Speaking in the Assembly, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to help facilitate the development of a Contact centre for the Polish community in Wrexham to help improve lives and reduce pressure on local services.
Last month, Mr Isherwood met with the Polish Ambassador, Consul General and Vice Consul, and representatives of Wrexham's Polish and Portuguese communities, Wrexham Council and local agencies, to discuss the problems facing Poles living locally on issues including language barriers and cultural issues, housing and homelessness, employment and the workplace, social exclusion, educational differences and access to health services, and their consequences – and therefore proposals for a Polish community centre.
The ONS estimates that approximately 10,000 Polish people live in the County Borough and Mr Isherwood heard that many of these suffer a range of problems which not only damage their own well-being and opportunities, but also result in greater demand for higher level statutory services.
He was told that helping members of the Polish community in Wrexham to overcome the barriers they face, by knowing what to do and where to go, will reduce cost pressures on local services, and that working together, public sector bodies and other funders, and third sector organisations, can ensure that preventative, community based services that support people to take control of their own health and well-being are provided and maintained on a sustainable footing.
On the day that the Prime Minister unveiled findings from a major audit exposing inequalities between people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds across areas including health, education, employment and justice, Mr Isherwood raised the matter with the First Minister in the Assembly Chamber.
He said:
“Three weeks ago, I attended a meeting in Wrexham with the Polish Ambassador from London, the Consul General from Manchester, a Council representative, various agencies, and, of course, representatives of the Polish and Portuguese communities, talking about how we could develop a Contact Centre.
“In this case, the Polish Consul talked about the Polish Community Business Clubs possibly being able to raise the funding to access this. But we need somebody to facilitate a way forward, to tackle the barriers that people in these communities are continuing to face, and also, in consequence, to reduce pressure on statutory services. How could the Welsh Government help facilitate progress in this area?”
The First Minister replied: “We’re more than happy to work with the Ambassador in order to identify where such groups exist in Wales and how we can best engage with them. I’ll write to the Member. If I write to the Polish ambassador, perhaps if I could enclose as part of the letter the words that he’s used in this Chamber, and then of course we can see how we can best work together in order to achieve the outcome that he’s described.”
ENDS