Alun Davies: Positive progress has been made by public services boards to meet their obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Now that all local well-being plans have been published, PSBs are now firmly focused on their delivery.
Alun Davies: I absolutely agree with that. We have for some time funded three fire and rescue authorities in Wales to provide home safety checks completely free to householders. These checks will cover all aspects of fire safety, as well as other hazards such as falls, and I understand that there are something like 60,000 such checks taking place each year, and that focuses on the greatest risk of fire in...
Alun Davies: The Member will be aware of the provisions that have been made under the recent renting homes legislation, and it is our intention to ensure that those provisions are enforced. If the Member has any evidence they're not being enforced, then I would be very happy to take that forward with her. What I will say is this: we've seen a significant decline in fires in the domestic setting in Wales...
Alun Davies: I published in-depth research on domestic electrical fires in July. Our fire and rescue authorities are working with us and with Electrical Safety First to understand their causes and to help prevent them.
Alun Davies: I'll make announcements on the revenue support grant next week. I understand the points that have been made, and I do certainly understand the pressures facing many rural authorities across the whole country in continuing to deliver excellent services across sometimes very sparsely populated geography. But I will say this to him: I was also sitting in two Valleys council offices last week,...
Alun Davies: I wish to emphasise that I agree with your analysis that authorities are facing an extremely hard time, and one of the most difficult jobs in politics currently is that of leading local authorities—I have no doubt about that at all or about the challenges that they face. But may I say this, too: the policies that led to what occurred in Northampton are not being implemented in Wales. In...
Alun Davies: I recognise the pressures on local authority budgets and the difficult decisions councils have to make. We will continue to engage with local authorities to address the challenges of austerity together in the wake of the budget that has been given to us. It is more important than ever that authorities engage local people on local priorities and in those decisions.
Alun Davies: I don't want to use that sort of terminology to describe the way that PSBs are working. Can I say this? I think there is a great deal of complexity in the way we govern and the processes and structures that we have. One of my ambitions and objectives is to reduce our complexity in Government and to reduce the amount of governance, if you like, that we conduct in Wales. I want to see more...
Alun Davies: I hope that what we are seeing is a different dynamic with the public services boards. I believe that they're more constructive than the local service boards that preceded them. We've seen their local well-being plans. I think there's a broad variety there, which reflects the different ambitions from PSBs across Wales. I welcome that variety. I welcome the fact that PSBs are discharging their...
Alun Davies: I hope that we are seeing joint working. The public services boards have now completed their planning period and have programmes that they're now seeking to deliver. Clearly, each programme will have its own objectives, and we—and, I hope, Members across the whole of this Chamber will be holding their own public services boards to account for delivering on those programmes and those objectives.
Alun Davies: I would respond by agreeing with the Bevan Foundation in their analysis. Clearly, we do need to have that level of understanding of the human impacts of poverty, if we are to address it in a more holistic way. Perhaps I could answer the question with an illustration that is actually within my portfolio, which is in terms of the Valleys taskforce, where we are looking at exactly that range of...
Alun Davies: We will be evaluating the pathfinders and looking at many of the issues that you've raised this afternoon as a part of that. The interim report was published today, and we will continue to work with the independent evaluators to understand some of those issues before their final report is published, which, I hope, will be in the early summer of next year. But the purpose of bringing...
Alun Davies: Can I, before answering, Presiding Presiding Officer, welcome the new Conservative spokesperson to his place? I hope I gave him a more enthusiastic welcome than some of his colleagues did this afternoon. [Laughter.] I really feel they could do better there. Can I say that I'm looking forward to many conversations and engagement with you, Mark, over the coming period? In terms of the grant...
Alun Davies: Social care is one of those areas of the settlement that we have sought to give enhanced protection to. The finance Minister yesterday made clear that we'll be investing an additional £20 million as part of the funding settlement itself, an additional £30 million through additional grant funding, and another £30 million as part of the social care partnership for health and local...
Alun Davies: I do agree with that, and the Member will know from his own experience that local authorities in Wales have been protected in a way that they haven't been in England. Whilst we have some very difficult, sometimes, conversations at our various meetings with local government, do you know, I am still yet to the local government leaders say, 'What we need is the policies that are being delivered...
Alun Davies: There was a statement yesterday from the finance Secretary, stating that Welsh Government will fund the teachers’ pay increase in full, and that will happen as part of the settlement and as part of next year’s budget.
Alun Davies: The Government’s overall budget priorities, including the funding for local authorities, were set out yesterday. I will announce the provisional local government settlement on 9 October.
Alun Davies: Presiding Officer, in my earlier answer, I said I've been in discussion on these matters at both a ministerial and official level for some time, and I've made that point clear to Members here on previous occasions. I do recognise the proposal made by the Member for the Rhondda, and I am very happy to enter into conversations about that. However, at the moment, we are looking at the...
Alun Davies: I do agree with the Member for Port Talbot, in terms of the analysis that he has of the failures of the probation service. These are matters I have discussed both with the service itself and with Ministers in the United Kingdom Government. I agree with him also that these matters should properly be held here, and be the responsibility of the Welsh Government. He may be interested to know that...
Alun Davies: I met with UK Ministers in July and regularly meet with the head of Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service in Wales to discuss the probation services provided to Welsh prisoners.
