14/10/2012 Sunday Politics Wales

Neville Southall talks to us. He is On the Sunday politics we will hear

from a former Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall on the work he is

doing to get young people into work. We hear concerns that frontline

services are suffering because council workers are tied up with

Freedom of Information requests. Good morning to your guests. Let's

get a response to some comments from the Labour MP who said this

morning health services in Wales are under severe pressure. She said

there is enormous pressure on people working in accident and

emergency services. A reaction to those comments. That is highly

unusual from a Labour MP. I am sure Leslie Griffiths will be

disappointed with that. If she writes to the minister about it,

she is wasting her time. We have seen a number of casualty

departments closing down locally, people have no choice but to go to

accident and emergency. No-one is going to sit for hours if something

else was available locally. Everyone there probably needs to be

there. The Welsh government have put money into accident and

emergency services, haven't they? What do you think of these

comments? She is reflecting what many Labour politicians in London

have been saying about the situation in Wales. I think the

problem it is mired in indecisions. There has been report after report

about the restructuring of the health service in Wales. It has

been difficult to achieve because no-one wants to see local services

go. You cannot keep shuffling limited amounts of money between

one area and another. Changes have not been made but they have been on

the agenda for ten years. There are people waiting on the trollies in

accident and emergency units when they should be dealt with properly.

There has to be a better way. will be back with you both short

leave. As you have heard, we have some Welsh political greats on the

programme every week, today we have a sporting great, Neville Southall.

He has embarked on a career in further education saying helping

young people achieve is better than anything he achieved on the Sir

92 caps for Wales, but now it Neville Southall has swapped the

nets for it needs. He works with the youngsters are not in education

or employment. Wales has the highest proportion of these people

in the UK. I met him at the Cardiff City UK -- Cardiff City stadium.

They're just people looking for work, at some are good at that and

some made a lot of help. Vocationally it is a good root for

them. Most of the building work has stopped. They used to going to

labouring and use their hands, now, because so many people are out of

work may get so far down the list. They come out of school with

nothing, a lot of them, they had no experience. Vocational things are

great to get the country going. After the war, without people who

could build houses and be plumbers, we would not have anything. We have

turned the clock right back. We need to be academics because the

new world will be academia. There is a massive a void for the kids.

If you do not have a laptop, you won't get a job. Houses will still

need to be built, roads will still need to be made, there are lots of

things they could be doing but we do not give them a chance to be

themselves. You feel really passionately about this. You have

played in front of 100,000 people, and in your book you have talked

about the buzz you get from that. can make people happy on the

weekend or a Tuesday night when I play. But seeing someone developed

over a period of months, watching them change, that is more

satisfying than any football I have ever done in my life. You cannot

change them. It is only when they are ready to change that they

changed. The majority go, I get it. I know I have to go to work. I have

to be responsible. It might take a little bit of times. But over time

they get more confident and realise they can achieve. When you see a

kid go, I am actually worth something, that is better than all

your medals. It is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Education is

devolved in Wales, you primarily work in England. Would you like to

do some of your work in Wales? are very close to teaming up with a

college in Wales. We would like to work with the kids there. We want

to go all out into the valleys, go all the way through Wales. But it

is a question of a funding. It is proving difficult for different

reasons. At some stage we need to sit down and try to iron out where

we go and how we get the funding. It is quite difficult at the moment,

but I would like to think I could work in Wales being a Welshman.

Once things get ironed out it will become easier, it is like

everything else, you do get a little bit of friction. I'm hoping

the friction will pass and we can do what we need to do to help the

kids. Hearing Neville Southall speak there, you could hear the

passion and his voice. The situation with youth unemployment

is severe. One in five young people are not in education, employment or

training. The world's governments say that statistic is falling, but

it is still startling. It has been relatively steady for a number of

years and that is the real scourge of our society. What is so

important is there are so many good opportunities. I can put my hand on

half a dozen places where they just know how to deal with this group of

people and are making real progress. The real problem is you have got to

bring people together. The agencies which deal with it. It is the

voluntary sector, local government, the UK Government who have as much

as a role as the Welsh government. There are so many levers you can

The local voluntary sector is You're on the young person's

Assembly, how would you feel about getting Neville Southall before

your Assembly? If I think that would be very refreshing. What he

could do is inspire young people. He was talking about confidence-

building and for people to have dreams. With a lot of these

youngsters... It all sounds a little bit woolly. How can that be

turned into practical assistance? Ilott of these youngsters have left

school without being able to read and write. Building those soft

skills and giving them the opportunity to learn other skills

is a key for many of them. Some of them do not expect ever to get work.

We have accepted low standards in schools and do not demanding a from

our colleges. I think young people would be inspired by him. The Welsh

Assembly should snap him up as quickly as they can. In Wales, more

than half of these young people are not unemployed, they are a

economically inactive. They are not even taking up the job

opportunities that are available already in the schemes. We have got

to try and get at these people earlier. Some of these problems

have been there since young people were born. He said it himself, from

five years old. The for five years old. We have got to intervene even

with early parenting skills, help people in nursery schools, give

them ambition right the way through their lives. Sometimes when they

get to the age of 14 it is too late. Is this a problem that can be

tackled? The focus in Wales is improving the economy, but if we

saw this problem it will help the economy. Of course. If we do not,

those people are unproductive and that is unacceptable. Pushing for

apprentices -- apprenticeships. Looking for more apprentices

because that is something the Welsh Government can do. They say they

are spending �75 million to introduce more apprenticeships.

and there is no reason why we should not have more. They are very

popular. But we need capital projects as well. Those people need

a job to do. Building houses, laying the roads, but we need those

projects as -- to employ people at the end of the apprenticeships.

What did you make of the fact the Prime Minister last week in his

conference speech said housing benefit for the under 25 to be

disappearing? That is not a call Liberal Democrat would respond to.

It does not mean it won't happen. The it will not happen in his

government. There is certainty from within our party that this is a

very important told to help young people find it jobs. If you have

got to move to find a job, and that job as low paid but you want to

find a job, you do need help with your housing. I think it is a great

tool for social mobility and for a job mobility. Just to go back to

the earlier point, it is very difficult when we are dealing with

unemployment on one side, on the other hand we have got the big

majority of people who do not want to have a job and they are lacking

ambitions. That is the real challenge we have got to face and

starting early is the key to that. In a big increase in the number of

Freedom of Information requests are detracting from some line services

provided by local authorities. The Welsh Local Government Association

is warning some of its members are struggling to cope with the number

of inquiries. Requests are -- have more than doubled since 2005.

From housing to rubbish collection, schools, libraries, and hospitals.

Publicly funded bodies in Wales hold an enormous amount of

information about our surroundings and the services we enjoy. It is

our legal right to ask for that information under the Freedom of

Information Act. Those requests cost public bodies millions of

pounds a year. Gary felt his counsel were not spending their

money wisely and had to fight for the information he wanted to prove

it. He found out they had paid some invoices twice when overspending on

a major construction project. Only after making a Freedom of

Information request and winning an appeal when it was turned down.

Some people use it for a malicious purpose. In real terms, it was a

great boost because it stops people like consuls, hospitals, water

authorities, hiding information from the council taxpayer. The more

open and honest these public bodies are a bit less misuse will be made

of this Act. This council received more requests per head of the

population than anywhere else in Wales. When I first started working

here, you would get about ten requests a month may be less. Now

it is a lot more. May be about 60. Working out how much Freedom of

Information requests cost to answer is difficult. Some take longer than

others. By one estimate, last year that -- this council spent 160,000

pines answering these requests. The price of more than 9,000 requests

across the country last year could be a negative effect on frontline

services. The cuts process over the next few years will be significant

and councils will see diminished resources. We do not want to see

huge amount of money is being spent on unnecessarily Freedom of

Informations. We need to cut back on that. Every pound and every

shilling at the moment is required to put into front line services.

The weight of the Freedom of Information requests are detracting

from front line services. It is public money, these members of

council are trustees of public money and have an up -- obligation

to the open and honest with us. wealth Government says it has a

long-standing commitment to maximising openness. But with less

money and more work, other public bodies are not so optimistic.

We heard from Steve Thomas from the Welsh local government association

it saying fewer Freedom of Information requests should be put

in because it is distracting from some line services. I can see the

point he is making, but how could you decide which is a good request

and a bad one? A I noticed recently the BBC had if Freedom of

Information request on the huge rise of clinical negligence that

was resulting in payouts. That information should have been

available anyway. The key is publish more information? Yes, it

is an hour information and we are entitled to it, at the taxpayer or

the local resident. I am sure councils like to keep something

secret. What I would say is eroding people's rights under the name of

these cutbacks, I would be cautious about that. We do need to be

careful and not say, we're choosing between teachers are people having

the right for information. Journalists would see the Freedom

of Information Bill as a force for good. I do not know whether

politicians are would agree following the MP expenses scandal.

It is very important band it is a matter of principle. It was hard

fought for and people need to have the information upon which they can

make decisions. It was unbalanced to suggest you can save so many

teachers' jobs by not providing the vital information by which people

can make a judgement about the quality of their services. There

has got to be better information provision service, something easy

to access, but at the same time it may be there are some unnecessary

requests. There may be a simpler form. What a council may consider

vexatious may produce something that could be embarrassing or

account -- dangerous to them. is not just local authorities, the

difference between that some areas and others is quite stark. They do

not believe there is a bigger pressure from people and one area

to no more than another. I suspect some people are just not making it

easy for people to find the answers. We need to look at the standards of

service provided. I think Tony Blair has said he is sorry he ever

brought in this freedom of information. I do think taking

right away from people, especially under the name of the cuts, I would

be cautious. But it is true that the cuts are starting to bite and

councils will be looking at every single budget and this is one under

scrutiny because I am sure they would rather not have it. Council

budgets, I am sure we will touch on them again in this programme.

Time for him look at the political The singer Charlotte Church said

she had faith and that the Prime Minister would accept

recommendations made by the Levenson cry up -- Leveson Enquiry.

The legal battle over the first page of legislation passed by the

National Assembly under its new law-making powers went before the

Supreme Court in London. The Welsh and UK governments disagree over

whether the bill which relates to by-laws is lawful or not.

Welsh Secretary David Janes said the UK and wealth governments must

work together for the sake of the economy. -- David Jones. David

Cameron said he wanted the Welsh Conservatives to become the

Let's look ahead to events tomorrow in Scotland. The prime minister

heading up to see the First Minister of Scotland to thrash out

the referendum deal on independence. As a Liberal Democrat, I am sure

you were delighted that 16 and 17- year-olds can vote in the election.

The key issue is are we going to be better apart altogether. Are we

stronger together as a country. These issues matter to Wales and

England have well. I think the starting gun has well and truly

started to get those arguments talked about. Is there enough of a

debate going on in Wales about the knock-on effects of a Yes vote?

doubt it. But I would say that being a Plaid Cymru member. I think

we ought to be talking about it all the time. People here are not

interested, are they? More and more people are in favour of devolution,

so they are interested in it but perhaps not the referendum in

Scotland. It is great that the referendum is going to happen. The

SNP have not had it their own way over this question. A lot of the

focus has been on whether a 16 or 17 euros can vote. -- 17 year olds.

In David Cameron's speech last week, did he take the wind out of the

SNP's sales? Do we in Wales once got them to be partners with us and

the United Kingdom? Do the English want to have Scotland as partners?

The answer to that is, yes, we're stronger together. But we are being

able to address it for the first time. We can get on with that