and since her in the hope of peaceful change. escape, her only wish is for her asylum case to be Fanta recalls the day in 1995 that would change accepted so she can live a more peaceful life in her life forever. It was her birthday when her two Wales.

36 Bevan Foundation review 37 news news news news EVENTS

Education after PISA

Leading education experts gathered in Caerleon on 15th November to debate education after the UN’s PISA report. PISA project manager Jenny Bradshaw and Prof Gareth Rees set out their differing views on the relevance of the PISA results, then Chris Tweedale set out the Welsh Government’s response. Further contributions from Prof David Egan, Philip Dixon (ATL), Sarah Lloyd-Jones (People and Work Unit) and Grahame Whitefield (JRF) and others made for one of our most informative events yet. Prof Gareth Rees with Ciaran Jenkins, BBC Wales’s Education Correspondent, who chaired the conference

Barnett briefing More than 60 delegates got up early on 22nd September to hear Minister for Finance Jane Hutt and Gerry Holtham, chair of the Commission on Funding and Finance, outline the state of play in discussions about changing the way the Welsh Government is funded. The lively breakfast briefing, chaired by BBC Wales’s Vaughan Roderick, learned that decisions in Scotland could be the determining factor.

The housing agenda New Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage outlined his agenda for the Welsh Government’s 4th term at an after-work briefing held on 13th July. The dream of The packed room heard about the planned focus on co-operative solutions to Wales’s housing crisis, and the Minister’s commitment to maintaining the Aneurin Bevan regeneration of towns and communities. Renowned cultural historian Prof Dai Smith marked the Abolishing the Safety Net Bevan Foundation’s 10th by Mark Drakeford and Kirrin Davidson birthday on 21st October. His Looks at the future of the Social Fund and suggests the Welsh lecture on south Wales’s society, Government has a one-off opportunity to transform how the economy, politics and culture Fund helps people in crisis. was not only a tour de force of 20th century history but had Digital by Default relevance to tackling con- By Victoria Winckler and James Radcliffe temporary problems. The evening was rounded off with As pressure to put more public services online increases, this music from Cor Ellen and report looks at the prospects for people who do not have reflections from broadcaster access to the internet – often the very people who most need Beverley Humphreys. public services.

38 Bevan Foundation review MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Pat Smail

Riding the wave of enthusiasm that hit the UK in 1997, I applied to become a NHS Trust non-executive director in Gwent. As an independent social researcher, I had no specialist knowledge of health policy. It was a steep learning curve. In 2005, as that term of office was coming to an end, I applied to be the Wales member of the UK Social Security Advisory Committee. There found myself with a UK-wide responsibility for advising the Minister on benefit regulations - a massive challenge by any criteria. And I needed to have a finger on the pulse of Contact us: Wales. That is when I joined the Bevan Foundation. It provided a solid, inspiring range The Bevan Foundation of reports, newsletters and, more recently, blog posts to keep me well The Innovation Centre informed. At Bevan Foundation events, I gained access to a network of people Festival Drive who are passionate about social justice and the challenge of abolishing poverty Victoria Business Park in 21st century Wales. Ebbw Vale My term on the committee has ended, but my membership of Bevan NP23 8XA Foundation will not. As I turn to a new area of interest, society’s attitude to the fathers of vulnerable children, I will continue to read and reflect on Bevan TEL: 01495 356702 articles and blogs. I need my views to be challenged and not simply to have my FAX: 01495 356703 existing views reinforced. The Bevan Foundation helps me to think outside the EMAIL: box: the solutions to today’s social issues remain messy and complex and [email protected] certainly don’t fit tidily into any one box.

39 Find out more about... Walker Smith Way Neil Turnbull , Director at Walker Smith and Way, gives an inside view about the company and why they support the Bevan Foundation

In less than 140 characters describe Walker What is your role at Walker Smith Way? Smith Way My role at Walker Smith Way is as a director. I am a 160 year old law firm providing wide range of member of the management team and also head quality legal services to unions, individuals and of the personal injury and Trade Union department. businesses across Wales, the North West, the This is the largest department within the firm Midlands and the South. boasting 54 employees. My role on the management board is to oversee What’s so good about Walker Smith Way? and support the running of the business, in We are committed to providing a friendly and addition to dealing with trade union and personal approachable service. Founded over 170 years ago injury work. I am also the director responsible for We are in 1836 we are extremely proud of our rich our IT and marketing departments and so liaise committed to heritage and the generations of clients we have with our IT and marketing managers. contributing to advised. This historical element of the firm is Another element of my role involves attending complemented by our modern and progressive trade union conferences, TUC conferences, labour ‘social justice on approach towards client service excellence and our party conferences and branch meetings, and giving local, national client care approach. We have a number of Welsh talks to local activists. and international speaking solicitors and employees, and have platforms. recently adopted the Welsh Language Board’s What is the best thing about working for ‘Investors in Welsh’ scheme to ensure a high quality Walker Smith Way? of service for our Welsh clients. We’re a close-knit and friendly firm, and even in Walker Smith Way is committed to acting for this challenging climate are still able to retain the Trade Unions and has done for over 40 years. sense of a firm that is fully committed to looking after its staff; this is why we have been accredited How do you contribute to social with the ‘Investors in People’ award for the last 12 justice? years! We are committed to contributing to social justice on local, national and international Why are Walker Smith Way members of the platforms. We nominate a charity of the year Bevan Foundation ? every year – this year being Willow Wood Walker Smith Way has been a member of the Hospice – and we also support other local Bevan Foundation for many years. The Bevan charities including The MS Support Foundation plays a vital role in research and Centre, Nightingale House Hospice and influencing public policy and debate, and so allows Claire House. us to support and address the legal issues people in On a national and international basis Wales are facing. With an office in Wales and large we are corporate members of Justice Welsh client base we are directly affected by Welsh for Columbia and support the United policy issues. Campaign. So far as our local community What’s the best way to relax after a day in work is concerned we encourage the office? all our employees to participate in The best way to relax after a long day in the office fundraising and pro bono work, is to go home and spend time with my wife and and in addition support and two children – specifically not watching the X- sponsor a range of sports Factor! clubs including Chester Rugby Club, Brickfield Let us know if you’d like to be featured in a Rangers FC and Newton future issue of Review – email Athletic Youth FC. [email protected]

40 Bevan Foundation review