Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 14 December 2016.
Can I draw your attention, Minister, to the work of the Penparcau Community Forum? Penparcau used to be a Communities First area; it’s the community I live in. It lost the Communities First status at the previous reiteration and review of Communities First, but, if anything, has been even more successful post Communities First than previously, because it’s been able to do a lot more working with other partners, in a way that’s freed them up, if you like. They’re very keen that you look at the work that they’ve done, because they believe that they point the way ahead for post Communities First, which you are considering in the new year. We had a very successful meeting about 18 months ago—your predecessor came and met with the community forum in Penparcau together with the Presiding Officer and myself. Since then, they’ve moved on; they’ve got a new community facility, which will be opening in the summer. They warmly welcome you to that opening around that time and hope that you can accept an invitation at that stage, but in particular, they want to talk to you about how, post Communities First, they can work at a community level with families with a high level of child poverty to really address the issues of the community. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to meet with them and learn about them.