Shaping political debates throughout June

The Bevan Foundation’s work has been quoted at both the Senedd and Westminster over the last month.

June has been another incredibly busy month for us at the Bevan Foundation, and it’s another month that has seen our work quoted extensively by politicians from all parties.

Child Poverty

The Bevan Foundation’s work on child poverty has been mentioned at the Senedd throughout June.

At the start of the month, the Bevan Foundation supported the End Child Poverty Network to promote its latest analysis of child poverty in Wales. This analysis was mentioned by several politicians in plenary throughout the month, including by Cefin Campbell MS and Luke Fletcher MS. Indeed, the analysis formed the basis of a question by acting Plaid Cymru leader Llyr Gruffydd MS during First Minister’s Questions.

Later in the month, it was our response to the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy that was used to inform debate, with Sioned Williams MS raising questions with the Minister for Social Justice, based on our work. Responding to her question, the Minister, Jane Hutt MS, set out how valuable she finds the Bevan Foundation’s work in informing the Welsh Government’s approach on the issue:

Well, thank you very much for that question, and I’m, obviously, very keen to hear and learn from what the Bevan Foundation…, but also the Wales Centre for Public Policy have helped us in terms of moving us forward and the key issues that came forward that we need to address.

Welsh Benefits

Our work on Welsh Benefits continues to be of significant interest to Senedd members. During June we saw our work on Welsh Benefits referenced by Mark Isherwood MS during a debate on fuel poverty. The Minister for Social Justice also revealed to the Senedd that she will be meeting with us shortly to discuss our work with Policy in Practice on Welsh Benefits.

On the policy in practice, I’m meeting with the Bevan Foundation very shortly and, in fact, I’m being joined by Siân Gwenllian, because it’s part of looking at our commitments in the co-operation agreement, and looking at what this could mean in terms of our development of our Welsh benefits system, which, of course, is crucial in terms of tackling child poverty.

Access to justice

Our work on access to justice was also referenced in the Senedd through June. Huw Irranca Davies MS, the Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee referenced the evidence we had submitted on the Welsh Government’s legislative consent memorandum on the Illegal Migration Bill.

The Counsel General, Mick Antoniw MS, also made reference to our work in this area as he informed members of the fact that he would explore issues around “equality, justice and social justice” at our summer social.

Westminster mentions

June saw our work also quoted on the floor of the House of Commons. Attention was drawn to our work by Beth Winter MP during a debate on Co-operatives and Alternative Businesses: Local Authority Support.

She outlined some of the key findings of our recent work on the Cynon Valley and the measures that had been taken locally to put these into effect.