Foodbanks – modern soup kitchens?

Images of people queueing at soup kitchens were long ago consigned to history.

Fast forward 80 years and they are back in their modern equivalent.  Foodbanks feed the hungry, people who are unable to cope on limited incomes with rising…

The Rich / Poor Divide

The Occupy protests have focused attention on, amongst other issues, the gap between the rich, typified by bankers, and the rest of society. The gap between rich and poor is not just a city phenomenon – it is right…

Welsh Education – We must do better

Apart from a few ‘flat-earthers’ there is general agreement thatWales’ education system is in need of reform and revitalisation. The most worrying indication of system failure was…

Sawing through the Safety Net

Today, the Bevan Foundation publishes a pamphlet on a subject of real social policy significance for Wales. Our aim is to draw attention to a topic which sums up the Westminster coalition government’s assault on those who are being propelled, by its policies, into deep and persistent poverty. For the first time in post-war history, a UK…

The Power of Volunteering

On Wednesday last week, around sixty volunteers from WRVS came to the Senedd to tell AMs about the work being done by the charity to make life better for thousands of older people across Wales….

Keep the Community in Communities First

In the week that Communities First holds its annual conference, with a big question-mark hanging over its future and following days of bad publicity, Victoria Winckler argues that the Welsh Government’s proposals are fundamentally flawed.

Communities First must be one…

The Welfare Challenge*

Of all the UK Government’s spending cuts, those to benefits will probably affect the largest number of people and hit the poorest most.

The scale of change is truly staggering. In Wales, nearly one in five people of working age…

Disability and mobility

The Low Review of the proposed withdrawal of DLA mobility from care home residents is a sharp reminder that disabled people have the same mobility needs as anyone else.

Chaired by crossbench peer Lord Low of Dalston, the 

What makes a good school?

The Welsh Government has proposed wide ranging reforms to our schools in their recent White paper.  They acknowledge that the introduction of this Bill is likely to increase the number of interventions in schools ‘causing concern’.  This…

Education and the New Welsh Government: understanding the challenges

Exclusive preview of Prof. Gareth Rees’ thoughts on the challenges to Wales’s education which he will be discussing further on 15th November 2011 at a major conference ‘Could Do Better? The challenge to Wales’s education sytstem’ Find…