12. Will the Minister identify the Welsh Government’s priorities in the Fifth Assembly for supporting the voluntary sector across Wales? OAQ(5)0051(CC)

I appreciate the vital, important work the third sector is doing in our communities. Our priorities are ensuring we have a thriving third sector with a strong infrastructure to support their work, growing the volunteer base and ensuring the third sector has a voice in helping and shaping communities.

Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. Again, the voluntary sector and the volunteers are crucial. In my constituency, volunteers work in community libraries, community centres and support services across the town and constituency to ensure that some of those services remain within those communities. Those individual volunteers are crucial to the work of that sector, and some of the people are doing the same jobs on many occasions. What’s the Welsh Government doing to actually encourage more volunteers to come forward, to ensure we spread that workload, to get more involved in the communities and ensure that those services can continue, because we’re burning out the people who are doing it now?

Indeed, and we should congratulate and work with the volunteers in his constituency and in many across Wales—they do a fantastic job. The third sector scheme includes a commitment to develop a new volunteering policy, which has been developed through a working group established by the third sector partnership council. The policy sets out the roles of Welsh Government, volunteer-involving organisations and third sector bodies, including volunteers themselves.

David Rees makes an important point, I think, that many of the volunteers who are asked to pick up the pieces when local authorities withdraw services are themselves service users, and very often carers as well. A recent example that has come to my attention is Newtown day centre, which is proposed to be closed for logistical and financial reasons, and the burden that then puts on the local volunteer workforce. So, what can the Welsh Government do to ensure that there’s a more integrated approach to the maintenance at least of some of these council-funded and council-supported centres, and also not only recruiting new volunteers, but ensuring that volunteers who are committed have respite care themselves, if you like, so that they can then continue to contribute to their society?

I think the Member is right to raise the issue of asset transfer and community ownership. I think what we’re trying to do as a Government is enable communities to be able to take things over and to understand the risks as well, because many of these organisations that are moving from public ownership to community ownership are sometimes very difficult to run financially and physically. It’s something that I’ve asked my team to work with the Wales Council for Volutary Action on to see if there’s a programme that we can use to help communities become more resilient in that space.