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'Huge opportunity' for more family-friendly Senedd

Cemlyn Davies
Political correspondent, BBC Wales News
Getty Images An image of the Senedd building in Cardiff Bay on a sunny day. There are families walking and cycling by.Getty Images

The next Senedd election is a "huge opportunity" to make the Welsh Parliament a more family-friendly place to work, according to equality campaigners.

The comments follow calls from a Senedd committee for more "predictable" sitting hours and a creche service to be provided in Cardiff Bay.

Its report said the moves would encourage more people with caring responsibilities to stand for election.

However, a Conservative Member of the Senedd (MS) with three young daughters said the current arrangements were "perfectly fine".

The Future Senedd Committee has been looking at how the Welsh Parliament should operate after next May's vote, when the number of MSs will increase from 60 to 96.

In its report the committee said "every effort should be made to make finish times and the pattern of business as predictable as possible".

It said the "uncertainty" that currently exists "creates a barrier for some members, or prospective members, due to its impact on their ability to fulfil caring, or other, responsibilities".

The cross-party group said the Senedd should also consider deleting the rule that business in the chamber must begin at 13:30 to allow MSs to set a new working pattern after the next election.

The image shows Heledd Fychan standing in the Senedd looking directly at the camera and smiling. She is wearing a colourful dress. The Senedd's funnel is behind her.
Heledd Fychan's son was seven years old when she was first elected

Plaid Cymru MS for South Wales Central and committee member Heledd Fychan has a 12-year-old son.

"Like anyone who works full-time as a parent, it's always a juggle, and definitely being a politician isn't a family-friendly role," she said.

"You're expected to be available 24 hours a day. If something arises people expect you to be there and it's your job to be there."

Fychan said the introduction of hybrid working since Covid had made a "huge difference" but that the Senedd was not family-friendly "to the degrees it could be".

"We have to have a creche here. If we say that we're a modern parliament that's the bare minimum."

Both the UK and Scottish parliaments provide a creche.

The image shows Sam Rowlands standing in front of the Senedd's funnel. He is looking at the camera and smiling. He is wearing a grey check suit, a white shirt and a navy tie.
North Wales MS Sam Rowlands has three young daughters

However, the Conservative MS for north Wales Sam Rowlands said "the way things are is perfectly fine".

The father-of-three commutes to Cardiff Bay every week.

"We're not a special case as MSs. Lots of people have roles which require them to, at times, have pressure on them and sometimes it makes things difficult with their family."

He said MSs were in the Senedd for "36 weeks of the year".

"There's a significant amount of time when we're back in our home areas and seeing our families on a far more regular basis," he said.

'Marriages did break down'

The calls for the Senedd to introduce more family-friendly measures are not new.

The committee heard evidence from former members including ex-Labour politician Christine Chapman who represented Cynon Valley between 1999 and 2016.

"During the course of that time marriages did break down, relationships suffered, and I think a lot of it was to do with the impact of the sort of lifestyle that members had to undertake," she told Politics Wales.

"I think things may have been different if the Senedd had continued to really try to promote a better form of family-friendly culture."

The image shows Christine Chapman standing in her garden. She is looking at the camera and smiling. There are green shrubs behind her, and she is wearing a white top and a blue jacket.
Christine Chapman spent 17 years in Cardiff Bay

Nerys Evans, a Plaid Cymru AM between 2007 and 2011, also gave evidence to the committee.

Now a mother of two young children, the former member for Mid and West Wales is hoping to return to Cardiff Bay after next year's election.

She said her responsibilities as a mother of two young boys were a "major concern" and had initially held her back from standing again.

"I had to have a word with myself," she said.

"Would I ever give this advice to young women not to go for opportunities because they are mothers of children? You've got to be in it to change it."

The image shows Nerys Evans standing in the Senedd in front of the funnel. She is looking at the camera and smiling. She is wearing a navy top.
Mother-of-two Nerys Evans hopes to return to the Senedd next year

Director of Women's Equality Network Wales, Victoria Vasey, described the election as a "huge opportunity".

"The increase in the number of people in the next Senedd means that we are setting the next generation of our elected leaders, and we need to get that right.

"I think it's absolutely imperative that we see, at the bare minimum, a creche in the Senedd.

"It's important the Senedd becomes a better place in which to work, an easier place in which to work, where people can really focus on what they need to be doing for their constituents and on the very serious business of running our country."

In 2003 the National Assembly for Wales, as the Senedd was then called, became the first parliament in the world to achieve an equal balance of male and female politicians.

Currently 26 of the 60 MSs are women.

Plans to force political parties to ensure at least 50% of their candidates were women were dropped last year.

You can catch Politics Wales on BBC One Wales, 10:00 BST on 25 May on BBC iPlayer