Informing Senedd Priorities: Lunchtime Online Briefing
The Senedd has established its committees for this Parliamentary term, and is releasing consultations that will inform their priorities over the next four years.
A recent briefing for Fellows, featuring Dame Elan Closs Stephens, Manon Antoniazzi FLSW (Senedd CEO), and Dr Fiona Dakin (our Head of Public Policy), outlined how the process works and how you can respond effectively to the consultation.
1. The Basics
The Senedd is Wales’s Parliament, formed of elected Members from all parties. A key role of Parliament is to offer cross-party scrutiny of government, and one of the most important ways in which the Senedd carries out this work is through committees.
2. The Opportunity
New committees have been established following the recent Senedd election: https://senedd.wales/senedd-business/committees/.
Last week, each committee has issued a public consultation to collect views and evidence to help steer their priorities across the whole Senedd term: https://senedd.wales/senedd-business/committees/consultations/.
3. How to respond effectively
- Politicians are generalists. This means that you need to establish the basics. Don’t assume any specific subject-based knowledge, and structure the response clearly.
- Respond honestly to the consultation, giving a genuine view based on your knowledge of the wider field of what should be prioritised. Try not to use it as an opportunity to promote your own niche or your own work.
- Use evidence from a range of sources, and don’t be too humble about the breadth of your knowledge across your field.
- It is generally considered to be more impactful to submit separate, individual responses, rather than one response co-signed by multiple experts.
4. What’s the point?
All Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales have expertise and evidence to share that will be highly useful for these committees. We warmly encourage you to take this opportunity, for three key reasons:
- If you make yourself known to the committee and to the Senedd staff team as an expert from the outset, you are more likely to be called upon again.
- The opportunity may help to establish your reputation, and may have benefits for your career.
- Most importantly, there are huge benefits for Wales when decision-making is based on reliable and independent evidence. This is an important part of the Society’s charitable mission.
