In today’s Assembly Debate on the Annual Report on Equality, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood called for the Welsh Government to deliver measurable action plans that address the failings identified in the report.
The Report states that the Welsh Government’s evaluation of the Strategic Equality Plan and Equality Objectives 2012-2016 - “focuses on the extent to which there has been measurable progress on the Objectives”. However, Mr Isherwood noted that the evaluation itself reports “large gaps in evidence” – and states “a priority for the Welsh Government will be working with other public sector organisations, and with the third sector to prioritise filling these gaps”.
He said:
“It is a decade since I and others on the Equality of Opportunity Committee first called on the Welsh Government to implement effective action plans to progress equality in Wales, with measurable objectives and outcomes created for all future reports.
“In the 2009 Debate on Equalities here, I moved an Amendment again calling on the Welsh Government to deliver this. Hence our Amendment 2 today, where the report and evaluation being debated today confirm that the Welsh Government has still not done so.”
He added:
“As the report records, “public sector bodies must ‘involve people who it considers representative of one or more of the protected groups and who have an interest in how an authority carries out its functions’.”
“It is a principle of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act ‘that a local authority should respond in a person-centred, co-productive way to each individual’s particular circumstances, and, as the Minister for Social Services and Public Health has confirmed to me, “The Act places a specific duty on local authorities to promote the involvement of people in the design and delivery of care and support services”.
“However, there are worrying reports of Local Authorities failing to understand this. The local deaf community in Conwy told me that there was no consultation, advance notice, information or transition planning when Conwy removed the vital third sector commissioned sign language services on which they relied.
“The Council said they had adequate provision to deliver these services in house, but Instead of intervention and prevention services delivering independence and reducing pressure on statutory services, the deaf community told me that the Council showed no deaf awareness and that their independence has been taken from them.
“To the detriment of affected constituents, Wrexham was unaware that the Act applied to the tender process for residential care, and Flintshire that it applied to employment or to access to public pathways in accordance with the Welsh Government’s Framework for Action on Independent Living.
“Hence our Amendment 1, calling “on the Welsh Government to clarify the progress made in relation to the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, Part 2 Code of Practice, which requires local authorities to work in partnership with people to co-produce the solutions to meet their personal well-being outcomes”.
“With the Equality and Human Rights Commission reporting nearly 1 in 4 people in Wales living in poverty, and with child poverty above UK levels, it is time that recycled warm words were replaced with real action”.
Mr Isherwood, who in December hosted the Sanctuary in the Senedd event with the Welsh Refugee Coalition, also spoke of the need for measurable action plans for Wales to become a Nation of Sanctuary and to address the increasing problem of older people being targeted by criminals, and called for action to close the education attainment gap experienced by Gypsy and Traveller children, looked after children, children with Special Educational Needs and children eligible for free school meals.