Speaking in today’s Welsh Conservative Debate on Local Government, Mark Isherwood AM has called on his fellow Assembly Members to “join the revolution, step up and co-produce the Wales we want”.
Mr Isherwood said overall there is a “top-down” approach towards community engagement in Wales, with resources and guidance to local authorities being generated from central government, and called for co-production to be embraced.
He said:
“Strength-based development is about helping people in communities identify the strengths they already have, in order to tackle the root problems preventing them from reaching their potential.
“Applying this approach, the co-pro revolutionaries in the Co-production Network for Wales are adopting international best practice, working for an approach which enables people and professionals to share power and work together in equal relationships to make public services more effective and relevant. This is about unlocking community strengths to build stronger communities for the future.
“Regrettably, however, Labour Welsh Government has proved averse to implementing the Localism Act 2011’s Community Rights Agenda, which would help community engagement, and deliver services efficiently and effectively.”
He added: “Although there are some powers of local intervention in Wales, local authorities are not currently obliged to undertake community asset transfers, nor are there registers to show which local authority assets are under threat.
“Furthermore, the results of the Welsh Government’s Consultation on Protecting Community Assets in 2015 showed that 78% of respondents welcomed a power to initiate a transfer of assets from Public Sector Bodies, essentially supporting the missing Community Right to Bid.
He added: “Last year Flintshire Local Voluntary Council told me that Welsh Government cuts to Local Voluntary Councils would devastate their ability to support more user-led preventative and cost-effective services. In other words, by spending money smarter, we could safeguard those services by working differently, and Wales Council for Voluntary Action stated that Welsh Government and the sector needs to refresh current engagement mechanisms, to develop, promote and monitor a programme for action based on co-production and common ground – with local authorities, health boards and the third sector working much more imaginatively to develop better services that are closer to people, more responsive to needs and add value by drawing on community resources.
“Five years ago the current Minister rejected the WCVA “Communities First a Way Forward” Report which found that community involvement in co-designing and co-delivering local services should be central to any successor tackling poverty programme.
“Five years later- and after spending half a billion pounds on it - the same Minister has now said he is phasing out its lead Tackling Poverty Programme, “Communities First”, having failed to reduce the headline rates of poverty or increase relative prosperity in Wales.
“If only the Welsh Government would listen, they could use funding better, improve lives and thereby help public services save money. So my question to all Assembly Members is ‘Will you join the revolution, step up and co-produce the Wales we want?’”