6. Statement by the Leader of the House: Enabling Gypsies, Roma and Travellers

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:42 pm on 26 June 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:42, 26 June 2018

Siân Gwenllian accurately captures the complexity of some of the issues that the community faces, and there is an emphasis on good sites, housing, transit sites and maintaining a way of life, whilst also giving people the essential decencies of human life. I just want to emphasise, Deputy Presiding Officer, that our capital grants are available to upgrade older sites with smaller amenity blocks, for example. I also want to say a huge thank you to all of the members of families from this community who have welcomed me absolutely with open arms and with the most amazing hospitality into their homes to discuss some of these issues. The new amenity blocks are much bigger, they often have day rooms and so on associated with them, and so I just want to emphasise again, as we have done, to all local authorities, that upgrade money is available through the capital grants. We are, of course, in consultation with the communities about what they want and how that works, so that's very important indeed.

We also are ensuring that all the principles of equality and fairness remain central to the delivery of our other plans, which this complements, so I take Siân Gwenllian's point about employability and skills, for example, and some of the other issues that she raised. It'll be central to our new employability plan that we promote the consideration of the needs of all protected groups, and I'll be in discussion with my ministerial colleagues about how best to ensure that that's done, and also that we fund employability schemes specifically in communities that are experiencing particular levels of need, so that they're tailored in a particular way, because this community has very specific requirements. I'm also pleased that the new plan means that Business Wales will be able to support those communities to establish their own businesses, which is very often what they actually want.

I just want to emphasise two other things from Siân Gwenllian's contribution. I've had many conversations with young people as well across these sites, and the issue about play areas comes up. And, again, Deputy Presiding Officer, I'd like to emphasise to local authorities, who I know are aware, but it's worth restating, that capital grant can be used to upgrade such things as play facilities and so on. But we are also keen that we are not creating a completely separate set of amenities. So, where there is a suitable play area for a particular site nearby, we just want to ensure that there are safe access routes to that, safe access routes to schools and so on, so we're not making an isolated community either, unless there are no reasonable-to-reach play facilities.

I've also had it emphasised to me that, sometimes, we have unintended consequences from some of our other policies around safer routes to schools and so on, on which we're working very hard with the specific communities that have raised those issues, because we know that in a community that sometimes faces barriers, we need to make sure that all the barriers under our control are as low as possible to ensure continued participation in education and skills training and so on. So, it's a complex area, and we very much have the wishes and desires of the communities that we're seeking to assist at the centre of our plan.