The Voluntary Sector in Montgomeryshire

Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:54, 26 March 2019

I'd like to refer the Minister back to points that I've raised with her before, with regard to services provided through the third sector for women and girls needing support. I'm thinking particularly of domestic abuse and of rape support services. We know that those are very often most effective if they are small, locally led and locally supported, and with the active participation of volunteers. We know that providing those services can be particularly challenging in rural communities like Montgomeryshire, like the whole of Powys. We also know that those services are increasingly under pressure from large commercial companies that tender against them when local authorities or community safety partnerships or whichever public bodies are putting out the tenders. What further steps can the Deputy Minister take to ensure that those local services, led by women and girls and provided for women and girls, continue to receive the public support that they need in order to ensure that the services that really meet the needs of those communities are not some kind of top-down model from big commercial companies, which we know often don’t meet the needs, and we also know often, in the end, are not sustainable.