Report exposes failures in the Welsh Government’s diversity strategy for public appointments

The Welsh Government is failing to recruit the “widest breadth of talent” for crucial public roles, due to an inability to attract diverse candidates, a Senedd committee has concluded.

In a report published on Thursday (March 27) the Senedd’s Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee criticised an inaccessible recruitment process, with a focus on candidates from the same pool usually clustered around Cardiff.

The report exposes a series of problems with the Welsh Government’s administration of appointments, underpinned by issues at its Public Bodies Unit.

The Unit focuses on the governance and oversight of arm’s length public bodies which are administratively separate from the Welsh Government but are accountable to it.

The committee reported that the Unit had demonstrated a “lack of strategy or awareness” of upcoming vacancies with many appointees, or those seeking public appointment, saying they were unaware of the Unit’s existence.

Undelivered

The report also found that objectives and key actions in the government’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for Public Appointments remain undelivered.

This is despite being lauded as a “ministerial priority” when it was published in 2020. The strategy expired in 2023, with no current plan to replace it.

Public appointments oversee the delivery and governance of key public services such as chair or board members in areas such as health, culture, sport, heritage or transport.

The Children’s Commissioner, Older People’s Commissioner and the Future Generations Commissioner are also public appointments.

The committee heard from people who had held public roles or had been through the application process.

Many told of the difficulty in accessing information about positions, suggesting that applying was “an art” requiring a form of words only used by “those in the know”.

Further issues with the accessibility of documents and forms, remuneration and lack of flexibility of roles to meet people’s caring responsibilities or adjustments for accessibility, were also a deterrent for attracting diverse candidates.

Damian Bridgeman has held a number of public appointment roles with Social Care Wales since 2014, and currently has a publicly appointed role with the UK Department for Transport.

Barriers

In his evidence to the committee, Damian, who has cerebral palsy, explained the barriers he encountered in the process.

He said: “I truly believe that disabled people need to have representative voices that reflect society in the corridors and the rooms of power. That’s why I decided to step into public life.

“But, when you start looking at reasonable adjustments, it’s automatically assumed that you are going to need a lot of care when all I need is a secretariat to help me take my own notes.

“Another issue, for example, is that the application process doesn’t work with screen readers. I was lucky, because I was able to tell the public appointments unit exactly what I needed, but it was clear that the knowledge about what adjustments could be made just wasn’t there. Trying to get any support was really quite difficult.

“All the way through the process I’ve had to be willing to ask, and there are a number of disabled people that won’t ask for reasonable adjustments because they think that’s going to not stand them in good stead when applying for public appointments.”

Change

As well as concerns about the Welsh Government’s administration, the committee says it is unconvinced that the time devoted to Wales by the Public Appointments Commissioner for England and Wales is enough to bring about “much needed change”.

In a supplementary report, also published today, the committee has called for the creation of a dedicated Public Appointments Commissioner for Wales.

Chair of the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee, Mark Isherwood MS, said: “Our inquiry has exposed a series of failings in the Welsh Government’s approach to sourcing diverse candidates for public sector appointments.

“We are appalled that the Diversity and Inclusion strategy is over a year out of date and that there has been no evaluation, consultation, action, or even a plan to replace it. It highlights much deeper problems in the machinery of the Welsh Government and its administration processes, not least the confusion about the role of the Public Bodies Unit.

“Based on the evidence we heard about the recruitment process, we remain unconvinced that enough is being done to develop a pipeline of talent for public appointments. The Welsh Government must improve its approach to encourage and support individuals throughout the application process and beyond.

“It’s clear there are also failings in the Commissioner’s oversight of the system and, in a devolved world, an England and Wales Public Appointments Commissioner is no longer fit for purpose. The Committee recommends that the Welsh Government establish a Public Appointments Commissioner for Wales, as a long-term investment in the country’s future. This role could be combined with an existing Commissioner’s role, to be as cost-effective as possible.

“Public appointments are important and should provide those from a range of diverse backgrounds with an opportunity to contribute to directing and managing public services and be a key part of the accountability and governance process. We must access talent from across Wales and ensure equality of opportunity regardless of a person’s background.”

Both reports will now be presented to the Welsh Government for consideration, with a debate to be scheduled in the Senedd in due course.