4. 3. Statement: Resilient Communities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 11 October 2016.

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Photo of Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant Labour 2:41, 11 October 2016

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank Bethan Jenkins for her measured questions there. I think that while the Member picked up on the issue of Communities First, actually there’s lots in the statement, I believe, that’s quite exciting with an opportunity to drive Wales forward. I’ll give the Member some examples of the choices that we’ve made and the reasoning behind some of them.

We know that, for 15 years, Communities First has been embedded in our communities and we have been keen to ensure that we help communities grow. Prosperity is the key driver here—jobs and growth and skills. This Government’s commitment is two-fold: economic resilience in giving jobs and skills to people across our communities and well-being in terms of the well-being of individuals and the community.

The Member is absolutely right to raise the issue of why we’ve put children’s zones or focused on ACEs in this department and this is because the leverage I have in this department is around children and it touches all of my colleagues’ departments in some way, shape or form. I’ve already had conversations with three Members who have a view on education and it’s a view shared by the Cabinet Secretary. Unless we can get well-being built into the resilience of the individual as a child, actually their attainment is impossible. You can’t get people who are suffering from domestic violence or alcohol misuse or drug misuse to learn, so we have to make sure we’ve got the well-being of the individual firstly promoted. That’s why the prevention and intervention approach of this and the child zones—. That’s what we’ll be doing is a wraparound approach to children and their families in areas. We’re going to do some pilot intervention across Wales and then hopefully roll that out.

So, what else are we going to do then? If not Communities First, what is that programme? Part of that is about the discussion we’ll be having over the next couple of months to understand about an exit process, but also about what we need to do to build on the programmes we already have in place and how we can make them better. I mentioned in my statement about Families First and Flying Start, which are two key programmes in delivering against the actions they were set up to do. But, where we have some local authorities that are saying to us, ‘If we can have some more flexibility between those two programmes’—. I’ve had conversations with many in this Chamber about where Communities First was very tight in terms of a place-based approach to support. The flexibility between these two programmes, we hope, will be able to target the interventions so it’s not only about being place based, but actually the people outside those areas who need the support and are able to attract support from these areas. The PSBs are a key element in the legislation that we took through in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. It’s about creating a well-being plan, knowing their community and understanding that inclusion and engagement are part of the principles of the WFG Act. I would expect the Minister and also the commissioner to be robust in making sure that happens across Wales.

With regard to the issue where the Member mentions financial inclusion, I know the Member has a long-standing history of financial inclusion, and I will offer the opportunity to meet with my staff to talk about the financial inclusion programme and what more we can do in terms of communities and to use her expertise in this field to help drive improvement in and across communities in Wales.