Helen Mary Jones: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. This year sees the tenth anniversary of the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel, a coalition of 35 organisations across Wales who work with the sub-Saharan and African diaspora communities. The organisations do a wide range of work. Some of them support new citizens who've arrived here in Wales. Some of them work raising funds and resources and providing support to...
Helen Mary Jones: I'd like to add my voice to what other speakers have already said—our gratitude to all those who contributed to the inquiry. I'd like to pay tribute to our Chair. I think these one-day, short, sharp inquiries are a really useful model and enable us to get to the heart of issues really quickly. I'm particularly grateful to the nursing staff who provided evidence.
Helen Mary Jones: The thing that was left in my head after this inquiry was the term 'the invisible service', and that's already been mentioned by others—the extent to which the work that these nurses do largely goes unseen unless it is not done or unless it goes wrong—and also the evidence that they gave about the level of responsibility of a nurse on her or his own in a family home, in a nursing home,...
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. In terms of the reality of this threat, we've heard a lot of people using the word 'scaremongering' and I just want to say a little bit more about a matter that was touched upon in Delyth Jewell's contribution with regard to the opioid crisis in the USA. Now, we have all heard of this. It crops up in popular fiction. We have hundreds of thousands of US...
Helen Mary Jones: It is certainly the case that there have been issues, but there is nowhere near the scale of crisis that we're facing now. Now, nobody is saying that our current system for regulating medicines is perfect. The health Minister regularly has some of us on our feet in this Chamber asking him to make medicines available that haven't gone through the NICE process, but the reality is that the NICE...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm very sorry to have to interrupt—
Helen Mary Jones: —Janet, but my time is limited. Of course, we buy and sell medicines and equipment from the USA, but they are subject to a rigorous regulation system that begins in the European Union and ends in our doctors' surgeries. And I know who I trust and who I don't. Anybody who thinks that there would be any kind of meaningful deal to be done with the USA unless these matters were on the table is...
Helen Mary Jones: —has already heard from him.
Helen Mary Jones: We know what those—.
Helen Mary Jones: Is that a 'yes' or a—?
Helen Mary Jones: Yes, actually, the part of the manifesto that may impact directly on Wales, I have, the problem being that I simply don't believe it, and I'm not sure—[Interruption.] I am not sure, because, when Conservative colleagues here get on their feet and bluster at length, I am always left with the Shakespearian quote, 'Me thinks, my lord, he doth protest too much', in my head, because I think...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm sure the First Minister will agree with me that one of the key factors for any workforce to feel safe and supported is if they feel that there are proper systems in place to enable them to effectively raise concerns if they see something that they feel is wrong, if they see practices that they don't feel are safe, if they see that there are practices that they don't feel are respectful...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm delighted to be able to participate in this debate today. Reference has already been made to the thirtieth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I think, of course, we must also remember another important anniversary that we will be commemorating tomorrow, which is the twentieth anniversary of the Waterhouse report. It was this Assembly's response to that report...
Helen Mary Jones: Will you take a very brief intervention?
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you very much. I'm still a little bit confused, though, because you're undertaking a review, and the commissioner has asked you to undertake a review, but this is the recommendation that your written response says that you're rejecting. Perhaps you can clarify—. I think my concern was whether it was a different kind of review or that she was asking for something different from what...
Helen Mary Jones: 8. What discussions has the Minister had with Carmarthenshire County Council about boosting council house building in the county? OAQ54833
Helen Mary Jones: I'm very grateful to the Minister for her answer, and I'm sure she will join me in congratulating Carmarthenshire, with its ambitious plans to build 900 council houses over the next 10 years, which will almost bring them up to target, and I know that the Minister's discussions with them will help them to perhaps get that extra 100 houses in. But they are also currently bringing over 180...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Members will be familiar with the two organisations I wish to draw attention to in this statement today: Urdd Gobaith Cymru, of course, the largest voluntary membership youth organisation in Europe, and the youth homelessness charity Llamau. On 19 and 18 December, the Urdd centre in Cardiff will open up and provide accommodation and serve Christmas lunch to 240...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'm very pleased to move this motion on behalf of myself, Dai Lloyd and David Rees. It's being supported by Delyth Jewell, but I'm sure it would have been supported by more Members across the Chamber had we had more time to table it. I'd like to commend the Royal College of Nursing report to this Chamber. It contains robust research. It highlights progress in the...
Helen Mary Jones: I don't want to take up too much time in this debate, Dirprwy Lywydd, because the case is set out clearly in the report, which I know is available to all Members. But I do hope that the Minister, in his response, will accept that, while we have, as the motion says, more nurses leaving our NHS than joining it, often going to work in agencies and in fact returning to the same settings that...
