With the new Welsh Government’s first 100 days now completed, and the Senedd about to return from its summer recess, Plaid Cymru have faced scrutiny on their delivery against its ‘The First 100 Days’ plan, published prior to the Senedd election. This has included the welcoming of many actions within the plan that have been completed, as well as a number of areas where Plaid Cymru’s ability to deliver are still yet to be proven.

The plan has many merits; it is undoubtedly welcome to have a clear deadline for a number of concrete actions, which Plaid Cymru have rightly been proud to say is reflective of their desire to govern with transparency and to be effectively held accountable.

Since its publication, the plan had been criticised, both on account of the arbitrary deadline of 100 days, which lands in the middle of the Senedd’s 8 week summer recess as well as for the content of the plan itself.

With this early deadline, the plan is unable to promise substantive policy changes, much of which would require Senedd approval and the time for scrutiny which would accompany this. The commitments therefore centre on putting the foundations for governance in place, and establishing mechanisms to future delivery and policy change further down the line, beginning streams of work, rather than tangible achievements that voters will feel.

Welsh Labour have already been keen to contrast this with the opening weeks of Andy Burnham’s UK premiership, who has already announced measures including a £2 bus fare cap and VAT cuts on household electricity.

This is not to say however that significant work has not progressed under Plaid Cymru – the majority of its actions under the plan can be considered to have been done – but the real challenge for Plaid Cymru will be in showing to the electorate that delivery will result in real tangible improvements in their lives in the coming years, regardless of progress against the broadly technical first 100-days document.

Health and Wellbeing Focus

Looking first at health and care, there has already been a notable change in approach from the Welsh Government, with the establishment of two new deputy ministers: Nerys Evans as Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health, and Delyth Jewell as Deputy Minister for Social Care, Mental Health and Women’s Health.

The central element of Welsh Government’s pitch for government was its childcare offer. This has been backed with a commitment of £55m, with the Welsh Government saying that all 22 local authorities are on track to deliver 12.5 funded hours a week for all two-year-olds by the end of March 2027. While this is a tangible area of progress, it will not alleviate the concerns of the sector around the significant additional workforce capacity required to make the Welsh Government’s full roll-out of 20 hours a week for 48 weeks for all 9-month to 4-year-olds.

On the NHS, the Welsh Government has also announced an additional £145m investment, including £100m to support the reduction of waiting times, £25m to develop new elective care hubs, and £20m to address essential maintenance. It has also established an Elective Care Task and Finish Group, held summits on women’s health and the graduate health workforce, and began work on plans for cancer and telehealth.

Despite the actions completed, judgement of Plaid Cymru’s performance will be far more tied to whether these actions deliver continued and substantial reductions in waiting lists. Plaid Cymru will be particularly challenged on the timelines for such reductions, with Minister for Health and Social Services, Mabon ap Gwynfor already facing significant questioning over the meaning of eliminating two years waits within “a matter of months”. Additionally, Plaid Cymru will be pressed to show that their actions are causing reductions beyond the trajectory before they took power, with Welsh Labour keen to highlight that waiting list reductions were already underway under their government.

Environment, Energy and Infrastructure Focus:

Plaid Cymru has long been criticised for perceived internal inconsistency on its position around renewable energy infrastructure, with the party being committed to the principle of net-zero while also managing a historic rural support base where there are significant concerns that the renewable energy infrastructure needed to achieve net-zero is harming the Welsh countryside.

It has completed a number of actions outlined in the plan, including beginning work on a new National Development Strategy, a National Energy Strategy, and progress towards the integration of the Welsh Energy Service and Ynni Cymru into Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru. It has also begun work on a Climate and Nature Action Plan, including a commitment to reaching net-zero by 2040.

Despite these actions, little has been done to subdue concerns around inconsistency. Detail is still lacking around how the Welsh Government intends to reach its net-zero commitments while also pursuing a ban of steel lattice pylons, and a planning regime that will strengthen the voice of local communities. Thus far, the Welsh Government has made little comment on how these areas of policy may work against each other and how this will be overcome, not helped by the fact that responsibility for energy, net-zero and planning is split up between three separate cabinet ministers.

While there has been movement against the Welsh Government’s 100 days plan actions, again, this will do little to boost confidence in the Welsh Government’s ownership of these issues until it is able to provide more clarity on how these inconsistencies will be overcome, particularly through a better understanding of what will be included within the National Energy Strategy and the National Development Strategy.

What’s next?

Overall, the first 100 days of the Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government have demonstrated a clear attempt to establish the foundations for its longer-term programme, with progress across both health and care and environment and energy.

However, the nature of the commitments in the 100 Days plan means that much of this progress has been procedural rather than immediately transformative. The establishment of new ministerial responsibilities, the allocation of additional funding, and the commencement of new strategies and workstreams are important steps, but they will ultimately be judged by whether they translate into measurable improvements for people across Wales.

It is perhaps the next 100 days which will be far more informative as to the Welsh Government’s effectiveness. With the Senedd returning from summer recess, we will have an opportunity to see whether the Welsh Government can manage the scrutiny and challenges facing Wales to deliver positive outcomes, not just the completion of technical actions.

Particularly we’ll be keeping an eye on their efforts to successfully pass a budget on its second attempt, and manage its minority position to push through its promised slate of legislation. This will likely require Plaid Cymru not only to work with Welsh Labour, but to be more proactive in its engagement with the party to ensure proper cooperation and avoid last-minute talks which, as shown by the budget vote, the Welsh Government would be naïve to think can have success taken for granted.

Max McKeown, Political Monitoring Manager