Questions now from the party spokespeople. Welsh Conservatives spokesperson, Mark Isherwood.

Diolch, Lywydd. As you consider the future for building resilient communities as the changes you’ve announced go forward, a lot has been happening with local area co-ordination, supporting residents and communities to, quote, ‘get a life, not a service’, driving collaboration between local people, families, communities and organisations to build something bigger and more sustainable alongside the people and the communities themselves. What consideration have you given or will you give to the conversations around local area co-ordination that started in Monmouth in 2013?

My team have already started a discussion with the local service delivery boards, which were, effectively, the operations management of Communities First. That is also expanding now to community groups and other interested agencies, and I’m sure my team would be delighted to look at the proposals the Member has raised with me today.

Further—that was just the start, because local area co-ordinators in Swansea are working on the principle of getting to know people, their families, and communities, to build their vision for a good life, to stay strong and connected, and to feel safer and more confident for the future. Again, could you consider the work that’s been developed in a number of local authorities, with cross-party support, in many parts of Wales?

Indeed. I think we shouldn’t close the door on community engagement in any way. We should think about how best effective support for communities can be delivered with communities, not to them.

Well, thank you, and the biggie—it’s not in Wales, it’s in Derby, because local area co-ordination in the UK began in Derby in 2012, building on the very successful model implemented in Australia, which provides evidence of positive outcomes for citizens and savings. In Derbyshire, an independent evaluation by Derby university over 10 to 12 months found savings of £800,000 for the health and social care economy and also found that this had introduced and built relationships, established trust, worked to the person, using people strengths, and built connections with families and citizens to create solutions for those communities. This convinced the local authority and NHS there to invest and expand to all 17 council wards. So, if a project that has 50 people can improve lives, reconnect communities, and save £800,000, will you give serious consideration to how this model could be embraced here?

Thank you. I was slightly relieved, because I thought the Member was going to invite me for a trip with him to Derby, but I’m glad he didn’t do that, because I would hate to refuse him on the floor. But I think the Member’s got a really interesting point there about looking at what works in communities, and it’s something that I will ask my team to look at closely. We have got some already effective programmes working in Wales that meet the demands of communities with communities. A Derby or Australian model—it’d be something that I’d be very interested to look at.

UKIP spokesperson, Michelle Brown.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Until 1970, thousands of children from across the UK were forcibly deported to countries across the Commonwealth as part of an unconscionable governmental policy that tore young children away from their families and sent them across the globe to be used as cheap labour, to be neglected and sometimes abused. What measures have you taken to ascertain how many Welsh children were deported under the child migration programme since the 1950s, many of whom may still be alive today?

We are working very closely with the UK Government in terms of the commission around abused children. I understand my team have already started discussions to talk about children who were sent to different countries and what those numbers look like. But there is an operational helpline for people who wish to disclose historic abuse; they are able to talk to people in this country now.

Okay. Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. The children’s lives were totally torn apart, and they were torn away from their families. What support are you able to offer to try and reunite them with those families?

Well, of course, the first port of call, really, is for the disclosure or contact by these young—older people now, but when they were young and sent off to other countries, it must have been very frightening for most of those individuals. We have professionally trained individuals to deal with those contact points, subject to people coming forward.

Thank you. I’m very pleased to hear that, Cabinet Secretary. I’m sure you’re aware that the alleged sexual abuse of children deported under the programme is currently being investigated by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, as part of their investigation into the protection of children outside the UK. What input will you be having into that investigation?

My team meets with the officials of that independent inquiry on a regular basis, and we supply all information that’s relative to that inquiry. We will help and support them do their job.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Bethan Jenkins.

Cabinet Secretary, last summer, the very first question I asked you was about the data collection and publishing in relation to anti-poverty schemes, which was a key recommendation of the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee in the previous Assembly. Can you tell me what progress is being made on this, and when we can expect to see better data collection and measurement?

All the issues that we’ve introduced, in terms of performance and data measurement, are around the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and we’ll be judged in the future on the performance of that. The indicators of that Act are important, to make sure that we are delivering for Wales what we say we’re going to deliver, in turning communities around in a positive way.

I appreciate what you say in relation to that, but, of course, we’ve still got many schemes that are based on current data and past data. And I’ve been speaking recently to a range of organisations, which have told me that they were unable to find data on outcomes for 29 out of 35 European social fund community funded programmes since 2007, despite funding being recently extended to 2020. So, since there is still a clear lack of measurable data, what was the basis for extending this particular funding?

Well, I’m not aware of the particular programmes that the Member raises with me today, but if she’d like to give me some more detail, I will give her a fuller response to that comment. The issue around the 2020 deadline is that the European funding is available until 2020, we are aware. And we will continue to draw down that as long as we possibly can.

One of those projects was Communities for Work, and I’ve raised this many times with you, not only here, but in committee also. So, I think that’s one example that you could, potentially, look at and get back to me on. But, with regard to the future of your anti-poverty strategies more generally, I have had it also put to me that the problem with many schemes in the past is that they don’t measure the long-term outcomes, and actually end up with data that can be misleading. So, for example, somebody who gets a job via the Communities for Work programme is counted as a success, in and of itself, regardless of whether they’re still in that job in a few weeks’ time. But we all know poverty of people in work remains a huge problem. So, how is that particular scheme and others like it judged a success, when I’ve just outlined that it’s very hard for you to understand whether they’re in it for a week, or a fortnight, or a month, after they actually get that particular work placement?

I recognise the Member’s point. I would say that the access to work is one element of success. The long-term success is about making sure that we can sustain employment. But the experience that people go through on the course itself is a very core skill for those individuals, to grow into the opportunities to get into work in the first place. So, one output of getting a job and sustaining that is important, but there are other aspects of that course that are important as well. I will write to the Member with details of that. But, if she wishes to furnish me with the full detail of her question, I’m more than happy to ask my team to respond to her.