Latest news with #WelshLocalGovernmentAssociation
Wales Online
3 days ago
- Politics
- Wales Online
Two of Wales' most senior councillors bite back against MSs who want to change the system
Two of Wales' most senior councillors bite back against MSs who want to change the system Councils are already collaborating and Senedd members with a 'cushy' job should keep out, according to local authority leaders Andrew Morgan is leader of the Welsh Local Government Association (Image: WalesOnline/ Gayle Marsh ) Cutting the number of councils in Wales would likely not save money as authorities are already collaborating to save money, a senior Welsh council leader has said – while taking a pop at any Senedd members who suggest otherwise. The Welsh Local Government Association – the body which represents Wales' 22 councils – is currently meeting for its annual conference in Llandudno. Ahead of that some of its most senior members spoke to journalists about the challenges facing councils and were asked if the long-discussed topic of local government reorganisation remained on the table. The answer was an emphatic and defiant 'no'. The current local government structure in Wales was established in 1996 and the debate about whether the number of councils in Wales needs to change has been ongoing for years since. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. After the 2016 Assembly election current finance minister Mark Drakeford was given responsibility for councils and said while 22 authorities could remain as the "front door" to which people would access key services there would be an "enhanced level of mandatory and systematic regional working" with the aim of ensuring greater resilience and better planning and delivery of services regionally Article continues below A year later, following a cabinet reshuffle, Alun Davies was appointed to the local government role and indicated he wanted to see 10 local authority areas. However he then rowed back and said he was no longer pursuing compulsory mergers, making him the third Welsh Government minister to abandon reorganisation plans. You can recap all that here. When, this week, a question about whether the number of councils should be cut from 22 was put to the head of the WLGA and leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf council Andrew Morgan, because the topic continued to be discussed by some Senedd members, he bit back. "Some of the people, sometimes, who say about local government organisation, perhaps maybe they should just try spend some time as a councillor. Maybe if they understood what day to day goes on in a all very well a backbencher in the Senedd [saying that] but I think they've got a cushy life compared to most council leaders and the work and effort has to be put in. "I also would say maybe sometimes they don't speak from a point of evidence." Cllr Morgan said slashing staff and setting up large super-councils could make initial savings and he accepted there was an element of "spend to save" but said there is a £1bn-plus shortfall predicted over the next three years for local government. "If you could make £200m saving over the long term, that doesn't cover the shortfall in funding for one year," he said. Cllr Morgan said there were now plenty of examples of different councils working together. For example Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, and Bridgend share regulatory services while RCT and Merthyr have shared youth services and community safety resources. "Every local authority can identify lots of savings where we reduced officers and we are now covered in a bigger geographical area in terms of our services," he said. "We're constantly trying to reduce down those savings. If you go back a decade and say a decade ago that £200m could be saved – although we questioned at the time it was feasible – I would argue an awful lot of those savings have already been made through the changes and the collaborations we've done. "I would say to anybody who thinks that local government reorganisation is a silver bullet – I would suggest it's like putting a plaster on someone who has just lost their arm. It really isn't going to save us long-term. I would really question those people who think that this is the way forward." Mark Pritchard, the leader of Wrexham council, said he believed reorganisation was "a vanity project – one of many from the Welsh Government". He said: "Whether you have 11 local authorities in Wales, or 15 or 18 or 22, you still have to fund them accordingly. "Is there a possibility of savings? Maybe. I don't do knee-jerk reactions, I never have, but there has to be a strong business case." He said there was little evidence of how money would be saved. "If you're going to change something you have to change it for the betterment of the services and if you can save money at the same time why wouldn't you want to do it? Absolutely," he said. But he added: "Wales is a very diverse place, different cultures – different languages, different understandings. It's not a Manchester, it's not a Birmingham or London. Article continues below "Look at the health board [here] – big is not always better. The reason why the health board is in a mess, in my opinion, is because they've created a monster. It's too big and the sooner we reduce it the better". Of Senedd members advocating reorganisation he said he was "against throwaway remarks", adding: "It's a little bit rich when they're increasing the MSs to 96 when we don't need them."
BBC News
27-03-2025
- BBC News
Cardiff: Vulnerable children's details at risk in data breach
Details of vulnerable children in Cardiff have been compromised due to a data breach, council documents have cybersecurity failure poses "a potential safeguarding risk to children" and relates to young people looked after by Cardiff council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting of Cardiff council's governance and audit committee were told about the data breach by a council official at a meeting on council and Data Cymru have been asked for comment. A council document stated "a failure in cyber security results in a data breach and therefore a potential safeguarding risk to children" and said the situation had been escalated in January of this council's director of children's services, Deborah Driffield, mentioned the data breach while presenting an update on risk management to committee said: "[There are] some issues around cyber security."We have had a data breach that we are currently managing and drawing up... new arrangements in relation to this world of people stealing data and sharing it on the dark web and trying to understand how we can mitigate against that."That is a fairly new area for us, but we have shared the risks there and certainly are working with the Welsh government and Data Cymru and all of the other… local authorities on that."The council document also stated work had taken place with the national cyber security team and risk assessments were being undertaken, with an action plan is under failure affected Data Cymru, which is a Welsh local government company with a board of directors elected by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) that supports councils and their partners to collect data.
BBC News
16-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Social care reforms in Wales stuck over funding, expert says
Reform of social care in Wales is stuck because ministers "don't want to make decisions about money", according to an Gerry Holtham wrote a report seven years ago which said social care for older people could be funded by raising income tax in home owners have said a national care service would erase inequalities in funding between Welsh government said it was already working on creating a national scheme, but that a funding solution had yet to be found. Costs for social care are currently met either by a resident or their local have said they want to get rid of this system, and set up another like the NHS which would be free at the point of need - but how would it be financed? Mr Holtham's report in 2018 put forward a plan which would see people in Wales pay between 1-3% extra in income tax, depending on age, to fund social care he said not much had happened since because politicians were too afraid to grasp the nettle."They don't want to make the decisions about money," he told BBC Politics Wales on Sunday."At the moment, there's a sort of phobia that democratic politicians have about raising taxes."If you tell the public 'look, we're going to have to pay this tax or this present situation will continue or deteriorate', I'm not so sure the public wouldn't agree to that."But I think you've got to have the nerve to have that conversation." Timeline June 2018: Holtham report becomes the latest in a long line of inquiries and commissions designed to prompt action on the issueFebruary 2020: Welsh ministers say they are looking at increasing income tax to pay for careApril 2021: Just before the last Senedd election, that plan was ruled out by LabourSeptember 2022: The Welsh government says it wants to set up a national care service, but that it would take about 10 years Scotland and England have had similar issues with getting a national care service off the Scottish government dumped its plans in January because of a lack of support and questions about how it would be paid UK government has set up a commission to start looking into funding for a national care service in England but it will not report back before councillor Jane Gebbie, who also represents Wales' 22 councils on social care via the Welsh Local Government Association, said change could not come soon also said Wales could get a national care service much sooner if funding was resolved."Government know that the demand on our services is increasing," she said."There's pay disparities between health boards and local government."That's another wicked issue that they are going to have to resolve before we can have any sort of national care service." Mario Kreft, chairman of Care Forum Wales, the umbrella group which speaks for the sector, wants to see different care charges levied across Welsh councils equalised so that everyone would pay the same, getting rid of a so-called "postcode lottery" in has welcomed the plan for a national service, but questioned how long it should take."We've seen so many of these initiatives, royal commissions and so forth about social care, but it always seems to get to the point of being 'knock it into the long grass, too expensive', it's a problem that's too hard to handle."The Welsh government said it had already launched its National Office for Care and Support to help deliver the first stage of its 10-year plan to create a national care service for Wales."Our vision for a national care service in Wales would see a system that provides excellent quality care, supports attractive and rewarding work, and is closely integrated with the NHS and the broader public sector," a spokesperson said."Ambitious plans such as these need to sit within the context of a sustainable funding solution which supports our social care sector and enables it to thrive."
