North Wales Assembly Member and Shadow Communities Minister Mark Isherwood has criticised the Welsh Government for removing Welsh representation from the Social Mobility Commission.
Speaking against the motion (which was passed) in the Assembly Chamber this week, Mr Isherwood said: “Although the revised remit of the Social Mobility Commission proposed by the UK Welfare Reform and Work Bill will be to promote social mobility in England only, and to advise the UK Government at its request on how to improve social mobility in England only, it must also publish an annual report setting out its views on the progress made towards improving social mobility in the United Kingdom as a whole, i.e. including Wales. A Welsh voice would therefore continue to be appropriate in this respect to ensure knowledge and understanding of Welsh law, of Welsh practice, of Welsh policy and Welsh circumstances.
“I also note that the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, which this would replace, has previously found that Wales had the second highest child poverty rate and the second lowest working age employment rate amongst the UK regions; that almost three quarters of children eligible for free school meals in Wales were not achieving five good GCSEs, higher than any English region; that there were fewer professional jobs in Wales than anywhere but north-east England and Northern Ireland; and that Wales had higher rates of children living in workless households, a lower employment rate, a higher unemployment rate and a higher proportion of the working age population without any qualifications than England, and pay levels 8 per cent lower than the UK average.
“Without Welsh representation on the new commission, there is therefore also the danger that unwelcome findings in future annual reports may not be given the credence they deserve, as I feel perhaps they might have been given in responding to previous reports under the chairmanship of Alan Milburn.”
He also challenged the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, Lesley Griffiths, over her statement that she requested the term in office of the Commissioner currently representing Wales should come to an end when the Welfare Reform and Work Bill is passed “because the decision by the UK Government to move away from a focus on child poverty doesn’t fit with the priorities of the Welsh Government.”
He said: “In fact, at a UK level, the UK Government is introducing a new and strengthened approach to tracking the life chances of the most disadvantaged children, with more effective measures focused on the real causes of poverty. The current child poverty measure—and apparently the one still favoured by yourself—appears to show a reduction in the number of children in child poverty, when actually an economy is contracting, when it’s in recession and when people are getting poorer. Instead, the UK Government for England is proposing to focus on measures which look at the numbers of children living in workless households, improvements in educational attainment, drug and alcohol addiction, family breakdown and so on.”