Bethan Jenkins AC/AM Blog

TODAY we found out that the Linamar car parts factory on Fabian Way in my region will close, perhaps at the end of 2010. From those I know who work there, they are in and out of meetings with management all day today, trying to come to some sort of agreement.

Whether this is too late at this stage, I do not know but I will certainly try and keep people updated. It is a tragedy for the area that up to 200 jobs will be lost – affecting those that live in and around Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. Staff are dismayed at this closure announcement for three reasons, which I have been helping  them campaign on for some time now:

1. Linamar has told them that it is closing the factory because workers refused to accept new terms and conditions- despite the fact that the company took over the plant agreeing to honour existing pay and conditions. These new conditions would have seen some staff lose up to £600 a month.

2. According to Linamar’s own rankings, its Swansea plant is one of the best performing factories in the whole company. But the work is being transferred to a plant in Mexico that is one of its least efficient.

3. Staff are extremely angry that Ford, yet again, has refused to honour promises to source work from Linamar. The First Minister will know this, because I raised the issue with him a couple of months ago.

There was concern then that a multi- billion pound grant was being provided by the last UK Labour Government for the building of the new eco- boost engine at Bridgend, but none of the parts for this new engine were to be sourced in South Wales. I mentioned this to him and received a very non-committed answer.

What can the Welsh Government do now to ensure that companies in Wales that are given grants are compelled to bring benefit to the wider Welsh economy? I will be raising this matter again with Welsh Government ministers, hoping that they are initiating talks with both Linamar management and Ford to look at any possibility for contracts to Linamar from Ford Bridgend, so that the factory can stay open to benefit the local area, and that jobs can be saved.

THE time for internal party reselection for the Assembly election in 2011 is upon us, and constituency lists are open, and closed. Contrary to what Vaughan Roderick has said on his blog about me, I never intended to stand in Neath, and will be supporting Alun Llewelyn as the candidate all the way.

I think Alun has shown from the last Westminster election and the previous Assembly election campaign that he is a strong candidate. He is putting significant pressure on Labour in the Neath area by running effective local campaigns, and has a strong team of councillors in the area who work so hard alongside him and Del Morgan, Plaid’s leader on a NPT council level. Some people may ask – why didn’t you stand in Neath? Well, because my intention is to support Alun and other candidates in the South Wales West region, and to put my name forward for reselection on the regional list at this juncture.

Being an Assembly Member has been without a doubt the best thing that has happened to me, giving me an opportunity to campaign on the issues that are important to me, and to the people of the area. It’s allowed me to extend the campaigning that I was doing before being elected, albeit in a different way. Working with those suffering from eating disorders in Wales has been such a privilege – hearing their stories of pain, and then of hope as a new framework was introduced in Wales along with funding, after so much inaction.

Working with pensioners in Swansea has been inspiring. Hundreds of former Visteon workers – the salt of the earth – campaigning for their pensions at a time when they should be enjoying the fruits of their labour. Helping constituents with problems in their street or local area, enjoying the moment when asylum seekers I have helped, like George William from Swansea, who this week was granted asylum in Wales after years of campaigning; trying to push forward with a campaign for World Heritage status for the copper works in Swansea East; helping young people get in to politics.

And we can’t forget the imminent referendum on more powers for Wales. Creating a truly powerful Parliament for Wales is at the centre of everything I do.

This is all rewarding stuff that I can’t really put in to words that will describe how much satisfaction I get from empowering people to stand up for themselves and find their voices, just like I did.

Of course, I still have much more that I want to do, and that’s why I want to stand again to be elected as an AM. I don’t do it for personal satisfaction, or to have a position of status, but I can certainly use the title of being an AM to generate interest in various campaigns, and to influence those who make key decisions. I can’t say that everything always works out how I would like it to, but what’s important is that I always try, and I hope that people who ask me to help them understand that I’ll put every effort in to helping them reach their end goal.

Of course, we all know that the rules within Plaid Cymru’s  regional selection process have changed, and that we now have a zipping process whereby if a man is elected at the top of the list, then a woman must be second. I will work within this system, just as I worked within the last system, and encourage people to support me based on the work that I have done since being elected to the region back in 2007. It feels so long ago now!

It’s true that I did have a bit of a difficult time first of all when I was elected, but I’m sure most first time AMs all had their own individual challenges. I think I had a lot to prove – to the party, to the people of South Wales West, and to myself, and I hope that I’ve gone some way to showing that I have been an effective Assembly Member.

I’m sure there are people out there that don’t agree with me, don’t appreciate my viewpoint, but that’s the way politics works. As long as we can have constructive discussions that don’t swing to the personal, then I embrace those discussions with open arms.

I hope I will be nominated to stand in the next Assembly election by the party, that I will be successful in becoming a candidate in the region for the 2011 elections. Its down to me now to prove to people that I will continue to work hard for the area.

If I’m not chosen internally, or if I’m not elected next year as an AM, I am sure there will be other opportunities and challenges out there for me. Having four years experience as an AM has been phenomenal. I’ve met some great people, with fire in their bellies and a drive to change things for the better, and if, given the opportunity, I can work with them in different way, then I will certainly jump at the opportunity to do that.

THIS is my speech from yesterday in the Senedd, on the report that the communities and culture committee that I sit on carried out regarding the young people in the secure estate/ discussion on the youth justice system.

Bethan Jenkins: Like the other speakers, I thank Sandy Mewies and the team that worked with us on the committee to ensure that this inquiry was a success. I had my eyes opened as did my fellow Members, I am sure, when we visited the prisons and young offender institutions; we visited Hillside Secure Centre and Parc prison in Bridgend to see how these young people are treated.

I echo what Sandy said at the beginning, that the most important point arising out of the report is that we sincerely need to look at devolving the youth criminal justice system to Wales. It is not just an ideological point; it is because the priorities of the UK Government are clearly different from those that we are trying to follow in Wales. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is enshrined here; we want to put children at the heart of all that we do, and previous UK Governments have been intent on incarcerating young people—I am not sure whether Ken Clarke will change that; time will tell—before fully considering their rights as children. We should all be thinking about that here. We have to acknowledge children’s rights.

I feel passionately about devolving youth criminal justice, because we can then look at alternative ways of dealing with offenders, such as restorative justice, which have been trialled in some places in Wales but which are not implemented fully across the length and breadth of the country.

I say that also because, in evidence to the committee, a representative of the Howard League for Penal Reform said that he was astounded that Assembly Members had to go to English prisons to talk to Welsh children; it is ironic that we have to go to England to see Welsh children and to talk to them about their experiences. That, in itself, was eye opening for me, and made me think much more about how we treat our young children in Wales. These children do not have proper access to mental health services or to educational facilities, when that is their right.

I note that the Deputy Minister said that the age of criminal responsibility is a reserved matter, but we have to look at that in Wales, because that age, at 10 years, is very low. Scotland recently raised the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years, bringing it in line with that in the rest of Europe, but the minimum age at which a child can be charged and brought before a court in the rest of the UK is 10 years.

The committee considered it appropriate that the Government should consider the potential for raising the age of criminal responsibility as part of the review, but we would need systems in place to be able to deal with the fact that there would be much greater pressure on services if we were to raise the age. I know that the Liberal Democrats were not so clear about their stance on the age of criminal responsibility, but they have now made a statement that they support raising the age; it is important for all parties to come together to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

With regards to short sentencing, covered in recommendation 10, the former director of the National Offender Management Service has said that offenders who serve sentences of six months or fewer are not being rehabilitated, and that they usually go on to commit further offences; they are also usually released earlier under the current legislation.

Statistics show that prisoners released after fewer than 12 months go on to commit an average of three crimes each in their first year of freedom, while criminals who are subject to restorative justice penalties, such as community service, have lower re-offending rates than those who are given short-term jail sentences. Witnesses in the inquiry commented that the use of custodial sentences for children and young people in Wales is high.

Wales has one of the highest rates of children and young people in custody in Europe. However, research also shows that only 31% of children in prison are charged with, or convicted of, violent or sexual offences. There was also a broad consensus among witnesses that when children and young people enter the youth justice system, custodial sentences should remain a measure of last resort and reserved for the most serious offences. That view was backed by the children’s commissioner.

I will finish on another comment from the Howard League for Penal Reform. Its spokesman, Andrew Neilson, said that:

“he problem with prisons is that they often make us prisoners in our thinking.”

That, again, clarifies what we found as a committee in that just incarcerating young people—putting them in a box and throwing away the key—is not the way to address our social problems in Wales. Why do people offend? Why do young people go out on to the streets?

I am worried about the changes that the current UK Government is making to benefits and so on. Will more young people offend? Will more people be pushed into poverty thereby increasing the offending rates? If so, we must have policies here in Wales to protect us from those UK Government policies and to ensure that young people do not end up in prison. We need to protect them and show them that they can be useful and respected members of our society. They should be respected, just as we all should.

IT’S taken some time for me to comment on the ConDem government’s budget as I’ve been busy this week, and I was ill on Wednesday. Better now – thanks for asking!

My first thought was that the recession gave us a year-zero opportunity to look at the future of the Welsh economy, and to ask what we can do to prevent us from ever having to suffer the effects of financial mismanagement in the markets in the future. Instead, the Budget reads like a short term response – a five-year plan at the very most. But we need to put in place medium and long-term solutions to very fundamental problems at the heart of our economy.

It will be interesting to see the VAT increase play itself out. After all, you need consumers spending to stimulate the economy back to growth, and this rise is bound to dissuade buying. We are carrying out an inquiry in to financial inclusion on the Assembly’s Communities and Culture committee at the moment, and Fran Targett from Citizens Advice Cymru yesterday told the committee that the VAT rise and the decrease in housing benefit “don’t pull together”, and are “dangerous” for those on lower incomes. I cannot but agree.

Similarly, with the balance of spending cuts being 77% to 23% in tax rises, we will see more job losses, without a doubt. Unison estimates that every job lost costs the British taxpayer £16,000. That will have to be met, but where exactly is that costed?

The new rules on housing benefits are a misnomer. It betrays a Tory government as in thrall to Daily Mail headlines – of non-contributors living high on the benefits hog – as the last Labour government. If these stories are true, then they are not the common experience.

The banking levy is little more than a headline. Barclays made record £11bn in profits last year, so there is a strong possibility that it could have met the levy’s target itself in Corporation Tax. This is just a drop in the ocean. Where was the reform of inheritance tax, and the creation of a ‘wealth tax’?

The public sector pay freeze will affect Wales without a doubt. Apart from non-devolved departments like the police, the DVLA in Swansea, the Office for National Statistics in Newport and Companies House in Cardiff, the rest of the public sector won’t know what’s available until the CSR in October. So Welsh workers have been left in limbo for the summer.

And while we’re on the public sector, we shouldn’t let the Labour party off the hook here. At the moment, you could swear that they have been in opposition for 13 years. Let’s get real – they did little to redress the balance between rich and poor when they were in Government on a UK level. Its true to say that Wales has lost its coal industry, and it’s lost most of its steel industry. Manufacturing as a proportion of Welsh GDP fell 10% during Labour’s tenure, and it was Labour that grew the public sector. So it is grossly unfair of the Tories to depict men and women whose only crime is to go to work as part of an industry that is ‘bloated’ and therefore unnecessary.

If there’s anything good about the budget it’s that it has restored the link between earnings and pensions and that there is still a universal right to child benefit, although it has been frozen. But I still don’t see why the public sector should face all the worst cuts alone. The banking system must be laughing at how well it has done from this budget.

There are other alternatives that were not looked in to by the UK government. Tax evasion accounts for £70 billion, while tax avoidance stands at £25bn. Some £28bn of this isn’t collected as HM revenue doesn’t have the resources so it seems, and of this £11bn has been written off. Yes, there was a one-year freeze on the civil list, but Osborne is looking at providing a grant later on in the year. Hardly making the royals suffer the squeeze.

I worry what will happen in Wales, and the cuts that the Welsh Government must make. I worry how these measures will affect Welsh families – those families who are already in poverty, and people that will be pushed in to poverty by no fault of their own. I don’t want to scaremonger, I know Wales must play it’s part in this agenda, but this short term thinking by the ConDem government hasn’t inspired me one bit.

There has been quite  a lot of discussion recently about the new UK government’s intention to extend the anonymity of those accused of rape. David Cameron is quoted as preferring a “limited extension” to the law to cover the period between arrest and charges. This issue has initiated a huge debate, with many Labour politicians criticising the idea, saying that it will not encourage rape victims to come forward, and to push for prosecution.

I’ve found myself in a difficult situation on this issue. Rape is an awful, unjustifiable crime. I know people who have been raped, and it scars them for life. But I am also hugely aware of the fact that there are men out there who have been falsely accused of rape and domestic violence, and just by going through the process, they have been pushed to the edges of society, have lost jobs, friends and the good names due to being accused of rape. Some defendants who are wrongly accused have children of their own, and are often stopped from seeing their children. This is the reality of the situation.

So I have some sympathy with extending anonymity to defendants though I don’t think it should be confined to rape alone. If the man is charged, then of course their names should be made public so that other women do not suffer, but I find it difficult to support making the names public before they have been charged for the reasons I outline above. Is there evidence out there to show that if anonymity was extended that fewer women would come forward?

Maria Eagle, a shadow Minister, questioned Ken Clarke yesterday, saying: “Can he tell us, please, how many women were involved in those negotiations?” I personally don’t think that this should be used as an argument in this context. Surely male politicians should also understand how unacceptable and vile rape is? We all know that people judge others regardless of the phrase ‘innocent until proven guilty’, and for that reason I do not see how publishing names of men before charge will  help stop rape from happening in our society. Going to the root of the problem certainly will – more education in our schools about sex, and respect in relationships for example, empowering women to say no, and to leave violent relationships.

Whether we like it or not, there are women out there, a minority of women, who falsely accuse men of rape or domestic abuse. This must be looked in to too, and we can’t put our heads in the sand, pretending this isn’t an issue for everyone in society.

Here is a link to a profile of me by Rob Williams of the Independent blogs website. I thought I would link to it in case you haven’t seen it.

Here is a statement that Leighton Andrews is giving as we speak on school reorganisation. I am not sure how this announcement will affect the decision that the First Minister has made relating to school reorganisation in Cardiff West, if at all. I’ll update later.

STATEMENT BY THE WELSH ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENT

Title:
School Reorganisation
Date:
15 June 2010
By:
Leighton Andrews, Minister for Children , Education, Lifelong Learning

Members will be aware that I have been considering issues around school organisation policy since taking over as Education Minister in December. I issued a written statement on 12 January 2010 concerning the Welsh Ministers’ role in school reorganisation, which confirmed that the prime responsibility for organising and reorganising schools rests with local authorities. The first session of my Department’s new internal Policy Board on 20th January looked at the question of school closures.

In plenary sessions since then I have made it clear that I have had concerns about the process and the length of time some decisions have taken to determine. The current system leads to uncertainty for parents and pupils. Parents and local authorities tell us that they want more certainty in order to plan for the future of pupils.

I am pleased to say that since January 11 decisions have been issued by Welsh Ministers and I expect to determine a number of further proposals for reorganisation by the end of this term.

Decisions issued since January will in some cases lead to school closures and the removal of over 2,400 surplus school places. All affected pupils will find themselves in school buildings that are at least as good as they attend currently, and which can provide education of at least equivalent standard. Some will have brand new schools to attend in due course. State of the art provision will be made for pupils with special needs. That is the good news.

However, some of the decisions took longer than I would have liked, although I believe that only one local authority will experience a delay to their original proposed implementation date. Decisions are based on a thorough scrutiny of all the evidence and the factors set out in statutory guidance: The guidance stresses that the standards of provision are of prime importance.

The Price Waterhouse Coopers Review called on us to establish a new trust across the system and also to simplify systems of governance which unnecessarily drive cost. We need to be more efficient. We need to ensure that public money is being spent effectively.

I am taking immediate steps to address this. Pilots will start in the autumn with local authorities being able, if they wish, to submit additional information at an early stage that will make the scrutiny process in the Welsh Assembly Government less time consuming. We will pilot the earlier submission of objections and channel staff time into an earlier consideration of the matters raised by objectors than is currently possible.

In addition, internal re-organisation has taken place to provide fieldwork support to help Local Authorities develop proposals that are more likely to conform closely with statutory guidance so that submitted proposals, where they are contested, can be addressed quicker.

I will also review the current Regulations, which date from 1999, as a matter of urgency: They make some demands on local authorities that are no longer necessary and yet do not enable Welsh Ministers to receive certain information that is required for the proper assessment of statutory proposals.

These regulations also set out the time frames available for the lodging of statutory objections by members of the public and the time available for local authorities to submit them to Welsh Ministers with their comments. I believe that these time frames could be reduced, saving potentially 6 weeks on the statutory process.

I will conduct a public consultation on the draft regulations, which will include their publication on the Assembly Government’s website. The consultation will ensure that all those with an interest, including local authorities and parents, will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes. I would hope that revised regulations will be in force by early 2011.

In addition, having looked at how the school reorganisation process works in other UK countries, I have been troubled by the fact that we are potentially keeping a tighter rein on local authorities than is the case in either England or Scotland. I find it difficult to justify this.

The point has also been frequently made that in Wales a single objector, who may have no connection with a school, can cause a statutory proposal to be submitted to Welsh Ministers and be subject to full scrutiny. This cannot be a good use of resources where it is apparent that all those with a genuine interest in the proposal are in favour.

However, changes to the current regime will need to be achieved via new legislation and I will be exploring legislative opportunities for this with the Counsel General.

Welsh Ministers will continue to set a clear policy on school reorganisation, as is currently the case, and it is likely that the key Circular of guidance will not change. We will expect local authorities and others to bring forward proposals that will provide the best possible opportunities for pupils and that provide the right schools in the right places.

Local authorities will continue to be responsible for planning and proposing changes, and for consulting thoroughly on those changes.

Local people should continue to have a significant say but more dialogue should happen at the local level with, potentially, initial avenues of appeal and determination at local level. This will promote local democracy.

However, proposals would not come to Welsh Ministers for determination after objections, unless, on rare occasions, Ministers felt it necessary to ‘call in’ the proposals for determination.

I would foresee this new system as applying only to compulsory education, and Ministers would continue to decide proposals for Post 16 reorganisation where these have led to objections.

There is much work to do to flesh out these principles and to develop a structure that will improve efficiency, improve outcomes for learners and make genuine savings that can be directed towards service delivery.

Llywydd, these proposals meet the agenda set by the PWC review and I believe they will end uncertainty for parents, pupils, teachers and local authorities.

Check against delivery

Often associated with royal families, but our monarchy should be prepared have their budget go under the guillotine

THE new ConDem government wants everyone in society to tell them where cuts should happen in the public sector. How nice of them to consult on an issue that they are clearly trying to pass the buck on at every juncture.

Can you imagine that if this was a time of prosperity, do you really think the government would consult on what our money should be invested in?

And so this leads me on to the issue of cuts and, if we are to be consulted, then one of the things that we should be considering is the money allocated to the monarchy via the civil list. Why should the monarchy be excluded from the cuts agenda? I would urge everyone who reads this blog to contact their MPs to urge them to sign this Early Day Motion:

CIVIL LIST REVIEW EDM 123

That this House is opposed to any increase in the Civil List while public spending is being cut and until Royal finances are subject to the same standards of accounting, auditing and reporting as all other public finances; and calls for an immediate freeze on Civil List payments and for an urgent and independent inquiry into Royal finances, with a view to reducing the overall cost of the Monarchy to well below the current estimated bill of between £100 million and £200 million a year.

This, coupled with the fact that the royal palace is looking for an extra £7 million in the annual civil list payment, is unacceptable, as the campaign group Republic clearly states here:

Republic spokesperson James Gray said:

“George Osborne must be honest with the British public. If he is considering giving the Queen a £7m pay rise while public services are being cut then we need to know.”

“Contrary to the Palace spin, Civil List spending has increased above inflation almost every year since the early nineties. The royal household is running out of cash due to its own profligacy and financial incompetence.”

Let’s see how genuine the ConDem government is about consulting on the cuts, and if they choose to ignore this matter when they make their final decision. It seems to me that the wealthy, including the royal family and the rich bankers and tax dodgers, should not be able to find loopholes, and that they should play their part in helping to cut the deficit, just like everyone else.

Here is a link to an article that I wrote in a personal capacity about the Hay Festival that took place last week. I had a great time, but here are some observations.  Feel free to join the discussion on the webiste. It has created a lively debate on Waleshome. I am now looking forward to my next festival, and to my next review…..

Bethan Jenkins:

Thank you for the statement on progress on this issue. I would like to reiterate that I have concerns about this policy, given that a large cohort of students will no longer receive any support in Wales due to the fee grant being changed in this manner. I thought that we had a Wales-based policy that would help any students facing financial barriers, but that does not seem to be the case today. I welcome that Welsh students will have an enhanced Assembly learning grant and a higher rate of it, but can the Minister tell me how much more students will benefit financially under this new system than they did under the old one?

Will the new system cover courses that are not available in Wales, such as dental technician courses? I have a constituent who is one among three students on a dental technician course in England, but he cannot get any financial support from Wales to sustain him through his studies.

I believe that there is concern from NUS Wales, as has been mentioned earlier, about the future of the national bursary scheme and whether it will be scrapped or appears to be scrapped under this new arrangement. As I understand it, the NUS agreed to this change based on there being a national bursary framework, so will you clarify once again what this new arrangement will mean for the bursary structure? If HEIs still choose to offer bursaries, it could mean that the present postcode lottery continues.

The top-up of the ALG is not a bursary system and could introduce a more complex system, which no-one in this Chamber, or in Wales, wants. I would also like to reiterate the questions about the top-slicing of HEFCW’s budget. Can you give us assurances that moneys will be ring-fenced for widening access within those bursary criteria? Will HEFCW have a role in monitoring those criteria so that we can ensure that the money is given to the students who need the support the most?

I would also like to ask about progress on the student recruitment grant, because I would have thought that it would have been strategically pertinent to discuss that scheme today alongside the bursary scheme. As I understand it, there is little detail on that. I know that there may be some problems with EU law with regard to administering that particular initiative, but I would have liked to have seen that discussed today, as well as progress in relation to part-time students.

I would also like to ask about the effect of the Browne review, which is currently happening under the UK Government. If Cardiff, as part of the Russell Group, decides to raise fees after 2011, will any additional bursaries be available to students, and how will the Welsh Government adapt plans to any new announcements on a UK level, as they will obviously affect Wales?

Can you finally answer my question on when, or if, regulations on this policy will come to the National Assembly, because it is important that Assembly Members are able to vote on this issue?

Leighton Andrews: What we are doing here today is fulfilling the commitment given by my predecessor to publish plans for a national bursary scheme in spring 2010. This is virtually the last week of spring 2010, so at least we have managed to achieve that commitment, which is what I wanted to ensure.

This is a bursary scheme, and we have found a simple way of administering it by integrating it with the Assembly learning grant. We are not changing the principles set out in announcements by my predecessor, other than to pay the sister scheme in this way. This is a Wales-based policy, which means that, dependent on income, students will be eligible for up to £600 on top of the Assembly learning grant. Bethan asked whether it will be available to students who are pursuing courses that are not available in Wales, such as dentistry. As I said in the statement, all students who are eligible for the Assembly learning grant or the special support grant will receive an increased level of award wherever they study in the UK.

Much as I would like to have a slightly more dirigiste higher education system than we have in Wales, we cannot stop or control higher education institutions from offering bursaries They may choose to do that. What we can try to do, working with the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, is to ensure that they are focused on the key elements of our agenda, including support for STEM subjects, widening access and so on. That is clearly our objective, and we will work towards it.

I am not in a position to make a statement on the issue of the graduate recruitment grant that Bethan referred to. There are difficult legal issues that we have been trying to resolve, which is why I have not been able to bring anything here today on that subject. Those legal issues are not simple—if they were, we would have brought proposals forward to you today.

We made our submission to the Browne review some weeks ago. The new Government is now taking that discussion forward and I will be looking to have conversations with the Minister for higher education in the new UK Government about that. The Browne review focuses on the situation in England, but it will have implications for us. I note that the Scots have a different approach to the question.

There is a series of issues that we have still to resolve, some of them currently unknown to us because the Browne review has not concluded, although we see a lot of lobbying by higher education institutions. As I said, when I bring forward the regulations on the Assembly learning grant, a discussion on the bursary scheme will be incorporated.