18 | Welsh Government Annual Report 2020
An Equal Wales
This year, it has been more important than ever to deliver government services for everyone while ensuring we prioritise and meet the needs of the most vulnerable in Wales. This year we have gone further than ever to eliminate disadvantage and to ensure everyone in Wales has the support they need regardless of their circumstances, both now and in the future. We spent £10,929 per person on public services in Wales in 2019-20, which is 14% higher than the equivalent spend in England. Between 2016-17 and 2020-21 we will have provided local government with revenue funding of more than £25bn to deliver services for people in Wales, protecting local authorities from the excessive cuts seen in England. This figure excludes the further £1bn we have made available for local government services and rate relief schemes this year as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Providing essential support for children and families The Welsh Government has always put children and children’s rights at the heart of everything we do, ensuring every child has the support they need to thrive. In 2011, Wales became the first country in the UK to make the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) part of domestic law. We were the first country in the UK to guarantee provision to all children eligible for free school meals throughout the summer holidays and we have now guaranteed this up to and including Easter 2022. The Child Poverty Action Group said children in Wales received the most generous cash alternative to free school meals in the UK during lockdown. Throughout the pandemic, we continued to offer important services, such as our flagship Flying Start programme, which benefits children under four who live in some of our most disadvantaged areas. Based on the latest data available (up to 2018-19), more than 36,000 children benefited from the scheme each year in this Senedd term, receiving
help such as enhanced health visiting, funded part‑time childcare and parenting support. We launched our Childcare Offer in 2017, providing 30 hours a week of early education and childcare to families with children aged three and four-yearsold, for up to 48 weeks a year. In January 2020, more than 14,000 children were attending childcare provision funded through the Offer. The pandemic has affected some of these services, but we have responded to this by delivering support virtually and by adopting alternative approaches. To ensure families had the support they needed during this challenging year, our Coronavirus Childcare Assistance Scheme has provided essential childcare support for 9,600 pre-school vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. We provided £1.6m of funding
