Cabinet Secretary for Finance Meeting with Third Sector Representatives 7 February Interfaith Council for Wales

Transcription

1 Cabinet Secretary for Finance Meeting with Third Sector Representatives 7 February 2018 Present: Professor Mark Drakeford AM Third Sector: Ruth Marks Christine Boston Paul Glaze Helene Hayes Sheila Hendrickson-Brown Julie Jones Jess McQuade Anna Nicholl Sean O'Neill Anne Marie Rogan Welsh Government Officials: Emma Smith Gretel Leeb Sue Moffatt Chriss O Connell Alison Smith Andy Fraser Paul McDonagh Sandra Stephenson Gareth Chestney Cabinet Secretary for Finance WCVA Volunteering Network Wales CWVYS Citizen's Advice Cymru Cardiff Third Sector Council Interfaith Council for Wales Wales Environment Link WCVA Children in Wales YMCA Swansea Strategic Budgeting People and Environment NPS WEFO People and Environment Welsh Treasury Agenda item 1 Welcome and Introductions 1. The Cabinet Secretary extended a warm welcome and delegates introduced themselves. No apologies were received. Agenda item 2 Actions from the July 2017 Meeting 2. All actions from the last meeting had been completed, although the required information relating to Actions 3 and 4 had only been provided the night prior to the meeting. These points related to local authorities which were delaying payments to Third Sector organisations and tenders which had proven to be problematic. The Cabinet Secretary thanked Third Sector colleagues for the helpful notes and asked that officials should follow up the individual cases detailed. Action: Sue Moffatt to follow up on individual tender issues and Paul McDonagh to follow up on payment problems. 1

2 3. Third Sector representatives also raised the general issue of compliance with the Code of Practice for Funding and asked that a letter be sent to public sector bodies to remind them of their obligations in this respect. The Cabinet Secretary stated that a letter would be issued and discussions would be held with Cabinet colleagues about which Cabinet Secretaries would be the most appropriate to act as signatories, given the broad range of portfolio areas covered. Action: Welsh Government to issue letter reminding public sector bodies of need to pay due diligence to Code of Practice for Funding Third Sector bodies. Agenda item 3 Follow-up on Action Plan 4. Third Sector representatives reported that good progress had been made with all areas of the Action Plan and suggested that it would be timely to undertake a review of the priorities listed. In respect of the priority related to budgeting, it was reported that a working group had been established, comprising Welsh Government officials and Third Sector representatives, to look at preventative budgeting. The group had concluded that the prevention definitions in the Community Links Early Action taskforce would be the most appropriate to adopt. In respect of participatory budgeting, the Welsh Government had worked with the WCVA and Citizens Wales to hold 3 events, in North and South Wales, the evidence from which would be used to inform the future approach to budget engagement. 5. In respect of procurement, Third Sector colleagues stated that good progress had been made in this area also but there were concerns that some tenders had shorter deadlines that the Welsh Government s guidelines recommended. This created difficulties for the Third Sector, particularly in cases where several organisations were looking to submit a joint tender. Coupled with the difficulties highlighted under Agenda item 2., these presented significant hurdles for the Third Sector to overcome. 6. Third Sector representatives noted that the Cabinet reshuffle had made the inclusion of a priority linked to local government no longer appropriate; it was suggested that a replacement priority could be linked to the implementation of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. Third Sector representatives raised a number of points around their ability to help deliver the WFGA, including concerns about their ability to plan long-term as funding was being provided only for one-year at a time. This created problems, in particular with the recruitment of staff. 7. The Cabinet Secretary welcomed the progress that had been made by all involved and agreed that it would be timely to undertake a refresh of the priorities in the Plan. In respect of funding, the Cabinet Secretary agreed that relatively short-term funding arrangements were far from ideal but the lack of a Comprehensive Spending Review by the UK Government meant that budgets for the Welsh Government had only been confirmed until 2019/20. The Cabinet 2

3 Secretary stated that he had provided two-year budgets to local authorities and consequently expected them to provide two-year funding streams to Third Sector organisations. The Cabinet Secretary recognised that even a two-year settlement was not ideal but suggested that this should not prevent long-term strategic planning. Action: Paul McDonagh to liaise with Anna Nicholl on a review and refresh of the Action Plan. Agenda item 4 Key Issues i. Wellbeing of Future Generations Act Implementation 8. Third Sector representatives advised that a series of workshops had been organised jointly by the Welsh Government and the WWF Cymru, with the facilitation of Participation Cymru, on the implementation of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. It was reported that the first two of these workshops had been well received and productive, with a final workshop scheduled for 9 February. A full report was to be produced after the workshops had been completed. Issues that had been raised during the workshops included: Ways of working issues around long-term planning, what would future generations actually look like and the need to take account of work currently being undertaken; Involvement of the third sector and the public ways to ensure continuous involvement; Integration of goals balance and equality amongst the goals; Mechanisms of government where the responsibility for making decisions rests and how this is informed; Procurement the advent of tendering made competition the norm and in some cases prevented cross-organisational working; Capacity and capability the need for the Welsh Government to pull together with all stakeholders in the direction of the well-being of future generations; 9. It was acknowledged by the Cabinet Secretary and the Third Sector representatives that different organisations had different cultures and backgrounds which meant that they came to the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act from different perspectives. This sometimes caused delays in arriving at a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by the Act. 10. In relation to concerns raised about the availability of funding, the Cabinet Secretary advised that the next round of the 5m Innovate to Save initiative would be launched during the month. It was reported that the Invest to Save initiative had successfully funded small scale projects but that there was a clear need for a different type of fund which encouraged greater innovation to generate savings, albeit with greater risks. In order to encourage greater participation, the Cabinet Secretary confirmed that a longer application time would apply for the latest round of the programme. 3

4 ii. Brexit 11. The Cabinet Secretary reported that the Welsh Government s position remained that it was trying to influence the UK Government to secure the best deal for the future economy of Wales. There were particular concerns around the UK Government s European Union (Withdrawal) Bill and the Welsh Government, along with the Scottish Government, had published a series of amendments to the Bill that would have ensured that the devolution settlement was respected. Although the amendments had not been accepted at the Commons Committee Stage or Report Stage, discussions were ongoing with the UK Government on how the Bill might be amended as it continued its passage through the Houses of Parliament. 12. The Cabinet Secretary also confirmed that a series of papers had been published setting out the Welsh Government s position on a range of Brexit issues: Regional policy paper; Brexit and Fair Movement of People policy paper; and Trade Policy: The Issues for Wales policy paper. 13. Third Sector representatives expressed concerns in areas including future levels of funding post-brexit and the continuation of EU funded schemes, such as ERASMUS. Concerns were also expressed that not enough information from the Welsh Government was reaching all organisations within the Third Sector. 14. The Cabinet Secretary stated that the Welsh Government had reiterated its call to the UK Government to negotiate continued participation in a range of crossborder EU programmes after Brexit. It was also confirmed that the Welsh Government had been engaging successfully with representative bodies but it was unclear how well these messages had been cascaded to the individual organisations being represented by those bodies. iii. Welsh Revenue Authority 15. The Cabinet Secretary advised that the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) was due to commence operation in April with responsibility initially for two taxes, land transaction tax (replacing stamp duty land tax) and landfill disposals tax (replacing landfill tax). There was scope to develop further Wales-only taxes and the Cabinet Secretary reported that there had been considerable public interest in this area. In total, over 60 different taxes had been proposed and these had been whittled down to a shortlist of four potential taxes: Vacant land; Social care levy; Disposable plastics; and Tourism. 16. The Cabinet Secretary stated that he would announce his decision on which one of the four shortlisted taxes to take forward, to test the Wales Act mechanism, on 13 February. 4

5 iv. Procurement 17. The Cabinet Secretary stated that although Brexit presented significant challenges, it also presented opportunities from a procurement perspective. Engagement had commenced between the Devolved Administrations and the Cabinet Office to progress discussions on procurement legislation and operational readiness on leaving the European Union. Agenda item 5 Third Sector Portal Launch 18. The WCVA reported that the portal will launch in March with a view to: making information on the voluntary sector in Wales easily accessible; highlighting the sources of funding for the voluntary sector; explain the differences between the voluntary sectors in Wales and England; highlighting how the sector contributes to the local economy; building connections and networks across the sector; and linking into other systems and organisations, including the Office for National statistics 19. The Cabinet Secretary welcomed this initiative and suggested that the portal should contain a link to the Welsh Government s published Future Trends report which identifies the key social, economic, environmental and cultural trends that could affect Wales in the future, as well as some of the factors that could influence the direction of those trends. This would provide helpful further background information for those accessing the portal. The Cabinet Secretary also suggested that the Future Trends might contain reference to the portal. Action: Anna Nicholl to insert link to Future Trends report in portal; Paul McDonagh to investigate opportunity to insert reference to portal in Future Trends report. 5