Cardiff University awarded Public Policy Institute contract

I’ve not got much to add the statement below other than it will be interesting to see what impact, if any the new Public Policy Institute that the Welsh Government is launching has on welsh political debate in the coming months.

Carwyn Jones written statement is below

The Public Policy Institute is a Programme for Government commitment that seeks to develop independent sources of expert policy advice for the Welsh Government. It will improve the robustness of policy in Wales and make the Welsh Government a more intelligent customer in terms of research and advice.

Following an open, competitive process, initiated last autumn, applications were received from a range of parties and were assessed by a panel independently chaired by Professor Frances Ruane of the Dublin Economic and Social Research Institute. The evaluation has concluded and I have been able to appoint Cardiff University to run the Public Policy Institute which will include a network of experts drawn from Universities, think tanks and other research organisations from across Wales, the UK and beyond.  Organisations already recruited to the network include research groups based in Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Liverpool and Swansea Universities. This is the beginning of a wider network of economic, social and environmental experts, including those from outside of Wales.

The Public Policy Institute contract will be for an initial three-year period, subject to a process of evaluation and review, and will have an annual budget of £450,000. The Institute will be led in the interim by Professor Steve Martin while a permanent Director is appointed. I expect the Institute to be launched operationally in the autumn.

Hypocrisy and Irony all rolled into one

It’s was painful to hear Presiding Officer Rosemary Butler talk about another ‘conference’ on finding solutions to the lack of coverage of welsh politics particularly in the London based papers and TV stations over the weekend.

So instead of just calling her a hypocrite for still only seeing the London based papers are the answer and not fully grasping the perilous state of the welsh media and that some radical needs to be taken in Wales to solve a Welsh problem, here’s some free advice for the Presiding Officer, the UK papers will never fully cover welsh politics and current affairs  unless there’s a juicy scandal, they can laugh at Wales, undermine the Welsh Assembly or if there’s some money to be made.

And if that didn't depress you enough the irony is you can bet that the Welsh media will report the conference in full and BBC Wales and ITV Wales will send quite a few journalist to cover it, something it and the rest of the media fail to do with Welsh Government announcements, Ministerial statement, plenary sessions and the work of the Assembly Committees while blaming politicians for not be nearly as interesting as they should be.

Well guess what welsh politics is often dull, but no more than the Scottish, UK and European Parliament’s and yet what happens in Cardiff Bay has a direct impact on lives and voters need to know what's happening even if they disagree.

And there are alternative options for media companies and it would be good to think something other than state intervention will be the answer from the conference, but given the blinkered political outlook of so many of our political class combined with the inability to think creatively and take in board tired and tested alternative ideas it will be another wasted opportunity and more hot air I  fear. 

The reality of Welsh Procurement

There’s been a lot of discussion from government ministers, opposition politicians, academics and business groups about what a more Welsh focused system of procurement could do for Welsh business and Welsh jobs since the financial crash and recession in 2008.

Much of the debate has been constructive, there’s good will from all parties and ideas have begun to be turned into action albeit 5 years after the initial crash with Finance Minister Jane Hutt making a statement to Assembly last week on the formation of a National Procurement Service for Wales and the legislation that is to be introduced.

However for all the positive talk from Minister’s the reality on the ground is that non Welsh companies are still winning contracts by undercutting and because they have often have no knowledge of Wales they hire local businesses/people often those who bid against them at a fraction of the cost to do the work - not a good situation for anyone except the winnign bidders.

And if you're not convicned here's some examples I know of that have happened recently  

The Family Information Service (FIS) tender was put out before just Christmas 2012 and was recently awarded to the Family and Childcare Trust, a recently merged body that included the Family & Parenting Institute and Daycare Trust neither have links to Wales and are headquarters in London. The FCT are already looking for welsh consultants.

Then there’s the local FIS in Caerphilly County Borough Council and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Councils which went to English consultancies both tenders were the lowest bids and both had local consultancies bidding against them.

Next the 'Scoping of the Welsh Social Enterprise sector' went to accountancy, yes an accountancy firm with no track record of social enterprise evaluation and based in England as well.

And lastly the 'Evaluation of the Welsh pilots of Integrated Family Support Team (IFST)' went to a well-known English Consultancy despite the UK expertise that was used to develop the programme across the country being based in Wales.

Now aside from Welsh firms with knowledge and expertise of the programmes and communities missing out, a lot of these tenders deal with sensitive policy areas which shouldn’t be farmed out to the lowest bidder according to those who deliver it and evidence that similar outsourcing has resulted in poorer results in England when LA’s tried to save money.

I’m not giving these examples to be anti-English but to point out that political talk and the reality on ground with regard procurement are miles apart, besides a lot of it is down to the cuts being made by the UK government affecting the large consultancies who are looking for alternative work, but if the Welsh Government is genuine in its aim of getting a higher percentage of welsh business winning contracts then big changes at a political level will have to be made.

If our political class are serious then Ministers and Civil Servants will need to start asking if tenders should only be awarded according to the cheapest price. In Scotland for instance the awarding criteria actually gives Scottish firms with the relevant expertise extra points enabling them to secure contracts and keep jobs and money local – if the Scots have managed to get around EU law why are we Welsh so afraid to do the same?

The Welsh Government has made a start with the National Procurement Service, the statement and debate from last week is HERE. Only time will tell if they are able to reverse the trends that frustrate so many small and large businesses in Wales when it comes to government tenders.

Anglesey Council Coalition: A wake up call for Plaid Cymru?

Labour’s coalition with the Independents on Anglesey Council should come as no surprise despite Labour’s poor showing in last week’s elections.  The combination of a strong culture of electing Independents on the Island and the Welsh Government and particular Carl Sargent’s considerable personal and political investment in getting the electoral system they wanted meant a coalition between the two was almost inevitable, baring a landslide for another party.

The decision should be a wakeup call to Plaid Cymru who despite spending a considerable money and resources and ending up the largest political party have been side-lined and will now be the main opposition rather than running the Council – will Leanne, her entourage and the wider party finally get the message that Labour can’t be trusted with welsh matters or will they just pretend nothing happened or just sulk?

More on the story is HERE

Cardiff Labour fighting like ferrets in a sack

It’s now official Labour’s Leader of Cardiff Council Heather Joyce is facing a challenge from fellow Labour Councillor Phil Hawkins for the top job.

To be honest I can’t say I’m surprised after last year’s  elections were over a friend of mind said Heather was no more than puppet put in place for certain Labour councillor’s to control and it appears the rest of the Labour Councillors have finally worked that out.

The South Wales Echo states ‘The leadership challenge comes just 12 months after Labour took back control of County Hall in a stunning election victory.

Cardiff Labour’s 46 councillors will vote in a secret ballot at the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday May 13^th  Labour sources in both camps suggest the vote is likely to be “very tight”, with perhaps just two or three votes deciding the result.

Opposition groups labelled the contest “hugely embarrassing” for Labour, claiming that even a close victory for Coun Joyce would undermine her leadership.

The Echo yesterday contacted Coun Hawkins to ask why he was challenging for the top job, what he would differently should he win and where he stood on key issues.

But Coun Hawkins said he was unable to comment, as did Coun Patel. The incumbent leaders in the administration, Coun Cook and Coun Joyce, also refused to comment.

The Echo understands all Labour councillors have been threatened with sanctions if they discuss the leadership contest with the press.

In an email, the group’s chairman, Ben Thomas, who himself was elected by a margin of just a couple of votes in March, told councillors that all discussions surrounding the AGM were to be kept confidential.'

I wonder if the Labour Welsh Government will intervene any time or will they ignore the situation, either way any period of political infighting and instability from the governing party in the City’s Local Authority would be unwelcome and would add to a perception that Welsh politics is divorced from reality as Councillors vie for power rather than take some tough decision on spending and putting the Council in position to take full advantage of the opportunities and feel good factor created by Cardiff City’s promotion - I wonder what the voters in Cardiff make of it all?

Lobbyist Code of Practice welcome, but much influence remains off the record

The Assembly Standards Committee report into tighter regulation for lobbyists is a welcome step for Welsh democracy and both lobbyists and politicians of all shades should welcome it as a sensible step into protecting both from accusations undue influence.

However it’s not the formal lobbying that worries me that much. Even before today’s recommendations much of it is pretty transparent, it’s the non-official off the record chats with Minister’s that aren’t recorded and easily denied which often have a disproportionate influence on Government policy and decisions that really concern me.

Unfortunately that will only change when the electorate wakes up to it and starts querying why certain decisions are made, but were a long way from that yet and today’s report is a step in the right direction.

The full report can be downloaded here

Welsh GDP figures debate gets warmer

The Federation of Small Business call this week for Welsh specific GDP figures to be published quarterly is further evidence that the matter is starting to push its way up the Welsh political agenda.

It’s a subject I have blogged on many times when the annual GVA figures are published before Christmas every year and the Scottish and Catalan Government’s manage to produce figures for their economies plus the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has said it’s possible to produce the figures quarterly for the Welsh economy.

It all points to the reason being more political than lack of data or anything economic as to why we still have GVA figures one a year that are already 12 months old.

Carwyn Jones hypocrisy, like Rhodri Morgan before him, is laid bare when their less than keen attitude towards publishing Welsh GDP figures is readily replaced by a real willingness to use UK GDP figures to attack the UK Tory/Lib Dems Government over it’s poor economic performance.

The Welsh Government hasn’t a great deal of credibility on economic matters whatever the spin, but agreeing to publish these figures would point to a government that is serious and willing to be  challenged over its economic decision making – I feel we are still a long way from that yet but progress is being made.