The Powers of the National Assembly for Wales. Richard Commission Consultation. |
The response of Age Concern Cymru |
| Introduction |
| Age Concern Cymru addresses the questions asked by the Richard Commission from the perspective of achieving our organisation's mission to improve the lives of all older people in Wales. In pursuit of this, one of our main aims is to make a significant contribution to the formulation and review of policy. |
| Age Concern in Wales is made up of Age Concern Cymru and 27 locally based independent Age Concern organisations. Our activities include campaigning, research, advocacy, information, help at home, support for forums of older people and befriending services. Age Concern organisations in Wales deal with over 34,000 enquiries a year from or on behalf of older people. Through its combination of an all-Wales presence and local community based organisations, Age Concern in Wales is able to be in touch with issues affecting older people. |
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| The views of older people |
In 2001 Age Concern Cymru organised focus groups of older people in each local authority area of Wales as part of the development of the National Assembly for Wales Strategy for Older People involving 314 older people. 1 Firstly, this was a positive exercise and an effective partnership with the Government of Wales. Secondly, the discussions in the groups included views of the relationship between Wales and Westminster as it affected issues such as pensions. The following comment from a focus group sums up well the views of many of the participants: |
The National Assembly should take more notice of pensioners and their representatives, to put forward and fight the Westminster Government with requests that are put forward to them. Instead of saying that it's government rules and there is nothing we can do' |
`The focus group participants did want the National Assembly to take a view on issues, which are important in Wales even if the powers to address them lie with Westminster. They wanted the National Assembly to be representing the interests of the people of Wales to Westminster. In general the participants viewed the National Assembly favourably. They welcomed for example free bus travel for pensioners from April 2002. However, they thought the National Assembly should be seeking further powers and more money from Westminster. Many questioned why the Scottish Executive had more powers than the National Assembly. The provision of free nursing and personal care was welcome in Scotland but it was thought unfair that the National Assembly could not take similar measures in Wales. |
Relationship with Westminster |
Age Concern Cymru has found that there is a lack of clarity over the powers of the National Assembly. This causes confusion with the public, and even those closely involved with the Assembly seem unsure of its powers. This undermines public confidence and makes effective contribution to policy debates more difficult. The following are some examples of this: |
a) The case for free personal care in Wales illustrates well the difficulties and confusion over the current arrangements over the powers of the National Assembly. The National Assembly voted unanimously in May 2002 to support the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Long Term Care for free personal care in principle, but said that implementation would depend upon the Westminster Government. The debate in the lead up to this had been characterised by confusion about whether or not the National Assembly had the powers to act alone and whether the issue was one of affordability or of legislative powers. |
The compromise position, of support in principle, was a step forward because it did mean the Welsh Assembly Government took a view and there was a baseline consensus from which to take the issue forward. The extent to which progress could be made in Wales in the direction of free personal care is still a contested area. There is, therefore, an additional layer of complexity in the debate on this and on other issues. There is the substantive policy discussion on the issue and there is the question of the scope the Assembly powers give to affect policy change. However, the existence of the Assembly does make more progress possible, for policy-change in Wales determined in Wales, than was previously the case. |
The National Assembly took the decision to `challenge the UK Government to fund and implement free personal care in the context of UK taxation, benefits and inheritance policy as the Royal Commission intended'. It is by no means clear however, that an effective mechanism exists for such a challenge to be made. Age Concern Cymru believes it is important that the right of the National Assembly to make representations to Westminster on issues over which the Assembly does not have powers, but which are important to Wales, should have clear effective structural expression. |
b) The Commissioner for Older People. The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to establishing a post of Commissioner for Older People. There is strong support for an effective Commissioner and real concern about the possibility of tokenism. However, it remains to be seen whether the Commissioner for Older People will be established through primary legislation. If so the National Assembly will be dependent on goodwill and legislative time in Westminster if it decides that primary legislation is needed in order to make this a fully effective post. |
c) The National Service Framework for older people is still being developed in Wales, two years after it was implemented in England. In relation to funding streams, there is often lack of clarity and confusion when there is an Westminster announcement made on a new policy initiative on whether this applies to Wales as well as England. |
d) Key areas identified by older people for policy intervention are pensions, ending age discrimination in health, employment, goods and services and crime safety. There is much the Assembly could do to contribute to these debates but presently it does not seem to be engaging with Westminster in these areas. |
Confusion about where responsibility lies does open up opportunities for bodies to shift blame and avoid accountability. The important issue here is clarity and transparency about which decisions are taken where. |
Policy development and implementation |
There is great potential in the ability to create secondary legislation in Wales. The capacity to take advantage of this potential is a major issue. It is an issue for Assembly members and committees, and also for organisations such as Age Concern Cymru, which aim to monitor and contribute to policy affecting older people as well as to keep older people informed about legislation in Wales. Policy capacity is slowly increasing and this is a positive result of the establishment of the National Assembly. The policy capacity deficit is, however, a significant challenge. |
Age Concern Cymru has seen positive instances of scrutiny of policy by the National Assembly. An example of this is the time devoted by the Health and Social Services Committee to the proposed guidance for local authorities on charging for domiciliary care. Organisations concerned about this issue had asked for time to be spent on this and the Committee listened and responded positively. A number of key changes resulted from the scrutiny, including a commitment to take another look at the treatment of disability related benefits. |
This was an important issue for many vulnerable people and the Committee carried out a significant task in focussing on it. |
Age Concern Cymru have also seen the following good examples of policy development: |
a) The Strategy for Older People was developed by the National Assembly in close consultation with older people, voluntary and statutory organisations. This was a positive process, which gave the resulting recommendations real credibility. The ability to focus attention on a policy area and to bring about effective participation is an important attribute of the National Assembly. The Strategy has all party support, and identified key areas of consensus. There are advantages in identifying consensus where it exists and it is positive that the Strategy for Older People has all-party support. It makes for stability in policy, which needs to be long term to be effective. |
b)The use of expert advice on advisory panels is a means of using knowledge in Wales and is effective in dealing with difficult issues. Age Concern Cymru would like to see further involvement of subject committees in policy development as well as carrying out their scrutiny functions robustly. |
| c)The all Party Group on Older People and Ageing in the Assembly has been a positive development. It consists of Assembly Members with Age Concern Cymru providing the secretariat. The group responded to the consultation on the Strategy for Older People and plans to focus on specific pieces of work concerning older people. |
d) The attendance of members of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee at the meeting at which the Assembly Health and Social Services Committee looked at the draft NHS (Wales) Bill was a useful way of central government and the National Assembly working together. |
e) The generation of the political party manifestos for the 2003 National Assembly elections provided a further opportunity to focus on Wales and the potential to influence policy thinking. Age Concern Cymru saw this as positive and was pleased by the evident responsiveness and willingness to listen on the part of the parties. The process of putting together Age Concern Cymru's own key messages for the National Assembly elections was also a challenge in part because there was a need to identify the messages for the National Assembly to take action itself and where it should work with Westminster. The resulting document is included with this submission. |
Conclusion |
Age Concern Cymru has set out some issues the Commission should consider in its deliberations on the powers of the National Assembly. The National Assembly has undoubtedly brought about much greater access to decision makers. A measure of the effectiveness of the National Assembly will be: |
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The National Assembly needs to make a measurable difference for the better to the lives of people in Wales. Greater clarity over the powers of the National Assembly and its relationship with Westminster Government would assist this process. |
Age Concern Cymru 25 July 2003 |
| 1 Age Concern Cymru (2001) Report of the Age Concern Consultation Focus Groups held with older people on developing the National Assembly for Wales Strategy for Older People. |
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