Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Vikki. Since launching 'Cymraeg 2050', the narrative around the language has changed considerably. We must build on this new momentum in order to ensure more access to Welsh-medium education, and we need to open more early years settings in addition to the 40 planned for opening. We also need to continue to provide exciting opportunities for people to hear and to use the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Laura. Well, we don't set up these programmes without consulting with people to ask them what it is that they want, what it is that is meaningful and useful to them. One of the groups that I've been speaking to—. One of the issues, of course, is we've put a lot of support in place, but I was hearing that some people simply don't have time to access that support. So, if...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Jayne. I must say that I'm very pleased that we've been able to give an extra £1 million to enhance the support of the programme that we have, Health for Health Professionals Wales, and that psychological support, which includes a helpline. The Samaritans are there specifically to help people; there is a doctor who will be able to ring back within 24 hours. And what's...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, I'd like to pay tribute for the real interest that Jayne Bryant has shown in this issue. I know she's just just asked the question to the health Minister on a similar subject, and I think it's absolutely right to focus on this. The Welsh Government fully recognises the incredible physical and emotional demands faced by our NHS and social care workforce, and we're really closely...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you, Rhun. Well, of course, the figures that came from that survey conducted by the children's commissioner raised major concerns for us, the fact that 67 per cent of children between 12 and 18 had said that they felt sad some of the time or all of the time, and of course that is a cause of great concern to us. That is why we have targeted much of our work over the past few months in...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. The data published today does demonstrate that we have only just missed our target of 80 per cent of assessments being carried out—I think it was 78 per cent that we reached. So, I do think that it's positive that we were able to reach that level although there had been a huge increase in demand. One thing that concerns me is that the data refers to those under the age of 18 and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, we have ensured that that access is available and that it's still seen as something that is an essential service within the NHS. Of course, demand for services has increased during that period and that's why we have provided far more funding into this particular area. We've provided an additional £1.5 million to target that help at help in our communities, through the third sector. And...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, David. Absolutely, that pattern of working has, I think, changed forever; I don't think we'll be going back to the patterns that we had before and certainly, as a Welsh Government, we've got a commitment now to work towards that 30 per cent of the workforce working from home. So, that's a significant shift. And you're absolutely right: just because people are working from...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, David. I think, just to pay tribute to the incredible work that Mind has been doing over the years, and we're very pleased to be funding Mind to really run lots of the projects that we're involved with in Wales—. And I pay tribute in particular to Sara Moseley, who will be leaving the organisation in the next few weeks, for all the work she's done with us in recent years....
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, David. I can assure you that we've put a lot of work into—. In particular, when we come to the workforce who are on the front line, we've made sure that we've put a lot of protection in place for them, but we've gone much further than that when it comes to Working Wales. So, we have a programme, Working Wales. I think about 35 per cent of businesses and public sector...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Nick. And I'll be doing a speech on this very issue in the St David's festival that'll be taking place in the next couple of weeks. So, I'm very happy to be giving this issue some attention, because I do think that there are slightly different issues when it comes to mental health in rural areas, in particular for middle-aged men. So, very often, what we find is that they...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much for, Jack, and just to make it clear that I'm very aware that actually those kinds of traumas that impact people's lives is something that has come across to me very clearly during my time in this post. And it is something that won't come and go; it's something that can last for a long time. So, a trauma-informed approach to mental health is absolutely central to what we need...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch. Our immediate priority is to work with partners to respond to changing mental health needs due to the pandemic. Our revised 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan 2019-22 sets out a range of specific actions, supported by the additional £42 million for mental health in our draft budget to support this.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We recognise the importance of easy access to mental health support, particularly during the pandemic. Health boards provide clear information on their websites to help people access appropriate mental health support. The ‘stepiau’ service in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is a good example of accessible mental health support.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We invested an additional £9.9 million this year to support mental health services across Wales, and committed within the draft Welsh Government budget to further increase mental health budgets by £42 million from 2021-22. The overall mental health ring-fence budget will rise to over £783 million. Services within Rhondda will continue to benefit from this additional resource.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I met with the children’s commissioner in December 2020. We are due to meet again in early March to discuss the impact of COVID on the mental health of children and young people in Wales. I am looking forward to discussing the findings of the commissioner’s second 'Coronavirus and Me' survey during this meeting.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Menter Iaith Caerffili provides services in Islwyn. Every Menter moved to online activities in 2020 including Ffilifest and fitness/cookery sessions in Islwyn. The National Centre for Learning Welsh provides opportunities for people to develop their Welsh language skills all over Wales and the free Cysgliad package has also supported many.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Yes, she's here, but we can't hear her.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Mike, and I know that you're an example of someone who's learned Welsh, but that your daughter has been through Welsh-medium education, and I'm sure that one day, when maybe she has children, she will speak it to those children. So, it's an excellent contribution. Thank you very much, Mike, another step to keeping the language alive. What's important, I think, is that we...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. I think you're quite right: the way we ensure that this works is to ensure that those who do speak Welsh feel pride in the fact that they speak Welsh. But we also need to raise the confidence of those people who've been through Welsh-medium education, have stopped using the language for a time, and we need to relight that fire within them, so that when they do have...
