FRIDAY’S announcement of an improved pay offer for NHS Wales staff offered some hope to desperate, exhausted healthcare workers and sent political journalists hurrying to file their reports.
 
It also presents a snapshot of the extent of devolution as it currently stands, its strengths and its limits.

For months, Unison and our trade union colleagues have been engaged in intensive negotiations with the Welsh government. 

At times it has been extremely frustrating and we knew Welsh ministers could do much more to improve upon the very low pay award. 

Our members now need to carefully consider the improved offer. But the point is, we were sat round the table together, seeking a way forward, while union colleagues in England were being scolded like naughty schoolchildren by the Conservative government.

It’s also apparent of course that there are tight restrictions on Welsh government’s ability to implement the very much higher pay rises that the whole of the public sector in Wales deserves and needs to retain workers and attract new staff. 

Whether it is the NHS, education or elsewhere, Welsh ministers say: “We don’t have the funds to invest as we would wish. We need more money from Westminster to realise our ambitions.”
 
It’s worth spelling out here: public services are devolved to Wales, but the Welsh government lacks the powers to decisively intervene for the good of its people. 

It’s not hard to appreciate why many think the current devolution arrangements are not working.

Discontent and anger might be crystallising around pay now, but Welsh public service workers have witnessed how the vital services they deliver have been damaged by Westminster Conservatives hell-bent on severe spending cuts.
 
Over the last 12 years our Labour administrations in Cardiff have only been able to offer very limited protections to those public services which are the glue binding our communities together. 

Desperately short of the funds they knew were required, the Welsh government couldn’t defend our towns from swingeing cuts. 

Youth centres, libraries and more closed, many thousands of council jobs were scrapped and some key services privatised.
 
We want a Wales that reflects Unison’s values, where decisions are made on what is best for people rather than looking at the profit that can be made from them. 

This requires a government that has the power and resources to effectively tackle inequality and poverty, racism and all forms of discrimination, and to build the happier, healthier and fairer country we want to live in.
 
There is an argument for policing and justice, welfare, equalities, employment law (including minimum wage enforcement), health and safety and industrial relations law and their enforcement to all be devolved to Welsh government.
 
In contrast with the hostility with which Westminster treats working people, we applaud that social partnership working and ethical procurement will be made law in Wales. 

However, the current Westminster government anti-trade union legislation rides roughshod over Wales’s more progressive and collaborative approach.

The Welsh government is operating at the limit of its powers. We want the powers to be extended so they might go much further to help Welsh citizens.
        
While the Barnett formula may currently be providing Wales with a block grant per head funding higher than England, it takes no account of the high levels of deprivation in Wales and it is blind to the fact large parts of Wales are rural and more money might be required to provide services over geographical distance, despite the smaller population.                                                                                                                     

If the Welsh government is to have the power to intervene to invest and to redistribute wealth, it needs the funds to do so too and that means seeking further devolvement of tax powers. A Welsh investment bank could transform Welsh government’s aim for a massive social housing building programme.

Political realities are driving increased interest in devolution among the population in other ways too. 

The shamelessness of Boris Johnson, a prime minister completely without morals, contrasted starkly with the measured judgements of the First Minister throughout the Covid pandemic. 

Liz Truss didn’t even bother to pick up the phone to Mark Drakeford during her short tenure. This disrespect towards the First Minister of Wales is extraordinary.

In fact, the Westminster Conservative government has (knowingly or otherwise) failed to grasp the concept of devolution and regularly works to undermine the Welsh Labour government.
 
Since 2010, Welsh voters have three times returned a Welsh Labour government or a Labour-led coalition government, yet the weight of voters in England has four times delivered a Westminster Conservative government or Conservative-led coalition in UK national elections. 

These Westminster governments have been ideological opposites of the Welsh governments which value investment in public services and yet Westminster controls the purse strings.
 
If Westminster refuses to deal effectively with the big issues of the day such as combatting climate change or the cost-of-living crisis and show UK leadership, Wales and the other nations can be hamstrung in how they might want to individually respond, because they lack the necessary funds.

Today at Unison Cymru Wales council, healthcare workers, care staff, local authority workers, school staff, those employed in further and higher education, police and justice, the energy sector and elsewhere, will debate the constitutional future of Wales.

We want to lead a debate within our million-strong UK union about the way we are governed and the society we want to build. 

If we believe in social justice, we need a Welsh government that has the funds and the powers to intervene to positively shape the lives of its citizens. 

We will be deciding today whether we think Wales’s future best lies in a federal UK of devolved nations and administrations.