A Residential Women's Centre

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 8 June 2022.

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Photo of Tom Giffard Tom Giffard Conservative 1:36, 8 June 2022

Thank you, Minister. Obviously, you mentioned that residential women's centre in Swansea, which is set to open, hopefully, in 2024. And while I welcome the pioneering new initiative to tackle the root causes of low-level female offending, and the collaboration between Welsh and UK Governments bringing the centre to Swansea, we need to make sure that it's done in tandem with the local community in Swansea. While we all want to see the rehabilitation of the individuals involved, there is some concern from residents that these will be housed in this area with these specific settings. I'm pleased to see that the centre will tackle underlying and complex factors surrounding low-level crime, but we need to ensure that the community in Swansea are fully on board with it. We as Members know the importance of the initiative not only to women in my region, but across Wales, and what we need for this first-of-its-kind initiative, if you like, to succeed is buy-in from the local community. Without that community support, we won't see the full benefits of the project; the centre won't succeed without that buy-in. So, given it's such a new initiative, I fear doing more of the same when it comes to statutory engagement perhaps isn't the way to go here—we need more engagement from stakeholders at all levels, to highlight the importance and the benefits of such a scheme. Therefore, can I ask the Minister to commit to work with stakeholders and other partners to highlight the benefits of the scheme and to keep the community at the heart of the project, and to commit to going beyond the statutory minimum of engagement to ensure that the project becomes a reality?