The New National Assembly – Engaging with Civil Society in Wales. Sir Jeremy Beecham’s speech to the Future Governance of Wales Conference

It is almost 2 years since I was first approached to Chair a review of local public services in Wales, and a year all but 3 weeks since Beyond Boundaries was published.  I am delighted to return to Cardiff today to attend this important conference in which the newly elected Assembly will be considering with other major stakeholders its approach to the new Constitutional arrangements under the Government of Wales Act in the light of the outcome of the recent assembly elections.  I feel that I hold my head up a little higher now than I was able to do in the preceding period since the English cricket team is at least out performing its rugby counterpart! Beyond Boundaries was generally well received across the political spectrum, by commentators, and by most of the organisations who gave evidence to the review team.  It called for Wales to develop further an ambitious citizen -centred programme to join up local public services, devolved and non-devolved, and to make them personalised efficient and accountable. The message seems to have secured broad acceptance and it has been largely reflected in the Assembly Government’s response published last November. It was perhaps too much to expect that the report would feature as a major issue in the recent Assembly elections or that it would become the principal talking point in the streets of Porthcawl or Port Talbot.  But if the call to realise the ambition to make Wales an exemplar of small country governance is to be translated in to action now is the time for the Assembly and the Assembly Government to drive the concept forward. I would like this morning to touch in particular on the role of the Assembly.  As you may recall the report called upon the Assembly to “seek to lead in encouraging greater citizen engagement, developing cross cutting scrutiny and ensuring rigorous evidence based challenge by engaging in constructive public debate about the choices facing Wales.” It went on to advocate  “setting an example of citizen -centred scrutiny which leads to improvement and involving a wide range of stakeholders, and using the Government of Wales Bill’s powers to review its own procedures and Committee structures. The Presiding Officer indicated from the outset his enthusiasm for just such an approach, and I imagine that his enthusiasm will , if anything, have been enhanced by the recent election results – and perhaps by one result in particular! I do not however underestimate the challenge to Assembly Members, the Assembly Government, or indeed other stakeholders, in fleshing out practical proposals to implement the approach charted in the report. As I understand it work is already underway to consider how best to take advantage of the new legislative framework and to engage members efficiently and productively with both the legislative and scrutiny roles, bearing in mind the relatively small pool of members eligible to participate by virtue of serving outside the Assembly Government.  Realistically the more bodies there are, the smaller they will have to be in order not to overburden members, but by the same token, the smaller the committees or panels are the more difficult it will be to achieve political proportionality.  Does the latter principle have to apply in every case? This in itself underlines the crucial need to secure consensus about the role of the Assembly.  In our report we come to the very clear conclusion that the Committee system was not only insufficiently cross cutting but designed to be retrospective or reactive, and somewhat oppositional and opportunistic in culture.  We recommended a more forward looking approach, recognising the need to hold the Assembly Government to account, but endeavouring increasingly tp contribute to a greater understanding on the part of the electorate and social partners of the choices and challenges facing the country and contributing to the evolution of policies to address them.  In that context in particular we affirmed that the party whip should not apply to the scrutiny process, and it will be a test of the maturity of all the political parties in Wales as to whether that approach can be adopted.  With 40 years of experience as a local Councillor, most of which were spent under a tight whipping system, with only the last few years experience of scrutiny without it, I am fully aware that this represents a significant change.  Frankly the whipping system in a curious kind of way is easier and more comfortable for the individual member,but it is time to move on from this form of political masochism. The outcome of the recent elections seem to the observer from afar to present a stark choice to the Assembly.  The potential volatility of the situation in which no Party will find it easy to deliver the programme upon which it was elected, and in which, on the contrary, there are almost as many permutations available as one used to find on the Littlewood’s football coupon, perhaps make it very tempting to play to populist card in the hope of securing short term advantage in the lifetime of the present Assembly or advancing one’s prospects in the next. As a practising politician I understand the excitement, indeed enjoyment, that this might afford.  But such an approach is not best calculated to address the serious issues confronting Wales and its people.  In the report we point to a number of areas with a need for informed debate about difficult choices. A key example is the necessity of realising what might be the opportunity costs, especially in the context of tightening financial constraints, of preserving existing institutions or patterns of service when in fact re-design or reengineering services could lead to improved outcomes.  So for example we referred to the dilemma of maintaining small 6^th forms in every school with the consequential narrowing of curriculum choice as opposed to securing that choice through further education institutions or brigading provison.  Similarly in the extremely emotive area of health provision, we pointed to the resources tied up in surplus hospital beds or the inability to provide a complete range of services in small general hospitals, when the crying need lies in the development of community health services and the public health agenda, together with accessible specialist facilities provided by experienced clinicians.   I recall a discussion with one prospective Assembly candidate, who shall be nameless, who cheerfully admitted that he would be campaigning to retain his constituency’s local hospital despite the fact that he was aware that this did not really make sense in terms of the services that could be offered- and my impression is that there were candidates across the political spectrum who adopted the same stance, running before the storm of local opinion.  It is precisely in this sort of area that the need for rigorous evidence based debate is most needed and where the Assembly can most effectively give a lead. I’m not defending any particular set of proposals here. Nor am I suggesting that this is a Welsh issue – it is hugely challenging for politicians in England as well.  But somehow we need to change the terms of debate – from one that is defensive of existing structures to one that looks positively for better solutions. In doing so there will of course be a variety of means of assembling the evidence and sounding opinion.  The work of Select Committees will need to be properly and independently resourced with perhaps special advisers appointed and expert witnesses called, but also, perhaps, stakeholders sitting alongside members albeit without voting rights. The Assembly might wish to establish time limited task groups to consider particularly detailed issues, perhaps in conjunction with other organisations like the WLGA. Clearly the Assembly will also  need to develop its own approach to non-devolved items.  I was particularly struck by the fact, of which I had been hitherto ignorant, that in effect there are no young offender institutions in Wales and that such juveniles have to be confined in institutions in England where they are technically beyond the jurisdiction of the Welsh Children’s Commissioner.  Given the appalling record of youth custody in the UK, and by definition in English institutions, it  struck me that whilst parallels with the Guantanamo Bay situation would be an overstatement, the issue was at least one that the Assembly should investigate and work with the Assembly  Government to bring pressure on the Home Office to secure change. Similarly in the areas of policing and offender management services a clear opportunity exists for the Assembly to develop a clear Welsh perspective. I hope, too, that the Assembly, either collectively or through some special arrangements, would itself keep under review progress on implementing Beyond Boundaries, to the extent , of course, that its recommendations are agreed.  The operation of local public service boards and their relationship to Spatial Plan Areas, the restructuring of health service governance, work force planning and the efficiency agenda, the promotion of more streamlined inspection and regulation,and  where appropriate of a  mixed  economy of provision, but also, above all perhaps, the development of a public service culture under the leadership of the Assembly Government will all need to be examined, tested and encouraged. This is a lot to ask of 45 non-executive AMs.  It can not be achieved by them alone.  Other elements of the public services, local government in Wales, academia, Westminster ministers and MPs, and not least the local print and broadcast media, all have a role to play.  To do that, as we suggest in the report, will require the assembly and publication of relevant and acceptable information demonstrating to citizens individually, collectively and through the organisations to which I have just referred, how far aspirations are being met and how well Wales is faring in relation to appropriate comparators. The very title “Beyond Boundaries”, after all, seeks to identify the need to transcend boundaries within Wales between different organisations, sectors and cultures but also to look beyond the national boundaries to share the experience of others, to learn and, hopefully, to impart, good practice.  It would be good, for example, for Wales to demonstrate to Westminster how a constructive Scrutiny and Select Committee process removed from the party whip, might promote better government, not least by enhancing civic engagement. Wales has indeed a tremendous opportunity not simply to improve its public services but by enhancing the processes and standards of public discourse to reinvigorate democratic institutions and civil society for the 21^st century.