Working together for a fairer, greener future
A landmark piece of legislation was recently passed in Wales which galvanises a uniquely Welsh way of working, with local government right at its centre.
The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act, the first in Wales to receive Royal Assent by HM King Charles III, will aim to improve wellbeing and public services through social partnership and socially responsible procurement.
The Act creates a statutory social partnership framework at an all-Wales level by establishing a permanent Social Partnership Council for Wales, bringing together the Welsh Government, employers – including local government – and trade unions, to help influence policies, activities, and strategic priorities.
Public bodies will also be required by the Act to deliver socially responsible procurement, which means putting environmental, social, economic, and cultural wellbeing at the heart of Wales’s £8 billion annual procurement spend.
In local government in Wales, we take pride in the close relations that we have cultivated with the Welsh Government, trade unions, and other vital partners.
That is why Cllr Jane Gebbie and I, as the Welsh LGA’s Workforce Spokespersons, have been so proud to participate in developing the Act alongside our social partners in the Welsh Government and trade unions.
“Wales, of course, is a nation steeped in cooperative tradition and philosophy”
Our collective work is grounded in mutual respect, and in knowing that our workforce is our most important asset.
This is the established approach that has enabled so much constructive and positive engagement with ministers and trade unions, especially in helping to secure funding for our essential local services, which have been so hard-hit by inflation and rocketing costs.
Wales, of course, is a nation steeped in cooperative tradition and philosophy.
However, this new law isn’t a rose-tinted homage to the past, but a cornerstone laid together to build progressive, fairer communities better placed to face the uncertainties of the future.
And the challenges ahead are as large as they are many.
In the immediate term, the cost-of-living crisis continues to wreak its devastating impacts on households up and down the land, with local services feeling the pinch of soaring energy bills.
Enormous pressures and changes in demographics are squeezing our health and social care services like never before, and the effects of the climate crisis are already being felt.
Councils’ role in responding to all these challenges is all-important. After all, who could be better placed than local government to understand the needs of communities and service delivery?
But we know that only by collaborating with our brilliant workforce, other public bodies, and national governments, can we seek to secure the economic, environmental, social, and cultural wellbeing of people in our communities.
This pioneering new law gives public organisations, the workforce and the Welsh Government the tools to unify in pursuit of the vision of the fairer, greener future we want to see for Wales.
- To find out more about the work of the Welsh LGA, please visit www.wlga.gov.uk