Mark Drakeford: I thank Sioned Williams for the question. Llywydd, since the start of devolution, this Senedd has led the way in promoting the rights of all children. We remain committed to the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This means ensuring that the rights of all children and their needs are met and that they are treated equally.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for raising those points and for the persistence with which he has followed this issue during the previous Senedd term and into this one. He is right to say that unacceptable and unfair practices can be observed in parts of Wales, which are possible because of the unregulated nature of estate management companies and the charges that they can raise. There are two...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, all of those are really important points that Peter Fox makes, and I know that he will speak from experience of having had to negotiate these agreements. He's right—there are many responsible building companies out there, with Tirion I referred to in the context of the Mill site in Cardiff being one of them. But there are too many examples, which he will know, and we could all of...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you to Rhys ab Owen for that supplementary.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I'm very proud of the Mill site; I've visited it many times. It will create 800 new homes in the centre of Cardiff on a brownfield site. It's a tribute in many ways to our former colleague Edwina Hart, who managed to bring about an innovative financing regime that means that the 400 affordable homes on the site involve no social housing grant at all, and that is overseen by Tirion, a...
Mark Drakeford: Good afternoon to the Member.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, our programme for government includes a commitment to reform the way in which estate charges are levied for public open spaces and facilities. Current arrangements are over complex and too often unfair. We will bring forward proposals for reform, for both new and existing estates.
Mark Drakeford: The clear and compelling case for Senedd reform has been repeatedly made through a series of expert panel and commission reports. The scrutiny role of the Senedd is vital to a healthy democracy, and it is right that we should ensure that it is fully equipped to carry it out.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government supports such developments, and employers across the devolved public services in Wales work in social partnership with their recognised trade unions to offer a range of flexible working practices—for example, this includes remote working, flexi-time and condensed hours.
Mark Drakeford: The Minister for Rural Affairs, North Wales and Trefnydd met with UK and devolved administration Ministers on 16 May. The Minister emphasised that only by joint working can we address the risks that all nations currently face in relation to food security.
Mark Drakeford: I referred in my original answer to the fact that Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has been reviewing the way in which its structure of hospital services, and not just hospital services, is currently configured. I don't agree with the point the Member made about downgrading and fragmentation; I think the Clinical Futures programme was a model of how a planned system can be developed to...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that. The Grange University Hospital opened in 2020, on budget and ahead of schedule. As we emerge from the pandemic, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has reviewed its clinical model to ensure optimum delivery of care across all hospitals in the region.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Mike Hedges very much. The picture, I think, is a mixed one, isn't it? Many things have changed over the period since the second world war. Some of those things make loneliness and isolation more difficult, some things have eroded those factors as well. I think I remember telling the story on the floor of the Senedd once of my mother telling me that, in 1946, her friend had gone from...
Mark Drakeford: Our strategy for tackling loneliness and social isolation, published in September last year, has been implemented through a £1.5 million fund delivering a wide range of local and innovative support. We will publish the first review of the strategy later this year, assessing progress and setting out next steps.
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much to Jane Dodds. We provide support to local authorities in a number of ways. We have provided more funding to them during the pandemic to help them to cope with that situation. I referred in my original answer to Sam Kurtz to the new guidance we have drawn up to help people in front-line services with the hard work that they're undertaking. We're working currently with our...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Sam Kurtz for that important supplementary question. Victoria Climbié was just itself one more in a long line of significant child protection investigations. The foundational one in modern times was into the death of Maria Colwell back in 1974, and there's a very strong contrast between what the Colwell inquiry found and what the Climbié inquiry found. In the Colwell case, the...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question. The Welsh Government works closely with all regional safeguarding boards and local authorities to strengthen and improve safeguarding practice across Wales. New all-Wales safeguarding procedures have been developed with those boards, to ensure services better identify and implement learning.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for that and acknowledge the consistent interest that he's taken in making sure that public transport links to the Grange hospital are as good as they can be, and I'm very pleased to say to him that we're in the final stages of finalising arrangements to introduce that new direct bus link to the hospital from Blackwood, Newbridge and Pontypool, and that that...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Hefin David for that, Llywydd. On Friday last week, the Welsh Government announced a further £50 million investment in active travel measures across Wales. All local authorities, including Caerphilly, will receive a minimum allocation of £500,000, and this funding will assist in developing alternatives to reliance on the car, including, of course, access to public transport services.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, can I begin by agreeing with what Adam Price has said about Jake Daniels? It's taken a 17-year-old to come forward in that way, and what a lesson that is for others who are older than that very courageous young man, and let's hope that his example will be heard by others. I regret the fact that the event to which Adam Price referred is going ahead, but the decision is not one...
