Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 22 June 2016.
The budgetary environment set by the UK Government applies in England and Scotland too, but Wales is trailing in these areas. The third and final recommendation the commission set for Welsh Government was to involve business in its drive to reduce child poverty and increase social mobility. They said you should increase efforts to work with companies, including significant employers in Wales, to create a business compact to promote fairer access to high-quality employment, and said businesses should be encouraged to engage strategically with young people in schools, adhere to best practice on internships and apprenticeships; reform the selection process to eliminate unconscious bias; open up well-structured non-graduate routes to high-quality careers; monitor and evaluate performance on improving access; and sign up—something that you’ll agree with—to the living wage. Now, this was last December, after 16 and a half years of Labour Government, and after four and a half years of the last Labour Government. So, I’d be grateful if you could confirm how this Labour Government is going to do things differently to address these concerns.