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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:56 pm on 26 June 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:56, 26 June 2018

Yes, thank you for that insightful range of questions. We are very mindful of the potential impact of Brexit on the rights and status of Roma from other EU member states, and we're obviously working hard to better understand the UK Government's plans to communicate information about the settled status process to particular communities, because these are communities that struggle to get information of the right sort anyway. We want to ensure that we use all the tools at our disposal to ensure that those messages have got out and people have assistance to apply for the status as they are required to do so. But obviously until the UK Government announces how the settled status system will work exactly, there's a potential for unintentionally confusing messages and many in the community are wary of confusing messages from officials in any event. So, we'll want to work very hard indeed to make sure that the contributions made by citizens of other EU member states are recognised, they get the status, and we want them to stay here and thrive with us. So, we want to make sure that that is enabled as much as possible. 

In terms of the education issue, we have provided additional funding this year. Obviously there have been some issues around that. We are working very hard to make sure that we work with all our local authorities to make sure that the money is channelled in a way, but this is the difficulty and the ongoing conversation around hypothecated and unhypothecated funding. We want our local authorities to be able to respond to the needs in their area, and there is a long and complex argument about how local authorities put that together. But we have provided £8.7 million this financial year to assist with that, and we are certainly working very hard with colleagues, Rebecca Evans in particular, on making sure that we have the right guidance in place to support the most marginalised people who benefit from all of those grants.

There are a whole series of other issues around the Housing (Wales) Act 2014. The housing Act has been instrumental in galvanising local authorities and we're very proud of it, but there are issues around whether, if a local authority didn't identify any need in its area because it hasn't got a settled Gypsy, Traveller or Roma population, then some of the issues with transit sites then come into play. As I said, hindsight's a wonderful thing, so we're working very hard to overcome some of those. But at the moment, you have a duty if there's a recognised need, so we're working hard across Wales to ensure that all the needs are correctly identified and we have the capital grant in place to assist with the development of those sites. 

As I said, I've talked already about the regional community cohesion workers, and I just wanted to pay tribute to some of the people who've worked extremely hard with the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller learners. We know that attainment still lags behind, but I do want to pay tribute to the workforce who've worked extremely hard to engage the community and to get the young women in particular engaged in the learning process. I met with Julie Morgan, only the other day, a set of young learners who were certainly not shy of coming forward with some of their concerns. It was a real pleasure, so it's lovely to hear the highlighted examples that you gave of what can be attained when people get the ability to achieve their potential.