6. How does the Welsh Government monitor the effectiveness of decisions made by local authorities? OQ60536

Llywydd, local authorities are accountable to their own communities for the decisions they make. They are are monitored by Audit Wales, the inspectorates and their own internal scrutiny processes. When Welsh Government provides funding to deliver specific national policies, monitoring and review arrangements are put in place.

Labour-run Bridgend council's draft budget this week saw the council propose to close the town's bus station and cut the education budget by 5 per cent, as well as a massive proposed 9.5 per cent council tax increase. That's because the council has repeatedly failed to get its costs in order. Time and again, the council itself has admitted significant overspends in the social services department, and particularly an over-reliance on agency staff, which makes the service both more expensive and less safe. A Care Inspectorate Wales report last year said that a high number of agency staff were still being used in front-line services and management roles at the council. The council itself identified the lack of progress in this area earlier this year in an internal report. So, First Minister, Bridgend Labour council's repeated inability to get on top of these agency staff overspends means that people are losing services that they rely on and are facing a 9.5 per cent council tax rise to pay for it. So, how is the Welsh Government monitoring the spending of Bridgend Labour council to ensure that residents aren't being punished for the council's inability to make the right decisions?

Llywydd, Bridgend is a Labour council because the people of Bridgend voted for Labour councillors. That's what I tried to explain to the Member in my original answer: that local authorities are responsible to their local electorates and they will have to justify to their local electorates the decisions that they make. Bridgend County Borough Council is a well-run council that has faced over a decade of austerity; year after year after year, the pressures of a UK Government that has never valued what local authorities do, and where local authorities in England look enviously at the way local authorities in Wales have been supported. I believe that the people of Bridgend, who, in successive elections, have chosen a Labour council—that's why it's there; it's because it's been chosen by the people of Bridgend—I think they will go on understanding and supporting the actions that that council takes.

One of the measures of the effectiveness of local authorities is the way that they not only make decisions for themselves, but, actually, the way that they collaborate with others. So, one of the interesting things that is coming about very shortly is the roll-out of a partnership between the NHS and local authorities across Wales, working with schools to deliver the highly effective human papillomavirus vaccine to tackle cervical cancer and other conditions as well. This is particularly pertinent as we approach Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. HPV immunisation will begin in schools in Wales from the start of the spring term, and it's worth noting that since the HPV vaccine was introduced in 2008, the rates of cervical cancer have reduced by almost 90 per cent in women in their 20s who were offered the vaccine at 12 to 13 years of age. So, would he join me in wishing those local authorities, NHS providers and also schools, who will deliver this in partnership, the very best of success, because it's a real, effective Intervention in the health of our young people?

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that supplementary question, Llywydd, and, of course, he is right that the only way in which we are able to deliver this highly effective vaccine is through a partnership between the NHS and local government. If you think of the original question I was asked, which was about monitoring the effectiveness of decisions, I'm very happy to write to Tom Giffard on this if he doesn't choose to listen to the answer, then we will monitor it, of course, because we will know exactly how many young people in schools in Bridgend and in other parts of Wales will benefit from this vaccination. Llywydd, I was the health Minister in the Welsh Government at the time that this vaccine was introduced, I remember it being opposed by Conservative Members, some of whom are still here in the Senedd, but it has demonstrated over the decade that has followed just how effective it has been for young women, but for young men as well, in Wales. I congratulate local government, all those local authorities, and the health service, hard-pressed as they are, for their determination to do even more in Cervical Cancer Awareness Month to make sure that our young people are protected, as they so successfully can be, against the awful experiences of others who didn't have the same opportunity.