The Williams Commission
Nobody gave Labour, or any party for that matter, a mandate to pursue local government reform at the 2011 Assembly election. Nevertheless it's been coming for some time and there's a general consensus that the current 22 authority model is no longer fit for purpose. The result was the Williams Commission, established to provide a future model for public service delivery.
It was a waste of time. The process has cost just over £130,000 and its recommendations have been largely ignored by the Welsh Government. Absolutely nobody can make their mind up on how many councils Wales should have – it's still a toss up between 8 or 9 – while opposition parties have either sulked that they weren't consulted properly, proposed absolutely nothing, or come up with solutions that are more complicated than simple mergers.
The report also bordered on impenetrable when compared to the Scottish equivalent (Christie Commission). The whole thing was a missed opportunity, with an obsession over the map instead of local government's role in post-devolution Wales.
University & Student Finance
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Tuition fee policy should really have been put to bed by now, with fees policy chopped and changed so often since they were introduced - but it's set to become a contentious election issue yet again. It's clear the decision by the Welsh Government to part-subsidise student tuition fees - regardless of where they study - is beginning to put undue pressure on the budgets of Welsh universities and Welsh Government.
That's not to say the policy isn't well-meant. It's just becoming harder to justify when there's a clear funding gap developing with England (with Wales effectively subsidising English universities), which is now said to be at least £100million a year. Something will have to change, and the policy is in danger of being stretched to breaking point unless a solution that lasts beyond the current election cycle is put in place; perhaps that solution will come from the Diamond Review, perhaps not.
The Ambulance Service
Things have improved nationally over the last six months, but the response times in some parts of Wales remain unacceptably poor. The situation is likely to get worse with the future centralisation of accident and emergency departments, while there are some impacting factors – like the state of the road network – that local and Welsh government can't really deal with without a massive cash injection.
I'll credit the Welsh Government for trying to be innovative and learning from elsewhere – like the introduction of the EMRTS; but the statistics and semi-regular ambulance queues outside A&E departments speak for themselves. All it would take is a period of undue pressure and we'll be right back where we were before response time
reforms were introduced last year.
The Purchase of Cardiff Airport
(See also : The Great Cardiff Airport Swindle?)
This isn't necessarily a criticism – all things considered it was the right thing to do – but this hasn't worked as planned and the Welsh Government were definitely over-charged. That overcharging was already public knowledge, but is now backed by the Wales Audit Office, whose report in January (pdf) suggests the Welsh Government paid up to £20million more than the airport was worth.
Increases in passenger numbers have come mainly as a result of Cardiff hosting 2015 Rugby World Cup games, and will inevitably see extra passengers this summer due to Euro 2016, and again in 2017 due to the Champions League final. It's a bit of a mirage.
All in all, passenger number remain at a level that could be called embarrassing for capital city region. Although new deals with FlyBe have seen new routes introduced, unless they can bag a few more low-cost carriers, the airport's still in a critical but stable condition. Although the prospect of it closing isn't an immediate concern, the market and management failures that led to it being overtaken by rivals like Bristol mean that threat remains lurking in the background, particularly if there's a premature race to re-privatise it.
The NHS Complaints System
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We're all aware of the care scandals at Welsh hospitals over the last few years. Aside from them being very similar in terms of what happened on the wards, the other thing linking them all together were the inadequacies of the NHS complaints system.
The ineffectiveness of Community Health Councils, and breakdown of the complaints system, resulted in concerns not being investigated as thoroughly or as urgently as they should've been. This drove those who felt aggrieved towards a completely understandable, but slightly reactionary, rush to the press. That must've been terrible for staff morale in the NHS, even if those reports and complaints were completely justified.
If complaints were properly acted upon, it's likely issues would've been addressed sooner and it would've saved campaigners a lot of grief. As a result, we're probably going to need a law or new statutory guidance on NHS complaints during the Fifth Assembly to make sure there are minimum standards across the country.
Green Energy
Despite various promises to be a green government, as well as bigging-up the potential of Wales' renewable energy resources in previous terms, progress made on switching from fossil fuels to clean energy has stalled if not actively gone backwards. There's still organised opposition to renewable schemes, there are still plans in place for further opencast mining, while test drilling for fracking continues.
Despite passing the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and Environment Act, it's clear the Welsh Government's commitment to clean energy is found wanting; true, they don't have the powers, but they're not exactly being proactive when it comes to changing things. The biggest renewable scheme – the Swansea Tidal Lagoon – seems to have stalled because of dithering in London and is now under threat, while any future replacement for the soon to close Aberthaw power station will probably be fossil-fuelled.
Regional Education Consortia
Simple question : What are they for?
The short answer is they were set up to foster collaboration between education authorities on a regional basis in order for schools in different local authorities to learn what works best from each other. It's clear it hasn't quite worked out like that, with both the Wales Audit Office and Estyn criticising some aspects of how they work : lack of leadership, lack of long-term planning, inefficiencies.
Another scheme, Schools Challenge Cymru – which directly helps struggling schools - has probably been the more effective model for improvement, and ahead of local government reorganisation it's difficult to see any long-term future for the consortia.
Poor Scrutiny of the "Third Sector"
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There's an effective lobbying machine in Cardiff Bay and, in the absence of commercial lobbying efforts, charities and voluntary organisations have cornered the market. Those of us who are critical of the third sector's disproportionate influence on public affairs have to realise AMs will be tapped up by a new cause every week, with committed activists telling them "something needs to be done". It's very hard to say no or ask for evidence under such circumstances when you have a public image to maintain, but it also means AMs sometimes give the impression of being taken advantage of.
There's nothing wrong with hearing them out as their causes are usually important, but it's never wise to let your heart rule your head. Sticking "charity" or "voluntary" in your mission statement gives you a pass to do whatever you want and access whoever you want in Welsh politics without putting decision-makers under pressure (lest the Third Sector bites the hand that feeds them - £290.5million in Welsh Government funding according to the latest report). Even key figures in civil society, notably Dr. Rebecca Rumbul and (somewhat ironically) Daran Hill, are starting to say it in less terse terms.
As we've seen several times during the Fourth Assembly (AWEMA, Cyranians Swansea, Violence Against Women Action Group) more objectivity is needed from AMs when it comes to organisations the Welsh Government dishes grants out to. Charities, housing associations and social enterprises are, ultimately, businesses who use similar techniques to multi-nationals, while "doing charity work" isn't automatically a good thing and doesn't automatically make you a good person with good intentions. At the top it's still about money, PR and influence.
The Green Investment Bank Bid
The Green Investment Bank was established with £3.8billion of UK Government money to provide finance to private sector investments in environmentally-friendly schemes like energy conservation, renewables and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Although it was no surprise that Edinburgh won the bid to host it, Cardiff – for which the Welsh Government has ambitions of becoming an important financial service sector city – put forward a trite and lazy bid which exited at the same stage as illustrious centres like Bicester and Stoke-on-Trent.
The failure of the bid itself isn't the problem, it was the way it was handled. It rung big alarm bells about what was happening behind the scenes in the Welsh Government when it comes to promoting Wales as a business base, as well as their management of core schemes.
A few months later, the RIFW scandal broke – up there amongst the biggest public policy blunders in post-devolution Wales – and that had many similar hallmarks.
The Pay Rise
(See also : The £64,000 Question; Mo' money, mo' problems; Moves to Tackle "Debilitating" W**ker Shortage)
In terms of bad PR, this was the worst decision made by Assembly authorities this term. It boiled down to a simplistic case that an 18% pay increase would encourage higher-calibre candidates to put their names forward for Assembly seats; take a look at some of the people running in May - it's not happening. They forgot that political parties control who gets selected and there are no minimum qualifications for the job. So what we're going to get is, by and large, the same people being rewarded with higher pay.
It was handled terribly by the independent Remuneration Board, who ignored calls from members of the public and others – like trade unions – to reconsider. Subsequently, we've seen attempts by AMs of all colours to ingratiate themselves by saying they won't take the money or will give it away (which may make them eligible for personal tax relief and, if they're not careful, be considered a type of logrolling). This is despite the fact they'll be automatically paid it, and the money comes out of the same pot that goes towards the support workers (AMSS) who ensure they can carry out their role.
Ironically, the remuneration system has worked exactly as intended. The road to Hell....
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