Reserved Powers model of devolution

On Saturday Ed Milliband committed the next Lavboutr Government to implementing a reserved powers model.
This means that what is not devolved is stipulated as opposed to what is devolved.
This provides far greater clarity to the settlement.
This should lead to far less judicial involvement.
It also raises the new question of what should be devolved
1) now
2) in the future
3) never

Questions on the Williams report on Public services

 

 

On costs of reorganisation the commission has had to make a number of assumptions to calculate the total cost of reorganisation.

The reorganisation in Cornwall is not a good comparison because there the district Councils merged into the county Council. All the major services such as Education, Social services and Highways were unaffected as they were already run by the County Council.

 

1) Will TUPE be applied to staff on reorganisation - There were concerns over whether TUPE would have applied during the reorganisation of the Wales Audit Office. TUPE had to be specified as applying, in order to avoid any doubt then the application of TUPE needs to be specified preferably on the face of the bill

 

2) Will there be added years for staff taking early retirement- Historically staff taking early retirement have been given enhancements of up to 6 2/3 years in order to facilitate their retirement, will this enhancement be available for any who are seeking early retirement on reorganisation.

 

3)  Will there be actuarial reductions for early access to pensions- At the last reorganisation there was no actuarial reduction for those accessing pensions early. If such a reduction occurred it would seriously affect the pensions people would receive or they would spend the time between reorganisation and their expected retirement date without income.

 

4) How will different conditions on joining authorities be dealt with- Different authorities have different terms and conditions e.g. Neath Port Talbot salary reduction and working hours reduction. What will happen to these terms on merger.

 

5) If it costs £100 million ( I believe the cost will be substantially higher) how will it be funded. If it is funded from the local government settlement how many jobs will be lost. Where else could it be funded from and whilst many councils have fairly large reserves much of that is earmarked.

 

6) Why is it expected that ICT costs will be low- ICT costs can rapidly escalate when different systems are being merged. There will be data transfer costs, contracts that will still need to be paid and possible compatibility problems.

 

7) If it goes over cost how will that be funded- Will jobs and services be cut or will the Welsh Government underwrite such costs.

 

8) Will there need to be a new job evaluation and if so how will costs be funded- As different authorities produced different grades for the same job, on reorganisation will these need to be addressed because otherwise we will see different salaries for the same job across the new authorities.

 

9) How much will it cost to change signs, headed paper- Whilst not a substantial sum, the changing of signs and headed paper across Wales will add up.

 

10) Will travel costs be paid for staff relocated- On reorganisation a number of staff will have to travel, possibly long distances to their new site. Will all staff be paid travel costs and how will this be funded

 

11) Will there be any salary protection and if so for how long.

 

On the general report the following questions occur

 

1)      Why is it important that Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue has the same boundaries as ABMU as  opposed to the same boundaries as the  Police Authority

2)      Shouldn’t more be done to integrate services provided by the same provider e.g. Hospitals and GP services, Education and Children’s social services

3)      Why do you think Powys is unique it is approximately 1/5 of the size of the Scottish Highlands and also smaller than some other Scottish Authorities

4)      The Government has ruled out the merger of CADW and RCHAMW why do you think a merger would be beneficial

5)      On Unit cost of Local Authority Corporate management, the graph does not make sense (how can a graph where there is only one point on it not reach that point) and if the top three in costs  were removed it equates roughly to a straight line

6)      The 2012 GVA for Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend is £14964 and for Swansea £15469 indicating the GVA in Bridgend Neath Port Talbot is 96.5% of the GVA in Swansea,  why does the commission consider this variation would concentrate deprived regions.

7)      As Health boards have been identified as “too remote” why would the same not  be true of very large Councils

8)      Why would larger authorities not make silo working and risk aversion worse

9)      What evidence from Wales or the rest of Britain is there that bigger authorities are better. Birmingham is the biggest unitary authority in Britain does the commission think it is the best despite the well documented problems there. What evidence is thee that the three largest authorities in Wales (Cardiff, Swansea an RCT) out perform the others

10)  Why was the models used in the rest of Europe not studied in  more depth

11)  What examples have the Williams Commission got of one local authority being split between two city regions(Bridgend in the Cardiff City region and Neath Port Talbot in the Swansea City region)

 

 

 

 

 

 

My views on the second supplementary budget

I support of the second supplementary budget

Unfortunately the budget follows the substantial public expenditure cuts of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition in Westminster and the affect that has had upon Wales and public services in Wales

Firstly I would like to correct the Conservatives on Health expenditure

2003-04	4,170,585	10,914,434	38%
2013-14	6,541,454	16,167,748	40%

 

An increase of over 56%

And an increase of 2% in the total Welsh budget spent on health

At the current rate of increase Health will soon be over half the total expenditure by the Welsh Government

£150 million was announced by the Minister for Finance in October to meet new demands arising from the Francis Review. £142.6 Million is to be funded from reserves and 37.4 Million from Invest to save.

As someone who strongly believes in invest to save I will be looking to see how this invest to save money has generated savings in future years.

£50 Million is being held in a contingency fund in case some Local health boards are unable to achieve a breakeven figure at the end of the year.

The Welsh Government have indicated to the Public accounts Committee that the January estimated end of year deficit position of Local health boards was just under £77 Million.

Historically the January estimated overspend has come down by the end of the financial year.

Health board budget positions have become depressingly familiar.

Substantial overspend in the first quarter

Stability in the second quarter

Some improvement in Quarter 3

Substantial savings in quarter 4

Of course when we talk about Health board overspends it is really short hand for Hospital overspends

 

Questions I hope the Finance Minister will ask the Minister for Health

·     If each hospital carried out each procedure at the cost of the cheapest how much would be saved?

·     Which areas of each trust are causing the over spends?

·     If the situation reported to the public accounts committee in Betsi Cadwalladr trust of the board agreeing a budget but departments considering those budgets indicative and refusing to accept them exists in any of the other trusts?

·     How the cost of medicines that go out of date and have to be destroyed varies between the best and the worst performing trusts, hospitals and wards?

Leaving Health

I warmly welcome the allocation in the supplementary budget of £79.3 Million to the Wales Infrastructure Fund.  With £32.5 Million allocated for SME investment fund and £34.5 Million allocated to help to buy Cymru.

An example of allocating finance to meet the priorities of Labour and the people of Wales.

Finally I congratulate the Finance Minister on the supplementary budget.

 

 

 

The changing face of Local Government in Wales

The membership and make-up of local councils, especially in cities such as Swansea and Cardiff, has become more diverse and varied over the last 25 years. When I was first elected to the world of local government at the tender age of 32 back in 1989 on the old West Glamorgan County Council – which at the time consisted of a large Labour Group with a hefty majority - I was considered very young, possibly too young to be a councillor, amongst a group of predominantly men aged over 60 and retired.

 

Needless to say, local government and local democracy has come a long way since then!

 

Today, Swansea Council has a gender mix of 42 men and 29 women, with at least three of its members openly gay. The Swansea Council Labour Group is even more gender balanced with 21 women and 27 men, whilst the Labour councillors in my own constituency of Swansea East strike a gender balance of 10 men and 10 women.

 

In terms of the average age, there has been a remarkable shift with at least 4 councillors still in their early twenties, including Cockett Ward’s Mitchell Theaker, who I believe holds the impressive title of being the youngest Cabinet Member in the UK.

 

On ethnicity, Swansea Council also has two black female councillors, one of whom was selected by the local Morriston Labour Party to replace me as the Labour candidate when I stood down from the council in May 2012 to concentrate on my role as an Assembly Member.

 

I realise not all Welsh local councils have made the impressive progress that has been achieved in Swansea towards producing a council membership that is far more representative of the areas and communities it covers; however progress has been made in other parts of Wales.  

 

For local government to be transparent and accountable, it relies upon an active and open local press. Again in Swansea, we are lucky in that we have a local paper that is both daily, and closely follows the activities and business agenda of our local council. Of course, when I was Council Leader, there were times I wished it had followed the council less closely!

 

But with the reality that very few members of the public attend council meetings, it’s even more imperative that the press is there to report accurately and fairly what is happening and what decisions are being taken by the people we have elected to watch over our City.   After all, it’s through the local press that most people will get their council and local political news from, which further highlights the role of the press in the scrutiny and decision process.

 

That is why I was pleased that the previous Welsh Government Minister for Local Government, Carl Sargeant, gave his blessing for local councils to continue to publish certain statutory notices, including planning applications, in local papers. If that money and “business” had been removed from the local press, I believe that it would have seriously curtailed local reporting.

 

At the start of this year, I welcomed the action being taken by the Welsh Government in recognising the importance of broadcasting and live streaming council meetings, which led to funding worth £1.25 million being divvied out between councils to improve local democracy and strengthen public engagement.

 

Although, I’m not naive enough to think that this funding will lead to the viewing figures of council meetings rivaling that of Coronation Street, I am fully behind the idea of broadcasting and live streaming council meetings on websites.

 

In a modern democracy where technology is used on a daily basis, it’s only right that members of the public see how decisions affecting their everyday lives are taken, as well as having the opportunity to play an active role in the scrutiny process.