Social Partnership Council meeting, 25 February 2026: minutes

1. The Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership welcomed attendees to the tenth meeting of the Social Partnership Council (SPC). The Minister welcomed Aled Edwards to his first meeting of the SPC, explaining that he would be representing the Public Leaders Forum following the end of Dame Elan Closs-Stephens’ tenure. He confirmed members had received the agenda which included a number of direct updates from the Council’s sub-groups. The Minister said that no further SPC meetings had been scheduled due to the upcoming Senedd elections but that the Secretariat would inform members of future meeting dates once confirmed. 

2. The Minister outlined the current challenges and opportunities facing the skills system in Wales and confirmed that more than 200,000 new apprenticeships had been created over the past decade. He said that during the current Senedd term apprenticeship funding had increased despite the loss of EU support and that provision under the Flexible Skills Programme (FSP) had trebled to £7.5 million, benefitting both businesses and individuals.  
    
3. The Minister confirmed the 2024 UK Employer Skills Survey showed skills gaps had fallen to their lowest level (in the survey’s history) both for Wales and the UK as a whole. He added that recruitment challenges were reducing as were skills shortages but that employer investment in training, including apprenticeships, continued to decline significantly. The Minister confirmed officials would share a link to the Skills Survey with members once it was published on the 26 February and also keep them updated on the outcome of the National Skills Audit for Wales commencing in March.
    
4. The Minister invited views from members on the results of the Survey, including their thoughts on why employer investment in training was declining and why fewer employers seemed to want to offer apprenticeships. He also invited thoughts on whether Wales should be developing a similar model to the new Major Investment and Infrastructure Skills Service being created in England.
    
5. Pippa Britton (Voluntary Sector) emphasised the importance of capturing the range of skills within the voluntary sector in the Skills Audit. 
    
6. Shavanah Taj (TUC Cymru) highlighted declining employer investment in training at a time when it was estimated 60% of the workforce would need some form of upskilling over the next 12 months. Shavanah stressed the importance of worker voice being central to future surveys and the possibility of developing a skills passport to create a more vibrant economy. She suggested the definition of AI in the paper needed refinement as it was too broad and that there should be a greater focus on the ways in which digitalisation and automation could support skills development.  
    
7. Joshua Miles (Business) welcomed the Skills Audit stressing its value to future policy making and highlighted the uneven distribution of skills across Wales. Joshua stressed that whilst Welsh Government had invested significant amounts of money into public sector staff training, the private sector had consistently invested more for its employees but that it was important to better understand how this was actually being spent in both sectors. He suggested a deeper analysis was needed which recognised that it was not only quantity but quality of training that was important and which referenced the different ways in which training was now being provided with a significant shift to on-line learning. Joshua also stressed the importance of considering the training needs of existing workers as well as new entrants.
    
8. Russell Greenslade (Business) outlined the different costs facing businesses which were preventing them from investing in training. Russell said that businesses were awaiting the outcome of the Spring Statement to better understand any implications for them, saying this would influence levels of training investment. He explained that he was also in discussions with Skills England about the broader UK position on business investment in skills and would feedback to the SPC in due course.  
    
9. Helen Whyley (RCN) supported calls for a greater understanding of how to prioritise skills provision for both existing workers and new entrants so both were supported. Helen also raised the importance of life-long learning allowing people to reach their full potential both at work and in their private lives, tying into Wales’ cultural identity as a country that valued education. 
    
10. Councillor Anthony Hunt (Local Government) welcomed the increase in apprenticeships under the current Senedd term and stressed their value to the apprentices themselves and businesses. Councillor Hunt emphasised the importance of creating an apprenticeship scheme for the public sector where apprentices could develop experience across different organisations to develop a holistic understanding of public services.  
     
11. The Minister confirmed he recently spoke at the Ministerial Board of Vocational Education and Training where he had emphasised the importance of skills investment to the economy, as well as the broader societal ambitions of government. He acknowledged the pressures businesses were facing and explained that the Welsh Government was offering greater flexibility in its financial support to encourage increased levels of training. The Minister recognised the importance of capturing the range of skills within the voluntary sector in the Skills Audit and referenced the work being done by the SPC’s AI Delivery Group to utilise funding from the Welsh Government’s FSP to support SME AI upskilling. 
     
12. The Minister explained that engagement work would be taking place alongside the research elements of the Skills Audit and social partners would have the chance to be involved in that. He said that additionally officials would arrange a tailored session for SPC members and continue to keep them informed of the Audit’s progress going forward. He welcomed the offer of feedback from Russell Greenslade on his discussions with Skills England and supported Joshua Miles’ advice to develop a deeper analysis of training provision. 

Action: Welsh Government officials to share a link to the National Skills Audit for Wales with SPC members following its publication on the 26 February.   

Action: Welsh Government officials to arrange a tailored session on the National Skills Audit for Wales for SPC members. 

13. The Minister confirmed he wrote to public bodies in December asking them to publish their Social Partnership reports by the end of January. He said that although a number of reports had been received since then, the total number published was only 69%. The Minister said there was no fixed deadline for providing the reports in the legislation and so it was difficult to predict when the final analysis would be provided to members. He said the Secretariat would continue to circulate the reports as they were published and said the paper did not name public bodies as this would not lend itself to Social Partnership. 
     
14. Jessica Turner (Unison) was encouraged by the increase in published reports but said there was clear scope for improvement. Jessica suggested exploring the possibility of guidance for public bodies which set out the expectations placed on them to help reach a 100% publication rate. She mentioned that the reports offered a powerful tool for understanding levels of engagement which was why it was important for all reports to be published.
     
15. The Minister shared the same ambition to see 100% of reports published. He said that Social Partnership was a journey and that this was the first year of reporting but was keen to ensure there was improvement going forward. The Minister said he would write in stronger terms to those public bodies yet to publish their reports and share the information with Cabinet colleagues to see if they could offer any advice that would encourage a greater response rate from bodies in their portfolios. 

Action: The Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership to write a further letter to those public bodies that had not yet submitted their Social Partnership reports for 2024-25 and raise non submission with Cabinet colleagues. 

16. The Minister explained that this item asked the SPC to agree the report of its Working Group on Fair Work in Business Grants. He said the Group was convened following an item submitted by the trade unions in 2024 on how Welsh Government grant funding could be used to promote fair work conditions. The Minister said that if members agreed the report, then the Secretariat would arrange for it to be formally submitted to Welsh Ministers as advice. He invited Shavannah Taj to present the report as the Chair of the Working Group.
     
17. Shavannah Taj explained that the Group had agreed 7 recommendations in its report as a starting point for advice to Ministers. Shavannah said the recommendations included expectations regarding fair work as part of grant conditionality but also referred to some of the constraints to this approach. She explained that the report summarised key discussion points so that Ministers would be mindful of members’ different perspectives but that the Working Group had shown how Social Partnership could operate in practice. Shavannah acknowledged the value of receiving advice from the Economic Contract Evaluation Team and the Scottish Government on their Fair Work First policy and asked the SPC if they were content to agree the report.
     
18. Joshua Miles supported the report and thanked Shavannah for acting as co-chair of the Working Group following the departure of his predecessor Ben Cottam.
     
19. The Minister noted the SPC’s approval of the report, thanked everyone involved in the Working Group and confirmed the SPC Secretariat would formally submit the report as advice to Ministers.

Action: The SPC Secretariat to submit the final report of the Council’s Working Group on Fair Work in Business Grants to the Ministers. 

20. The Minister confirmed the SPC’s AI Working Group had met twice to discuss immediate priorities in supporting AI upskilling and its immediate work programme. He explained the Welsh Government formally launched the AI upskilling pilot as part of the FSP in January. The Minister said the pilot had ringfenced up to £1 million to support activity in the financial year 2025-26 but most importantly had opened a dialogue with both employers and employees on the importance of AI skills and mainstreaming an ethical approach to AI. He invited Russell Greenslade and Jessica Turner, as the joint chairs of the AI Delivery Group to update the SPC. 
     
21. Russell Greenslade confirmed the AI Delivery Group was fully operational and that the upskilling pilot under the FSP was live. Russell explained that the Group was considering evaluation metrics to ensure the impact of the pilot was measurable and that there were opportunities to align this work with wider training activity. He said that the business perspective had been fed into discussions at the Group which had emphasised the pace of AI and the need for accessible, scalable training pathways.  
     
22. Jessica Turner explained the importance of understanding whether funding from the FSP had been allocated to reflect ethics in AI but said this would only become clear following the evaluation of the pilot. Jessica stressed the importance of worker voice in this exercise and explained that she and Russell would meet to discuss the broader objectives of the Group following the pilot.
     
23. The Minister stressed the importance of developing an ethical approach to the implementation of AI and the value of the pilot to other work across Welsh Government. 

24. The Minister confirmed there were seven on-going actions arising from previous meetings and outlined these. He also updated members on the handling of SPC statements, explaining it might be possible to issue these without all members agreeing as long as they were caveated to explain this. The Minister asked members if they were content to agree the matters arising. 
     
25. Shavanah Taj welcomed the update and supported the flexible approach outlined regarding SPC statements. 
     
26. Jessica Turner explained that the trade unions were providing citizenship work to encourage voting for the upcoming Senedd elections.
     
27. The Minister thanked members and closed the meeting.

Welsh Government

Jack Sargeant MS, Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership (Chair)

Worker Representatives 

Shavanah Taj, TUC Cymru 
Jessica Turner, UNISON
Mike Walker, USDAW
Helen Whyley, RCN Wales
Ruth Brady, GMB
Sian Boyles, PCS
Neil Butler, NASUWT
Gareth Lloyd, UCU

Employer Representatives 

Russell Greenslade, Business
Joshua Miles, Business
Councillor Anthony Hunt, Local Government
Pippa Britton, Voluntary Sector
Aled Edwards, Public Bodies
Kathryn Robson, Further Education

Supporting Officials

Jo Salway, Overall support for the SPC
Neil Surman, Item 2 only
Chris Hartwell, Item 4 only
Andrew Granville, Item 5 only

Observers

Naomi Alleyne, WLGA
Amber Courtney, TUC Cymru

Apologies

Peter Hughes (Unite)
Professor Wendy Larner (Higher Education)
Nicola Prygodzicz (Health)
Janis Richards (Business)