Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for his contribution. He will acknowledge that I’ve been in post for just over six weeks and I’ve picked up this terrible file that he is very familiar with. I am confident that the social services and well-being Act is a very positive piece of work that does include the right to report by statutory bodies and individuals. The Member will also recognise that the issue...
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her comments and again I recognise the work she’s done locally on this particular issue, and others, indeed. I will be asking the national board to follow up and share the further improvements the Mid and West Wales Safeguarding Board have identified for themselves to further develop multi-agency safeguarding arrangements that reflect on this particular case. Indeed,...
Carl Sargeant: I listened to the Member’s contribution; I can’t offer any further points to that. But my final point, Deputy Presiding Officer: we cannot change what has happened to Dylan and the proposals that took us to this point, but what we can do in the legacy of Dylan is to learn what not to do or the right things to do for the future. The Member can offer much guidance to Government in terms of...
Carl Sargeant: Formally.
Carl Sargeant: Let me draw your attention to one example of the issues surrounding this—the data-collection issue that the Member raised and Mark Isherwood raised about the Royal British Legion about data sharing around the survey. We’re supportive of the principle of that, but we have advice from the security services saying that this will put, potentially, service personnel at risk. I am not prepared...
Carl Sargeant: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Members will be aware that, in my recent oral statement, I set out the Welsh Government support for the armed forces community in Wales. Good progress is being made across all of Wales in supporting our armed forces community, and I believe that if we continue to work collaboratively with our partners, sharing resources and best practice, we can build on...
Carl Sargeant: Indeed.
Carl Sargeant: I’m grateful for the Member’s intervention, and, of course, there are many that we will not mention today, but should not be forgotten in terms of their action, which saved many lives for us so that we can live in the peace that we survive in. We continue to commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and I am pleased that the Welsh Government has contributed to the memorial...
Carl Sargeant: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank Mike Hedges for bringing this short debate on meeting Wales’s housing need to the Chamber today. My vision for housing is quite simple: I want people to have access to a decent, affordable home that improves their lives. To achieve this, we are taking a comprehensive approach, grounded in new and innovative ways of helping the people of...
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. Regeneration activity continues across Wales under the Vibrant and Viable Places capital regeneration programme. This builds on the success of the previous strategic regeneration area programme, which the Member raises and which ended in March 2015.
Carl Sargeant: Well, local authorities are the responsible agents for identifying their Vibrant and Viable Places content, and we acknowledge that when we received them from the local authorities. We are looking at the next stage, post VVP. Indeed, if the local authority provides examples of why they wish that to be prioritised, I will consider that carefully.
Carl Sargeant: I'm very grateful for the Member's comments and question there. I'm pleased to hear of the positive progress being made in places like Port Talbot, and I look forward to seeing the work when I visit there at the end of the month. We’re providing £11.5 million to support a diverse programme, and the projects you mentioned are certainly contributing to rejuvenation of the town. Of course, as...
Carl Sargeant: I’m grateful for the recognition by the Member that the previous Labour administration of this Welsh Assembly was investing in areas across Wales, including Colwyn Bay. I visited there, with the Member, indeed, to see this great success, and also places like Rhyl and other areas in north Wales have received significant amounts of funding. I think we are currently considering the next stages...
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. I strongly believe in effective community engagement in designing and delivering local services. The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 requires public bodies to demonstrate collaboration and involvement in delivering the well-being goals. Communities must be engaged in local government and have their views heard and influence how local...
Carl Sargeant: I’m grateful to the Member for the question and the non-partisan way that she raised it, too. I think many Members in this Chamber could be familiar with the examples the Member sets out. I think what we are very keen as a Government to do is ensure that our funding streams go to the maximum benefit of our larger communities, working with organisations such as the Wales Council for...
Carl Sargeant: Yes.
Carl Sargeant: I’m very grateful for the Member’s question. I don’t doubt his integrity in raising this with me today, but what I will tell the Member is that our investments have to be strategically managed on the basis of our reducing budgets year on year. What we have to do, and what we’ve done in Wales, is protect the Supporting People budget, whereas is England, under the UK administration, the...
Carl Sargeant: I’m under no illusion about how positive the funding stream for Supporting People is and it has a great impact in delivering services in a ‘prevent’ method. My Cabinet colleagues recognise that too and that’s why we have done our best under the previous Minister also to protect as much Supporting People budget as possible. But we cannot continue in the same guise. We’re in a very...
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. We legislated in Wales around violence against women and sexual exploitation. We have a programme working with the NHS regarding FGM—and other third sector organisations. It is a priority of my department to make sure that the safety of our communities and individuals should be maintained and I will continue to do so.
Carl Sargeant: I don’t have any figures for the Member today, but I will write to the Member in terms of further detail. As I said earlier on, this is a very complex area in terms of what is believed to be socially acceptable in some of these circles. It is clearly not. We don’t believe that is the case. And we are working with third sector organisations—sorry, the public sector, like the NHS, and...
