7. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Wales: A community of communities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:06 pm on 28 February 2023.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 5:06, 28 February 2023

Thank you very much, Mark Isherwood, and, indeed, this statement is about a community of communities, which we believe Wales is, surely, in every respect, and particularly I think in relation to our commitment to listening, learning and working with our communities in order to achieve the goals and policies that actually meet the needs of our people. That's why, indeed, I started the statement by referring to the well-being of future generations Act, the seven well-being goals, but also to the ways of working, of course, in terms of the well-being of future generations. This is entirely relevant to the points that you're making in terms of our commitment to engaging with communities and those who use our public services, in particular, in developing that very—. So often you have encouraged and espoused the co-production approach to making sure that we do reach out to our communities to engage with them. 

You know that we are developing community policy for Wales, and I'm really pleased that, through the public services boards, some pilots are now developing in Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd and Ynys Môn. And it is the public services boards—which, actually, of course, are very cross-governmental in terms of their statutory responsibilities and linking, of course, to the well-being of future generations legislation—that actually see for their benefit that they can engage with communities at the closest and most local level to ensure that they can get their policies right and in accord with their objectives. 

I think it is very important that we learn the lessons from all of those reports you've talked about, including Building Communities Trust, who I have been working with to ensure that we get the movement across Government for community policy, developing with my colleagues the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, and the Minister for Finance and Local Government. We can learn the lessons from not only Communities First, but then successor engagements through Building Communities Trust, to ensure that we can move forward in terms of the asset transfer discussions and debates that we've had very fruitfully in this Senedd.

I would finally like to say I do believe that our community facilities programme is one of the most important ways in which the Welsh Government can directly fund and support community facilities and community groups and organisations across Wales. I'm very pleased to be announcing some more allocation of that funding very shortly, which I think will benefit Members across this Chamber in terms of the impact. 

Just finally, I want to bring this back to the fact that this is an opportunity today to link this to St David's Day, and all of what that means to us, particularly in relation to 'Cymraeg 2050'. We recognise that this is about language, culture and we've actually—. It's not just about investing in Welsh-medium education, which is the £7 million that the Minister for Education and Welsh Language is putting into that, but it's also, actually, looking at ways in which we can embed language into our communities. That's why 'Cymraeg 2050' is so important, and it is about a vibrant future for our language, as set out in the well-being of future generations Act.