Outcomes, innovation and re-assessing Child Poverty

A combination of an incredibly busy schedule and the unwelcome arrival of a summer cold have meant that it’s been difficult to find the time to blog , but this is no real excuse, you get the feeling that Peter Black will be blogging the intricacies of Armageddon, even with a cold.

With the lack of recent posts in mind – I hope you will forgive a slightly longer than normal post today as I attempt to catch up.

WLGA Conference – Innovation and outcomes

Last Thursday I spoke at the Welsh Local Government Association 's AGM in Swansea. On a political panel with Kirsty Williams, Nick Ramsay and Adam Price MP, we debated the Assembly's response to the recession and the upcoming fiscal challenges in the coming moths.

It was a wide ranging debate with a dangerous amount of consensus breaking out amongst the politicians, but it was an opportunity for me to put on record some of my thoughts about how we go forward, with less money in the budget. For example, I stated my belief that this would be exactly the wrong time to be considering another re-organisation of local authorities - such a move would be costly and distracting. The starting point for any changes in spending patterns should start with this political proviso - first, do no harm.

I’ve said before that our reaction to the downturn is the great test of our political generation – but the challenge faced by public service providers, local government and the Civil Service is no less daunting. That is why I question the helpfulness of constant speculation about the exact sums involved in future budgets, I don't think it helps to be using anything other than the Finance Minister's projections at this time. The situation is simply too fluid, too uncertain to make additional, accurate predictions – we cannot become hamstrung with uncertainty or paralysed by anxiety.

What would be far healthier at this point would be a focus on innovation and an influx of new ideas and new ways of doing things and the Finance Minister, Andrew Davies is saying very much the same thing. Our new approach must have a relentless and unwavering focus on outcomes, not levels of spend. There needs to be a proper debate on the best way of doing this, but I have floated the idea of appointing somebody – an Innovation Commissioner for want of a better title - to act as a catalyst to make this happen. This isn’t about creating another layer of bureaucracy or tinkering around the edges - they would be expected to be a radical ‘change-maker’ with ‘open door’ access to the Welsh Assembly Government, and a place at the table of Social Partnership . I don't think it is too obtuse to suggest that without innovation at the heart of public service delivery, we will struggle to deliver first class services with any amount of money.

Bevan Foundation

On the same day of the WLGA conference, I had the opportunity to speak a Bevan Foundation event looking at what steps were needed to end child poverty in Wales by 2020. Each of the panellists was allowed to pick three key priorities – these were mine:

Full implementation of the ‘Dignity Programme’
Back in 2006, when I developed WAGs child poverty plan, I recommended an all-Wales roll out of a ‘Dignity programme’ – which would involve new multi-agency teams operating in communities, proactively seeking out children in poverty, or at risk of falling into difficulty, and address in turn each challenge that might be facing that child's chance of development - family income maximisation, schooling, access to services, risk of substance abuse etc etc and crucially offer personalised, proactive and tailored solutions and support . It is an approach that works, there are amazing pilot programmes waiting to be emulated. I hope that recent WAG announcements about "family support" schemes are based around this approach, but we need a full roll-out, not more studies.

Accept that the Assembly can and must take the lead role in tackling child poverty in Wales
The Welsh Assembly Government has made progress on the child poverty agenda, and I know there are AMs from all parties who give the issue the priority it deserves. However, we too often succumb to passing the buck to Westminster . There is an enormous amount we can do in Wales with the powers already at our disposal and we must recognise that it is our responsibility as an institution to take a lead in this area.

Recognition that the wider education sector has a role to play and that they must help us deliver on the child poverty agenda
With the prospect of frozen or decreasing budgets, we must maximise the involvement of outside partners and agencies in delivering on our mission to make a fairer Wales. Therefore I think we need a debate on the role which ‘public’ schools can play in helping us tackle child poverty. In my view, charitable status must be earned through proper, formalised collaboration and sharing of facilities and resources . This isn’t about assisted places - subsidy must come from the institutions themselves – not from the Welsh Assembly Government.

We must also take a fundemental look at how other instituions, notably Universities and the FE sector can help us deliver in this area, and we should take a serious look at adopting a Danish style 'pedagogy' system here in Wales.

And that's about it. The length of time it's taken to type this is reason enough to keep the posts more regular!

Behind the Stone

As the local Assembly Member I guess I’m a little biased, but I’ve got to say I was very impressed by this lottery funded scheme in Merthyr Tydfil. The ‘Behind the Stone’ project centred round the damaged, neglected but still much loved war memorial.

I found this picture of the memorial in happier days here.

The ‘Behind the Stone’ project encompassed a series of workshops – from arts and drama to an oral history project where local young people interviewed older members of the community on their memories of the memorial.

As a result of the focus on the memorial which the ‘Behind the Stone’ project helped to foster, it is now being restored to its former glory.

Therefore, I was delighted to see that ‘Behind the Stone’ has made it through to the semi-finals of the ‘Best Heritage Project’ category of the annual National Lottery Awards. No mean feat when you consider that only 10 projects in its category across the whole of the UK have made it this far.

So I would urge you all –Merthyr or not- to get ‘Behind the Stone’ and vote!

You have until Friday 10th July and can do so by calling 0844 686 2631 or logging on to http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards.

Regeneration Woes

Yesterday’s Merthyr Express focussed on a report from the Council’s scrutiny committee into the disruption caused by the recently completed improvements to Merthyr Town Centre.

Although I think everyone would agree that, now it has been completed, the high street and surrounding area look much better – it is clear that the disruption and delay caused by the work had a tremendous impact on local people and businesses.

The Express quotes from the conclusion of the report:

“…it is felt that the work was carried out in a manner which was a poor reflection of the competence on the part of the Council in procuring, overseeing and delivering effective regeneration projects.”

When we are still waiting for an Arts Centre and several other flagship regeneration projects to be completed this is a very worrying statement indeed. Whilst I understand that such projects are difficult to deliver and that a certain amount of disruption is unavoidable – this simply wasn’t good enough and raises serious questions about the Leadership of the Council.

Building on New Foundations

This article from Sunday’s Observer was interesting on several levels.

Quite rightly, it makes the point that we should be extremely cautious about recent signs of ‘recovery’ in the housing market. In reality, the ‘green shoots’ that have appeared in the last few weeks – a slight increase in mortgage approvals and signs that house price falls might be bottoming out- suggest a limited stabilisation rather than any long term, sustainable recovery.

After all, figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders earlier this month showed that in the first quarter of this year only 1,100 mortgages were approved for first time buyers in Wales. That’s the lowest number in all the 34 years the data has been collected.

As the article touches upon briefly, for these families and individuals –caught in the gap between the social rented sector and home ownership- there is little prospect of improvement in the short or even medium term.

Thanks to the strict lending conditions that now prevail - whereby a 20% deposit is required for those seeking to gain a foothold on the housing ladder – the increased affordability that the fall in house prices should have delivered has been negated.

Although a return to deposit based lending represents a welcome step towards redressing the excesses of the pre-credit crunch housing market, the long term rise in house prices we have seen over the last few decades means that 20% is really a big ask for young people. This is especially true given the high levels of debt many of them already face combined with a culture where saving for a rainy day is seen as ‘old fashioned’.

Interestingly therefore, the article also touches upon a recent survey - suggesting that the attitudes of young people towards home ownership may be changing.

This for me is the much more fundamental question. Even if we do see a relatively rapid recovery in the housing market (which is highly questionable), is a return to the days of 120% mortgages and sub-prime lending really desirable? After all, the questionable lending practices and the abundance of credit which characterised the boom years were partly what got us into this mess in the first place. Indeed every bust since the 1970s has been preceded by unsustainable rises in house prices.

Furthermore this article fails to sufficiently recognise that we need to offer a better alternative to traditional home ownership than simply renting. If we are to witness a sea change in attitudes to housing then we must improve the offer. That is why in my view we need to be urgently developing a suite of alternatives to traditional home ownership and renting.

As I have blogged in the past, Community Land Trusts, based on the Co-Operative Party’s ‘New Foundations Model’ would be high on that list of desirable alternatives.

Many of the issues touched upon here will be covered in more detail in a forthcoming pamphlet on affordable housing to be published by the Wales 2020 think tank.

Mind the Gap

This is a transcript of a speech I delivered in the chamber today in my short debate on unequal pay.

In this Assembly we are justly proud of the gender balance amongst members. My Labour group, with 16 women out of its 26 members, has a record to be particularly proud of.

Yet as my colleague Christine Chapman recently highlighted the vast majority of contributions on equal pay, domestic abuse and childcare were from women. As Christine has rightly pointed out, there are no ‘women’s issues’:

“…they are problems that affect men and women in every community the length and breadth of Wales.”

I know that there are other members present who share Christine’s frustration at this characterisation.

I challenge the argument proffered by some; that at a time of economic crisis, the worst recession in living memory no less, issues such as equal pay become less important, a luxury to be returned to in more prosperous times.

In my view, the background of job losses and redundancies -which often leave women as the sole breadwinner in families- means there has never been a time when this subject has more relevance or more urgency.

I know that most, if not all, my colleagues –across the party divides- will share the sense of frustration I feel that, nearly 40 years since the passing of the Equal Pay Act, the gender gap in terms of pay has not been bridged.

Although, many of the open prejudices, the barriers which meant women were excluded from certain jobs and the separate (and lower) rates of women’s pay are gone, parity of pay for men and women remains stubbornly out of reach.

Only last November we heard the thoroughly depressing news that -despite the slow but steady progress made in this area over the decades- the gender pay gap in Wales had actually increased over the previous year.

When you consider that around 40% of women who work, work in part time jobs this last statistic deserves particular attention. Part time workers are also much more likely to be paid below the minimum wage – a figure which partly explains why women are fifty percent more likely to be paid below the minimum wage than men.

As has long been the case, behind these headline figures we see that the sharp discrepancy between the pay gap in the public and private sectors remains.

In the public sector we see a pay gap of 13.8%, compared to 21.7% in the private sector- a gap of nearly 8 percentage points.

I apologise for bombarding you with statistics, but I’m afraid this is one subject where the devil is very much in the detail.

Maybe I should summarise, as I have three words which neatly describe this situation.

Not good enough.

Given the recent statistics - that showed women outperforming men in almost every measure of university achievement – the continued pay gap between academics at HE level is particularly disheartening.

One would hope that our Universities would be leading the way.

Yet in Higher Education, as in other sectors, despite national guidance agreements for employers on the need for comprehensive pay audits, progress towards pay parity amongst male and female academics remains frustratingly slow.

Indeed, HE was one of those sectors which saw an increase in the pay gap over the last year, up from 13.7% to 13.9%.

In Further Education the picture is much more positive. Thanks to action from this Labour led Assembly there is a national pay deal in place which has helped to significantly reduce the pay gap within the FE sector.

Indeed, progress continues to be made in many areas. The long running ‘Close the Pay Gap’ campaign- a collaboration between the Wales TUC, The Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Assembly Government is worthy of particular praise for leading the way with practical solutions and real results.

I was also pleased to see that, Eleanor, Joyce and Leanne Wood have reformed the Wales Women’s National Coalition, which I believe met last night. I’m sure they will have much to contribute in this area and others.

The ‘Equality’s Bill’ currently progressing through the committee stages at Westminster also represents – I hope- a giant leap forward in this area, and although I’ve studiously avoided partisanship up till now, only a Labour Government would have introduced such legislation and I am proud of that fact.

Once enacted this legislation -which harmonises and replaces all existing equality legislation- will allow Welsh Ministers to impose specific duties on public authorities to reduce socio-economic inequalities.

I understand that it’s a hugely complicated area, and that there are lots of questions and issues which need ironing out at committee stage both in Westminster and here in the Assembly, but I’m sure that the implementation of this legislation will provide us with effective weapons in the continuing fight against unequal pay.

Although I believe that calls from UNISON and others in relation to mandatory pay audits should be seriously considered.

If we need to look for examples of how closing the pay gap brings benefits to employers as well as employees then we need look no further than the Neath Port Talbot Council – an exemplar local authority in terms of equal pay.

They were the first council in Wales to settle the back pay element of its equal pay liabilities- thus in a stroke removing the very real risk of mass litigation and the financial disaster that would inevitably accompany it.

Furthermore, thanks to a combination of strong leadership, partnership, pragmatism and transparency the council have negotiated a new pay and grading structure for the future.

There is much that other public and private sector employers can learn from Neath Port Talbot, in particular the positive mindset which has underpinned their approach to this whole issue.

I’d like to thank Christine, Joyce and Eleanor for their contributions today. I hope that, if little else, the fact that we are here, recognising the problem and debating the pay gap here in the chamber of the National Assembly for Wales demonstrates how seriously we take this issue – as politicians we have a duty not to let this rest.

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

In a speech on the weekend, I spent a few moments talking to Party members in Rhyl about our First Minister, Rhodri Morgan. In those remarks, I conceded that on some issues, we were "on a different page." I am esepcially pleased, therefore, that Rhodri has thrown his weight behind a call I have been making for a number of years to properly re-tool Welsh Labour as a properly resourced, well staffed campaigning force. Like me, he recognises the phenomenal job of work done by our dedicated Party staff, but also understands that they are simply too few in number and too poorly resourced to work as they would like to.

I first made the call in my Wales 2020 pamphlet just after the 2007 Assembly election campaign. I think it would be fair to say that, at the time, my proposals found greater support amongst rank and file Party members than some of my elected colleagues. But the thrust of what I said then holds more true than ever today. Better funding, proper interaction and formalised arrangements with Union colleagues, an enriched policy platform and a much improved staffing level - these are the key planks on which an organisational revival will be built.

On a similar theme, however, I was a little surprised to see the Labour's technological campaigning tools compared unfavourably to the Tories'. I would suggest that this is not the case. One of the many benefits of Welsh Labour working as part of the national Labour Party is that we can draw on the huge amount of innovative, effective and state of the art campaigning tools developed by colleagues across the country.

European Results - A Truly Dreadful Night

There's simply no point trying to put a positive spin or a brave face on about last night's results. They were truly dreadful for Labour as a Party and, I would contend, for Wales as a country. However you jiggle the figures, the Tories beat us in the popular vote here in Wales, with UKIP polling strongly as well. This tells you that something pretty fundamental is wrong with politics in Wales right now. Any election that sees a candidate like Lisa Stevens, second on the Labour list, work so very hard yet fail to take a seat should make Labour take a long, hard look at itself. These results also represent very thin gruel for the efforts of our hard working, dedicated and passionate party members.

While I was of course pleased that the Labour vote in Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney held up remarkably well, with the largest share of the vote by some way, the scourge of the BNP was all too evident in the results table. Elsewhere, we saw a similar surge of support for the far-right without the sugar coating of a Labour win in the popular vote. Alyn and Deeside, Gower, Delyn and Newport West all fell to the Tories. Even in Bridgend, where a year ago we were celebrating wresting control of the Borough Council back to Labour, the Tories beat us into second place. These are ominous results for any Government, be it in Cardiff Bay or Westminster.

But what is it that our Party must do to reconnect with voters up and down Wales? I would contend that we should take the lessons from this defeat that we have, in all honesty, failed to pay proper heed to after batterings at local elections last year, and Assembly elections the year before. As I said two years ago, only by rebuilding and re-energising our Party can we put ourselves in a position where we can win the battle on the doorstep as well as the battle of ideas. It is not good enough to grasp around for the excuse du jour, be it MPs expenses (this time), 10p Tax rate (last year) or third term blues (two years ago). We must also accept - as many UK Ministers did last night - that it is not disloyal, divisive or wrong to identify the failings we have as a Party and proffer constructive counsel on how to remedy them.

One thing I am sure of is that briefings like this are not only unhelpful, but downright destructive. I know how hard Welsh Labour staff work, and the commitment that have to our Party and the communities we serve. Knocking doors across Wales over the past few months, I have seen first hand the sterling work they are doing under the most trying of circumstances. Was the European campaign one of our best in terms of message and political fight? No, it was not, as Party stalwarts like John Prescott have already noted. But does that mean that Party staff, working for little thanks and feeling the heat of people's anger with elected politicians, are to blame? No, it does not. As I have been saying for some time, the Party in Wales needs to be properly funded and staffed to do all we would like it to. This does not mean, however, that we should project our collective failures on to it in the meantime.