Portfolio: Social Justice and Early Years
Sioned Williams lives in Alltwen in the Swansea Valley and was Chair of Cilybebyll Community Council before being elected as Member of the Senedd for South Wales West in the 2021 Election. Brought up in the Gwent valleys, Sioned was educated at Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmbrân and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni. After graduating with Joint Honours in Welsh and English from Aberystwyth University, she was awarded the S4C T.Glynne Davies Scholarship to study for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism at Cardiff University.
Sioned was a journalist with BBC Wales before going to work for Swansea University first as as Welsh Language Policy Officer and then as Communications and Development Manager at Academi Hywel Teifi. As part of her work at the University, she helped establish and co-managed Tŷ’r Gwrhyd, the Swansea Valley’s Welsh language centre in Pontardawe. She has also worked for Plaid Cymru as Head of Strategic Communications.
Plaid Cymru’s ambitious policies to create a more equal, more just Wales is what motivated Sioned to enter politics. She hopes to be part of a generation of women within the national movement who will ensure Welsh democracy is deepened, diversified and expanded and her main priority is to address the shameful levels of poverty in Wales. She believes that democratic socialism – which is at the heart of Plaid Cymru’s vision for an Independent Wales – is the only way we can guarantee dignity and opportunity to all.
She is Chair of four Senedd Cross Party Groups: the Senedd Cross Party Group on Violence against Women and Children; the Senedd Cross Party Group on Human Rights; the Senedd Cross Party Group on Learning Disability and the Senedd Cross Party Group on Consumer Rights.
Outside of politics, Sioned is a well-known reviewer and commentator on broadcasting and the arts for Welsh broadcast and print media and has adjudicated the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize at the National Eisteddfod and the Crown competition at the Urdd National Eisteddfod. She is a former Chair of the Bursaries Panel at Literature Wales and is a trustee of the Saunders Lewis Memorial Fund. She is married with two children.