Suzy Davies: Cabinet Secretary, a few weeks ago, you told me that when it comes to the protection of heritage so that we can promote faith tourism, it’s essential that Visit Wales uses its skills to promote Wales around the globe and to offer advice as well. While you outlined to me that Cadw has seen an increase in visitor numbers in Tintern and Valle Crucis, neither of those is actually in South Wales...
Suzy Davies: Yes, thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Good afternoon, Minister. Thank you for your announcement yesterday on the appointment of the inaugural board for Social Care Wales. As we know, its duties will extend well beyond those of registration, as fulfilled by the care council, and its chairman made plan to me yesterday that they’re looking forward to using their combined expertise to be a...
Suzy Davies: You’re well blessed, Minister, in having this support in helping you make sure that the voice of social care is well represented in what’s likely to be happening over the next period of this Assembly, anyway. One of the things that you won’t find any opposition from anybody on, I suspect, in this Chamber, is the focus on the integration of health and social care, really focusing on...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for that answer, actually. I still want to develop that a little bit further because the future of social care—we’re not talking about it because it’s fashionable. It’s because it matters to so many people and we all recognise that it needs change. And even though I, personally, have no fixed view on whether this should be evolutionary or revolutionary, what I’m...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that answer, and I’m glad that you acknowledge the concerns, and can confirm that intervention is actually happening now. I’ve got a slightly different question to ask you, so bear with me on this, because it’s about district nurses. The Assembly, as you know, took evidence that the number of district nurses in Wales has dropped by 40 per cent in the last five years, with...
Suzy Davies: Diolch. Julie Morgan.
Suzy Davies: I call on the Minister for Social Services and Public Health to reply to the debate.
Suzy Davies: Thank you. That brings today’s proceedings to a close.
Suzy Davies: I wonder if I could just ask for two statements, please, leader of the house. The first—I see the Cabinet Secretary is here—is about the regulation of wood waste sites. I know this is an issue that’s come up before, but, in view of the fire at Llandow, which has affected residents and at least one small business recently, I think maybe this is something we’d be very, very grateful to...
Suzy Davies: Can I also welcome the new plan, and wish you the very best of luck with that? I’ve got a few questions, beginning, actually, with where Huw Irranca-Davies left off, and the question of the use of scanners. I appreciate you wouldn’t be able to answer this question in the Chamber today, but I wonder if you’d consider making a statement at some point regarding the availability of scanners...
Suzy Davies: It is a final one. I’m really, really pleased that you picked up on the mental health vulnerabilities of stroke victims. And, to keep it short, I’m just curious to know how this plan fits in to ‘Together for Mental Health’, and, in particular, the additional funding that was introduced last year, and whether any of that is being earmarked for stroke victims, bearing in mind they’re...
Suzy Davies: Different tack here: March is Women’s History Month. And what is the point of Women’s History Month? Well, we have 50 per cent of the population, but only occupy 0.5 per cent of recorded history. And that matters if generation after generation after generation has been exposed to that imbalance as a truth about values. I know that some Members here in the Chamber like to hark back to the...
Suzy Davies: In our manifesto, Cabinet Secretary, Welsh Conservatives pledged to a community right to bid for registered assets of community value. I appreciate we don’t have that but, actually, in the Labour manifesto your party stated that you would introduce measures to prevent unnecessary closures, and to assist communities to take ownership of community assets themselves, where possible and...
Suzy Davies: The financial inclusion plan states that its vision is for a Wales where, amongst other things, everyone can readily access their own money, whether by automated or over-the-counter means.’ That’s a quote from it. Tomorrow, I have finally managed to get a meeting with the HSBC bosses in Maesteg, where they’re planning to close their branch there. I appreciate you can’t comment on...
Suzy Davies: Well, I’m pleased to hear of the additional investment, at least. The community facilities programme guidance says that local authorities, health boards and other public bodies, as well as businesses, can be partners to local organisations who want to make a bid to the fund. But, it appears to me that most of the projects are administered through the local authorities. It’s difficult to...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. Well, Members, you can tell from the tone of the motion that we are looking today for an open and discursive debate, which will help inform three things, I think: firstly, how to improve the well-being of individual children, which is obviously the most important, but also how to help them grow up with a sense of resilience and confidence to be good citizens, and...
Suzy Davies: 5. Will the First Minister provide an update on the work programme of the Welsh European Funding Office between now and the UK's exit from the European Union? OAQ(5)0501(FM)
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that update. You may already know that, as well as indicating that equivalent money should come to Wales after exit, witnesses giving evidence to the external affairs committee have said that this is an opportunity to do things differently in terms of regional funding. Can you tell me how many of the applications currently with WEFO are predicated on the private sector taking...
Suzy Davies: I’m profoundly disappointed as well, Minister, because the bottom line here is that there is an empty chair on that board. Wales is not there. The board itself has an incomplete skill set and it’s missing a range of skills, which the Secretary of State clearly believed her preferred candidate had. That decision was made from a shortlist after open competition. They were interviewed by a...
Suzy Davies: May I welcome this statement, too? By now, of course, the detail of all schemes is what’s important now, not the existence of a statutory framework, and I do hope that the review will be valuable. We’re not talking here about Welsh in education strategic plans in isolation, of course, We are talking about Welsh in education plans. Will the review consider the growth of the Welsh language...
