2. What assessment has the Minister made of the levels of local authority staff available to provide key services across Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ56216

Local authority staff have responded magnificently to the impact of the pandemic, and we're extremely grateful to them for their hard work and endeavours. While staffing is, of course, a matter for individual authorities, I meet leaders very regularly to understand the impacts across Wales, and the reporting measures in place through Emergency Co-ordination Centre Wales enable reporting of specific issues and the provision of mutual aid.

Thank you for that, Minister, and I echo your comment about the tremendous achievements of local authority staff during this pandemic. But, obviously, we also have non-COVID issues as well, of a chronic nature, and speaking now as the chair of the cross-party group on vision, obviously we recognise that local authorities have a key role to play in continuing to provide support services, and one of those roles is the rehabilitation officers for the vision impaired—or ROVIs, as they're called. Now, it's particularly disappointing to note that the number of local authorities meeting the minimum standards for the number of rehabilitation officers per population has fallen from 12 to eight out of the 22. In our area of Swansea, Minister, the local authority only has 0.5 full-time equivalent ROVIs, where it should have a minimum of 3.5 full-time equivalents, making it the worst-performing local authority area in Wales. So, following all that, what assurance can you give to people living with visual impairment that you are working with the health Minister to address this chronic lack of support?

Thank you for that, Dai Lloyd. We are working very closely with health and, as I say, a number of other public authorities across Wales to ensure a number of things. We know that local authorities have had to redeploy staff away from business-as-usual front-line roles in order to address pandemic issues, and we're working very carefully with them to ensure that those front-line roles resume their normal functioning at an early opportunity. We've been doing that by allowing access to agency staff and to additional hours for staff and indeed to extra staff, through the COVID response, and that should enable local authorities to put their normal services back in order. Many of the things you point to are, of course, decisions for local authorities themselves; we provide the unhypothecated funding for them in order to provide those services. But if you want to write to me with the very specific particulars that you've just outlined, I'd be more than happy to take it up with the leaders myself in my next meeting with them.

Minister, as you know, there are a number of services and projects that are delivered by local authorities that are directly funded by Welsh Government. So, the council employs the staff, but Welsh Government funds the activity, and an example of that could be something like a community sports development service. There are local authorities that are saying that, during the pandemic when some of these services are not as accessible due to restrictions, some of the staff could be repurposed and used in mass testing or in the vaccination centres or on track and trace services, but the funding model that I've just described doesn't allow them to do that. So, Minister, can I ask you if you could look to see if there's some flexibility that you could provide to local authorities to utilise some of these staff differently, as the need arises during the period of this pandemic?

Thank you, Dawn. I am very familiar with the complexities of some of the grant streams that directly employ staff in local authority areas. Right at the beginning of the pandemic, so a whole year ago now—though it seems both shorter and longer to many of us—grant teams were all advised that they needed to offer flexibility where that was at all possible, for example, by extending deadlines for outcomes to be delivered, or indeed in allowing 'morphing'—I believe the expression is—of various grant streams to allow the most flexibility. There isn't a blanket agreement, however, to hand out that funding with complete flexibility, because sometimes the funding comes from elsewhere to the Welsh Government with funding envelopes attached to it. So, we've provided as much flexibility as is possible from grant streams that we have complete control over and then we've flexed the boundaries of the others where that's been possible.

But if you want me to look into a very specific case, I'm very happy to take it up. It's very difficult to give an overall answer, since each grant stream comes with a different set of parameters and controls that need to be looked at. But in general, where at all possible, we have flexed the grants so that authorities can do exactly as you've just said, and it's good practice, of course, which is that as business-as-usual services have had to close down or become much more restricted, those staff can be put to good use in front-line reaction to the pandemic. And I know that that's been happening across local authorities as well. So, I'm more than happy to look into the very specifics for you, but, as I say, in general, we've put as much flexibility into the system as we could manage.

Minister, at the start of the pandemic, many people put themselves forward as volunteers, either in the community or as NHS staff for clinical duties. I hear from many constituents that their enquiries were never even answered, and the bureaucracy around getting back into the NHS workforce is a matter of public record. What lessons have been learned by local authorities this last year to better harness the goodwill of residents and get their interest in helping their communities effectively registered in case any other emergency situations arise?

We work very closely indeed, and I've worked very closely with my colleague Jane Hutt on this, in harnessing the council for voluntary service arrangements right through Wales. We've directed people in large numbers through the council for voluntary service as each locality has it set up in order to enhance that. All local authorities in Wales have used volunteers to do things such as organise services out of their community hubs—so, shopping, prescription fetching, various other things. When we had the food box scheme running, at the beginning of the pandemic, for example, a large number of volunteers were used in assisting with the food box distribution, and a number of people have helped with their community hubs.

I'm disappointed to hear that you've had some people who've had a poor experience of being harnessed in that way, and if you've got specifics you want to have a look at, I'm very happy to look at lessons learned. But I'm also very happy to say that, combined with my colleague Jane Hutt, we've been able to mobilise thousands and thousands of people across Wales, to assist with the effort. Also, very many community councils have played a good role here. Community councils have organised very local volunteer teams to do things like make sure that people are not isolated at home, and that they have some companionship, even if that's just over a garden fence, or from the road. We're very proud of the way that Wales has pulled together to assist people who may have otherwise been isolated. But if you have specific instances you're concerned about, then it would be really good to know the detail of those.