Latest news with #WelshLocalGovernmentAssociation
South Wales Argus
5 days ago
- General
- South Wales Argus
Free summer scheme returns to schools across Wales
The Food and Fun programme returns for the school holidays, offering children free activities and nutritious meals throughout the summer break. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the scheme, which first began as a pilot in Cardiff before expanding across Wales. Lynne Neagle, Wales' cabinet secretary for education, said: "The 'Food and Fun' School Holiday Enrichment Programme has helped tens of thousands of families over the last decade, providing free nutritious meals and enriching activities across the country. "I am very proud to mark this special anniversary by visiting the very successful and popular Pantside Primary Food and Fun scheme." The programme, now delivered in around 230 schools across all 22 Welsh local authorities, is fully funded by the Welsh Government and coordinated by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA). More than 14,000 places will be available each day during the holidays, with each scheme offering at least 12 days of support. Since its launch, the scheme has provided more than 800,000 free places for children. Each day includes a healthy breakfast and lunch, along with activities ranging from cookery and sports to music and den building. Schools invite families to sign up during the summer term, and each scheme hosts a weekly family meal to bring communities together. This year, the Welsh Government has allocated more than £5.8 million to the programme, including an additional £1 million in funding. To celebrate the 10-year milestone, Ms Neagle visited Pantside Primary School to take part in the scheme. During her visit, she joined a cooking session where children made fruit kebabs, played a game of cricket, and enjoyed a healthy lunch. Ms Neagle said: "The summer holidays can be a challenging time for families and 'Food and Fun' highlights the important role that schools play in supporting children, their families and the local community. "At the heart of this scheme is the dedicated local authority and education workforce, who have formed fantastic partnerships with a variety of organizations to deliver a diverse range of activities for young people to enjoy."
South Wales Argus
08-07-2025
- South Wales Argus
How councils in Wales are boosting their cyber defences
The move comes amid a rise in digital threats targeting public services, which rely on secure IT systems to deliver critical support to communities. Councillor Dimitri Batrouni, Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) spokesperson for digital and workforce, said: "Cyber resilience isn't a luxury – it's a necessity. "As threats continue to evolve, councils need the tools and confidence to safeguard the systems that underpin the services people depend on." The National Cyber Security Centre has reported a steady increase in attacks on the public sector, including phishing, ransomware, and supply chain incidents. To address these risks, Welsh councils and fire and rescue services are using the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen their cyber resilience. The WLGA, in partnership with the Welsh Government, is supporting the rollout of the framework alongside other initiatives. These include breach workshops, tabletop exercises, training videos, and CymruSOC, a centralised security operations centre that monitors and supports council cyber security. Mr Batrouni said: "The Cyber Assessment Framework is a vital part of this effort. "It helps councils understand their strengths and gaps and provides a structure for improvement."
Wales Online
25-06-2025
- Automotive
- Wales Online
More than 200,000 potholes to be filled on Wales worst and busiest roads
More than 200,000 potholes to be filled on Wales worst and busiest roads Work is now progressing on the A458 in Conwy County, making it one of the first major roads to benefit The Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales Ken Skates checked out the progress on the A458 Conwy County (Image: Welsh Government ) A major Welsh Government initiative is now well underway, with work progressing across Wales to repair and future-proof local roads and pavements. Backed by £10 million in additional revenue funding, the scheme is unlocking up to £120 million in capital investment over the next two years to tackle some of the country's most badly damaged routes. One of the first roads to benefit is the A458 in Conwy County, where resurfacing is now taking place. The extra investments will see around 600km of local roads resurfaced this financial year. Councils will focus on the worst-affected areas, with over 200,000 potholes expected to be fixed and prevented. Pavements will also be repaired in towns and villages across all 22 local authorities, improving everyday journeys for people on foot. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here The scheme has been designed in close partnership with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and gives every council the support needed to upgrade their local networks. Article continues below The aim is not just to fix current problems but to reduce the need for ongoing repairs by investing in long-term improvements. In Conwy, around 14 kilometres of the A458 between Abergele and Llangernyw is being resurfaced. The work is expected to repair and prevent approximately 4000 potholes. Part of the road has already been completed as part of the scheme, making it one of the first in Wales to benefit. The Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales Ken Skates, visited the road on June 25, to see the work for himself. Mr Skates commented: "Fixing our roads is a priority for this government. Not only are we providing an extra £25m to fix and prevent potholes on our strategic road network, but we are also supporting local authorities to fix local roads. "This will deliver a real difference to communities across Wales, fixing problems now and making our roads more resilient for the future. I look forward to seeing more and more local roads fixed over the next months." Cllr Goronwy Edwards, Conwy's Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Transport and Facilities, added: "We welcome this funding from Welsh Government to improve the condition of our roads. Article continues below "Our road network is the Council's largest and most valuable asset and is really important to our residents. "Alongside £2M of Council investment, it means we will be spending over £6M this year on road resurfacing - to repair existing potholes and surface treatments to reduce new potholes forming."
Wales Online
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Wales Online
Two of Wales' most senior councillors bite back against MSs who want to change the system
Two of Wales' most senior councillors bite back against MSs who want to change the system Councils are already collaborating and Senedd members with a 'cushy' job should keep out, according to local authority leaders Andrew Morgan is leader of the Welsh Local Government Association (Image: WalesOnline/ Gayle Marsh ) Cutting the number of councils in Wales would likely not save money as authorities are already collaborating to save money, a senior Welsh council leader has said – while taking a pop at any Senedd members who suggest otherwise. The Welsh Local Government Association – the body which represents Wales' 22 councils – is currently meeting for its annual conference in Llandudno. Ahead of that some of its most senior members spoke to journalists about the challenges facing councils and were asked if the long-discussed topic of local government reorganisation remained on the table. The answer was an emphatic and defiant 'no'. The current local government structure in Wales was established in 1996 and the debate about whether the number of councils in Wales needs to change has been ongoing for years since. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. After the 2016 Assembly election current finance minister Mark Drakeford was given responsibility for councils and said while 22 authorities could remain as the "front door" to which people would access key services there would be an "enhanced level of mandatory and systematic regional working" with the aim of ensuring greater resilience and better planning and delivery of services regionally Article continues below A year later, following a cabinet reshuffle, Alun Davies was appointed to the local government role and indicated he wanted to see 10 local authority areas. However he then rowed back and said he was no longer pursuing compulsory mergers, making him the third Welsh Government minister to abandon reorganisation plans. You can recap all that here. When, this week, a question about whether the number of councils should be cut from 22 was put to the head of the WLGA and leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf council Andrew Morgan, because the topic continued to be discussed by some Senedd members, he bit back. "Some of the people, sometimes, who say about local government organisation, perhaps maybe they should just try spend some time as a councillor. Maybe if they understood what day to day goes on in a all very well a backbencher in the Senedd [saying that] but I think they've got a cushy life compared to most council leaders and the work and effort has to be put in. "I also would say maybe sometimes they don't speak from a point of evidence." Cllr Morgan said slashing staff and setting up large super-councils could make initial savings and he accepted there was an element of "spend to save" but said there is a £1bn-plus shortfall predicted over the next three years for local government. "If you could make £200m saving over the long term, that doesn't cover the shortfall in funding for one year," he said. Cllr Morgan said there were now plenty of examples of different councils working together. For example Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, and Bridgend share regulatory services while RCT and Merthyr have shared youth services and community safety resources. "Every local authority can identify lots of savings where we reduced officers and we are now covered in a bigger geographical area in terms of our services," he said. "We're constantly trying to reduce down those savings. If you go back a decade and say a decade ago that £200m could be saved – although we questioned at the time it was feasible – I would argue an awful lot of those savings have already been made through the changes and the collaborations we've done. "I would say to anybody who thinks that local government reorganisation is a silver bullet – I would suggest it's like putting a plaster on someone who has just lost their arm. It really isn't going to save us long-term. I would really question those people who think that this is the way forward." Mark Pritchard, the leader of Wrexham council, said he believed reorganisation was "a vanity project – one of many from the Welsh Government". He said: "Whether you have 11 local authorities in Wales, or 15 or 18 or 22, you still have to fund them accordingly. "Is there a possibility of savings? Maybe. I don't do knee-jerk reactions, I never have, but there has to be a strong business case." He said there was little evidence of how money would be saved. "If you're going to change something you have to change it for the betterment of the services and if you can save money at the same time why wouldn't you want to do it? Absolutely," he said. But he added: "Wales is a very diverse place, different cultures – different languages, different understandings. It's not a Manchester, it's not a Birmingham or London. Article continues below "Look at the health board [here] – big is not always better. The reason why the health board is in a mess, in my opinion, is because they've created a monster. It's too big and the sooner we reduce it the better". Of Senedd members advocating reorganisation he said he was "against throwaway remarks", adding: "It's a little bit rich when they're increasing the MSs to 96 when we don't need them."
BBC News
27-03-2025
- BBC News
Cardiff: Vulnerable children's details at risk in data breach
Details of vulnerable children in Cardiff have been compromised due to a data breach, council documents have cybersecurity failure poses "a potential safeguarding risk to children" and relates to young people looked after by Cardiff council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting of Cardiff council's governance and audit committee were told about the data breach by a council official at a meeting on council and Data Cymru have been asked for comment. A council document stated "a failure in cyber security results in a data breach and therefore a potential safeguarding risk to children" and said the situation had been escalated in January of this council's director of children's services, Deborah Driffield, mentioned the data breach while presenting an update on risk management to committee said: "[There are] some issues around cyber security."We have had a data breach that we are currently managing and drawing up... new arrangements in relation to this world of people stealing data and sharing it on the dark web and trying to understand how we can mitigate against that."That is a fairly new area for us, but we have shared the risks there and certainly are working with the Welsh government and Data Cymru and all of the other… local authorities on that."The council document also stated work had taken place with the national cyber security team and risk assessments were being undertaken, with an action plan is under failure affected Data Cymru, which is a Welsh local government company with a board of directors elected by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) that supports councils and their partners to collect data.
