9. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on transitional arrangements for Communities First? OAQ(5)0134(CC)

I have announced a 12-month transitional period for Communities First to mitigate some of the impacts of the decision. Transition and strategy guidance has been issued to fully support the lead delivery bodies, who are currently submitting outline transition plans.

The Cabinet Secretary will have received a letter from Caerphilly county borough councillor Ken James, the cabinet member for regeneration. I’d like to just draw his attention to this statement from Councillor James that says that Caerphilly council, as the lead body, are having trouble delivering their detailed plan because we’ve entered the pre-election period, which means they cannot adhere to their formal consultation and decision-making processes in order to develop and agree their proposals. Would therefore the Cabinet Secretary agree to a degree of flexibility for lead bodies when delivering their detailed plans?

As always, as the Member raises it with me, as well as Dawn Bowden and his other colleagues, I’m very interested in your views on this and how we can have a smoother transition for the people employed in the communities on the ground. I’m very interested in making sure that my team work closely with Caerphilly and other associations, and I’ve asked them to have a conversation with them directly to make sure that we can find a way through this proposal.

Cabinet Secretary, in your statement on 14 February on your new approach to building resilient communities, you announced a new £12 million a year grant to support those who live away from the labour market. Could the Cabinet Secretary provide more details on this scheme, when it will be launched, who it will be targeted to or at, what objectives have been set, and how will they be achieved? Thank you.

Well, these aren’t new schemes. Lift and Communities for Work and the PaCE programme weren’t available in all of the clusters. We are making sure Lift and Communities for Work will be available in all the 52 former Communities First clusters, investing £12 million, as the Member said, about taking people who are very hard to reach from the market into employment. That isn’t always about an employability programme, but maybe about confidence building or otherwise giving people confidence to move into that plan. I’m also talking with Julie James in terms of her employability pathway to make sure that these very specific programmes in communities add value to the longer term intervention of lifelong learning. So, I’m more than happy to write to the Member with details of these schemes, but they aren’t new; we’re just increasing the capacity within the sector.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.