If we had had law-making powers, these extra rights for carers would have been in place for 12 months now


by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail
Feb 28 2011
The referendum this week will decide whether Wales’ law-making powers should be extended. Health Editor Madeleine Brindley looks at the current long process to get laws passed in Wales and its impact on the public

IN THE weeks leading up to the 2007 National Assembly election, Plaid Cymru AM Helen Mary Jones met a group of carers at a hustings event.

A “feisty” man in the crowd told her not to just heap platitudes on the hundreds of thousands of carers who work tirelessly and anonymously in the background.

Instead he challenged Ms Jones to make a difference to their lives.

About four years later and carers in Wales are still waiting for that change to become a reality because of the protracted process of changing the law in Wales.

The long-drawn-out process of getting the Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010 on to the statute book has been highlighted by the Yes campaign as an example of why Wales should vote yes in this week’s referendum on law-making powers.

After winning a ballot to put forward a private members’ legislative competence order (LCO), Ms Jones took forward the idea of changing the law to give carers more rights in January 2008.

The Assembly Government then took the LCO over to extend its remit and it was re-laid in December 2008 and approved almost a year later in November 2009.

The proposed measure was then introduced in January 2010 and gained Royal Assent last November.

But despite making its way on to the statute books, it will not change anything for the 350,000-plus carers in Wales because the regulations have not yet been developed, consulted on or implemented.

This process could take another 12 months, meaning it will have taken about five years before the original idea made any change on the ground.

Ms Jones, the deputy leader of Plaid, said: “I wanted to introduce a simple piece of legislation that would have created a statutory responsibility on public bodies to be proactive in identifying carers.

“In the case of a patient being discharged into a carer’s care, there would be a duty on the hospital to give them information and a number to call if there were any problems.”

She added: “This was a completely non-controversial piece of legislation – it had cross-party support, was completely agreed in the Assembly and in Westminster.

“There wasn’t a question of anyone saying that we shouldn’t have this and yet it still took all this time.

“It was such a long process for something so uncontroversial. It also struck me the pressure the length of the process put on voluntary organisations who were busy lobbying the Assembly and Westminster when they could have put that time, money and effort to better use.

“If we had had law-making powers, these extra rights for carers would have been in place for 12 months now.”

Roz Williamson, director of Carers Wales, said: “If a political party or politician has a good, positive policy idea, the current system means that, because it takes so long to put that idea into practice, the general public has forgotten what it was trying to achieve in the first place.

“Carers quite rightly think that nothing has been done – although we try and inform people about the various stages, it’s meaningless when it’s all in government speak.

“It’s only when it begins to be implemented that people see there’s a difference.”

Writing on his Facebook page, First Minister Carwyn Jones said: “The Assembly’s present law-making system is like Warren Gatland having to send a letter to Martin Johnson asking if he can put Shane Williams in the Welsh team and then having to send 14 individual letters for the other players as well.”

A statement by True Wales, the leading No campaigners, said: “As former chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, Dr Hywel Francis has said: ‘The LCO process is complex because law-making is complex’ and that ‘any system which changes the rules under which people are governed can only be simplified to a certain extent without making the essential checks and balances which ensure fairness and equal treatment under the law’.

“We in the No campaign say direct law-making powers will mean Welsh laws will no longer benefit from the input of Welsh MPs in Parliament.

“Without a second chamber in Wales, legislation in Wales may become faster, as politicians in the Yes campaign suggest, but there is a good chance it will also be poorer for lack of proper scrutiny.

“A no vote will ensure our AMs and MPs continue to work together to produce carefully-crafted laws for Wales, based on the recommendations of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee at the end of the last Parliament for improving aspects of the process.”

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/welsh-politics/welsh-politics-news/2011/02/28/yes-campaign-turns-spotlight-on-carers-rights-91466-28246242/