Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 9 October 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:37, 9 October 2019

I think it was a very good report, and, in fact, it gives me the opportunity to plug the public services summit that I and the First Minister will be addressing tomorrow, which runs over two days in the Liberty Stadium, down in Swansea, with the exact purpose of spreading good practice far and wide in Wales, along the theme of one public service for Wales. Academi Wales is actually an extremely good organisation, and has been praised, and indeed is praised in that report, for its ability to frame the leadership conversation in local government. We've also been working very hard with the WLGA, and indeed with some Welsh European Funding Office funding that we have, to fund leadership possibilities for third-tier and below officers right across local authorities in Wales, so that they have career-enhancing leadership opportunities. And we're very keen on working up, with Academi Wales, opportunities for secondments—both from the Welsh Government civil service, out into operational departments in local government, and vice versa, so that each has a better understanding of how the other works, with a view to enhancing the leadership aspects of that.

In terms of the public voice, we're very much encouraging local authorities to engage with their public in as wide a series of events as possible, both with a view to enhancing public service provision, but with a view to enhancing the officers of the authorities' understanding of how they deliver public services in their particular area.

I don't know if Mark Isherwood was trying to say that he wanted to advocate this, but, just to be clear, I don't—I don't think one size fits all in Wales. So, I don't think you can say, 'This looks like good leadership—you must do it like this.' I think that's very different, depending on where you are, what your authority looks like, what your local population looks like. But we do work very hard with Academi Wales on spreading good practice, right across Wales, and the next two days down in Swansea is a good example of that.