Mike Hedges AM welcomes news that Wales’ national institutions will benefit from almost £45 million of funding from the Welsh Labour Government funding this year.

Mike said… making the most of our heritage is vitally important, both so that we understand the issues and events from our past which have shaped the communities we live in and because of the importance of heritage to the local economy through tourism. This new investment is very good news indeed and I urge people living in Swansea East to access the wealth of information that will now be on line. Tracing family trees and local history will be so much easier!’

The investment during 2017-18 will see Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, the National Library of Wales and the People’s Collection Wales digital heritage programme build on their work, helping fund exhibitions, events and programmes as well as caring for Wales’ icultural heritage.

Highlights for the year ahead include:

• The completion of significant elements of St Fagans.
• A new Dinosaur exhibition at the National Museum Cardiff.
• The redevelopment of the National Library’s family learning area.
• The People’s Collection Wales will offer local communities support in capturing local culture and heritage on-line as well as opening up digital collections to all.
• The organisations will also be supporting the Welsh Labour Government's Year of Legends, Fusion and Cymru’n Cofio / Wales Remembers programmes, providing a full range of exciting and thought-provoking activities and events for people of all ages.  

Mike Hedges AM celebrates year of delivery

This year marks a year since the formation of the Welsh Labour Government and Mike Hedges AM is proud that it has been a year of delivery.  A year where Welsh Labour ministers have been standing up for Wales and standing up for communities like Swansea East.

The AM is pointing to a whole raft of measures that have been rolled out over the last year including:

In Education the most generous student support package anywhere in the UK. An additional 500m for 21^st Century Schools, part of an overall Welsh Labour Government investment of £2bn on new and refurbished school buildings across Wales. Including Ysgol Lon Las and Burlais Primary School.

The health service has also benefited, Wales now has the best ambulance response times anywhere in the UK and the NHS estate is seeing significant investment. 

Welsh Labour has also hit the ground running in meeting its target of 20,000 new affordable homes and increasing the capital limit – increasing the amount of money people can keep when they go into care. 

In department after department Welsh Labour ministers are investing to safe guard the future of Wales.

Locally the AM is also delighted with money for Credit Unions like My Community Bank, Swansea and the Business Rates relief scheme – Providing more than £200m of support to small businesses in Wales in 2017-18. This is providing help to more than three-quarters of businesses to pay their rates and is ensuring that half of all small businesses in Wales are paying no rates at all. And the Welsh Labour Government has listened to businesses’ concerns over the 2017 revaluation by putting in place two bespoke support schemes for those adversely affected. This will benefit many small business in Swansea East.

Mike Hedges AM said:  “The way this Welsh Labour Government has hit the ground running in this first year is making a real difference in Swansea East

“From investment in schools and our NHS buildings to making our social care system fairer, this is a government that acts in the interest of ordinary people across Wales.”

“While Welsh Labour is standing up for Wales the Tory’s in charge at Westminster continue to act in the interest of the few.”

“I am proud to support this Welsh Labour Government and look forward to working with Welsh Labour ministers to continue the work of making Wales a better place to live”

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Mike Hedges AM welcomes £2.7m for libraries, museums and archives in Wales

Libraries, museums and archives in Wales will benefit from over £2.7million of Welsh Government funding to develop and enhance their services, Economy Secretary Ken Skates has announced today.

Mike Hedges said…. ‘This is good news for the library sector and for those interested in ensuring that our past is preserved. It also enables upgrading of facilities for library users to read digital media on their own devices. I urge Swansea East residents to make use of their local libraries’.

The new Transformation Fund builds on the success of the Community Learning Libraries Programme for libraries, extending it to museums and archives for the first time. This capital funding will see a number of libraries and museums transform their services to significantly improve the visitor experience, offer new services and develop their sustainability and resilience.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, Ken Skates, said:

“I am pleased to announce this funding of over £2.7 million for our museums, archives and libraries. These important cultural services are developing ways to engage more people to participate in culture, improving their creative and learning offers, and enabling people to reach their potential through new opportunities. 

“Transforming the cultural and learning experience to open up opportunities to participate in culture is central to this funding. I want as many people as possible to experience the varied and stimulating cultural collections and learning experiences which are available in museums, libraries and archives across Wales. 

“The Welsh Government is dedicated to supporting these important services and facilities and I'd encourage and recommend everyone to pay them a visit and discover, learn and to enjoy the richness of our culture.”

The Fund will modernise five libraries in Denbigh, Holyhead, Knighton, Pontypridd and Townhill, establishing new community hubs where customers can access a range of services such as housing or community facilities, alongside an extensive range of library amenities. 

Funding is also provided for Ammanford library to for the creation of a Creative Store (Stordy Creadigol) in partnership with other service providers, offering a high-tech ‘maker space’ where people can learn a range of creative and cultural skills. 

Six museums will receive transformation funding to increase public access to their facilities and collections, ranging from tactile signage for Tenby Museum, to creating new educational facilities at Oriel Ynys Mon and installing new lighting as part of the redevelopment of Ceredigion Museum to improve the visitor experience. 

Welsh Government funding will also support the digital offer from museums, archives and libraries, including the National Digital Library Service, which allows customers to access free e-books, e-zines, e-audio books, e-comics, and reference sources, wherever and whenever they want. 

Archive services across Wales will benefit from funding to address the challenges of preserving our digital heritage, and to improve online access to information about archival resources.

Mike Hedges AM supports nursing recruitment campaign

Mike Hedges AM has welcomed the launching of a major new campaign promoting Wales as a fantastic country for nurses to train, work and live for health care professionals.

The campaign starts with the announcement that NHS Bursaries for eligible student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals will continue to be available in Wales in 2018/19.  

The bursary will be based upon individuals committing in advance to taking up the opportunity to work in Wales, post qualification, for a period of two years.

The recruitment campaign forms part of the Welsh Labour Government’s commitment to take action to attract and train more nurses, GPs and other health professionals across Wales.  It follows the successful recent GP recruitment campaign, which saw a 16% increase in GP training places filled.

The international campaign will target newly qualified and experienced registered nurses, as well as those who may be considering returning to the profession.  The Train, Work, Live campaign will be represented at the RCN Congress in Liverpool from May 13 -17.

It is supported with a single telephone point of contact for all enquiries and online through the www.trainworklive.wales website. People interested in working in Wales can ring: 01443 848 576 for more details.  

Mike Hedges AM said:

“This campaign is great news for the Welsh NHS and patients in Swansea East.

“It is signals this Welsh Labour Government’s commitment to the training and development of nurses, midwives and other professionals working in our NHS.”

Swansea East  is a great place to live and train and I look forward to seeing the positive impact on numbers of nurses midwives and allied health professionals, in our hospitals.

MIKE HEDGES AM CHAIRS ASSEMBLY MEETING ON DOES THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN WALES HAVE SKILLS TO DELIVER 20 000 NEW HOMES BY 2021.

Mike Hedges AM chaired the Cross Party Meeting on Housing today which focussed on whether or not the Welsh Economy had the necessary skilled work force to deliver the target of 21000 new homes in 5 years.

The meeting heard from industry experts and people within the Housing sector on how big the challenge will be to meet this target. The meeting heard that Offsite construction offered one avenue for increasing the number of houses built in Wales and this is expected to be one of the major growth areas within the House building sector within the next 5 years.

Mark Boden from CITB told the meeting that the target of 21000 new homes presented significant opportunities for the construction industry in Wales, with opportunities for Welsh firms to be part of the supply chains for new house building projects. It also offered new employment opportunities for people looking for careers within the construction industry, but employment in the sector would require support to ensure that people with the right mix of skills were able to take up the jobs created.

Mike Hedges said…. ‘The target of 21000 new homes within 5 years is very challenging – but like all challenges, it presents opportunities, opportunities for Welsh Firms to take advantage of and for people in Wales to join an expanding industry with good long term prospects.

The different parts of the industry represented at the meeting offered assurance that this challenging target can be met with benefits for the Welsh Economy, providing workers with the right skill mix can be introduced to the construction industry work force. CITB and House Building companies are already working together to train new entrants with those skills but we need to ensure that the Welsh Government plays its part in supporting the up skilling of workers for the construction industry.’