The First Minister of Wales has confirmed that he is to scrap the Government’s Delivery Unit – an enduringly mysterious outfit which at the outset of the last Assembly term was tasked with achieving policy outcomes across Government portfolios. Yet during its five years in operation, the Unit has been the focus of much controversy…
Welsh Conservatives have today urged Education Secretary Kirsty Williams to keep to her word and not use a costly ministerial car within her new cabinet role. In February, she told her Party’s conference in Cardiff that the Welsh Lib Dems were “not here for ministerial cars”. However, Welsh Conservatives have forced First Minister Carwyn Jones…
A local authority has won an appeal to the Upper Tribunal over the inclusion in an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) of the costs of transport to and from a specified place of education. The issues before Judge Lane in Staffordshire County Council v JM (Special educational needs: Other) [2016] UKUT 246 (AAC) were: (i) whether…
Commenting on new statistics, which show a reduction in the number of adult services and places regulated by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales, Clwyd West AM Darren Millar said: “CSSIW decides who can provide social care services, and with an ageing population in Wales, any reduction in the availability of services and places…
The National Paediatric Diabetes Audit report, published today, shows that diabetic children and young people in Wales will be plunged into “a lifetime of ill-health and disease” unless standards of diabetes care and education do not drastically improve, say the Welsh Conservatives. Data from the report, which was carried out by the Royal College of…
Responding to comments from Welsh Government adviser Prof David Reynolds, who has questioned Welsh Government plans to cut infant class sizes, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire AM Angela Burns said: “Clearly, reducing class sizes will not be a silver bullet to solving the educational crisis facing Wales’ schools. “With the evidence racking up as to…
Powys County Council will defend any legal challenge by parents to its policy over school transport, which has already led to the resignation of a cabinet member. The council decided in 2011 to give three years’ notice that it would not allow the use of designated school funding to pay for home to school to…
Some 86% of council chief executives fear that some local authorities will get into serious financial trouble over the next three years, while 56% expect that to happen within one year, research has suggested. The Local State We’re In 2016, business advisory group PwC’s sixth such survey, asked nearly 100 chief executives and local authority leaders…
A three-point plan to help Wales increase the number of volunteers in sport to 300,000 by 2019 has been announced to mark national Volunteers’ Week (1st – 12th June). With volunteers vital to getting more people in Wales active and hooked on sport, Give to Gain sets out three principles that all organisations, clubs or indiviuals…
