North Wales Assembly Member and Welsh Conservative Shadow Secretary for Communities, Mark Isherwood, has called for the Welsh Government to embrace co-production in order to secure communities in Wales a brighter future.
Responding to the First Minister’s Statement, ‘The Programme for Government - Taking Wales Forward’, in the Assembly Chamber this week, Mr Isherwood emphasised Wales’ low prosperity levels and said in order to impact positively on underperforming communities, the Welsh Government must “work differently with the voluntary and private sectors.”
He said:
“Given that wage levels in Wales remain below the levels in Scotland and England, that child poverty levels in Wales remain above the UK average, that working-age worklessness levels in Wales remain above the UK average, and that prosperity per head in Wales, measured by the value of goods and services produced, remains the lowest amongst the 12 UK nations and regions - and the gap has actually widened - how do you propose to work differently with the voluntary and private sectors in order to finally turn those negative results round and impact positively on those communities who are stubbornly trapped in that situation?
“You talk about helping communities take ownership of community assets where appropriate. Given that the most important asset in our communities is people, how will you engage at last with the global co-production revolution that began almost half a century ago, by working with the Co-production Network for Wales, launched on 26 May, backed by Big Lottery funding, and backed by scores of statutory and voluntary organisations across Wales, who are getting on with the revolution, but need you to buy in and do things differently?”
In his reply the First Minister blamed UK Government cuts to the welfare system on child poverty levels in Wales and stated that “on many economic indicators, we have done incredibly well.”
Mr Isherwood added: “Co-production Wales, WCVA and Cartrefi Cymru received Big Lottery funding to develop a Co-production Network for Wales. The collective aim of the Network is to help transform our public services by embedding co-production as the primary approach to commissioning, design delivery and evaluation in Wales, 'for a Wales where everyone is valued as a contributor to the common good'.
“It seems incredible that this recycled First Minister continues to blame Labour Welsh Government failure by comparison with the rest of the UK on UK Government policies affecting all of the UK, and that he seeks to continue the masquerade that being bottom is somehow doing well.”