2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, the £53.1 million was allocated to support rail in light of the reduced passenger numbers. During the most difficult point of the pandemic, during lockdown, we were looking at a 95 per cent fall in patronage. It started to get up to about 60 per cent of…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Do you want to add something about the formal evaluation that we've commissioned as well?
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Well, Chair, before joining Welsh Treasury, Emma was working in the Welsh Government, so perhaps I'll ask her to provide an update.
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, in 2021-22, we invested an extra £8.3 million as part of our continued investment in implementation of the new curriculum, and that's over and above our existing investment in professional learning. And additional renew and reform funding of £6 million…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
That's a total of £68.9 million that has been distributed to schools in Wales via local authorities in this financial year, and that's supporting all schools in their response to the pandemic and supporting the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
In respect of the more recent flooding events, any requests for assistance for damage would be through the emergency financial assistance fund. We haven't yet, to my knowledge, received any requests from local government for support for that. We understand…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
It is fully at their discretion, although in my letter to local government, I did mention highways, because that was the context in which some of our discussions about capital were raised. Obviously, with the change in approach to highways funding for future…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Yes, so this funding, which I was really pleased to be able to provide for local government is, as you say, £70 million and it does recognise that Welsh Government and subsequently local government have had a very difficult capital settlement, in the sense…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Yes, it was by a formula.
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, the general revenue was to support local authorities' social services functions in particular, because local government leaders had talked to me about the pressures that they were facing, both in terms of social services and the winter pressures, which…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
This was funding found within the health and social services main expenditure group for this financial year, so, obviously, I guess, it would be a decision for—. I'm going to put this firmly back in Eluned's court for any future payments.
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, the Minister made the announcement for the final budget for next year in respect of the overall uplift, which takes the payment for social care workers up to the real living wage. So, that was the overall uplift, but then I know the Minister also wanted…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Through our single advice fund, I know that we're making progress in terms of providing funding to organisations on the ground that are there to seek to help people maximise their income, supporting them to fill in those unnecessarily often complicated forms…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
I think the discretionary assistance fund is quite a good example of a relatively light-touch approach. So, I, in a previous portfolio, went up to spend some time with Northgate and just listen in on the calls to hear people who were approaching the DAF for…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Carers' organisations worked with us in respect of this fund, and I know they've been promoting it really heavily to carers within communities who they are aware of and so on. But, obviously, yes, we would want to do more. And that's part of the…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
The supplementary budget includes £0.27 million for the third sector carers hardship fund, so that is a pot of money that carers can go to to access funding specifically put there for carers, and anything we can do, really, to promote that to carers is really…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, referring first to the £42.7 million in the supplementary budget for this year, that was to create a package of support based on what we were told by the care action committee was required for this year; £20 million of that was to support social services…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
That went out via the formula so as not to perversely, if you like, respond to local changes that were made on the ground.
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, we've seen, through some of the modelling that we've done and looking at the estimates of waiting lists, that what we're doing already is having an impact, so our waiting lists aren't as long as we would have expected them to be, thanks to the investment…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Yes. So, some of the capital money is going towards orthopaedic theatre at Neath Port Talbot and also additional ophthalmology provision in a new, I believe, ophthalmology day centre in Singleton. So, some of that capital is going to that physical capacity…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, this particular funding was for NHS stabilisation. It also included funding for contact tracing, for vaccination programmes and for personal protective equipment and other COVID response. So, it was very much about continuing the response to the pandemic…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
I just want to say, as well, that I completely agree with Mike on the point about treating Welsh Government as a department. We get that feeling very, very strongly.
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Chair, shall I write to you on the issue of the health overspend that was written off in England? Because I do recall that and it was our understanding that it was written off within the health budget itself, so, just departmentally written off, which meant…
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
So, could you give me an example of—?
2 Mawrth 2022 , Finance Committee
Ail Gyllideb Atodol Llywodraeth Cymru 2021-22: Sesiwn dystiolaeth
Yes, there are a number of things that you can do very late on in the financial year, but I don't think we'll be in that position. But as I say, it is—. I sometimes think of it as a high-wire act when you start getting towards the end of the financial year…
