Written Statement: New Membership of the Social Partnership Council (3 February 2025)

I’m happy to announce two new members of the Social Partnership Council (SPC).

I just lately wrote to the nominating our bodies looking for nominations for vacant employee and employer consultant positions. I can verify that Siân Boyles, Public and Business Companies Union (PCS), and Russell Greenslade, Confederation of British Business Wales (CBI), accepted my invitation to hitch the SPC.

I wish to welcome Siân and Russell to the SPC. They started their three-year time period on 1 February. 

Siân replaces Darren Williams as a employee consultant, and Russell replaces Ian Worth as an employer consultant. I would really like pay tribute to each Darren and Ian for his or her service and for being part of the inaugural SPC.

The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 (the Act) established the Social Partnership Council, which I chair as First Minister. The membership is made up of employer and employee representatives from the general public, personal and third sectors in Wales.

The SPC offers data and recommendation to Welsh Ministers about:

• The social partnership duties the Act imposes on public our bodies and the Welsh Ministers.
• The pursuit of the A Affluent Wales wellbeing purpose by public our bodies when finishing up sustainable growth below the Properly-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
• The socially accountable public procurement features conferred on contracting authorities and the Welsh Ministers below Half 3 of the Act.

The SPC works in an open and clear approach. Data and recommendation offered to Welsh Ministers, assembly papers and minutes, are printed in all however distinctive circumstances on the Social Partnership Council web site. 

The SPC embeds social partnership on the coronary heart of the Welsh Authorities, and I’m assured that working carefully and constructively with employers and employees representatives on this approach will allow us to grasp mutually helpful enhancements in equality, equity and wellbeing in workplaces throughout Wales.

The SPC is a comparatively new physique and has achieved loads because it first met on 1 February 2024. 

Thus far, there have been 5 common conferences. In that point, I’ve consulted the SPC on the Welsh Authorities’s 2024-2025 Draft Price range, the Welsh Ministers legislative priorities, and the Welsh Authorities well-being aims. This has discharged the social partnership obligation for 2024.

The SPC have additionally endorsed an A.I report produced by the Workforce Partnership Council, on A.I implications for the workforce, and are contemplating subsequent steps. They’ve agreed to determine working teams to contemplate: the usage of Welsh Authorities monetary assist to enterprise; and the problems to assist Fairness, Range and Inclusion. The SPC have additionally mentioned the influence of the UK Employment Rights Invoice presently making its approach by means of Parliament.

Siân and Russell will be a part of the prevailing membership of the SPC:

Employee Representatives 

Ruth Brady, GMB

Neil Butler, Nationwide Affiliation of Schoolmasters Union of Girls Academics

Peter Hughes, Unite the Union

Gareth Lloyd, College and Faculty Union

Shavanah Taj, Wales TUC Cymru

Jess Turner, UNISON

Mike Walker, Union of Store, Distributive and Allied Staff

Helen Whyley, Royal Faculty of Nursing

Employer Representatives   

Pippa Britton, Voluntary Sector

Dame Elan Closs-Stephens, Public Leaders Discussion board

Ben Cottam, Federation of Small Companies

Councillor Anthony Hunt, Welsh Native Authorities Affiliation

Professor Wendy Larner, Cardiff College

Nicola Prygodzicz, Aneurin Bevan College Well being Board

Janis Richards, Make UK Ltd

Kathryn Robson, Grownup Studying Wales