Cabinet handbook - Section 4: Policy making

Purpose

4.1 This note sets out how you can expect civil servants to provide policy advice to you on the delivery of your policy objectives, this will come forward in the form of an MA (ministerial advice). It provides briefing on the process and principles of good policy-making, the assessment of impact, the relationship with officials, and provides a starting point for discussions with officials on the delivery of your priorities. This note fits within the wider framework of the Civil Service Code.

Policy advice

4.2 The Permanent Secretary is the Chief policy advisor to the First Minister and Welsh Ministers. The role of the Civil Service is to support you in successfully delivering the commitments outlined within the Government programme through effective policy-making and public service delivery. You should expect the Civil Service to provide high quality policy advice to deliver your objectives. The aim is to help you make decisions that reflect the best available evidence, that are deliverable, and that recognise political imperatives and constraints.

4.3 You should expect officials to:

• Ensure that policy development work focuses on delivering the commitments set out within the Government programme and stated policy outcomes and objectives.
• Provide evidence-based, robust, creative and impartial advice, with evidence of the potential impact (via Integrated Impact Assessment).
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation and with external delivery partners to ensure effective joined-up policy development and delivery.

The policy making process and principles

4.4 Welsh Government officials are encouraged to follow five stages of the policy cycle, consider five tests for policy making, and five ways of working sustainably under the Well-being of Future Generations Act. This is in order to build up a comprehensive, balanced case to advise you on the delivery of your policy objectives.

4.5 The 5 stages of the policy cycle are:

1. Case for Change - This stage is about understanding the problem the Government is trying to tackle, what the rationale for government intervention is, and what the desired policy outcomes are.
2. Options - The options stage is about identifying and appraising the alternatives available to deliver the desired outcome. As part of the options stage officials will present you with evidence they have gathered and evidence of the potential impact. By the end of this stage, officials will be able to provide you with well-evidenced advice detailing different ways of achieving your policy objectives with a firm recommendation. In practice, there may be multiple iterations of advice to you to test and scope out these options and preferred recommendation.
3. Preferred Option - The preferred option stage is about developing and testing your preferred option further, making sure that the proposal is focused on delivery throughout. This will include more precise information on costings, risks and impact.
4. Implementation - Once you have approved your preferred option, officials will proceed to implementation. The work may then be passed to other officials who will lead the delivery of the work and refinement of the implementation mechanisms.
5. Evaluation and monitoring - Evaluating policies and learning lessons from them is an essential part of improving. Analysing comprehensive evaluation work should form a critical part of new policy development and implementation.

4.6 Whilst the above stages are presented in chronological order there will be iterations of policy advice which may revisit earlier stages or repeat the options stage when moving to choices around implementation. They are similar to and compliment the five-case business model.

4.7 To maximise the impact and quality of our public services, as well as cost effectiveness and productivity, following a digital approach is a key part of good policy development. Digital transformation is not about technology - it is a change of mindset - using modern tools and skills, working openly, collaboratively and putting users at the centre of policy and delivery. It means designing services that meet the need of the people who are going to use them, not designing around organisational structures.

4.8 Good digital transformation involves designing services that are accessible, safe and simple so that people choose to use them. Good digital delivery uses an agile methodology of discovery (ask users what they need), alpha (prototype the service/policy), beta (build it and test it out on some users), and, live (make it available to all users). This is all supported by a model of continuous improvement based on user feedback. Agile methodology is closely aligned to the policy development cycle.

4.9 The 5 tests considered throughout each of the policy making stages which inform the advice you receive are:

1. Fit with the government’s programme and ministerial priorities
2. Impact on Wales and its people, now and in the future.
3. Costs of the decision and/or investment – affordability and value for money.
4. Mechanisms available to compliantly deliver the changes required
5. Management arrangements (including where multiple ministers will need to approve).

4.10 The five ways of working that should be applied in policy making, and which Welsh Ministers are subject to under the well-being duty (sustainable development principle) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act are:

1. Long-term - Thinking about the long-term implications of the decision
2. Integration - Taking an integrated approach – by understanding economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing aspects.
3. Collaboration – Understanding who will need to be involved in the delivery of the policy objectives (delivery partners).
4. Involvement – Ensuring that the people likely to be affected by the policy have been involved.
5. Prevention – Understanding the root causes that the policy objective is aiming to tackle and consider ways to prevent or minimise these problems from occurring in the future.

4.11 Applying a digital approach helps support these ways of working. Joined-up digital public services will be delivered through collaboration and integration, where possible re-using existing components and investment to maximise value for money and enhancing the consistency of user experience. Good engagement supports the design of user-facing services that prevent inefficiencies and inconsistent experience for the citizen. Designing services in an iterative, agile and user-focused way ensures services are designed for the long-term and are safe and accessible to use.

Assessing impact

4.12 As well as being a statutory duty in some cases (e.g. equality and children’s rights), assessing the likely impact of policies (positive/adverse) is a key component of good policy making in Welsh Government. To be effective, this needs to start early and be an iterative activity throughout the policy development process, with the findings being used to inform options and the preferred option. Assessing impact may involve drawing on data sources, customer journeys, lived experience, user feedback, co-production and stakeholder engagement to understand the likely impacts of the policy on particular groups of people (for example equality impact assessment, children’s rights impact assessment, Welsh language impact assessment, Data Protection impact assessment) and considering wider impacts such as environmental impact. The Well-being of Future Generations approach can help to ensure these impacts are considered in an integrated way.

4.13 The way in which we record and evidence that government has assessed the impact of a particular decision or policy is through the completion of the relevant sections of our ‘Integrated Impact Assessment’ template. This is a document that records all the factors that have been considered, and where relevant and legally required, document the impacts on a particular issue, population, place, etc. It also offers an opportunity to shape policy in a way which accounts for potential impacts if done early enough. Depending on the legal requirements parts of the IIA and other assessments (e.g. equality and children’s rights) will be published on gov.wales.

Receiving policy advice

4.14 As set out above, ministers receive formal policy advice through the ministerial advice (MAs) process. Some MAs are to note, where ministers are being asked to make a decision (i.e. on funding) a Decision Report will be issued by officials.

4.15 Each ministerial advice document will have a Statement of Assurance signed by the Deputy Director. This confirms that they are satisfied that Welsh Government policy priorities and cross-portfolio implications have been considered. The Deputy Director is also confirming that due process has been followed in terms of the policy-making process; with impacts assessed, users and stakeholders engaged, options assessed, and a collaborative and integrated approach taken. You will not necessarily need to see the full detail of the policy analysis, but they will need to know the outcome of the assessments so that these can inform your decisions.

Risks around policy-making

4.16 It will often be difficult to follow the optimum policy making process and there will be times where you will be making decisions at pace, with incomplete evidence, and without being able to fully engage with those affected by decisions. This can lead to unintended consequences that may later need to be managed or mitigated and rely on greater monitoring and evaluation of policies so that future improvements can be made. It can also lead to impacts beyond the government term on future generations. In these circumstances a proportionate approach may be needed.

4.17 In practice manifesto commitments become the ‘preferred option’ in the policy cycle. However, the policy development process can still be usefully applied to work out a robust and cost-effective way to implement it. The translation of manifesto commitments into a clear policy and implementation strategy may still need to test the case for change, the evidence for intervention, user needs, key issues and options to ensure that the outcome desired by Welsh Ministers can be achieved through a particular policy.

4.18 The quality of the relationship between ministers and officials has a significant impact on the ability to present more creative alternative options and advice, and for that to be accepted and fully considered. There may be times where officials will challenge you on the policy objective or outcome you wish to achieve, and in turn ministers may challenge officials. This should all be conducted based on mutual respect. For example, the challenge may come from presenting alternative options or amendments to the policy. This may be to ensure the policy is deliverable; evidence based and has a good understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of the policy.

4.19 Welsh Government aims to embed a variety of evidence into its policy making in government and wider public services. Alongside Welsh Government Knowledge and Analytical Services (KAS), the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) supports policymakers and public services in Wales to access and apply independent research evidence and expertise that helps improve policy making and delivery. WCPP deliver a Welsh Government Ministerial work programme, in which they provide evidence and independent advice. The Centre is a collaborative venture funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Welsh Government and Cardiff University. The Welsh Government Ministerial work programme is designed to deliver projects to inform early stages of the policy making process, e.g. answering ‘what works’ type policy questions. The Ministerial work programme is owned and signed off by the First Minister. There is space on the work programme for the First Minister and ministers to identify research priorities that WCPP can support. Administrative oversight of WCPP sits under the Director of Continuous Improvement and Head of Policy Profession.

Purpose

4.20 The note is intended to provide a starting point for how you can use the duties on Welsh Ministers to promote and carry out sustainable development in the Government of Wales Act 2006 and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (‘the WFG Act’) to deliver your stated policy objectives. This note is supplemented by ‘The Essentials’ guide which provides an overview of the WFG Act.

Sustainable governance

4.21 One of the more distinctive aspects of government in Wales has been the duty to promote sustainable development. This originated in the Government of Wales Act 1998 and 2006, and in 2015 this duty evolved into a wider, more comprehensive framework in the Well-being of Future Generations Act that captured not just government but also public bodies in Wales.

4.22 Sustainable development is a practical approach which maximises positive outcomes by recognising the interdependencies between the economy, the environment, society and culture. It is about securing long-term well-being working in ways that look to the long-term, achieve policy coherence, involve people reflecting the diversity of Wales, collaborating with partners to deliver shared solutions and preventing problems before they arise.

4.23 When appropriately applied, it is a concept which allows creative thinking about the interrelatedness of complex, far-reaching problems and generates new and innovative solutions. Sustainable development is therefore a systems-based approach for achieving positive, enduring change. In Government, as in our everyday lives, the problems we face are often perceived as isolated situations or events not connected to each other, the world around us and that of future generations. Often the everyday pressures faced by Ministers and officials, coupled with the intense media and public pressure to respond instantly to events, can encourage a siloed approach to dealing with issues.

4.24 There remain many myths about the WFG Act, what it does and does not do and these undermine the long-standing commitments and aspirations to sustainable development. In particular, the Act does not prescribe the solutions or decisions that Welsh Ministers and others may come to – it primarily raises the bar and expectations on how decisions are made in Wales.

Duties on Welsh Ministers

4.25 The sustainable development duties on Welsh Ministers are three-fold:

1. National Framework and implementation

4.26 There are statutory duties placed on Welsh Ministers, which taken together can support an evidence-based approach to longer term thinking and provide for key parts of the Well-being of Future Generations framework in Wales. These are:

• Duty to set and establish National Well-being Indicators for Wales and publish an Annual Well-being of Wales report. There are 50 national well-being of Wales indicators designed to measure and demonstrate ‘Wales-wide’ progress towards the 7 well-being goals in the Act. They are not intended to be performance indicators for an individual organisation, but a means of galvanising the contribution of government and public bodies towards the overall outcomes.
  The national indicator pages include data for all of the national indicators, alongside links to the data sources and, where available, statistical publications where the indicators are analysed in more detail.
• The annual Well-being of Wales report is published in September each year. The report considers progress against the 50 national indicators, alongside a range of other relevant data. The report is a key accountability mechanism, to be transparent about the progress Wales is making towards its well-being goals. We are committed to producing supplementary reports alongside the main report where there is a need to do so.
• Duty to set National Milestones for Wales. The Act requires Welsh Ministers to set national milestones (targets) in relation to the national well-being indicators which Welsh Ministers consider would assist them in measuring whether progress is being made towards the achievement of the well-being goals. Seventeen national milestones were developed, agreed by Cabinet and laid before the Senedd between January 2021 and November 2022.
• Duty to prepare a Future Trends Report for Wales. This brings together evidence on the economic, social, environmental and cultural trends which are likely to shape the future of Wales. The report helps Welsh Ministers and public bodies identify and respond to future challenges in a proactive way. It must be published within 12 months of a Senedd election (First published in 2017, second report published in December 2021).

4.27 These responsibilities do not necessarily fall within one ministerial portfolio.

4.28 Welsh Ministers also have a duty to provide statutory guidance for public bodies, public services boards and town and community council. This was issued in 2016.

4.29 As the WFG Act covers 48 public bodies (8 more bodies were added in June 2024) bodies will fall under different ministerial portfolios, including the oversight of the work of Public Services Boards established by the Act.

2. Well-being duty (Cabinet)

4.30 This duty requires Welsh Ministers to carry out sustainable development, and in doing so set well-being objectives that are designed to maximise their contribution to the seven well-being goals. Welsh Ministers must also publish a well-being statement when setting their well-being objectives, and report annually on progress. Once well-being objectives are set the decisions of the government will need to demonstrate how they are helping to achieve them.

4.31 This may necessitate Cabinet-level agreement of such well-being objectives. To fulfil the intent of making sustainable development the central organising principle it is advised that they form part of the Programme for Government. In setting well-being objectives Welsh Ministers must take into account the Future Generations Commissioners’ Future Generations Report.

3. Cabinet secretaries and ministers (portfolio)

4.32 Welsh Ministers are under a duty to promote sustainable development and to act in accordance with the sustainable development principle. Each minister is responsible for ensuring that they meet these duties and apply them in making decisions in their portfolios. They must:

1. maximise their contribution to achieving the goals through achievement of the government’s well-being objective
2. act in accordance with the sustainable development principle, which means seeking to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs, and
3. apply the five ways of working as part of the sustainable development principle (long term, integration, prevention, involvement and collaboration).

This will cover policy-making, financial decisions as well as influencing others through grants, procurement and the sponsorship of public bodies.

How the WFG Act can support Welsh Ministers?

Whilst Welsh Ministers have specific duties under the WFG Act, it remains a tool by which government, public bodies, businesses and the wider public can coalesce in addressing the long-term sustainability challenges Wales faces (e.g. inequality, climate change, decent work, health).

The framework provided by the Act can help Welsh Ministers deliver their stated objectives in a more integrated way and because the Act requires public bodies to take into account the well-being objectives of Welsh Ministers, it can provide a lever for influencing local action.

The Act should enable ministers to receive improved advice of the opportunities and wider impact of decisions, including the impacts on future generations. Separate advice on the policy development process has been provided. A key challenge is to ensure that the framework and implementation of the legal requirements is seen not as 'another compliance exercise' but as a way of enabling more effective and more integrated delivery.

4.33 The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act became law in May 2023, fulfilling a Programme for Government commitment to place social partnership on a statutory footing in Wales. Amongst its other provisions, the Act established a statutory Social Partnership Council (SPC) comprising Welsh Ministers, employer representatives (public, private and third sector as well as higher and further education), and worker representatives nominated by Wales TUC.

4.34 The Act also places new duties on Welsh Ministers. The social partnership duty on the Welsh Ministers requires the government to consult the SPC when making strategic decisions about the steps they intend to take to implement their well-being goals under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. In January 2024, Cabinet agreed the duty would be discharged by consulting the Council annually on the 3 overarching drivers of the strategic delivery of the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government: the approach to prioritisation of funding through the annual budget setting process; prioritisation of legislation as set out in the annual legislative statement; and the assessment of progress through the annual review of well-being objectives. The council endorsed this approach at their first meeting on 1 February 2024.

4.35 The Act also provides for new socially responsible procurement and contract management duties on Welsh contracting authorities requiring that they seek to improve economic, environmental, social, and cultural well-being when carrying out procurement, set objectives in relation to well-being goals, and publish a procurement strategy. Public bodies will be expected to carry out contract management duties to ensure that socially responsible outcomes are pursued through supply chains.

4.36 Public bodies and Welsh Ministers will have reporting responsibilities in relation to the social partnership and procurement duties.

4.37 The statutory SPC enshrines the position of trade unions and employer representatives in providing advice to Ministers on the social partnership and socially responsible procurement duties and the pursuit of the “A prosperous Wales” well-being goal by public bodies .

4.38 The Welsh social partnership model of engagement goes beyond the provisions in the legislation. Since devolution, Welsh Government has encouraged social partnership working as a means of finding the best solutions to the challenges facing Wales. There are thus many social partnership arrangements across ministerial portfolios with trade unions and employer representatives. To forge more mature social partnership ways of working, a more consistent approach to social partnership is being adopted for social partnership arrangements at national level. Formal social partnerships are based on a way of working designed to pursue mutual gains within the context of policy development and implementation or operational change, but not primarily used as forums for information exchange or collective bargaining.

4.39 The Welsh Government is committed to the long-term development and sustainability of the Welsh language and bilingualism in Wales. Cymraeg 2050 provides a long-term policy basis and ambition for reaching 1 million Welsh-speakers and to increase the percentage of the population that speak Welsh daily from 10% (in 2013 to 2015) to 20% by 2050 in line with the Future Generations Act. As well as this external policy, the Welsh Government is also bound by legislative duties and an ambition to act as an exemplar organisation for bilingual policy.

4.40 The second Cymraeg 2050 work programme (2021-2026) continues to focus on establishing infrastructure to achieve our long-term targets through growing Welsh-medium education, strengthening our Welsh-speaking communities, building language planning capacity and behavioural sciences expertise, on deepening our evidence base, and developing an inclusive strategy for how we ‘talk’ about the language.

4.41 The pandemic undoubtedly had an impact on the skills of children and young people, and particularly regarding their confidence in the language. It also affected the viability of Welsh-speaking communities. Our most recent Cymraeg 2050 annual action plans have included projects and plans to address these issues.

The 2021 Census results

4.42 On 6 December 2022, the first data relating to the Welsh language from the 2021 Census were published, providing us with the first objective indication of progress towards achieving the 1 million speakers target (Welsh language in Wales - Census 2021).

4.43 The 2021 Census stated that 538,300 people, or 17.8% of the population aged 3 years or older were able to speak Welsh in Wales. This was 1.2 percentage points lower, or 23,700 fewer people since the 2011 Census, which noted around 562,000 Welsh speakers (or 19.0% of the population).

4.44 Two important areas to note are the drop in 5–15-year-olds able to speak Welsh and the change in our Welsh-speaking communities. The data is a reminder that we must focus on the following areas:

1. Our approach to teaching Welsh in our English-medium schools needs to be strengthened. The Welsh Language and Education Bill which was laid before the Senedd on 15/07/24 will be key in achieving better language outcomes for learners in all schools, including those that are English-medium. The aim is for all pupils, regardless of the medium of teaching, to become confident Welsh-speakers through the statutory education system who are eager to use their language skills in the community, in workplaces and in everyday life.
2. The second notable decline was in our traditional Welsh-speaking communities. A large socio-linguistic survey is underway to better understand what lies behind the decline so that we can introduce appropriate interventions to reverse the trend.
   This work will support the remit of the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities, established by the then Minister for Education and Welsh Language in August 2022. Creating a Commission was a recommendation within the Second Homes: Developing New Policies in Wales (2021) report, which highlighted the challenges facing Welsh-speaking communities as a consequence of socioeconomic restructuring as the result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
   The commission published its final report and recommendations to Welsh Government in August 2024. The WG will respond early in 2025, and the commission will now look at the challenges facing Welsh-speaking communities in other parts of Wales and beyond – these will include areas of growth in the South-East.

4.45 Other surveys show different trends in the number of people able to speak Welsh. According to the Annual Population Survey for example, 862,700 people or 28.0% of the population aged 3 years or older, were able to speak Welsh in the year ending 31 March 2024. In April 2023, we published a joint work plan with the Office for National Statistics detailing further work we will undertake together to improve our understanding of these differences in order to continue to generate valuable and useful statistics about the Welsh language.

4.46 We must remember that these surveys do not measure language use. The numbers using our language is as important to the vision of Cymraeg 2050 as is the number of speakers and we must not lose sight of that.

4.47 The development of Welsh language policy requires action and attention across most areas of government policy, from housing to the economy, from agriculture to health and from culture to planning. The Welsh Government’s vision for the Welsh language is inclusive, that Welsh is a national asset, a language for all and a way of uniting people equally from different backgrounds. This message is part of our internal and external narrative as well as our sense of who we are within Wales.

4.48 Progress towards the ambitions set out in Cymraeg 2050 will require:

• specific language planning and behavioural change interventions led by the Welsh language ministerial portfolio
• actions across all policy areas to create favourable socio-economic conditions to facilitate the strategy’s aims.

Introduction to the Welsh Government's strategy on the internal use of Welsh: ‘Cymraeg. It belongs to us all'

4.49 The Welsh Government's vision is to become a fully bilingual organisation by 2050, with Welsh and English used naturally and interchangeably as the Government’s working languages. To achieve this, we aim that all Welsh Government staff will be able to understand the Welsh language by 2050. The use of Welsh in the workplace gives more purpose and relevance to the language, particularly for those learning Welsh. A copy of the strategy can be found here: Cymraeg. It belongs to us all.

4.50 This strategy was launched in April 2020. During the first 5 years we have shared the aims of the strategy widely in order to show leadership and inspire other organisations to consider their long-term objectives in promoting the language to their workforce and playing their part in achieving the government’s aim of 1 million speakers by 2050.

Implementation of the strategy and initial objective 2020-2025

4.51 Becoming a bilingual organisation means gradual change, and the following principles have underpinned our activities in implementing the strategy during the first 5 years:

• Making a long-term commitment and leading the way: incremental change over time, leading by example in the workplace.
• Investing in staff and providing opportunities to learn Welsh and develop language skills: it is crucial that effective and convenient training is provided, with people given both time and motivation to improve continuously.
• Remaining an open, inclusive and diverse organisation: everyone has the potential to be a Welsh speaker – although Welsh language skills will progressively be needed for more posts, developing a bilingual workforce does not imply those skills being a universal pre-requisite for joining the Welsh Government.
• Continuously reviewing our ways of working to facilitate the increased use of Welsh: when we introduce new internal policies and initiatives, we will review the extent to which they provide further opportunities for staff to use Welsh in their day-to-day work.

4.52 Ten actions have been set out in the strategy, which have helped us meet the objective of becoming an exemplar organisation over the first 5 years. These actions are based on the following themes: leadership, learning, recruitment and technology.

4.53 Our language learning offer to staff is a varied and flexible offer that provides options for learning to suit a wide range of learning styles. Its flexibility provides opportunities for intensive learning, residential courses, self-directed online learning as well as traditional weekly class-based learning. It has caught the imagination of Welsh Government staff with an increase of over 740% in learners now following a formal learning programme since 2020. In our recruitment literature we emphasise that the Welsh language is seen as an asset in the organisation no matter what the role and we have concentrated on sharing messages with our senior leaders on modelling exemplar behaviour in their leadership on the Welsh language. We continue to promote the digital tools available to assist our staff to work bilingually. We are also participating in a 2-year project led by the Welsh Language Commissioner on developing bilingual workplaces. The aim of the project is to provide information and good practice to workplaces across Wales in working towards the Welsh Government’s vision of one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

4.54 We are now working on developing objectives for the next iteration of the strategy and working with colleagues in Knowledge and Analytical Services to track the workforce trajectory in terms of Welsh language skills to 2050.

The Welsh Government's compliance with the Welsh Language Standards

4.55 It is 8 years since the Welsh Language Standards came into force, under the requirements of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, and during this period we have seen the requirements of the duties embed within the organisation. Welsh Government staff have responded positively to the changes and awareness of the requirements of the Standards is generally high. The standards have had a positive influence on the use of Welsh in government, particularly on the services that the public, our stakeholders and staff can expect through the medium of Welsh. There is a general understanding among staff that compliance with the standards means proactively offering Welsh language services and that this ensures a high-quality bilingual customer service.

4.56 Over the next period, we will be focussing in particular on the policy making standards of the Welsh Language Standards and ensuring that linguistic considerations are mainstreamed throughout our policy and legislative processes.