The next item on the agenda then is item 6, which is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children—volunteering week. I call the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, Carl Sargeant.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thought it important to take a moment at the beginning of this fifth term to say ‘thank you’ to all the people who volunteer here in Wales. There certainly are a lot of them. Almost one in three Welsh people volunteer in Wales in some way. Volunteers’ Week provides a chance to think about the difference volunteers have made to our lives and our communities, and to encourage even more people to volunteer.

This year, there were celebrations across Wales, including the national Volunteer of the Year awards at Cardiff castle last Friday, and I’d like to take a moment for us to acknowledge the dedication and achievements of just a few of those winners. Sue Osman, a retired neonatal nurse, spends her time, having retired, helping the families of children with disabilities. Sue volunteers at Newport’s children’s centre to help families and children through some of the most difficult times they ever face. People use words like ‘inspiring’ and ‘privilege’ when they talk about the work with her.

A group of young people, acting as world heritage ambassadors, working to promote the world heritage town of Blaenavon, are inspiring other young people to take a community lead. Imogen, a young person from Monmouth, volunteers at the Caerwent inclusive youth club. Imogen helps young people with complex needs. Her colleagues call Imogen a real ambassador for commitment, competence and willingness to help other young volunteers with what they have to offer. Valerie from Cardiff has been instrumental, as a member of the Insole Court Trust, in saving a historic building, Insole Court, for public benefit, and Michael Baker of Pontypridd is another person. He’s described as one of the most committed volunteers in running the Too Good To Waste project. Michael has overcome very real difficulties to help others in projects that focus on improving the environment through recycling. Since January 2010, Michael himself has volunteered over a staggering 7,500 hours.

Countless organisations are appreciative of the contribution of their volunteers. In addition to the national awards, a great number of local celebrities took part last week. For example, Groundwork North Wales held a volunteers’ event as a ‘thank you’ for all the support and hard work carried out over the past year.

As I mentioned, about one in three of our citizens volunteer—that’s nearly 1 million people in Wales volunteering every year, here in Wales. It’s hard to be precise because so much voluntary action is carried out by people who may not even think that they’re volunteering themselves. Nevertheless, this is a figure we should celebrate. To use a sporting analogy to illustrate the numbers, which I know my north Wales colleagues may appreciate, you could fill the Deeside Stadium 624 times over with the number of volunteers recorded each year—an attendance that my local team, Nomads, would be very pleased to have, I’m sure. But Wales has, of course, always had a strong sense of community spirit. In many respects this forms the character of our nation, and we must do all we can to foster and harness this rich seam of community spirit.

Presiding Officer, I’d like to acknowledge the value that volunteering contributes to our economy and society, and also those countless individuals who, every single day, provide vital support to family members, neighbours and friends in need. It’s even harder to put a firm number on this than to calculate the precise number of volunteers. However, we can imagine the additional strain on public services if the myriad of community groups and charities were not there at the front line that we all see.

I’m proud that this Welsh Government has been committed to encouraging and supporting volunteers. This commitment was reaffirmed last year in our volunteering policy, ‘Supporting Communities, Changing Lives’. The Welsh Government stands by the principles set out in that document, which affirms that we are doing the right things already. For example, supporting new volunteers through grants—and this year the Welsh Government has offered over £5 million to support volunteering grants and county voluntary councils. Over 8,000 volunteer placements were made last year, with funding for 417 young people receiving 200 hours of Millennium Volunteers certificates—enabling the WCVA to maintain a database of over 5,000 volunteering opportunities, and training people to provide the support volunteers need. Last year our funding helped to train 5,000 trustees.

There are also new actions to be taken forward. I’ll mention just a few today. Volunteering can promote social inclusion. We need better intelligence on the barriers that prevent some people from volunteering—particularly those who have higher support needs. We will work with partners to better understand and tackle these barriers. In some circumstances, volunteering can be the route to employment. It’s also important that we help volunteers to evidence the skills they have developed and we will also identify an appropriate way for doing this too.

We also want to make sure that the funding we invest in supporting volunteers provides the best value for money. We will make sure that existing volunteering offers are more straightforward, making it simple, effective and accessible, whether it is learning more through social media or the internet or walking into the local volunteering centre. Employers also have a role in encouraging volunteering. Some of you may be aware that civil servants at the Welsh Government are afforded up to five days a year for voluntary activities, taking their expertise into communities and voluntary organisations. Civil servants are encouraged to use volunteering as a way of giving back to the community and taking the Welsh Government into communities and learning, themselves, from the experience of the programmes. This may be something you would like to consider doing yourself—or your own staff, as Members and colleagues. There is help available through the volunteering-wales.net website, which has over 5,000 volunteering opportunities.

The Presiding Officer took the Chair.

I’m keen to renew our bond with the third sector and maximise the potential for volunteering. I’d like to see an even bigger number of volunteers. People giving of their own time for the benefit of others, making a big difference to communities and the people who live in them.

Presiding Officer, it’s a day for celebration and recognising the great work that volunteers do throughout the year. This is just placing on record our thanks from the Welsh Government.

Thank you, Minister, for the statement. First of all, I think it’s important that we should, in the culture of having the European championships in France at the moment, acknowledge all the sporting volunteers, especially with regard to grass-roots football, who are doing so much to make sure that players can come through from communities, because, quite often, many young people come through those particular teams via the good work of volunteers, and they wouldn’t be able to do that without that key work. Having attended the Sports Personality of the Year awards, along with other Assembly Members, in December last year, it showed how many people of all ages are involved in grass-roots sports on a voluntary basis.

Minister, your statement mentions work to understand and tackle barriers to volunteering. One of the barriers I’m sure you may be aware of is that many people are put upon sanctions by the DWP if they take part in certain types of volunteering. Obviously, I totally disagree with this, and I’m sure you would too, in terms of people showing willing to go out into their communities and being punished for that. So, I wonder whether you could engage with the DWP in that regard to ask them to come up with a publicity campaign to try and encourage people to volunteer in a positive way, because it is actually putting people off. They are feeling quite vulnerable to the proposition of volunteering at the moment, from certain aspects of society.

Will you ensure that Welsh Government funding of the third sector includes funding posts for volunteer managers, who play a crucial role in recruiting and retraining volunteers, and that this funding is long term, and is not contract based? That is something that has been raised with me early on in this post. It must be noted volunteering can and should never replace public sector delivery by paid staff. There was news some time ago where one particular health board was proposing that volunteers deliver and administer meals within a given hospital, and I’d like reassurance from the Minister that this isn’t the direction that you see volunteering going in at all.

I appreciate also that we have the reality of the situation where asset transfer is happening across councils in Wales, and I appreciate the former Minister put out guidance with regard to people running such services, but again I think it’s important that if people are taking on additional roles in their communities, such as running community centres, swimming pools and sports centres, that that is recognised and is not taken advantage of. Quite often I would attend local groups and it is the same people doing everything. They get quite tired and stressed by that very fact. So, I think, yes, volunteering is a very important thing to do, but we also have to balance that with life stresses and the well-being of the individual in that regard.

The final point I would like to finish on, also on the well-being aspect, is young people. In researching this statement today I found that many young people are doing unpaid work that obviously is being defined as volunteering, but actually they should potentially be being paid for that work. So I hope that’s something that you can look into as well, Minister.

First of all, I thank the Member for her questions and her contribution today. I absolutely agree with the Member in terms of supporting volunteers across the length and breadth of the UK and Wales. In particular, I pay tribute to two of my good friends, Leanne and Bernie Attridge, who put the nets up at the local football club in rain or shine, and without them the game wouldn’t go on. So, a big thank you to people just like them. I think it is really important, no matter what they do, that there’s an action that helps community spirit and bond communities.

I will look very closely at the issue of sanctions. I think volunteering gives lots of people an opportunity who have been socially excluded, actually; it’s often an opportunity back into communities, and I think it would be something that I would be very concerned about if the DWP have a negative view on that. I will take that up and I will write to the Member following that conversation.

I can’t guarantee—I know the Member asked and rightly so, and she’s been lobbying—I can’t guarantee any long-term funding for managers in posts anywhere across my department. The reality is that finances are very challenging. But what I do acknowledge is the work that managers and organisations do in securing the bigger opportunity of training and support for volunteers on the ground. So, I am sympathetic, and I will do all I can, but I can’t promise the Member long-term funding in that guise.

Volunteering shouldn’t be an alternative to public services, but there is a balance in terms of her other point around asset transfer as well. What I’d like to see more is the partnership of public services working with the voluntary sector, and how can we secure sometimes some great assets in our communities, such as swimming baths. I know we’ve seen community groups taking over publicly owned swimming pools into their community, and they do a very good job of that as well, not-for-profit organisations. But this is about enablement, making sure that we can help support people who have the will and want to do this. How can we as Government and organisations help them have the confidence to make sure that they can make a real difference in their communities? We have so many volunteers, young and old, and I’m really impressed by the enthusiasm that our young volunteers bring to communities. I’ve seen some great projects already in a very short time in this portfolio now, but in my previous role, when I looked after volunteers before, I saw some great and incredible projects where young people were interacting with elderly people, and I think it breaks down some real significant barriers—the personal anxiety between the two groups can be dissolved by just sitting round with a cup of tea and talking about things collectively. So, I genuinely thank the volunteers across Wales and thank you for your contribution.

I’m delighted to join with you in celebrating the fantastic contribution made by nearly 1 million volunteers in Wales. I note that Volunteering Week was extended this year from 1-12 June, and we must also celebrate the extension associated with the Queen’s ninetieth birthday and her contribution, having been the patron of more than 600 charities and organisations.

As you said, we can all imagine the additional strain on our public services if the myriad of community groups and charities were not there at the front line. As you rightly said, we also want to make sure the funding we invest in support for volunteers provides the best value for money, and, you’re keen to renew your bond with the third sector and maximise the potential for volunteering—and the opportunity certainly exists for that. How would you address concerns that that smarter, best-value-for-money, invest-to-save approach hasn’t been embraced? At the end of the last Assembly, for example, Welsh Government cuts to child contact centres and cuts to funding for specialist intervention services supporting families through their relationship breakdown will impact on other services, generating far higher costs, for example, for health, education and social services; or the 9 per cent cut to local county voluntary charities, which Flintshire Local Voluntary Council said in a letter to me would devastate their ability to support more user-led preventative and cost-effective services. In other words, using the more limited money smarter, we can safeguard those services by working differently.

How do you respond to the statement by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action that Welsh Government and the sector need to refresh current engagement mechanisms, to develop, promote and monitor a programme for action based on co-production and common ground? Their report on citizen-directed support said that there’s scope for local authorities, health boards and the third sector to work much more imaginatively to develop better services that are closer to people, more responsive to needs and add value by drawing on community resources. In fact, replacing hierarchies, power and control with real engagement, better lives and more cohesive communities.

In terms of your pledge, or your ambition, to work more closely with the sector in your statement, how will you engage with the newly launched co-production network for Wales? I was a guest at that launch on 26 May in mid Wales with representatives from the public sector and the third sector from every corner of Wales—a packed event, with presentations ranging from Monmouthshire County Council to a session I co-chaired with an officer from Flintshire County Council. The findings that that group reported included: campaigning for change within the Welsh Government, turning the system upside down, challenging people and the systems that restrict us. That working group, as I said, I co-chaired, and that presentation was made by an officer. I was the only politician around the table, so it was hardly a partisan event. Responding to, perhaps, Professor Edgar Cahn, the Washington civil rights lawyer, who developed the concept of co-production to explain how important neighbourhood-level support systems are for families and communities and how they can be rebuilt—he spoke at that event. This is a movement that began in the 1970s; it wasn’t a response to austerity, it was how to tackle deeply rooted problems in communities—in that case, in America, but they also exist here. I’ll finish at that point.

I thank the Member for his contribution. I think the First Minister was very clear, when he became the First Minister in the fifth term, about having a very different conversation with both political parties and members of the public. I think the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 actually puts into legislation what terms and conditions we have to comply with as a Government, about engagement with citizens. That’s certainly what I want to do. I want to listen to all sectors outside Government, to listen to the concerns that you have raised on their behalf, too. There are many organisations who I know do a tremendous job in all our communities, but the reality is, Mark, that in the last term of Government we were restricted by £1.9 billion less money coming into the Welsh economy because of the UK Government.

I cannot fill or mitigate that effect, and the fact therefore is that a 9 per cent reduction for some of the CVCs was inevitable. Actually, in some areas, we have to make choices and they’re very difficult. In politics—and, Mark, you’ve been in this game a long time, as well as I have—now is probably one of the most challenging times we find as a Government because the finances just aren’t there. We have to do things very, very differently, and I’m prepared to have that conversation with all aspects of people who want to do different things in their communities, but also have the same objectives as this Government about the well-being of communities right across Wales.

I think I spoke about this element to Bethan Jenkins earlier on. I think I see my role and the role of Welsh Government as about enabling people to do more, and if we can only support people to do well in their communities as a Government, I think we’re on the right side of that. I cannot commit to increasing funding for organisations when we just don’t have the finances to do that. But I’m grateful for the Member’s contribution, and I look forward to working with him and some of the groups that he represents here today.

Many residents in my constituency of Cynon Valley are amongst the 1 million or so people across Wales who give freely of their time to improve their communities and the lives of their neighbours. Volunteers’ Week gives us an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ and to highlight their contribution. Will you join with me in offering congratulations to the 40,000 volunteers from across the UK who worked with the Trussell Trust last year to provide food banks across Wales, for their part in helping the organisation to become the overall winner in the Charity Awards 2016?

Secondly, volunteers are having to take responsibility for the delivery of more and increasingly complex local services due to public sector spending cuts, for example through community asset transfers. This can often require complex management skills. How is the Welsh Government supporting volunteers in developing these?

Finally, studies have shown that volunteering can improve an individual’s mental health. How can the Welsh Government best promote this within its volunteering policy?

I thank the Member for her contribution. I know that she represents Cynon Valley really well, and representing the many people who volunteer in her community; I also say ‘thank you’ to those. It was a rather sad indictment, really, that one of the fastest-growing businesses last year was food banks, and the fact of the matter is that I believe it is caused by austerity that we have to do this. But 40,000 people take time out to support each other in our community; we should, again, be very proud of that, and I place on record my thanks to the Trussell Trust food banks and all food banks that operate across our communities. It’s a very sad indictment that we need them, but we’ve got them and they’re run very well.

Community asset transfer is another element of complex programmes. What I’m keen to do—and this may sound challenging—I think we miss a trick because some of our communities that need these assets the most are the ones that are enabled. Actually, we have many aspects of community engagement where we have ex-professional retired people who can manage these organisations very well, but the communities where we don’t have these people living actually have the people who need them most, and that’s where we should be absolutely, deep-dive, looking at supporting our most vulnerable communities, where we should be encouraging more take-up of this.

The Member is absolutely right to raise the issue about well-being and mental health also. I said to Members earlier on that I think accessing volunteering gives people the softer option into possibly employment later on, but moving into a different space of building relationships with communities, with other individuals, when sometimes they may have had some very challenging personal issues themselves. So, I think volunteering is the correct route, and we should encourage all people from all walks of life. But, actually, with regard to the issue around supporting people with mental health issues, volunteering can be a great option.

I am taking the unusual step for me of speaking in Welsh here in the Chamber. It’s not because I am fluent in Welsh, but because I’m not fluent in Welsh, but I’m trying to get there. So, if Members are willing to bear with me, I will try my best to take faltering steps towards fluency on a very public stage. This is high risk. [Laughter.]

In the Bridgend and Ogmore region, like so many other regions, we have many people in so many organisations who contribute their time and effort to make things a little better, a little easier, in so many ways. From the Wombles in Pontycymer and Ogmore Valley Pride in Ogmore Vale, tidying up their local environment, to the Caerau Community Growers providing fresh food and horticulture skills to their communities, from the Bridgend Samaritans providing someone to listen to when times are tough to the many food-bank volunteers in almost every town and village: this is a sad reflection of these austere times, but a reflection too of the generous spirit of our communities.

So, would the Minister commend the work of all of these organisations and volunteers, and the companies and employers, who often now give time off to staff to volunteer, and to those co-ordinating organisations like BAVO, the Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organisations, in Bridgend?

Would the Minister also agree with me that it’s not that hard value, in terms of pounds and pence, that’s important, but the human value of giving and of being there when others need you? That goes on every hour of every day throughout Wales, and it is right that we celebrate that during this Volunteers’ Week.

Diolch yn fawr i chi. Thank you very much for your contribution, Huw. Your Welsh is outstanding compared to mine, may I say?

First of all, there’s nothing you’ve said I can disagree with. I think you related to many of the community activities in the area you represent. I am familiar with some of those organisations and it’s right to say also that there are some companies that actively seek to engage with their employees, pushing them into volunteering opportunities because it actually brings back more for the company too. It’s not in your constituency, but I was with volunteers from GE yesterday, and Jo Foster was leading a team of volunteers out and about. There are many other organisations that do that.

I think what it does say—and I think you made reference to this—volunteering not only has a positive experience on our communities but, actually, it is the heart of our community Welsh spirit. It just defines us. I think what we can give, and it’s not in monetary terms, but it’s about social interaction. I think you’re absolutely right: we should celebrate the volunteers in your community and many communities across Wales.

Minister, I’m very grateful for you bringing this statement today. I think it’s only right that we pay tribute as an Assembly to the tremendous efforts of volunteers across Wales. But I am a little bit disappointed because the one significant group of volunteers that you didn’t mention were those in faith groups across the country in churches, mosques and other settings. You’ll be aware, because of your previous ministerial engagement with such groups, that they make a tremendous contribution across Wales in many, many different ways, whether that’s through youth groups, being custodians of some wonderful buildings or simply serving the elderly or disadvantaged in our communities.

There was a report, of course, which was published back in 2008—and things have moved on significantly since then—which identified that such individuals are giving 80,000 hours per week in terms of their volunteering contribution here in Wales, and that was 42,000 volunteers that had been mobilised, as a result of their faith and their engagement in faith communities across Wales, to undertake some volunteering. So, I wonder, Minister, what you’re doing to increase the capacity of faith groups to expand their volunteering efforts and what you’re doing specifically as a Government to recognise their achievements and to thank them for them achievement to society here in Wales. I’m sure you would want to do that now in the Chamber.

May I thank the Member for his question? To take one issue, I was non-specific about volunteers—it was a general position of volunteering and, of course, I recognise the many, many hours, the uncounted hours, actually, that faith groups and other organisations take part in. Indeed, I was a member many years ago of the Salvation Army Boys Adventure Corps—many, many years ago—but that only happened because there were volunteers prepared to run this club for individuals. I visited the soup kitchen in Cardiff, which looks after homeless people, run by the Salvation Army again. So, I recognise that the faith sector has so many opportunities too.

Again, non-specifically, I think that what we should all do is encourage all volunteers from all walks of life to get engaged, and it’s something that this Welsh Government will continue.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.