The National Assembly for Wales becomes a Slate Ambassador

Here at the National Assembly for Wales, we are always looking at new ways of sharing information in exciting and innovative ways. This year, we started using a product called Slate (made by Adobe) to give summary versions of reports produced by our committees.

Our Slates have been extremely successful – so much so that Adobe have made us a Slate Ambassador!

What is Slate?

Slate is a platform that allows organisations to create and share interactive reports, information and presentations. It has accessible user interfaces and cross platform compatibility, the Assembly has used Slate to share the extensive and complex work of Assembly committees in an informative and easily navigated format.

Slate success

Following the recent inquiry into Alcohol and Substance Misuse in Wales, the Assembly’s Health and Social Care Committee wanted to share their findings. The Assembly used Slate to create a summary of the committee’s work. Using eye catching imagery and informative content, a cross platform report with a friendly user interface was created.

“We have been blown away by the amazing things people like (The National Assembly for Wales) are doing with the tool”   – The Slate Web Team

Slate has now been used to present the findings of a number of Assembly committees including the Finance Committee enquiry into whether the Ombudsman should have more powers and the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee enquiry into how poverty can be reduced in Wales.

Find out more about the work of Committees at the National Assembly for Wales

Trying a new report format: the Finance Committee’s Consideration of Powers: Public Services Ombudsman for Wales report

This year, the Assembly’s Finance Committee looked into the powers of the Public Services Ombudsman in Wales. The Committee published a full-length report with its findings in May 2015.

Official committee reports tend to be quite long and include a large amount of evidence received from stakeholders and the Welsh Government. These reports are published on the relevant Assembly committee’s webpage.

The official version of any report is important as it contains all the evidence and recommendations/findings of the committee and it provides transparency.  

In an attempt to make the findings of reports more accessible to people who might be interested in the Finance Committee’s work, an at-a-glance report on the inquiry into the Ombudsman’s powers was released alongside the official report. This was designed to be read by flicking through it on a tablet or a phone, or scrolling on a desktop computer.

To make the report more accessible the word count was reduced, the language was simplified, images added, and quotes inserted from Committee meetings to provide the reader with an overview of the Committee’s report.

Here are the final versions:

Should the Ombudsman have more powers? Summary report

 

This is the full version of the report: Finance Committee’s Report on Consideration of Powers: Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PDF, 605KB)

If you have time to read both and compare them, we would welcome any feedback: please send to communications@assembly.wales