I enjoyed the Bevan Foundation event today at Merthyr College. I arrived for Ruth Marks, the Older People’s Commissioner’s speech, and enjoyed the digital stories created by the over 50′s forum in Caerphilly. They are basically a series of photos in a video, with a voice over of a story or an issue that is of importance to the older person in question. I’ve suggested that they tailor the digital stories in a way that they can potentially introduce them as petitions to our petitions committee at the National Assembly for Wales. I’ll take up the issue with other members of the committee in the New Year. It seems a good way of making the system more interactive, and of creating a real and effective role for those groups who are developing digital stories.
I thought of the petitions committee as a vehicle, as next week I am recording a short youtube clip of the committee’s decision on a petition from Ysgol Hen Felin which was asking for more community facilities for disabled children. I’ll send the clip to the school on behalf of the committee- to be sent instead of us writing a formal letter. I hope we can do more of this type of work via the petitions committee in the future.
There was also a video made by Mencap’s Partners in Politics scheme on display today, and representatives from Merthyr’s Youth Forum talked about the work of engaging young people in decision making processes in the area. I understand that some students were filming the whole day’s events, and will be creating a video of the highlights of the day- one of them may be the comments made from the floor by the Blaenau Gwent councillor who is part of the No campaign on future powers for the National Assembly, when he criticised the Welsh language and the way that it is being forced upon us… Surely it is a human right? It wasn’t the most productive of comments on a day when we were discussing social inclusion and equality of opportunity.
The panel discussion that I took part in was very interesting- questions ranged from child poverty to paying for care for the elderly, to lifelong learning, to barriers to access to the political system. I’ll look forward to looking at the video of the event, and of taking part in other such events in the New Year.
