Item 5 this afternoon is a statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government on progress on gender budgeting. I call on the Minister, Rebecca Evans.

Diolch. I would like to update the Senedd on the steps I am taking to help address gender inequality in Wales through our approach to gender budgeting. Gender inequality is still prevalent in 2022, despite the many advances made. The Welsh Government is committed to creating a gender-equal Wales, meaning an equal share of power, resources and influence for all people. Our commitment to gender budgeting is set out in our programme for government.

The term 'gender budgeting' can sometimes lead to confusion, so I want to be clear from the outset about what it means to us. This approach is not about pink and blue budgets, counting how much we spend on different groups. Gender budgeting provides a lens through which we can view our budgets and policy. It helps us to highlight and consider the unintended impacts that a well-intended policy can have on different types of people and areas of impact. Gender budgeting will help us to strengthen and improve our policy making, which will in turn support us in making better budget decisions, resulting in better outcomes. By understanding and mitigating unintended negative impacts and highlighting and building on the positive, we can deliver the maximum value for every pound we spend.

I want to be clear that this work is long-term systemic culture change, and I call on Members of this Senedd, and our wide range of partners, to support us in this journey. It won’t happen overnight, and we cannot do it alone. Our budget improvement plan clearly sets out the steps we are taking to achieve our programme for government commitment. As part of the gender review in 2018, we engaged with world-leading Nordic nations, learning from their approaches to gender budgeting. We learnt about the need to focus on undertaking pilot activity to help us improve the way we assess the impact of our budget decisions, understand the true impact that our decisions are having, and in turn improve what we are doing to achieve the outcomes that we are seeking. Pilots will provide us with valuable understanding of what works and what does not.

In 2019, we launched our first pilot, personal learning accounts. PLAs embed a flexible approach to delivering learning to help address some of the barriers faced by people trying to improve their own opportunities in the workplace. We chose PLAs because there is a focus on industries with a gender effect, and we saw positive initial findings. Through the ongoing evaluation, we have identified some key lessons around the challenges of sustaining positive results when activity is scaled up from local provision to a national activity. We are working to ensure that gender budgeting remains at the heart of programme design and delivery and is not just seen as something that is nice to do.

Our commitment to gender budgeting has been given added momentum by the programme for government commitment and we have now undertaken two further pilots in areas of active travel and the young person's guarantee, each specifically chosen to provide different learning to ensure that we can refine a Welsh gender budgeting approach. While still in the early phases of development, they have already highlighted the importance of doing all we can to proactively engage and improve the way policy is delivered and is being designed, recognising the long-term nature of this work.

Our engagement with other countries leading the way in gender budgeting has been, and continues to be, invaluable in helping guide our work in embedding this in Wales. From the early Nordic exchange to our ongoing engagement with countries such as Canada and New Zealand through the network of well-being Governments, we are not only learning from those who have gone before us but we are also sharing our own experiences to support them in their journeys. This engagement has also served to remind us that whilst many of us, myself included, are impatient for change, this change will take time.

Looking closer to home, we are pleased to work with experts here in Wales such as the Wales Women’s Budget Group and our own budget improvement impact advisory group. I have been pleased to work with the Senedd's Finance Committee to further explore and understand the benefits of gender budgeting in supporting our long-term journey of budget improvement. These groups provide us with knowledge, support and constructive challenge as we continue to progress. We are bringing together this learning through our many strands of work to not only inform our approach, but also to support partners across the Welsh public sector to help us make our vision of a gender equal Wales a reality.

In concluding today’s statement, I am delighted to share with the Senedd the cross-Government work that is under way to explore the potential for a focused package of work in gender research linked to health. Later today, you will hear the Minister for Health and Social Services outline her vision for what a good-quality health service should look like to support women and girls. It is my ambition that by working together across Government we will establish Wales as a world leader in tackling gender bias in healthcare.

The only way we can address mistakes of the past is by working collaboratively and in co-production with those we are intending to help. Over the coming months, we will be engaging with a range of stakeholders to design a plan through true co-production with gender budgeting at its heart. This will ensure that we focus on the issues being faced by women every day and identify solutions that will make a tangible difference to women's lives across Wales. This is the beginning of our journey and it's one to which I'm fully committed. I look forward to today's discussion and to hearing colleagues' suggestions as to how we can work together to truly embed gender budgeting in all of our work. 

Can I thank you, Minister, for your statement? I think initiatives like gender budgeting can be very useful to help analyse the different impact that policies can have on different genders. We know that whilst gender equality has improved over time, there are still barriers to full equality, and so it's important to look at how we can tailor policies better to meet the needs and circumstances of different groups of people.

As you mentioned, Minister, the Government has introduced some pilot schemes, such as personal learning accounts, and I would appreciate further details about the project, as well as more details about the evaluation of this pilot. How are the outcomes of this scheme helping to inform other Government policies? Minister, you also mentioned that two new gender budgeting pilots were now under way, one for active travel and one for the young person's guarantee. Minister, what outcomes are the Government trying to achieve through this, and how are they being evaluated? How will the Senedd be kept updated on the progress of the various schemes and their impact on Government thinking? 

The programme for government also commits Ministers to implementing targets around gender budgeting. When will these be published, and are the pilot schemes being used to help inform these targets and how progress can be measured more widely? In relation to this, if initiatives such as gender budgeting are to have tangible outcomes, then there need to be appropriate decision-making structures in place. How, therefore, is the Government intending to work with the budget improvement impact advisory group as well as other stakeholders to assess the Government's current policy and budget-making capacities?

Deputy Llywydd, I would like to finish on a broader point: we must also ensure that we properly consider the impact that policies will have on a range of people and protected characteristics and not just focus purely on gender, because of course specific genders and identities are not homogenous groups and have a range of needs. In this regard, we have previously heard various issues about how effective or ineffective the Government's strategic integrated impact assessments are. As such, I would be interested to hear more from you, Minister, about how the Welsh Government is working to develop a strengthened IIA tool specifically to bring greater consistency and depth to impact assessments across departments, including working more closely with the relevant commissioners to strengthen scrutiny. Thank you.

Thank you very much for raising those points and for your recognition, right at the start of your contribution, about the important role that gender budgeting can play in helping us address some of these issues, which have been with us for far too long now. I think gender budgeting will provide us with an important tool in terms of advancing equality here in Wales. 

There were some specific questions about the pilots, so I'm very happy to provide some more information about those. The first pilot that we undertook is the personal learning accounts pilot, and that commenced in September 2019. That programme was then scaled up and commenced delivery right across Wales in 2021. That works really closely with the regional skills partnerships to ensure that provision is there in terms of responding to specific regional skills needs, but we know that some of these are in areas where women have been typically underrepresented or overrepresented. So, we've looked at areas such as construction on the one hand and social care on the other hand. We expect the final report of our learning of the personal learning accounts pilots to be published in late summer 2022. So, there'll be an opportunity for us to explore that in further detail. At this point, we're not able to provide more detail on the gender-specific outputs, but we look forward to more detail being available later on in the summer. 

Some initial findings, though, that I am able to share do really give us a real focus on the need to have that sustained focus on gender budgeting when activity is scaled up. When things are happening at a more focused and small, local level, there's a lot of focus on that gender budgeting; the challenge comes, then, when we scale things up. So, that's something that we're considering carefully as we move to the other pilots. As Peter Fox says, one is the young person's guarantee, and that's one of our key commitments to ensure that everyone under the age of 25 living in Wales has support to gain a place in education or training, or the support that they need to become self-employed.

Taking part in the gender budgeting pilot does enable the young person's guarantee programme to review its systems, review its evidence base and look again at the decisions that are being made, and the design and the delivery of new activity using that gender and intersectional lens. The initial review of the diverse areas of the YPG is currently ongoing, with a view to developing a more detailed plan to ensure that we get the greatest benefit for the programme, and, ultimately, of course, for the young people of Wales. 

In terms of the active travel pilot, obviously this has a really important part to play in providing sustainable transport. That's something that we want everybody to be able to benefit from. Our gender budgeting pilot in this regard is focused on the Wales E-Move programme, which will be considering what learning we can achieve through that. The E-Move pilot is being delivered by Sustrans Cymru, and we're currently working in partnership with them to understand how taking a gender budgeting approach can add value to our current programme and help design the future delivery.

The early analysis of those engaged in the programme so far has shown a higher proportion of participants who identified as female accessing the scheme in rural areas. By exploring and applying that intersectional lens, we'll be looking to understand the characteristics of these users better to get some more insight into the reasons behind this, to help shape our thinking on active travel in the future. But, again, we will be able to share more information with the Senedd in due course. 

The budget improvement and impact advisory group is really important in terms of helping support Welsh Government in its decision making and improving the way we do budgeting. The purpose, really, is about improving not just the budget but also our tax processes to improve outcomes. And that group is going to drive forward work on tackling inequality and taking forward some of our gender budgeting approaches and providing that critical friend voice to us in the work that we're doing in this area.

The group itself is a mixture of members of the previous budget advisory group for equalities, BAGE, with some additions now to cover a wider range of areas of impact. There's a mixture of voluntary sector organisations and public sector organisations, and we're currently working with that group to agree the structure of the work programme going forward. In the coming weeks, we'll be publishing our terms of reference for that group and its 12-month work plan on the Welsh Government's website. 

And then, just to reflect on the really important point about there being a range of characteristics that impact on people's experiences of the choices that we make in terms of budgeting, that's why this has to be about that intersectional approach. So, it's not just about looking at things from a women's perspective and a men's perspective, but really considering all of those other protected characteristics that impact on people's experiences of services and society.

We do know that the most effective gender analyses take that intersectional approach, combining the look at the effect on women and men, but with the other characteristics as well. So, we're able to do that, and also look at well-being through the lens of culture, environment, society and so on as well. So, there are many ways to look at this, and many things that we can learn when we look at that intersectional approach, whilst doing so through that gender lens. 

Thank you to the Minister for her statement, and, clearly, I welcome what's been said, and I'm encouraged by some of the answers that you've just given, although, perhaps, we all, like you, would want to go further and more swiftly. But a journey has begun, and it's important that we go as far as we possibly can. We'll perhaps never reach the end of the journey, but it is an evolving process. We would want to see progress happening as quickly as possible. 

I'm just thinking, in terms of impact, what do you think that the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the squeeze on public budgets will be on gender budgeting, because the risk is that public bodies will perhaps feel that they're under too much pressure to tackle something like this, and trying to change mindset and culture, and certainly you and I would argue that this is the time to make that shift to safeguard the people who will suffer most as a result of the crisis that we are facing.

Iceland, of course, started using gender budgeting at the time of the economic crash, and, of course, they are in the vanguard now—they are further ahead than anyone. So, is there an opportunity for us to use the circumstances we find ourselves in to accelerate the process that you have outlined to us?

I welcome the pilots, of course. We have to learn, but I think there is, occasionally, a risk that we suffer some sort of pilotitis—I'm not sure whether that's an official term. But we do need to mainstream at the first possible opportunity, and to learn on the job, if you like. So, again, given the cost-of-living crisis facing us and the implications of that, can we move more quickly on some of these issues?

You've touched on the shorter term timetable in previous responses. Where are we in terms of the long-term timetable? When do you hope that the Welsh Government will be able to look into the eyes of the people of Wales and say, 'Well, this is happening', and when will you be able to say that the broader public sector in Wales will also be undertaking gender budgeting in a meaningful way that is making a difference to the lives of people in Wales?

I understand that the Government is evaluating these pilots and learning lessons, but how is that shared? How are you sharing that learning and good practice? It would be good to understand how that is being delivered more broadly, and also that the public sector learns the lessons that you are learning.

Finally, what's the legislative basis here? Do we need legislation to ensure that this is mainstreamed across the public sector in Wales, or are you confident that it will happen without the need for legislation? Austria has made it a part of its constitution since 2009, and by 2011 every department of Government was mainstreaming gender budgeting across legislation, budgeting and public procurement. If we want this to truly make a difference, then that might be something for you to consider.

Thank you very much for those points and questions, and I share that desire to move very swiftly on this. In the immediate term, we've got four strands of work that we'll be driving forward, and they are cross-cutting across Government to ensure that we make those interlinkages in terms of gender budgeting. So, we've got knowledge and understanding; support and constructive challenge; communication and leadership; and ongoing learning. These are things that we will be, obviously, engaging the public sector more widely on as we move forward.

I think that our learning from Iceland showed that the pilot approach that they used took seven years from the initial pilots to build towards a more comprehensive implementation, and that was something that they were really keen to share with us. Again, it's something that we've experienced, I think, on that smaller scale with our first pilot—you know, the initial enthusiasm, the drive and the focus at that local level are wonderful, but then the challenge is when you start to mainstream it and take it up to a more national level. That's exactly, I think, the challenge that they faced in Iceland.

We've been engaging with them, as I say, since 2019, and those relationships are still ongoing, as they are with the well-being Governments network as well, to see what we can learn from one another in regard to gender budgeting. We think that Iceland has a very interesting approach. So, seven years on, at least, since they first introduced it, they are now starting, I think, to have that feeling of the cultural shift. They do have, now, comprehensive implementation, and it was supported by passing a new organic budget law.

Obviously, we are keen to explore what is happening elsewhere in terms of legislation. I wouldn't want to suggest that we would be able to find the time within this Senedd term to do that, but it's certainly something that is of interest for the future in Wales, bearing in mind our focus on what finance will look like and the legislation that supports that in future. So, we're keeping a close eye on what's happening elsewhere and what we can learn from the various approaches.

The point about the cost-of-living crisis is really an important one, and I do think that when you are in a crisis, as we saw through the pandemic, it focuses the mind and it actually gives the impetus to break down barriers that we think are otherwise not able to be broken down, so there's no reason why we shouldn't be using this impetus to drive forward the gender budgeting agenda with real focus. I think that there has been some interesting research on the gendered impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which has been provided by the Women's Budget Group at a UK level, and that shows that women generally have lower levels of savings and wealth than men, and even before COVID-19 women were more likely to be in debt, and this has worsened as a result of the pandemic. They're very clear that the cost-of-living crisis will hit the poorest hardest, and women are more likely to be poor, and they've been hit harder by cuts to social security and the provision of public services over the past decade, as a result of austerity. So, there is no doubt that this is a gender issue as well as a cost-of-living crisis.

And then the broader point about how we will be sharing the learning—we'll be doing that through out budget improvement and advisory group. The purpose of that group is to engage with those key stakeholders, so we need to ensure that all of those people who need to be engaged are, and we will be, as I say, publishing more information about the terms of reference of that group, but I'm happy to include the membership of that group for colleagues to see who's involved in it as well. Perhaps I will do that through a written statement in the coming weeks, when we do have the work plan available, so that colleagues can familiarise themselves with that, because I know there's a lot of interest.

One crucial way to ensure that budgeting delivers for women is through making strategic investments in the care sector. We know that these investments would not just deliver for women, they would also boost our economy and increase overall employment.

Research has shown that investing 2 per cent of GDP in care would create almost as many jobs for men as investing in construction industries, but would create up to four times as many jobs for women. In the UK, this would increase women's employment rate by 5 per cent and would have large positive effects on economic growth and debt reduction, and would help local communities as well. Such investments would also be consistent with transitions towards a low-carbon economy. So, Minister, may I ask what the Welsh Government is doing to explore such strategic investments in care as part of building back post COVID? Thank you.

It is absolutely the case that the social care sector does have that higher proportion of female workers, so the investment that we make in the social care sector does have that direct impact on those workers and their future, and of course on the families who they support. And we know that women tend to live longer than men, so we have more older women to be supporting within our communities as well, so I think that investment in social care is always a good investment and certainly from that gender perspective. We did provide a step change in support for local authorities in our last budget, 2022-23, and particularly so in relation to social care. So, we worked really closely with local government itself to understand the quantum of funding that they would need in order to continue to provide social services of the quality that we would want to see. And they provided us with a figure of £180.5 million over and above the existing resources, so we were able to meet that request in full, bearing in mind that real focus that we have on providing sustainable and quality social services, and that is alongside additional funding in respect of the real living wage. The real living wage, again, I think, is a perfect example of how we're investing in women and making choices that support women, and has that gender focus at its heart, so it's absolutely one of the key areas. And also, not just paid carers, of course; unpaid carers are often—usually—women, and so our support for unpaid carers has to be seen through that gender-focused lens as well. So, I think that the example that has been given is absolutely a perfect one in terms of our gender budgeting approach.

I've been involved with gender budgeting since before my election here, as a founding member of the Wales Gender Budget Group nearly 20 years ago. So, it's not a new concept, but there remains a lot of misunderstanding around it. It's not, as you said, and never has been, about different budgets for men and for women, but it's about following the money and putting flesh on the bones of our values and our commitment to fairness. So, gender budgeting has to be data driven, it has to be outcome focused, and it has to be audited and it has to keep pace with our evolving democracy.

You did talk about pilots and about learning lessons, and you've also talked about the international lessons that are being learnt. But if we look at the statements—and people have talked about trying to end the crisis that people are in—if we look at the top-line statements coming out of the money that is being invested by the UK Government directly into localities, the big-ticket items are always those around construction and change in that direction, and yet we know full well that women are missing predominantly from those careers.

So, in terms of looking at your gender budgeting, which I more than welcome—I think it's decades late, but it's here—how are you interacting with those decisions that are being made outside of your control and directing investment where those inequalities will only be exacerbated and maintained?

I'm very grateful to Joyce Watson for raising this. I know that she has been a champion of this for many years, and the Wales Women's Budget Group is still going strong and providing really, really constructive challenge to Government. They are telling us that we need to move more quickly on the work that we're doing and we're listening to them on that to try and ensure that we move as speedily as possible and start to embed this approach, recognising, of course, that culture change is difficult, it takes a long time, but I think that if you've got a commitment to it and if you've got leadership where it needs to be then I think that we can get to these points.

They also have been challenging us to provide more detail on our work, which is why we're keen to provide as much information as we can to Members of the Senedd but also provide more detail through our budget improvement plan, which we publish on an annual basis, but looking five years ahead, alongside our draft budget. So, we've been able to do that and make sure that gender budgeting is very much part of our published plans there.

So, we've been listening very carefully to that group, alongside groups such as Women’s Equality Network Wales; I know that Sioned Williams will be sponsoring a launch of the scorecard, which the Minister for Social Justice will be attending, and gender budgeting I know has been a really important part of their challenge to us, so, again, we'll be engaging with those groups as we try and move the agenda forward. But it is absolutely about putting flesh on the bones of our commitment to fairness, and I think that the example that Joyce Watson gave of the construction industry and how we always look to that industry in terms of—. Well, even now, we're looking in terms of the recovery from COVID, building our way out, creating jobs, but I know that Joyce Watson works really hard on the agenda of women in construction to ensure that jobs are there for women and that women do consider construction as a career for them. And that's one of the areas of our personal learning accounts, which look specifically at the construction industry and other industries where we have traditionally seen women underrepresented. So, there are things for us to be doing there.

But again, and finally, to conclude, Deputy Presiding Officer, I think that having it challenged to ourselves in Government to make that culture shift towards gender budgeting and looking through that gentle lens is important, but we have to take that, then, into our meetings and into our discussions with UK Government Ministers so that we are challenging them in the same way. And then we also have to do it with our partners in health boards, in local government and elsewhere to ensure that the learning that we're taking forward and the commitment that we have is driven right through public services in Wales.

I thank the Minister.