Roger Lewis praises the role of Cadw in preserving Wales’ heritage.
The work of Cadw is of significant importance to Wales. Cadw conserves, secures, protects, and keeps safe many of the things that make us who we are.
Most importantly Cadw promotes public understanding, and enjoyment of, and access to, the historic environment of Wales. It provides a vital link to our cultural, historical, inspirational, and aesthetic legacies, in turn nurturing our curiosity, imagination, and creativity, and enhancing social and economic well-being.
In December 2022 I was invited by then-Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport, and Tourism Dawn Bowden to chair a review of Cadw, specifically to ’consider Cadw’s current governance arrangements and how effective they are for its operation and the wider provision of public heritage services at a national level across Wales’. I was fortunate to have been able to assemble an outstanding, well-informed, and insightful group of people, from both inside and outside of Wales, including staff and trade union representatives to help shape the review.
At the heart of the recommendations in our review is a desire for Cadw to be even more dynamic, agile, and flexible in its engagement with the public, with government and with the cultural sector, suggesting several ways in which it can go about this.
Now available online, our review was published in December 2023 and in the coming weeks the new Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary responsible for Cadw, Lesley Griffiths, will respond to the 29 recommendations contained within the report.
Lesley Griffiths is the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice, a significant portfolio of which Cadw is part. I passionately believe that for Cadw to be part of such a portfolio, which is structurally aligned to social justice, is so welcome and so exciting and gives me even greater confidence in the ongoing work of Cadw.
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At the heart of the recommendations in our review is a desire for Cadw to be even more dynamic, agile, and flexible in its engagement with the public, with government and with the cultural sector, suggesting several ways in which it can go about this.
Cadw is already an Internal Agency within Welsh Government, and such special agency status means that Cadw is directly accountable to ministers for the operation and management of the organisation and for the delivery of its functions. Cadw is as close to government as any cultural organisation can achieve and given the current economic challenges this is something for Cadw to continue to embrace, which our review recommends. Cadw is now well placed to deliver a Welsh Government cultural social inclusion policy in a dynamic and immediate fashion due to its existing structural relationship within Welsh Government. Such a relationship enables Cadw to be very fleet of foot, and this is why I feel so optimistic.
The extraordinary activities of Wales’ cultural organisations have done so much to improve the health and well-being of our nation.
Cadw, as our review emphasises, is a high-achieving organisation which celebrates and reinforces Welsh identity, staffed by wonderful people, and deservedly it is something for us all to cherish and to be proud of. Social justice is key to a thriving society. Cadw has embraced these values for some time, and it has worked hard to deliver upon them. Its contribution to the Wales anti-racist action plan of 2022 is one fine example of many.
The cornerstone of Cadw’s activities is to help us all understand the complexities of Welsh identity, celebrating the rich cultural mix and historic diversity of our nation. Now an even more dynamic, agile, and flexible Cadw, working alongside an aligned social justice strategy within government, will allow Cadw to deliver even greater impact and engagement for all.
And I’d go further. All the culture sector in Wales could and should benefit if they become part of a significant structured and joined up social inclusion agenda, for virtually all the sector in Wales has been proactive and committed to social inclusion in their endeavours for years. The extraordinary activities of Wales’ cultural organisations have done so much to improve the health and well-being of our nation. A modest increase in support, drawn from the great budgets of those who are directly responsible for health and well-being and directed to culture and its social inclusion agenda, will help support and sustain significant benefits for all, far greater than the cost. This could now be a moment for Wales to step forward in its support of our outstanding arts, culture, and heritage bodies. They have always been of the people, and for all of the people of Wales. I am confident that Cadw will seize this moment. Cadw celebrates our past and it can shape our future with renewed energy.
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