From a Welsh 'Cabinet Office' to a National School for Government, here are the key pledges Plaid Cymru has made it takes charge of Welsh Government for the first time
The Welsh Government is set to be led by a Plaid Cymru first minister for the first time after the party won 43 of 96 seats at Thursday’s election to become the largest party.
Plaid Cymru leader Rhyn ap Iorwerth is expected to become first minister today – which will be the first time the Welsh Government has been led by a non-Welsh Labour politician.
Ap Iorwerth has said the party will run a minority government rather than seek a coalition, “putting a programme together in a way that we can attract the support of others to get things done”.
So what could this historic change of leadership mean for civil servants? Here, CSW unpacks the key pledges Plaid Cymru made before the election.
Collaborative, people-centred and transparent
In Plaid Cymru’s manifesto, the party pledged a new approach which will “bring our public services together as One Welsh Public Service and establish core values that will drive all our work”.
The manifesto said the party’s ambition is for Wales to “become known for its innovation and effectiveness in public service delivery – in changing people’s lives for the better”.
It set out three key characteristics a Plaid Cymru government would have.
The party said it will make the Welsh Government “cooperative and collaborative”, seeking to “bring people together within government, across the public sector and beyond – to cooperatively and collaboratively address the challenges we face”.
It also promised to adopt an “open and transparent” approach to its work in government, “sharing information and insights, highlighting opportunities and challenges – to build confidence anew in our Welsh democracy”,
And thirdly, it said a Plaid Cymru Welsh Government would be “people centred”, with a “focus our work on the impact of our policies, legislation and actions on people”, asking the “difficult questions”, and ensuring that “for everything we do we can answer the question, what impact will our work have on people’s lives in Wales?”
First 100 days: Welsh ‘Cabinet Office’, test and learn and National School of Government
The manifesto also made a series of commitments for the first 100 days in government.
One of these is to create a “digitally enabled Welsh ‘Cabinet Office’” to drive the party’s priorities forward. It said the new department’s staff would include policy, delivery and data specialists.
Another pledge for the first 100 days was to introduce an enhanced training and development programme across the Welsh public sector to “develop skills and foster a unity of purpose and vision while developing a National School of Government”.
Previous efforts to set up a national school of government in Wales have yet to come to fruition. In 2018, the Labour-led Welsh government and Plaid Cymru agreed to “explore the potential for creating a Welsh National School for Government considering areas related to world class governance, governing small and bilingual nations, public administration and research and development in leading-edge public services”.
And in 2021, the parties signed another agreement to “explore how the establishment of a National School for Government might contribute to a step change in embedding the idea behind a One Wales Public Service in practical terms”.
In the UK civil service, Labour senior Cabinet Office minister Darren Jones pledged in January to bring back a National School of Government and Public Services. The previous UK-wide National School for Government was axed by the coalition government in 2012.
The manifesto also committed to “adopt a test and learn approach to delivering on our key priorities, enabling action at pace and flexibility” – mirroring Labour’s test and learn drive.
The other pledges for the first 100 days are:
- To agree a set of measurable outcomes and progress milestones – widely shared – to measure the success of Welsh Government initiatives in changing people’s lives for the better
- To appoint a dedicated minister, working alongside a core team of ministers, to ensure progress on key priorities and to report on a regular basis to cabinet
Resetting relations with Westminster
The manifesto also pledged to “reset the relationship between Westminster and Wales”, including seeking more devolved powers.
It said: “For too long, successive Labour and Conservative UK governments have treated Wales like a second-class nation. Plaid Cymru will use our mandate to ensure that Wales’s voice is heard and that our national interests are protected.”
As a first step, the party said it would make the case for more powers to be devolved to the Senedd to give Wales parity with Scotland.
The manifesto said this transfer of powers should be secured via a new Wales bill and that Plaid Cymru is “prepared to work with the UK government to ensure that this legislation is fit for purpose and implemented as soon as possible”.
To address what the party has described as the historic underfunding of Wales as a result of the unfair Barnett Formula, Plaid Cymry said it will seek “urgent talks with the UK government to devise and implement a new formula which funds our nation according to our real needs, not on the basis of our share of population”.
And the party said it would ”begin the work of establishing a standing National Commission to spark a national conversation about the next steps on our constitutional journey”, noting that “more and more people” are “being persuaded that Wales’s future should be decided by the people of Wales, not by Westminster”.
Plaid Cymru also said it would press the UK government to pass legislation to put intergovernmental relations and the Sewel Convention on a firmer footing in line with the recommendation made by the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales in 2024.