Item 9 is a debate on the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee report, 'Into sharp relief: inequality and the pandemic'. I call the Chair of the committee to move the motion—John Griffiths.

Motion NDM7406 John Griffiths

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Notes the report of the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, 'Into sharp relief: inequality and the pandemic', which was laid in the Table Office on 10 August 2020.

Motion moved.

Diolch yn fawr. I'm pleased to open today's debate on the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee's report on inequality and the COVID pandemic. I would like to start by thanking all those organisations and individuals who, despite the many pressures placed upon them by the pandemic, took the time to share their views and experiences. Our report and our 44 recommendations were very much rooted in this evidence.

Of course, no section of society has been spared the impact of the pandemic, but the very stark reality is that it has been the individuals, households or communities that have the least who have borne the brunt of it—whether that be mortality rates, reduced income or impact on mental health and well-being. Everybody has been affected by the pandemic, but while for many of us the difficulties can be managed, and even some of the sharper edges of the discomfort rubbed off, this is not the case for those who are already the poorest and the most disadvantaged. The pandemic has laid bare those inequalities that have been present in our society for far too long. So, I think it's very apt that in our report we quoted the words of the Secretary General of the United Nations, who said that while we are all in the same sea,

'it's clear that some are in superyachts while others are clinging to drifting debris.'

As I said, we made 44 recommendations, and I'm very pleased that the vast majority have been accepted—34 out of the 44 accepted in full, seven accepted in principle, one accepted in part—and only two rejected. The recommendations cover a wide range of areas from policy development, data, citizen engagement to education, benefits, fair work, accessibility and health and social care. I cannot seek to do justice to all of those in the time available to me, so I'm going to focus my comments today primarily on poverty. 

It is worth noting that we published our report in what now feels like a very different stage in the pandemic, in that all-too-brief interlude as the initial lockdown restrictions were eased, but before the resurgence of the virus that has led to almost half of us in Wales being back under some form of localised restrictions. We said in the report that as well as helping to inform the plan for recovery, we hoped our findings could help the response to any further waves of infection, so that the same mistakes are not repeated.

As a committee, we have been calling for a cross-Government tackling-poverty strategy, underpinned by clear targets and data, since 2017. This report was the third time we have made this recommendation; first, in our Communities First report, where it was rejected, and then in our report on making the economy work for people on low incomes, when again it was rejected. So, I'm pleased now to report some progress, in that this time it has been accepted in principle, but I do believe the accompanying commentary to that acceptance in principle could have been fuller and more convincing, in terms of its content and its detail.

We know strategies on their own will not solve the problem of entrenched poverty in Wales, but a clear, strategic approach with targeted actions, focusing on those who are either in poverty or most at risk of falling into poverty, is the only way we can be assured of knowing that the right actions are being taken at the right time and in the right places.

We know the Welsh Government does not have all of the levers necessary to eradicate poverty in Wales, and only a few weeks ago I spoke on the need for further devolution of benefits, but this is why it is so important that the Welsh Government uses all of the tools available to it. It has to maximise the impact of every single action; it needs to have the data and evidence to enable it to evaluate and monitor success and, where necessary, to change tack.

Our committee has not been alone in calling for this strategy; others, including Oxfam, agree with us. In its response, the Welsh Government cites the review into tackling-poverty programmes, but does not provide any detail of the steps that the Government has agreed to take, so I would ask the Minister to tell us what actions will be taken to maximise the incomes of families and, also, individuals.

One of the ways in which the Welsh Government provides support is through the discretionary assistance fund, or DAF. As the head of Oxfam Wales told us,

'If I was in financial crisis today, I would not put the phrase "discretionary assistance fund" into Google.'

She added that not enough people were aware of it. This is a long-standing issue, as we noted in our report, so it is surprising to see the Government describe it as a recognised brand. While we welcome the additional support that is being provided through the pandemic via the DAF, is the Welsh Government really confident that everybody who needs the support offered by it is accessing it?

The pandemic should and must act as the catalyst for us to finally address the inequalities that are far too prevalent in Wales, not just to help with recovery from the pandemic, but to build a fairer and more equal country into the future. I now look forward to hearing contributions from across the Senedd and the Deputy Minister's response. Diolch yn fawr. 

Although our report notes that since March

'the Welsh Government has taken a number of measures to address the specific or unequal effects on certain groups of people', it also states that many respondents to our inquiry stressed the need for immediate action rather than the production of more strategies, and that

'in drawing up policies and actions that address these issues, there must be real and meaningful engagement with those most affected.'

The Welsh Government's response to our report's first recommendation states that they will

'look to learn the lessons of the past few months to ensure that consideration of impact continues to be an integral part of how decisions are made by the Welsh Government.'

However, as our report evidences, this is more a matter of becoming, rather than continuing to be, an integral part of how the Welsh Government makes decisions. As our report also notes, it is important that decisions by the Welsh Government and other public bodies are

'informed by lived experience to make sure that existing equalities are not entrenched, but addressed.'

In responding to our recommendation 4, the Welsh Government states that when resources become available, public sector equality duty review work will be restarted. However, it is now nine and a half years since the public sector equality duty came into force in Wales, underpinned by specific duties including engagement, involving and consulting people and assessing the impact of policies. Although this duty applies to all listed public authorities in Wales, my casework pre and post COVID is jam packed with examples of public authorities creating further barriers to the real detriment of people with protected characteristics, particularly disability. Failure to resource and prioritise this now will exacerbate inequality during this pandemic and put greater pressure on public resources at every level.

The Welsh Government's acceptance in principle only of our recommendation that it should publish a cross-Government poverty reduction strategy, with targets and performance indicators, is frankly unacceptable. And their statement that they remain committed to developing their approach to anti-poverty policies and programmes in the future would be risible if this wasn't so serious. 

As our report states, we have repeatedly made the case for the need for a cross-cutting, comprehensive tackling poverty strategy, with clear targets, deliverables and milestones that progress can be assessed against, as our Chair has previously emphasised. The Bevan Foundation has stated we need an anti-poverty strategy that clearly sets the steps that the Welsh Government intend to take to reduce the number of people living in poverty in Wales. 

In accepting our recommendation 17, the Welsh Government states that it wants to make it as easy as possible for people to claim devolved benefits, such as free school meals and council tax reductions, adding that they're working with local authorities and other key stakeholders to identify potential solutions. However, it's now almost two years since Community Housing Cymru called for the Welsh Government and local authorities to work with Jobcentre Plus in Wales to co-locate services and enable applications for local authority benefits to be made at the same time as universal credit. The Bevan Foundation has again recently called for the Welsh Government to encourage local authorities to establish a single point of access for free school meals, the pupil development grant access and the council tax reduction scheme. 

In accepting recommendation 37, the Welsh Government state they've set up an accessible communications group, including organisations that have testified to the difficulties those who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, with learning difficulties or are autistic experienced when trying to access clear and concise information during the coronavirus pandemic. However, one of the organisations that attended told me: 'The meeting was far from accessible for those there. It was honestly like a sitcom on how not to run a meeting with disabled and deaf people and would have been funny in any other circumstance.'

Finally, in accepting our recommendation 38, the Welsh Government states that it is continuing to consider opportunities to improve support for those with no recourse to public funds. However, specialist services are now calling for clarity on how homelessness support for survivors with no recourse to public funds will continue. To be effective in supporting all survivors with no recourse to public funds, the Welsh Government must therefore tell us whether it will agree a sustainable funding model with specialist violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence services and local authorities this Senedd term to ensure safe, secure accommodation. Diolch yn fawr.

I'd like to thank our committee Chair, Members and the clerking team for the work that they've put into this inquiry and this report. We should all be angry about how COVID-19 has affected some people in our society more than others. That anger shouldn't fade. We should use the anger to compel us to make sure we change the way our society functions, because COVID-19 has not been a leveller. People in the poorest communities have not only experienced higher mortality, as we've heard, but they've also been more likely to lose income, have employment reduced and faced periods of restrictions and lockdown in a smaller space. Housing has been recognised not just as a functionality, but a provider of security and solace, and people without that security and solace have been exposed to an unnecessary and unconscionable risk.

The lockdown and now the restrictions are also having a disproportionate impact on people in the poorest communities. As our report makes clear, children with the lowest educational attainment before the pandemic will have fallen further behind their peers. Disabled people are more likely to face difficulties because of the challenges to the environment caused by social distancing. And, of course, those with caring responsibilities being more likely than not women—though not always—are more likely to face difficulties in employment, as facilities like childcare, education and routine social care become less available.

Now, I'm not arguing that we shouldn't have restrictions, but we should be more targeted on keeping the virus out of our communities altogether, and we should have mitigation plans for dealing with the effect of the restrictions. But poverty is not the only inequality we should consider. Seventeen and 18-year-olds went through the A-level debacle and are now either in university in very difficult circumstances or facing levels of unemployment not seen since the 1980s. Young people and children have missed out on seeing friends and socialising, which is important for development, but also mental health and joy. The importance of joy in all our lives should not be discounted. We must find ways of giving young people hope again. 

Llywydd dros dro, another group that's faced unprecedented strain and worry these past few months has been older people. It was noted yesterday that the Government's report looking at recovery after COVID-19 does not make much mention of older people, which is an oversight that must be corrected. Because older people, residents of care homes especially, have been marginalised; they've been made to feel like their lives don't matter as much. More than 1,000 residents of care homes were discharged from hospitals without tests, and an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the older people's commissioner into whether the human rights of older people were breached is ongoing.

There is an obligation on all of us to ensure that this narrative of marginalisation doesn't set in. Ninety-four per cent of everyone who has died from COVID-19 has been over the age of 60. Damage has been done and there's a further danger that older people and the many ills done to them will not be part of the story that this Government wants to tell. They must be central, because if we don't learn the lessons about the myriad inequalities that have been exposed by this virus, the same pattern will be repeated.

Let's look at the early response to the pandemic, particularly the UK Government's complacency, and compare it with other tragedies that have befallen our poorest communities. We see worrying patterns. In Grenfell, warning signs went unheeded for years because the people who were crying out weren't listened to. The British establishment has spent the past few years determined to not learn lessons, to not acknowledge responsibility and to not concede that poverty doesn't just strip people in this state of wealth, but of a voice. That can't be allowed to continue.

Likewise with COVID-19, a decade or more of austerity meant that there were insufficient stocks of personal protective equipment, whilst our defective social security system left many people unable to self-isolate when they needed to. Our society should be built around the needs of our most vulnerable citizens. Inequality cannot be a catalyst for disease. Our anger should not diminish. This should be a rallying cry, a chance for things to change, not just a report that gets noted. Diolch.

Alun Davies.

I'm grateful to you, acting Presiding Officer. I have to say that this report is an excellent piece of work and I think all of us should be very grateful to John Griffiths as Chair, but all Members across all sides of this Chamber who contributed to this report, and, of course, the staff who worked on it as well. I think it reflects poorly on some of those Members who were here to contribute to the previous debate, but have disappeared back into the depths of their mansions for this debate, when this debate demonstrates the power of this place, the power of the committee system and the power of democracy to hold a Government to account. I was very proud to be a Member of this Senedd when I read this report, because I was very proud of the thoroughness and the work that had gone into the detail of this report. I think all of us will be grateful to see and have the opportunity to examine how this report will shape and influence Government policy in the future.

The findings, acting Presiding Officer, are as stark as any of us would expect and anticipate and any of us have seen in our own communities over recent months—the impact that the virus, the pandemic, has had on people living in poverty, on older people, on ethnicity in and across Wales. We've seen how the virus has not been a virus that has hit people equally, but has had a disproportionate impact on those people who are, in some ways, the weakest and most vulnerable in our society, but also the people who need the support of a community and a Government that has to be on their side. And I think the report sets that out clearly, and all of us need to take note of this.

I'll be interested to hear how the Minister responds to this debate, but I'm grateful to Ministers—and I say 'Ministers'—over the last few months for the way in which they've put people first. It's very difficult responding to a pandemic when the science will change, our experience will grow and our knowledge will grow over time, because people will point to a decision taken in March and then ask why a different decision was taken in May or June. People will seek certainty in a science that simply doesn't exist and therefore Ministers and officials and scientists need to take decisions. And those decisions are based, obviously and clearly, on our knowledge and experience, but they're also based on our values—what is important. What we've seen in Wales is a Government rooted in the values of putting people's health and people's well-being first, and I think that's something that has united people across the country. And I hope that opposition parties will also recognise that, not only in this debate but in the months to come.

There are two points I wish to make, acting Presiding Officer. In the same way as the virus has targeted, if you like, the most vulnerable in society, so must Government support. The Government needs to look hard at ensuring that, when we are imposing regulations—and I think the Government has acted in an entirely proportionate way, in dealing with these matters—the measures that have been put in place to deal with the pandemic are being proportional to the threat from the pandemic, but are also, of course, disproportional in their impact on particular people in our communities. We know that poor people, women, we know that older people and children have been disproportionately impacted by the regulations, and we know why that is happening, and we understand why that is happening, but it does mean that the Government's support needs to be targeted at those people as well.

And if I could, acting Presiding Officer, say a particular word about the situation facing children with additional learning needs and children who come from deprived backgrounds. We know that these children are the people who are the most at threat from disruption to services and to the support that they require on a day-to-day, week-by-week basis. And I hope that, throughout all of our actions, we will always ensure that there is the support for children who are from deprived backgrounds and who have additional learning needs that means they must have the support available, because they cannot catch up quickly in six months or catch up in a couple of months, or have the sort of private support that is provided in some places.

In the same way as the measures to address the pandemic have to be supported by measures that support the people, so must the recovery. The recovery must be targeted at those who have lost the most, and I thought the report was very, very convincing on this particular issue. We need to ensure that we are able to put in the funding and to put in the resources to ensure that the communities who will be most greatly affected by the regulations that are in place, but also by the economic disruption that has been created by the pandemic, have a safety net, if you like, but that there's also investment in those people and in those places at the end of the day. I'm looking at my screen now and I can see my colleague Dawn Bowden, who represents the next-door constituency. She knows and I know how Merthyr and Rhymney and Tredegar are intricately linked, and that the communities just across the hill from where I am at the moment in Rhymney will be as affected as my own community here in Tredegar, and we need to ensure that we have support in place.

I won't, acting Presiding Officer—

Alun, you are way out of time. I've been very generous to you, especially when you were making those felicitations to your neighbour, but we will have to leave it there. Caroline Jones.

Diolch, acting Presiding Officer. I would like to thank our committee Chair and the committee clerks for their amazing work throughout this inquiry. COVID-19 certainly meant that this was no ordinary inquiry. Remote working made holding such an inquiry even more challenging. However, the challenges faced by committee members pale into insignificance when compared with the challenges faced by the wider community.

COVID-19 has caused the deaths of over 1 million people around the globe, and over 1,600 people in Wales. Sadly, even those who do recover from this awful disease can be left with long-term, life-limiting conditions. I have had constituents tell me that they still struggle to breathe months offer recovering from COVID-19. The long-term impacts of long COVID are only starting now to be understood, but Governments must help those impacted and ensure that they receive all the necessary support. The toll that COVID-19 is having continues to rise as infections continue to spread, and, in order to try to halt an exponential rise in the death toll, Governments closed down large parts of the economy, causing one of the biggest economic collapses in history.

As our committee discovered, the downturn has hit and disproportionately impacted the most disadvantaged in our society, and limited the life chances of younger generations. Measures designed to limit the spread have also disproportionately impacted the mental health and well-being of older people and those with disabilities. While we take measures to stop the spread of coronavirus, we have to mitigate the impact that they have on people's lives, and the best way we can limit the impact that COVID has on people's lives is to move away from lockdowns. Unfortunately, we can only do that if everyone obeys social distancing, wears a mask in public places and practices good hand hygiene, because the selfish actions of a few have led to outbreaks and the inevitable imposing of stricter restrictions on people's lives, restrictions that have an impact on people's mental health and economic well-being, restrictions that have had a disproportionate impact on younger generations. Young people have had their schooling interrupted, their exams cancelled and university life changed dramatically.

As the committee discovered, shutdown measures have hit the youngest workers the hardest, with employees under the age of 25 almost three times as likely to have been working in shutdown sectors. Those same young workers will be the ones left footing the bill for the billions of pounds that have been spent and will continue to be spent dealing with the impacts of this pandemic—the very same generation that will be left struggling with the devastating impacts of climate change and ecological disaster. The biggest inequality of this pandemic has been the fact that, although young people are the least likely to suffer the serious effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they are the most likely to be impacted by measures aimed at curbing its spread. I urge the Welsh Government to do all it can to mitigate the impacts, to do all it can to ensure there won't be any further lockdowns and to provide additional support to improve the life chances of the under-25s. Diolch yn fawr.

Huw Irranca-Davies.

Acting Presiding Officer, thank you—I will try scaling Everest once again.

My thanks to my fellow committee members, and our Chair and our clerks, and especially those who gave evidence for helping us to bring forward wide-ranging recommendations in respect of our committee's report on inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One thing is crystal clear: the harsh social and economic inequalities that have always been present have sharpened as a result of the pandemic. As such, the committee is equally clear that the responses to the pandemic must focus on those who have been most exposed by this virus and who are at greatest risk of suffering the deepening and entrenching of that inequality: those who are in poverty already, in precarious work on low incomes; those with lower educational attainment and skills, in the worst housing, and overcrowded and poor standard private rented housing; single parents, the vast majority of whom are women; low earners from certain ethnic groups working in that low-paid, precarious employment, exposed to the economic slowdown and the health inequalities affecting men and older people, but with a virus perniciously targeting people from certain black, Asian and minority ethnic groups; the women who, in the majority, have taken on the additional unpaid caring roles for children and older relatives that have arisen through COVID-19; children with low educational attainment, who will have fallen further behind; children with special education needs or additional learning needs, who will be likewise affected by the absence of educational and wider support during the pandemic; disabled people who've seen their world shrink because of necessary COVID measures; carers and older people receiving care at home, or in a residential setting, who have also seen the COVID world closing around them; and migrants, who are most likely to work in those shut-down sectors, and are even more exposed through their restricted access to benefits and other public funds.

These are the same people, collectively and individually—because behind this there are thousands upon thousands of individual human stories—who were already vulnerable to poverty and inequality before, but the harsh winds of coronavirus have shaken violently what defences were previously in place. So, I'm pleased, therefore, that the Government has indeed accepted, or largely accepted, or accepted in principle, the vast majority of our recommendations—so, for example, on equality impact assessments, to comply with our human rights obligations and public sector equality duties; on health and care and coronavirus-related data gathering; on the impact of the Coronavirus Act 2020 on measures affecting social care and mental health duties; on poverty reduction strategies and targets and performance indicators; on school meals and summer holidays; on fair work measures to a values-led recovery, and implementation of the Fair Work Commission's recommendations; on additional funding to advice services on benefits and employment and discrimination, especially for BAME and disabled employees; on a benefits take-up campaign; on exploring automatic entitlement to devolved benefits; on reviewing and rolling out the BAME advisory group's assessment tool; on promoting fair and flexible work to all employers receiving Welsh Government support; maximising the income of unpaid carers through council tax discounts; on reviewing the accessibility and availability of mental health services, especially for men from lower socioeconomic groups; on delivering a sustainable funding model for the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence sector before the end of this Senedd; on data collection for older abuse victims; on updating and reviewing community cohesion and hate crime plans and frameworks; and, I have to say, on lobbying the UK Government for the lifting of 'no recourse to public funds' restrictions; on migrant awareness training for front-line public staff; and on targeting employment support at those who are furthest from the labour market, and so on.

Now, the Government has rejected a couple of our recommendations with reasons, and some are accepted only in principle, as I say. But I welcome the fact that we have a Government that has responded positively to the vast majority of recommendations, and indeed has not waited to act on many of them already. It's clearly committed to tackling the inequalities that have been brought into such sharp relief by this pandemic. If anything positive at all comes out of this personal and human tragedy of COVID-19, in which many have lost their lives and their loved ones, then it must be, surely, the redoubling of our efforts to reduce the inequalities in life that are there by chance of birth and chance of geography. Let's extend our hands further to help people up when the world must seem to them to be always knocking them down. Thank you. 

I call the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt. 

Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. I'd like to start by thanking John Griffiths and the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee for bringing forward this debate today, for the work that the committee has undertaken to produce a very comprehensive report, 'Into sharp relief: inequality and the pandemic'. I have to say that this is a report that is very fundamentally important to the Welsh Government in terms of our responses and in terms of the wide spread of issues and recommendations that you have brought forward. Of course, we've responded to the committee on each recommendation, addressing the policies and responses to the pandemic from across the Welsh Government, and I think that's a crucial point to make. The committee inquiry took evidence from across the spectrum of Welsh Government responsibilities, and many Ministers are engaged and responding, requiring a cross-Government response to assess that impact of the pandemic and the inequalities it has exposed, which you've all so powerfully spoken of in this debate. And I do agree with the Chair, John Griffiths, that we need to use all the tools available to us to tackle poverty and inequality, and your report and the responses that we have given demonstrate how we can address this and particularly, across all the recommendations, really, do relate to your recommendation 7.

I think the focus on equality and human rights is fundamental. It's key to the report's themes and recommendations. It accords with our commitment to high positive equality impact decisions set out in our 'Leading Wales out of the coronavirus pandemic: a framework for recovery', and also 'Unlocking our society and economy', and, indeed, the report on reconstructing Wales that the Counsel General presented yesterday afternoon. But what's clear from the report, and what we know as we go about our daily lives, and as you've all given such clear evidence of, is that no aspect of society has been untouched by this pandemic. And we know that the impact of the pandemic has not fallen equally, with disproportionate impacts on our black, Asian and minority ethnic citizens, our older people, disabled people, those in poverty, on children, people with co-morbidities—you've spoken about all of these who are most disadvantaged—those who are suffering mental health issues and those who are homeless, among others; in short, the most disadvantaged members of our society. And these disproportionate impacts are at the forefront of our work, and I'm grateful to the many people and organisations who not only gave evidence to you but have actually joined with us in the Welsh Government to help us design appropriate actions. As we've responded to this health crisis, our goal has been to protect the most disadvantaged, seeking to identify and address the disproportionate impacts as they emerge. 

I spoke a lot yesterday in the race debate—the debate against racism and race inequalities—about the work that we've already undertaken, which you acknowledge in the report: the BAME COVID-19 advisory group, under the leadership of Judge Ray Singh, advising us on action to address the horrifying disparity in deaths from COVID-19 among BAME people; the risk assessment tool mentioned in the debate, developed by Professor Keshav Singhal, used now to protect people's lives in the health service, social care and beyond; and, of course, Professor Ogbonna's recommendations to the socioeconomic group, which are being implemented. 

Equality and human rights considerations have been fundamental to all decisions on how to respond to the health crisis and work towards recovery, and we have to reflect on some of the steps we've taken and, again, it's important—this scrutiny through your report helps us with those reflections. And one point I'd like to make in terms of recommendations is that we fully understand the unease that the committee and others have expressed about the Coronavirus Act 2020, section 12, which relates to social care— shared amongst many of our key partners and stakeholders affected. The Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services has asked her officials to undertake a rapid engagement exercise to seek stakeholders' views, and will use the results to inform decisions about suspension or retention of these provisions. This consultation began on 2 October, closing on 2 November, with decisions being made shortly after. If the outcome is to remove the provisions, we anticipate the necessary secondary legislation, made in November or early December, could come into force very quickly, subject to the Senedd's consideration. So, we are already responding to those recommendations.

Turning to the recommendations that we should build on implementing the public health communications that have been recommended in the BAME advisory group, I fully accept that recommendation, as I said yesterday, and we are continuing to ensure that we get it right about how we message and how we work with disadvantaged groups, and that we get those communications right. That's why our disability equality forum is so important, and the accessible communication group can learn from those with lived experience, disabled people, who join us to tell us how we should get this right.

We've worked with Public Health Wales to ensure that their coronavirus information pages are translated into over 100 languages, and distributed through our networks. And also, our nation of sanctuary website is providing translated information for refugees and asylum seekers. I mentioned yesterday our funding of the BAME helpline outreach workers in each health board for working with BAME citizens, and also recognising this is about building trust and everyone having access to relevant support and advice.

So, your report covers so many policy areas but education is key, and has been mentioned in the debate. It's clear that many learners have not progressed as much as they might and that some have been impacted more seriously than others. To address this, as you know—you've said in the report—the education Minister announced an investment of £29 million to recruit, recover and raise standards to ensure schools and pupils have the support they need.

I fully accept the need for better data on equalities. We've taken steps to improve the quality of data on ethnicity and coronavirus mortality through the implementation of the e-form, including for health workers. And we will continue to work with partners in the NHS and social care to encourage better recording of equality data in both staff and wider health records, and overcome the reluctance some citizens have in providing information. And we are actively working with agencies such as the Office for National Statistics and Public Health Wales to provide new insights into the data that we hold. Fundamentally—and again mentioned yesterday—our emerging plans for a race disparity unit will strengthen our capacity and capability to act on what the data is telling us.

Understandably, the review of the Welsh public sector equality duty was temporarily halted during the pandemic, but in a similar way, of course, PSED reporting obligations were suspended for six months by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. But we are restarting that work, building on the work already under way to improve the findings and the publication of employment and other equalities data. And the findings of that research to strengthen the equality and human rights in Wales will be an important source of evidence for the PSED review work. 

We are fully committed to the priorities and ambitions for a fair work nation set out in 'Fair Work Wales', and accept the recommendations of the committee that we secure a values-led recovery by adopting additional fair work measures. I do want to mention advice services, the single advice fund that is helping to meet increasing demand for access to advice services, which is crucial in terms of tackling poverty; £8.2 million grant funding has been awarded to providers, including specialist services on welfare benefits, employment and discrimination. 

A couple of final points before I finish. I think the point about the discretionary assistance fund and your recommendations about it are important, because since 2013 we've made over 370,000 awards, with more than £66.4 million being spent in grant funding supporting the most vulnerable people. I think the flexibilities to the discretionary assistance fund during the pandemic have been key, and I know you welcome them; they've been responsive to people's needs. Currently, 66 per cent of the fund relates to emergency payments. And we are in the process of establishing a VAWDASV commissioner group that will support more strategic and sustainable approaches to commissioning VAWDASV services, including children and young people services across Wales.

Members have mentioned recommendation 38. I welcome the fact that you are asking us to lobby the UK Government for the lifting of the no recourse to public funds restrictions and that you're joining the Welsh Government, because we are advocating for changes to the immigration system and we welcome your support. But we have had no response to the Counsel General's letter, as we say in response to the recommendation, urging the Home Secretary to lift the restrictions during the COVID-19 crisis. But it is the Welsh Government that's responded to improve support for those with no recourse to public funds. But the committee can help us in that lobbying of the UK Government, and our Welsh Conservatives, indeed, can do that.

The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the inequalities in our society, and Welsh Government's commitment to reducing these inequalities and to eradicating child poverty has not wavered, and we're continuing to work to achieving our goals. And next week I look forward to making my statement on the hate crime framework that we're developing—indeed, it'll be National Hate Crime Awareness Week. I know that the issues that you've brought forward in your report will be addressed not just by myself as Minister for equalities, but by every Minister in the Welsh Government. I thank you and your committee, Chair, for producing this very important report for us in the Senedd in these very challenging times. Diolch yn fawr.

And John Griffiths to reply to the debate.

Diolch yn fawr. Well, I'd like to thank everybody, obviously, for their contributions, which were very wide ranging, as is the report, but also, I think, showed a real passion for these concerns that we all have, and a real force to the arguments and the points made to find better ways of addressing the inequalities and the vulnerabilities that we have in Wales, which, as so many Members said, were brought into stark relief, as we say in the title of the report, by the pandemic.

Yes, the recovery must be targeted at those who have lost the most, and when we talk about building back better, it must be about rectifying these existing inequalities. So, it was very good to hear from the Minister, Jane Hutt, just how engaged the whole of the Welsh Government is in these matters and in making sure that the response to the challenges is everything that it needs to be. I think that commitment and, again, that passion came through very clearly.

Yes, it is wide ranging in terms of the issues, and it is very challenging, but we know that some things have already been done, because, obviously, it's about the short term during the pandemic as well as the medium and longer term. I think one example of Welsh Government action, which was very welcome, was the way that the issues around rough-sleepers were dealt with, with additional funding, but also clear thinking and strong partnerships that meant that that funding was used to best effect. Then, to follow it up with further funding so that we don't slip back from the progress made was just what all of those who were delivering the services to rough-sleepers and homeless people were calling for and wanted. So, that's one good example, I think, where, difficult though the challenges are, we can, here in Wales, take effective action and make necessary progress, and it's good to have those examples to draw on.

People rightly mentioned the issues around our black and ethnic minority communities and, again, I think we have examples here where Welsh Government acted quickly in setting up the working group with Professor Ogbonna. That group produced some practical ways forward, including the toolkit to assess risk, and then act on that assessed risk, again showing that it is perfectly possible, with the right sort of commitment and organisation, to act quickly and meaningfully. So, daunting though the challenges are, it's another example of how they can be effectively addressed and dealt with. We do need those examples because I think we need to take heart ourselves and make sure that all of those out there delivering the services understand that it's perfectly possible to deal with the scale of the challenge in working together.

Many Members and the Minister mentioned the need to engage meaningfully and effectively, and I know Mark Isherwood mentioned this, and he rightly very often does: we have to find new ways to make sure that we really are reaching out into our communities, into those that are most vulnerable and in the greatest difficulty and to those providing the services to them, to really understand their situations and to make sure that we're moving forward together in that spirit of co-production, which I know Mark Isherwood, again, rightly, is also very keen on.

So, it's clear, isn't it, that one size doesn't fit all and that policies, interventions, funding and legislation do have to be targeted and tailored for different needs and experiences. The only way that we can do that is through that level and depth and breadth of engagement. I'm confident from what we've heard that Welsh Government will move forward in that spirit and in that way. I do believe that the recommendations in the report are practical and that they are short to medium-term actions in the main, but they will help produce a fairer country, which is what we all want.

It was really good to hear Members and particularly, I think, Alun Davies, who isn't a member of the committee, paying tribute to the work of the committee staff as well as the committee members and all those who gave evidence. Because I do believe that our committees here in the Assembly fulfil a very important role, and the staff that back them up do an amazing job. Too often, although we are, I think, consistent in making those points, in Wales as a whole, perhaps, too often, we're not really singing from the rooftops what our committees do and the importance of the work and just what practical effect it has in partnership with Government.

So, housing was mentioned by Delyth Jewell, and that, I think, is something that the committee has concentrated on quite a lot over a period of time, and rightly so, because insecurities in housing, overcrowding in housing, poor-quality housing, insecurity of tenure and so on really did come across strongly in terms of the impact that they have on people's lives in general, but also their health. And in the pandemic it was an important part of the vulnerability that certain sections of our society have, and they are the people with the protected characteristics, and very often there is that intersectionality between them that really does put them in very difficult positions, and housing is very often at the very base of that.

We do have to deal with the data issues again, as the Minister said, because it's so obvious, isn't it, that unless we're in a position to know where we are and whether we're moving forward effectively through meaningful data, then we're never going to know whether our policies are having the impact that we require from them. We have to work at this to produce more meaningful data, otherwise we'll never have the evidence base that we need, and when we talk about evidence-based policy, we won't really be able to back that up in terms of the data situation that we have.

I know I'm getting dangerously close to the time available to me, so let me just finish by saying, in terms of the tackling poverty strategy that we've consistently called for as a committee, it is something that we will follow up further with the work that we do in the remainder of this Assembly term, but it would be really good to see Welsh Government setting out some detail and timing in terms of the steps it will take to produce that, I think, vital tackling poverty cross-Government strategy. We've called for it consistently over a long period of time because of the evidence that we've had and because of the backing from key organisations in Wales that are working to understand and tackle poverty. So, I do think that recommendation has real force. I'm pleased that it is now accepted in principle, but we do need to see detail and timing behind that acceptance in principle as we move forward. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you. The proposal is to note the committee's report. Does any Member object? I see no Member objecting, and therefore the motion is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

We will now suspend proceedings to allow for change-overs in the Chamber.

Plenary was suspended at 17:30.

The Senedd reconvened at 17:37, with the Llywydd in the Chair.