Julie Morgan: I thank Mark Isherwood for those questions. As I said in response to Siân Gwenllian, the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee has engaged with providers in England to discuss options for the creation of a mother and baby unit in north-east Wales that could serve the population of both sides of the border. And I think, as you've acknowledged, those discussions have now stopped, because...
Julie Morgan: Well, I thank Siân Gwenllian very much for that very important question, and, as she says, we are making progress now with south Wales, but we certainly now need to move along with the situation in north Wales. We have been having discussions with providers in England to discuss options for a joint provision, but those proposals are now on hold, because the English service is actually...
Julie Morgan: We have reaffirmed our commitment to improve access and quality of perinatal mental health services both in the community and for in-patient care in the 'Together for Mental Health—Delivery Plan: 2019-22', which was published in January.
Julie Morgan: Welsh Government is committed to supporting people in Wales with mental health issues, including those with eating disorders. The recommendations in the eating disorder services review are ambitious and we have provided additional funding to support service improvement.
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the motions. The two statutory instruments before you today amend the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016, and there a number of regulations that flow from that Act. It's the intention that these amended regulations come into force on 1 April. Both sets of regulations are an important step towards realising our goal to...
Julie Morgan: Certainly, the Tonna Hospital site will not be suitable for women coming from the north, so certainly that's got to be looked at. So, in any case, I hope I've been able to provide some assurance that we do have plans to look at this whole difficult area, but improving mental health services is an absolute priority for us, and we do have arrangements in place to look at the quality and safety...
Julie Morgan: Yes, certainly. Well, I'm just about to finish.
Julie Morgan: Yes, and I wanted to make the point that we did have the units in Wales; that's the point I was making. And when a patient's mental health needs are best met in a specialist unit, health boards are looking at the quality. Firstly, decisions are made on the quality and type of specialist care provided to ensure it meets the needs of the individual. Secondly, the commissioner considers the...
Julie Morgan: Yes, certainly.
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, and I think that the examples used in the debate have been very powerful and illustrate the issue that we are addressing here today. And I do recognise how difficult it is for patients and their families when care has to be accessed away from home, and it's obviously much more difficult if families have concerns about the quality of the care being provided. So, I'm...
Julie Morgan: Formally.
Julie Morgan: Thank you. I'd like to thank Bethan for bringing this debate today, and also use the opportunity to thank her for all the work that she's done in this field, and how she's made it a really important area of work for the Assembly, and for all her work with the all-party group, and to wish you all the best for the future. I'm really pleased to have an opportunity today to draw attention to...
Julie Morgan: Absolutely. I think that's a very important point—the children must be at the centre of this—and I value the work that the Public Accounts Committee did on that issue. Local authorities are under a statutory duty to assess the need for adoption support services for individual adoptive families, including making an assessment for financial support to meet the particular needs of children....
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this debate today, and I'd like to thank the Conservatives for bringing this debate to the Chamber. I think there's been a lot of interest and a lot of very important points made. So, thank you for that. I first want to acknowledge the very helpful work of the Public Accounts Committee and...
Julie Morgan: Yes, I think that is the message that should go, and is going out, really: that paper applications are available. The other thing, of course, with all this—I think we've discussed the bus pass quite a bit—is that it has illustrated how popular the bus pass is and how important it is to older people. I know this issue of the bus pass applications has caused anxiety, and we certainly don't...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I welcome the opportunity provided by today's very important debate to highlight how the Welsh Government is working across departments to try to ensure everyone can access the support they need, regardless of whether they use the internet. We recognise that more services, as Rhun said in introducing the debate, including vital public...
Julie Morgan: I thank Mohammad Asghar for that question, and I think he makes a very important point—how important it is for people with dementia to live as near to their homes as possible and to have the opportunity of benefiting from the arts. He'll be aware of the dementia action plan for Wales from 2018 to 2022, which sets out our vision for Wales to be a dementia-friendly nation and that absolutely...
Julie Morgan: I'd like to thank Jayne Bryant for her question and for her work on the cross-party group on the arts and health. I was a member of that group and I know what important work it does and how important the arts are for health, and I'd be very pleased to come to one of the meetings. Obviously, one of the challenges to enable arts to happen in social care settings is cost, and I'm very pleased...
Julie Morgan: Arts-based initiatives can play an important role in improving the health and well-being outcomes of people in care settings. That is why we are supporting arts-based projects, including through the integrated care fund and Age Cymru's healthy ageing programme.
Julie Morgan: As corporate parents, local authorities have a duty to support looked-after children to access the same opportunities and enjoy the same life chances as other children. Through joint working across public services, our improving outcomes for children programme aims to improve the life chances of children in care.
