Extract from Wales Assembly debate on community regeneration - Jan 8

Mark Isherwood AM:...Age Alliance Wales has raised repeated concern that the third sector has been seen as a bit-part player, with little or no strategic involvement in the integrated care fund and little input into programme planning. Despite the Welsh Government's repeated championing of prevention and Early intervention services, its actions have, in practice, been stripping out key third-sector Early intervention and prevention services at huge additional cost to our health and social services.

A Wales Audit Office report last September noted that the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 places a duty on local authorities to focus on prevention and Early intervention, and deliver a wider range of community-based services through partnerships and multi-agency working, but reported that wide variation in the availability, visibility, accessibility and quality of information provided by local authorities is resulting in inconsistent take-up across Wales. They stated that councils should involve third-sector partners in co-producing preventative solutions to meet people's needs and ensure people have equitable access to these services...

To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE