How can Subnational Governments Deliver Policy in the Age of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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How can Subnational Governments Deliver Policy in the Age of Austerity? Reshaping Homelessness Policy in Wales

Andrew Connell, Steve Martin, and Emily St Denny Public Policy Institute for Wales, Cardiff University andrew.connell@ppiw.org.uk

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Context: Devolution in Wales

• UK Government devolves some policy responsibilities to National Assembly for Wales

(NAfW) 1999

• NAfW powers initially limited to secondary legislation only, no separate executive
• Separate executive 2001(2006), primary legislative powers 2011
• Now NAfW/ Welsh Government (WG) have substantially same powers in devolved matters

in Wales as UK Parliament/ Government in England

• Housing (including homelessness) is one of the devolved responsibilities

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Homelessness policy in Wales

• Homelessness services in Wales (Scotland, England) delivered by local councils within (sub)

national legislative framework

• From 1977 (1996) councils must secure long-term housing for homeless persons who meet

statutory criteria (priority need, non-intentional, local connection)- but few duties to people who don’t meet criteria.

• Statutory safety net generally supported but criticised for exclusivity, inflexibility, resource-

intensive process

• NAfW’s Housing (Wales)Act 2014 seeks to address criticisms: long-term duty remains but

councils now have preventative and relief duties to all applicants regardless of other criteria

• Wales has extended the state’s responsibilities at a time of austerity- but how?

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The NATO model (Hood & Margetts 2007)

• Nodality- ‘the property of being in the middle of an information or social network’
• Authority- ‘the possession of legal or official power’ to demand, forbid, guarantee or

adjudicate – includes but not limited to lawmaking power

• Treasure- money or other ‘fungible chattels’- the government’s stock of anything that can

be freely exchanged

• Organisation- ability of government to do things using human and material resources

under its own control

• Range of tools differs between levels of government: Welsh Government possessed all four

but in varying degrees

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Welsh Government resources

• Treasure: Limited. WG funded homelessness services (existing funding stream) but relied
• verall on UK government block grant – which rose/fell with English spending
• Organisation: Limited. WG had small homelessness policy team, but relied on councils to

deliver services

• Authority: 1999-2011 -NAfW could only legislate within framework of UK Acts. WG develops

policy style based on strategies, co-ordination, guidance. 2011 onwards much less limited- full legislative powers.

• So Treasure, Authority, (Organsiation), all limited by the devolution settlement. But this is not

true of

• Nodality: the key resource here.

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Nodality, Wales, and homelessness policy

• Homelessness Strategy Working Group (HSWG)- since c 2000- kept networks open: …may

have been a talking shop…but…formed the basis for something …(consultant interview)

• Homelessness Network- council homelessness service leads- …. people who are going to

be delivering the service’ (consultant interview)

• Permanent secondee from councils/third sector into WG homelessness policy team a sort
• f reality-check … they can inform that process with the experience of realities of life…on

the frontlines (Welsh Government interview 1)

• Very inclusive consultation/ research to inform new legislation
• Guidance/ implementation training developed & delivered collaboratively

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Nodality, Wales, and homelessness policy

• Overall picture: Welsh Government at centre of comprehensive & (generally) trust-based

set of relationships which it had consciously fostered

• Aided by the small size of Wales and its homelessness sector:

…it is easier in Wales than in England because it’s smaller and people do tend to know each other, but…you’ve still got to work damn hard to make connections (Welsh Government interview 2)

• Nodality a necessary resource which WG used very skilfully. Not in itself sufficient to deliver

fundamental homelessness reform but provided context for use of Authority

• Extension of legislative Authority 2011 enabled WG to go beyond the limits of what

Nodality alone could achieve.

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A distinctively Welsh approach?

• Homelessness ‘always on the radar’ of WG- heavily embedded in legislation, well-
• rganised policy community (with closer access to WG since devolution), ‘emblematic’

issue for progressive & distinctive policymaking

• Wales retains high view of state as steward of social wellbeing- preference for universal,

free, unconditional services (protected after 2010); collaboration & trust rather than competition

• These preferences reflected throughout development of new homelessness policy- explicit

emphasis on stability, opportunity, equality, social justice

• BUT unlike Scottish homelessness reforms (2003- ‘1977 plus’) Welsh reforms coincided with

austerity):…if we could have had the powers, we could have introduced it in say 2003/2004 or even 2005. It would have been much easier to have found the money and more money as well…(Welsh Government interview 1)

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Retrenchment the context for reforms- but not their purpose

• It was incredible, when everything else is retrenching and we’re acutely aware of that,

we’re widening the safety net and the discussions with Welsh Government were driven by social justice…. England’s looking at it now and ... it’s resource discourse. So, ‘This could save money. This would be a more effective way to spend money.’ It wasn’t about that. It was about, ‘Actually we’ve got a group of people that are facing an injustice under this

• system. We’ve known it for a long time. We’ve got the powers now to do something

about it’ (Academic interview 1)

• The Westminster budget cuts have required us to look differently at the way we do things

and the Welsh Government has traditionally had a view that it will try and protect the more vulnerable. So it has been I think necessity meets some lucky happenstance and the necessity is we need to do things differently. The lucky happenstance is we had a Government that was committed to protecting the vulnerable. (Third Sector interview 2)

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Conclusions- subnational and small country policy

The subnational context -WG constrained by willingness of UK state to devolve powers

• Limited devolution of powers in 1999 prompted policy style based on exhortation/ co-
• rdination- Nodality
• In this case that style laid the foundations for successful development and implementation
• f legislation-based reforms later on.
• Unlike Authority, Treasure, and (indirectly) Organisation, Nodality was a resource which the

Welsh Government could generate and develop by itself The small country context - again, Nodality is key

• Small Welsh homelessness policy community meant leading actors were constantly in touch

with each other- and in varying permutations, so no one actor could control the flow of

• debates. Always opportunities to go directly to other actors and to access a range of views

and experiences.

• High degree of vertical coherence – WG consciously fostered constant interplay between

policymakers and practitioners so that policymaking and practice informed each other

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Conclusions

• Caveats: three special circumstances- expectation of further devolution, longevity of key

players in post, suitability of homelessness as subnational policy subject (choice of appropriate subject important as well as choice of appropriate instruments?) Nevertheless

• NATO model enables us to see importance of interplay of resources/ tools over time
• Case study shows value of Nodality as a relatively autonomously-generated category of

policy tool, in subnational and small country policymaking and delivery

• Combination of Nodality and Authority provides powerful resources for a subnational

government which has only limited formal powers and fiscal autonomy

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Thank you for listening

Public Policy Institute for Wales

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