13/06/2014 BBC Wales Today

The First Minister has given his strongest criticism yet

of the way councils run education services in Wales.

He says he doesn't have faith that local authorities can consistently

Carwyn Jones made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with

our political editor Nick Servini about the Welsh Government's record

- 15 years since the beginning of devolution in Wales.

In education is never far from the spotlight. It is the one where the

greatest divide has opened up between Wales and England. There are

already big differences in policies in tuition fees and primary school

education. Many other reforms are on way or in the process of being

entered it. I asked the First Minister whether he had faith in

those delivering many of these reforms on the ground. I don't,

consistently, because it is clear that how can we have faith? We need

to make sure the structure of government delivers in the way we

want it to do and it could change the structure before then anyway but

we don't physically run schools. We need to make sure those schools are

delivering consistently for kids in the schools and parents will stop we

need to make sure the local authorities are delivering

consistently and that is not happening at the moment. The NHS is

the area where they have faced the most criticism particularly over

waiting times. He said they would be tough decisions as the NHS dealt

with the pressures of an ageing population. What we have to do is

decide what we are able to fund, to try to understand what demand will

be like in the future and get the two to meet. When our budgets are

being cut, it makes it that much harder. It is previous Labour

governments since the start of devolution, does Labour need to

apologise to the people of Wales for its record of handling the NHS? I

could never say that the NHS has consistently under performed in the

last 15 years. We have seen challenges but the fact the money is

not there in the way that it was. Over a 15 year period, and massive

increase in funding? The thing about the health service is, the demand on

the health service increases substantially year after year. It is

a challenge for any government to ensure the funds are there to meet

that demand. Devolution is high on the agenda with the referendum and

matter of months away. Tax and borrowing powers in the process of

being handed over, I asked him how far he felt devolution should go

here. It clearly doesn't lead to independence. Clearly there are some

areas that I think are not right for devolution, Social Security is one

area. I think having a wholly independent taxation service would

not work for us here. Security, Kerry not. Is important is, there is

an established mechanism for devolving power.

Staying with Labour - they'll struggle to win a majority

at the next Assembly election - and UKIP will win seats in

Cardiff Bay for the first time, according to a new opinion poll

The ICM poll of more than 1,000 adults

across Wales was carried out in the week after the European elections.

An analysis of the figures by Cardiff University suggests

Labour would win 28 seats - down two - there'd be 14 for Plaid,

11 for the Conservatives, 5 for UKIP

and just two for the Liberal Democrats.

It's a boost for Plaid, who would overtake the Tories

as the second-largest party in Cardiff

There are calls to reverse staff cuts at Newport's passport office,

and for the postal system to be reinstated,

after a growing backlog of applications.

Thousands of Welsh holidaymakers face having their holidays ruined

if their travel documents aren't processed in time.

Alison Miners from Cwmbran near Newport can at last pack for

her holiday with her husband Andy. The couple got married last year

and were treating this trip to France as their Honeymoon

but all plans were put on hold when Alison's new passport didn't arrive

after applying for it in April. What should have taken three weeks

took nearly two months and a 200 mile

trip to Liverpool to collect it. Really distressed, I was in work and

I had to catch a train, and a taxi to the house, get my husband out of

the meeting, hire a car to drive to Liverpool, but my hotel because we

got there after they closed. Very distressing and very upset. I had

not been sleeping because it was getting nearer and nearer.

Everything was paid for and I didn't know what I would be going.

trip to Liverpool to collect it. But three years ago the office

faced potential closure, it was saved

but there were major job losses. The materials have got to be sent

from Newport to other officers and was always a ludicrous decision to

take that function away from Newport and they ought to think about

putting that back. These pictures emerged earlier

in the week said to show a backlog of applications waiting to

be processed. With files being stored

in meeting rooms. Even those who seek to pay extra to

get an appointment on a quicker turnaround on their passport are no

longer able to get an appointment within a few days.

in meeting rooms. The UK government has announced new

measures to address the problem. Anyone with urgent travel

plans will have their cases fast-tracked free of charge.

But for Alison that's come too late. It's cost her nearly ?500

and a lot of stress but now she nd her husband can now go

on a much needed holiday. The Wales rugby coach Warren

Gatland has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours

List. Gatland said he felt proud

and humbled to receive an OBE. The singer songwriter,

Cerys Mathews, is made an MBE. Professor Michael Owen from Cardiff

University is knighted for his work What we are really keen to do is

attract more clever people into psychiatry and neuroscience, to

encourage people to work on these disorders and recognition for

individuals shows maybe that is a good career for them to take.

Glamorgan have tied their match against Kent in the T-20

Kent responded by scoring the same amount of runs for the loss

Plenty of sunshine and blue skies today but change is on the way. The

moment, it looks like cloudy with sunny spells tomorrow. I mentioned

the showers, here they are making their way down to the south east

overnight. Quite heavy showers but generally, things turning dry by the

edit the evening. It will feel quite mild overnight with temperatures of

11 and 16 degrees. Tomorrow morning, limited brightness and sunny spells

but we will see some rakes in the clouds and blue sky as well but

cloudier so feeling easy at times. If we look at the bigger picture,

this is what is going on. This area of high pressure and

this is what is going on. This area of this cold front introducing

showers across much of the UK but to the east of that and to the west of

that, temperatures reaching 23 degrees. Back home, the showers will

come and go through the day. Some heavy downpours but temperatures

reaching 22 degrees. A northerly breeze, this is cooler so taking the

edge of some of these temperatures. Missed and fog patches forming

tomorrow night further west. Some of these creeping further inland as

well so feeling quite murky. Overnight lows of between 11 and 15

degrees. Sunday is looking better, more in the way of brightness of the

next few days will remain settled and quite warm.

From all of us on the programme, goodnight.