The First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, has said that building strong and responsible communities has been and continues to be a priority for the Welsh Government.
He re-iterated the commitment following the Prime Minister’s announcement that he is ordering a review of every UK government policy following last week's riots in England, to make sure they are bold enough to tackle a 'moral collapse'.
The First Minister also called on the UK Government to re-think proposals to cut spending on police, and to reconsider plans to cut public sector jobs in Wales.
Mr Jones said the Welsh Government’s approach to tackling some of the most serious underlying issues facing Wales and its people illustrates the powers of devolution in taking action to improve public services and outcomes for children, families and communities in Wales.
The First Minister highlighted the Welsh Government’s innovative and unique programmes to support families, such as the Integrated Families Support Service, Families First and Flying Start programmes, which empower families to make the necessary lifestyle and other changes. Through these programme key professionals and agencies will intervene earlier and work intensely with families to effect positive change.
First Minister Carwyn Jones said:
“While Wales is not immune to the social and economic problems faced by communities elsewhere in the UK, the Government I lead is already taking decisive action to tackle the underlying problems that many of Wales’s most disadvantaged and deprived communities suffer. These issues have always been at the top of our agenda.
“We are determined to doing all that we can to rebuild and regenerate Wales’s communities. Our Communities First programme has been instrumental in improving our communities for the better.
“Our newly-established Integrated Family Support Service is providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable families with drug and alcohol abuse issues to ensure families prioritise the welfare of their children and are supported to do so. IFSS should stabilise home life and help children and parents stay together where this is in the child’s best interests."
The First Minister added:
“What hurts Welsh families the most is the scourge of unemployment. As a government, we are determined to do all that we can to get people into work, and trying to keep people in their jobs. However, the UK Government’s decision to cut public sector jobs in Wales severely undermines our efforts.
"In stark contrast to the UK Government which has ended their Future Jobs Fund, we are committed to improving the opportunities for young people who are not in education, employment or training in Wales. In April 2012, the Welsh Government will introduce a Welsh jobs fund. It will create 4,000 jobs for unemployed young people aged 16-24 across Wales for a 6 month period. We are also creating more apprenticeship opportunities for young people in Wales. We have announced new arrangements to take forward our Apprenticeships and Traineeships programmes, which will focus more closely on our priorities to provide more opportunities for young people and deliver the skilled employees our economy needs.
“Cuts to police numbers will hurt our communities. A report published this morning by Cardiff University shows that UK Government grant funding for local policing will fall by £1.36 billion, or 14%, over the next four years – meaning 16,000 frontline posts could be lost. What the people of Wales want to see is more, not fewer police out on the street keeping our communities safe.
“While policing is not devolved, we are determined to do what we can to make our communities safer. That’s why we’re committed to introducing 500 additional police community support officers over the next five years. But they will not be there to replace frontline police officers - they’ll be there to support them.
“The UK Government needs to be bold, and accept that they now need to re-think their decision to cut the policing budget.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment