Caroline Jones: First Minister, unfortunately, the narrative around rough sleeping has been completely toxic. Rather than seeing rough sleepers as poor, unfortunate souls forced to find shelter in shop doorways facing hypothermia and starvation, many have seen them and branded them as delinquents and a scourge to be removed from our high streets. First Minister, do you agree with me that, rather than serving...
Caroline Jones: Thank you, First Minister, for that answer. I have been dealing with a constituent whose wheelchair had to go in for repair. He was left without a suitable alternative, as this was a bespoke chair, for over two months and has been unable to successfully contact anyone for updates. It was only after I contacted the chief executive of the local health board that any action was taken. Frankly,...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Andrew Blakeman and his team for the open and transparent way in which they approached the review and for their excellent recommendations. We all accept that the NHS doesn’t have access to unlimited funds; however, we also all accept that there are times when a novel treatment that...
Caroline Jones: Minister, some of the media reports on this matter have been quite upsetting. To see young girls missing out on weeks of their education each year because of their biological make-up, and live in poverty, is unacceptable. Minister, can you update us on the discussions your Government have had with UK and European Union institutions about removing the value added tax on feminine hygiene...
Caroline Jones: Cabinet Secretary, I welcome the news that south Wales is possibly to get a new prison. As someone who has worked in the prison service for many years, I know only too well the problems with overcrowding, which make for an unsafe environment for both prisoners and staff. Having additional prisons in south Wales will allow more prisoners to be housed closer to their homes. This is a massive...
Caroline Jones: First Minister, both Conservative and Labour Governments in Westminster, and successive Labour, Plaid and Liberal coalitions here in Wales, have failed to allow for sufficient funding for social care. As a result of—[Interruption.] As a result of decades of underfunding, we are approaching a crisis point in social care, and despite the fact that our population is ageing fast, neither you...
Caroline Jones: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the actions the Welsh Government is taking to improve Welsh patients access to clinical trials in Wales?
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, the overspending by the local health boards can be equated to the large amounts spent on agency nursing. Last year, the Welsh NHS was spending £2.5 million each week on agency staff, which will undoubtedly be cut back next year. However, we simply don’t have the permanent staff available to make up the shortfall, so it will be patient care that suffers....
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The Assembly passed the nurse staffing levels Act last year with the promise that this new legislation would deliver safeguards for patient safety and put an end to situations where nurses find they have insufficient time to properly care for patients. Your Government is currently consulting on the statutory guidance that leaves out any mention of the recommended...
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Safe staffing levels should apply to all settings. As we move to a health service that aims to deliver more and more services in the community, we must ensure that community nursing teams do not have an excessive patient workload. The number of district nurses working in Wales has fallen by over 40 per cent in recent years, but, according to the Royal College of...
Caroline Jones: I’d like to thank the Petitions Committee for their report and the work they undertook to consider this petition. Ovarian cancer strikes around 20 women each day in the UK and sadly accounts for around 248 deaths in Wales each year. We all know that in the case of cancer, early diagnosis equates to better chances of survival. If diagnosed in the early stages of ovarian cancer, 90 per cent...
Caroline Jones: First Minister, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s 2017 report, ‘State of Child Health’, highlighted the need for safe places for children to play in order to tackle the quarter of the child population in Wales who start primary school obese. What is your Government doing to ensure that young people have access to open spaces and play areas, and what actions are you...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Minister. The social services and well-being Act was the biggest shake-up in social care in decades, intended to put the people receiving care and their carers at the heart of the system. These changes were absolutely necessary. Social care has been hugely under-resourced and is likely to be put under increasing pressure in future decades as our population ages....
Caroline Jones: First Minister, we’re fast approaching a point where social care is unaffordable, and, unless we take urgent action, we are facing the real possibility that the system may collapse. Successive Governments have failed to take account of the ageing population and to properly plan for future demand. What discussions have you had with the UK Government about how to ensure the social care sector...
Caroline Jones: Diabetes is one of the major health challenges facing our nation. As many as one sixth of the population of Wales are at high risk of developing the disease, which is blighting increasing numbers of people around the world. As the Welsh Government’s own annual statement of progress points out, there is still a lot to do to address the wider lifestyle risks for diabetes and to tackle...
Caroline Jones: UKIP will be supporting the amendments in this group. We found it hard to reconcile the fact that the public health Bill did nothing to address the biggest public health challenge facing our nation—obesity. As I highlighted during last week’s debate on diabetes, it is a matter of national shame that nearly two-thirds of Welsh adults and a third of Welsh children are overweight or obese....
Caroline Jones: UKIP supports extending smoke-free legislation to all settings where children could be exposed to second-hand smoke and will therefore be supporting the Minister’s amendments in this group. Diolch.
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. I wish to formally move the amendment in my name. When we first started taking evidence about special procedures, I must admit I was shocked by the range of things people did to their bodies. However, the one thing that did disturb me the most was the tattooing of eyeballs. It’s not the fact that someone wants to inject ink into their eyeball that shocks me but the fact...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. Obviously, I’m disappointed that these amendments were not supported. One of the reasons that I am very disappointed is that I believe that this procedure should be used for medical reasons only. I’m disturbed that someone can go out, have their eyeballs tattooed and have complications such as those I have listed. I’m also concerned that this procedure could add...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. I wish to move the amendment formally in my name. Amendment 39, tabled in my name, seeks, by way of Welsh Government guidance, to strengthen local toilet strategies by making clear the actions a local authority must take to address the need for public toilets in their local area in an effective and timely manner. I believe that this is the best way to achieve what the...
