09/06/2013 The Wales Report

Wales Report, the toll being taken on Welsh workers and why they find

it so hard to make ends meet. And calls to re-examine Britain's

relationship with Europe, but what would be the cost BT Wales? And what

can we do to raise literacy and numerous week standards in Welsh

schools? -- new .

Welcome to The Wales Report. You find as high above the Rhondda

Valley for the start of a series of programmes coming from different

locations across Wales. It is also the start of a special season on the

economy, called What Is Wales Worth? We will be looking at the

issues behind the statistics. In the valleys, once the cradle of

industry, we begin by talking about the world of work. A recent study

found that one in ten of us would like to and might need to work

longer hours but while there is a will there is often not the way. We

have been examining the whole issue more in work than there were a year

ago. The economy is growing. That is positive...

Politicians' voices have been reverberating around the South Wales

valleys for some time. A familiar tune. There is work for those that

want it badly enough. Unemployment figures are dropping, so they argue

that there is reason to be optimistic. But on the ground in

Merthyr Tydfil and in many other places across Wales, ask anyone if

you think those figures reflect the true picture, and nearly everyone

will tell you the same answer. A resounding no. This woman does not

want to be identified. She has a job in a call centre. As she puts it,

she has half the job. 24 hours a week, to be exact. She has asked for

more but she cannot get a longer contract or overtime. In an ideal

world I would be working full time hours. Over time has been stopped.

People want to do more hours. The wages do not correspond with what

you pay out, the mortgage and the rising cost of living. There may

well be jobs in Wales, but full-time work with wages that you can live

on, those sorts of jobs are harder to come by, it would seem. That is

backed up by this report, compiled by economists from Stirling

University. In it, they find that of all the UK regions, Wales now has

the largest net balance of desired longer hours. So more of us want and

need many more hours. In fact, one in ten of our workforce is

underemployed. And it is a growing problem, the report concludes. In

2008, 6.8% of the working age population was deemed to be

underemployed. In 2012, that figure rose to 11.3%. Of those workers,

young people have been particularly badly affected by underemployment.

David is 27 and he is one of them. He said his bar work in carefully is

so a regular he never knows what his weekly wage will be. It would be

nice to work a proper week, 30 hours, get a decent wage and afford

a flat. It is tough not knowing exactly how life will be week to

week. It would be nice to know that I am getting this number of hours,

equating to this amount of money, so I can afford this. It would appear

that job sharing, zero hours contracts, and diminishing shiftwork

are commonplace in labouring, cleaning, catering and many other

sectors. But employee representatives say that staffing

decisions are not easy in this current economic climate. I am sure

employers would like to give full-time jobs where that is

possible. The number of these contracts is very small in the

economy across the UK and in Wales. Ultimately it is better to be 50%

unemployed than 100% unemployed. -- 50% employed. We would like people

to be able to get meaningful jobs and contribute to the economy.

Analysts say that and implement can have a terrible effect on society. A

few hours and less take-home pay means that people will have to

borrow and get into debt, or just stop spending. Currently employers

are not offering people longer hours, so they are taking a cut in

living standards. Some individuals have taken up to a 10% cut in their

living standards, even though they are still in work, because prices

have increased at three or 5%, with wages increasing by 1% if they are

lucky, or not at all. Looking forward is rather grim for many

people. Nobody pretends there is a short-term easy solution to hand.

But most accept that the official figures mask the growing financial

struggle that many families currently face.

Well, we asked the Welsh Government minister charged with tackling

poverty to take part in this programme. He was not available.

Joining us now is Owen Smith, the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales,

and the Labour MP for Pontypridd. Thank you for joining us. Do you

recognise that image of Wales as being a low income, part-time

economy? Well, it is a reality that we have the lowest minimum wages in

Britain in Wales, and we know that we have significant underemployment

and part-time employment. There are perhaps 11% of people working in

Wales that are underemployed, not working as many hours as they could

do all would like to do. We have to recognise that reality. Who is

responsible? I think the broader economy and the history of Wales is

in part responsible? But who will do something about it? The Welsh

Government is trying to do something. Jobs toggle macro -- we

are doing something about getting more jobs but we clearly need to do

more. We know about our history and we lived with our history, but the

Labour Government has really not done as much as you claim it has

over the last decade or so. Many of the jobs that you referred to are in

fact, as we have shown, low-grade jobs. People working in call

centres, who are actually underemployed in many cases. I think

we need desperately to do more to recognise that we need more jobs and

better jobs and decent wages, which is why I am so pleased that the

Labour Party across Britain, led by Ed Miliband, is saying that work in

the living wage and decent quality jobs have to be at the heart of the

next Labour Government's efforts. And it will be the central plank of

the next Labour manifesto, if you like. The GDP in Wales is way behind

the rest of the UK, meaning it is largely dependent economy. There is

not enough energy and enterprise going on here and the Welsh

Government has not done enough over that period to generate that

enterprise, and to bring in real jobs. That is what people want.

do and they are right to want that. This is not a quick fix. We have a

100 year decline in the reason for the communities like the one we are

sitting in right now being here. These communities were here because

of coal. That is gone and our economy has changed there. We cannot

magic jobs out of nowhere. So we do not have the energy or enthusiasm or

drive? I did not say that. We need a Government that sets itself

targets. The Labour Government would set a target of full employment and

would create living wage loans to make sure that their wages that

people are ringing, irrespective of the work, were ample to meet their

needs. The reality is that we have got a bottom heavy, if you like,

London and South East focused British economy. There is a

long-running deep-seated well-established pattern of regional

inequality and poorer jobs the further away you get from London.

Successive governments have recognised that. Do I think we have

done enough? Do I think the last Labour Government did enough to

change it? Clearly not because we still have a problem but the next

one will, you mark my words. Well, you mentioned Ed Miliband, and he

told us only this week, because this is a largely dependent economy as we

have heard, that he will put a cap on benefits. But the main thing in

that speech, if you have read it, was work. We are Labour, and the

clue is in the name. The party of work and not welfare. The party of

support? Of course but we want to get people working. There are many

vulnerable people and you have had a lot to say about them, particularly

on the subject of the bedroom tax. Would you scrap that? I would love

to turn around and get rid of it. To do that today, two years outside the

election, without knowing what the economy will look like... I cannot

commit to scrapping the bedroom tax. You have said historically that we

should. I think we ought to. There is no question in my view that the

bedroom tax is iniquitous and is punishing the most vulnerable people

in our society. I would love when we get to the election in two years

time for us to pledge to reduce or get rid of the bedroom tax. But you

cannot promise that you will get rid of it? I am not the leader or the

Chancellor, so I could not promise it even if I wanted to. But even if

I was, I could not guarantee to keep that promise two years out from the

election. So what are you going to do that is significantly different

from what Wales has seen from Labour so far? We will have living wage

loans, we will incentivise businesses to pay higher amounts of

money, we need to work harder to encourage business, incentivise

business to move out of London and the South East and in two parts of

Britain like Wales in particular South Wales and the valleys, in

order to provide better jobs. Ultimately we need a much more

active industrial strategy, with the Government working in partnership

with business, in order to try and create jobs. So Labour have to be

the businessman's friend in the future? It have to be the Government

that works with business and understands that industry and

Government is far more intertwined than the current Government would

have us believe. The current Government believed they could cut

the public sector and the private sector would flourish. Instead it

was a fundamental economic mistake on their part and unfortunately we

are reaping the rewards in higher unemployment and public sector job

losses in Wales and elsewhere. you very much indeed. Now it is time

to talk about relationships and in particular our relationship with the

European Union. The Prime Minister has been coming under increasing

pressure recently to give the go-ahead to a referendum on

Britain's future within the EU. Many MPs say we should opt out. Others

say that we should stay in. But what would this mean for Wales? We asked

Doctor Martin O'Neill from Cardiff University, who works with projects

across Wales funded by the European Union, to tell us what the EU has

European funding is that we are in media that used to produce call, we

used to provide you look with iron and steel. We are no longer in that

position. When you look at some of the communities here in relation to

poverty and health, we are suffering some of the biggest problems in the

whole of Europe. As you can see, this is an sorry state of disrepair.

The Lydall has attracted money from European funding which will make a

difference to the way people experience it. -- the outdoor

swimming pool. Part of the community of year, if we would lose something

like that, it would make a significant difference to the way

people live here everyday lives. European funding is very abstract,

what it means to people, they ask what it means. This is what it

really means to people, being able to come out and enjoy time in the

park, having decent housing and decent roads. It is that European

funding which really makes a difference to the basic quality of

life. One of the things that makes a difference is when people ask what

the European Community has done for us and we see the development going

on, the little blue flag with the cold stars on it. We think of the

number of people who are employed in European projects or projects which

have some from Paul and in European funding. It is local businesses that

benefit a lot of the time, that is the real difference it will make. If

Wales wasn't part of the EU it with the utter disaster. I can state that

strongly enough. The whole argument against being part of the EU strikes

me as Jonny Fordham argument. When you look at the practicalities,

things like this project here and the development of infrastructure,

the road networks, the towns, they would be in a lot worse state

without European funding. Now I am joined by the reader of Plaid Cymru

and the conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan. Wales with the inner

terrible mess without European money? I do not accept that. I would

like to remain a member of the European Union under the right

terms. The terms in which the UK is a member right now is not the best.

With the EU without this investment which has been a huge positive thing

for the valleys? It is our money, it just comes back, but it comes back

with conditions. There was a desperate need for infrastructure

projects in large parts of Wales, particularly the Valleys. The

conditions that came back from the European Union at that time was that

they did not want money to go into infrastructure but other community

type projects. He has got a point, there is money coming in but it is

not being spent wisely, we need to spend it in a way that helps create

jobs and the economy. I accept that has not happened but I do not have

much faith in the UK government to redistribute wealth within the rest

of the UK. I do not think that is going on now like it is in the

European Union. The whole point of these convergence and structural

funds was to try to spread wealth throughout the European states. If

you look at what happened when the Wall came down between the two

German states, there was a deliberate plan to the distribute

wealth across the two countries, to reunify them as one and now we can

see the success coming from there. Do you really want to make that

comparison? Germany is the European powerhouse, what they have done is

investing jobs. That is what should be happening in Wales. It can happen

with investment from the European Union. We can use that money better

but without it we would be in dire straits. That is a point, it is a

largely dependent economy? The only way the German model exists is on

trade and I want to Europe in relationship that exists on trade,

not one that comes with the inhibiting rules that it comes. We

have a better understanding in Wales and Westminster of what the UK and

Wales needs rather than bureaucrats in Brussels who are putting

conditions on our on money. Who are we in this case? I will speak and

Plaid Cymru will always speak in the interest of wheels. It is a

different Europe and we received the funds we get not just through that

but through the agricultural industry. What will happen if

Scotland votes to stay in Europe against the lead -- the rest of the

UK? Scotland have talked about joining Europe off their own backs

if they get independent but some have said they might not want

Scotland to be a member of the European Union. This is a UK, this

happens before demolition of an existent. The point is quite clear

it is not a UK government. Let on that point to Leanne. If the rest of

us decide to stay in Europe we should not allow a no vote in

England to get us out. In all likelihood it would cost us an awful

lot more. We would still be bound by many rules without having a sea. We

would have less of a C. -- say. could become the gateway for all

these international investors. want us to stay in Europe and the

Prime Minister does so why are we having this conversation? I want to

be primarily focused on trade which is why we joined in the 1970s.

will leave it there. The Welsh education service has come under

criticism with services in five local authorities in special

measures. He then the Valleys some local schools have failed to meet

the great with shocking statistics showing four out of ten children in

Merthyr are functioning illiterate. From seven Ember literacy and new

Morrissey will form the basis of all lessons, not just English, Welsh and

maths. We went to a school in Cardiff where the head teacher was

recently voted the Welsh head teacher of the year, to see what she

and they are doing to improve standards. All children who come

here are expected to work to the best of their potential. We will

track a child from a very young age, from starting nationally we analyse

the data and test scorers and try to help and support the children with

their particular needs as they arise throughout the school. What new

Morrissey skills can you use today to help solve this particular

Robson? We use it to thrive, we want the children to thrive. We cover the

same points as the child progresses through the school. I feel this

could help schools but it does depend on the leadership of the

schools as to how they manage to support their staff and framework.

What was your favourite? This.There are still differences in the way

teachers assess ripples so we hope that by having the new national

literacy framework it will be a sharper and tighter form of

assessment. Just one page. Just one page. Just like any new initiative

the tests will have to be evaluated, perhaps this year when people have

been through the cycle once or next year after they have had time to go

through the framework. We have two insure it gives the best possible

life chance to every child. Joining me now is a leading academic and

adviser to the Welsh government. In these valleys minders used to walk

behind banners that said knowledge is power, he understood the benefit

of education. What has gone wrong? think when devolution started

everybody was very complacent about education. There was a great test of

the of love and idolatry of education in the Valleys. People

thought we were OK because we were doing better than England but we got

a shock in 2007 with the first national survey and in 2010 we were

much worse. We started to ask ourselves see these questions. It is

not that we do not know how to educate children in Wales, we have

good schools, quite good local authorities, wonderful teachers.

What we do not yet is get the knowledge around about what they did

people do to all our parts of the system. Have we worried too much

about added value over the years rather than the basics? I think

working around the world we have missed many tricks in the 2000 is.

The skills developed capacity among the teachers to teach. Scotland did

literacy and new Morrissey programmes so every teacher got

trained. If you look at Australia, Canada, most American states, most

countries resourced the teachers and see that the best thing for the

children is when the teachers teach well. We did not do that. We slept

on the international league tables. -- slight down the international

league tables. Now what we are trying to do is ensure everybody

knows what is good practice about teaching, how to run schools and

local authorities. It is the same administration that has largely been

in charge of that time, how can we have confidence they can fix a

problem that has caused such kiosks in our education system? -- caused

such chaos. There is certainly no complacency now. One point that the

Labour government want to pursue in Wales is that certain groups are too

small. Two very small local authorities are providing

educational services. We have lots of bitty education authorities that

do not necessarily have the knowledge in depth. Across the piece

we have not necessarily got the talent there in depth to help

schools. We do not know what is coming out next week but I am sure

there are changes coming to local authorities in an attempt to make

them better and better. Bigger with be better in the case of our local

authority. Thank you very much indeed. Next week we will be in

North Wales where we also hope the sun will be shining. I will be back

before then on Tuesday night on BBC One in Wales where this week we will

be examining the controversy surrounding Gypsies and Travellers,