Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 3 October 2018.
Well, I'll look forward to exploring that further with you in the future to establish what 'integrity' means in that context. Now, we know—and I know it's not directly in your brief, but I'll get to the relevance—that the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Part 2 code of practice and guidance puts in place a system where people are full partners in the design and operation of care and support, giving them, quote,
'clear and unambiguous rights and responsibilities.'
Now, in your statement today—your written statement—you refer to planning, commissioning and delivering services, and I'm regularly having concerns and allegations expressed to me that we're still seeing consultation from above after decisions have been reached and then commissioning on a traditional commissioning model, which can disadvantage local providers.
Earlier this summer, in Flintshire, the council awarded its service contract to provide disability support services to the non-local provider who'd had it previously. I attended their annual general meeting, asked the people present—90 per cent of whom were disabled—whether they had been involved, as the legislation said that they should have been, in the design and delivery of their services, and they all told me that they had not been involved. Given your responsibilities for local government, for planning, commissioning and delivering services, and for voluntary sector and related issues, how do you propose to help local authorities better understand that this isn't an option, it's a requirement of Welsh Government legislation that had the support of all parties here in the last Assembly, and that they must start doing this?