Leanne Wood: I want to raise a matter that's been brought to my attention by people working in the disability support sector—that your Government is no longer funding the Wales Learning Disability Helpline. The helpline was established more than 20 years ago in the very early days of devolution, and it's supported more than 50,000 people in that time, and it's a crucial lifeline to the estimated 64,000...
Leanne Wood: In spite of everyone and everything, we're still here.
Leanne Wood: 3. What input is the Welsh Government having to improve services at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board? OAQ54901
Leanne Wood: I welcome this pilot and I welcome the information that you've just given us that more children are likely to benefit from this. I recognise also that budgets are tight and, with the Tories in power in Westminster, there's little prospect of our situation improving for some years. So, I wonder what consideration you've given to tapping into the vast excess of food that's generated by...
Leanne Wood: Minister, I have a question about the state of perinatal care, and I fear this situation is the norm, and not the exception. A constituent has contacted me with one of the most distressing accounts of being failed by the NHS that I've come across. She says that the love for her children is the only thing that stopped her ending her life. The woman concerned is also being supported by the...
Leanne Wood: Wayne Warren, a 57-year-old roofer from Treherbert, became the oldest winner in the history of the BDO world darts championship when he beat fellow Welshman Jim Williams 7-4 on the weekend. The Rhondda has already produced a BDO world champion in Cwmparc's Richie Burnett, so now we have two. Back in 2001, Wayne believed that he would never play darts again after suffering burns to his upper...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. We are all, I'm sure, aware of a number of high-profile cases recently that justify the need for this debate. One was particularly harrowing: the British teenager who was convicted of lying about being gang-raped and sentenced to a four-month suspended sentence and fined €140. This followed the retraction of her statement to police after an eight-hour unrecorded...
Leanne Wood: —or, to be more accurate, she's been further harmed by all of this.
Leanne Wood: No. I have pursued the case of Alun Cairns, and I'm pretty sure there are other senior members of the Welsh Conservatives who knew more than they were letting on, because I believe having men like this who have such scant regard for rape and rape victims in positions of power contributes to the appalling rape statistics that I referred to earlier, and to the reasons why women and men don't...
Leanne Wood: Will you take an intervention?
Leanne Wood: You've just put forward an argument for a European criminal justice system.
Leanne Wood: 8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the future of accident and emergency services at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital? OAQ54953
Leanne Wood: First Minister, I have a report looking at how communities served by the Royal Glamorgan Hospital will be affected if consultant-led accident and emergency services are removed from there. The worst affected communities are to be found in mid Rhondda. The towns and villages at the top of the Rhondda Fach and Fawr can access Prince Charles Hospital relatively quickly via the Maerdy and Rhigos...
Leanne Wood: I want to raise the devolution of the criminal justice system. The past week has seen a significant strengthening of the arguments for devolution, in line with what already exists in Scotland and the north of Ireland. The tragic case of Conner Marshall has highlighted what many of us already knew—that the probation service privatisation has been an unmitigated disaster. How many other lives...
Leanne Wood: I want to return to the question of buses, which is a particularly important mode of transport in areas, like the Rhondda Fach, that are without a single train station and have a bypass that stops halfway up the valley. This wouldn't be so bad, of course, if the bus service was brilliant, but it isn't. In fact, I think it's fair to say that, at times, it's abject. The routes to Cardiff can...
Leanne Wood: Adref is a charity that has been supporting vulnerable people and combating homelessness in my area for three decades. The charity is threatened now with closure, because Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council have awarded the contract to provide local hostel services to another organisation, an organisation with little or no experience of the...
Leanne Wood: 2. How does the Welsh Government intend to meet demand for accident and emergency services in the Rhondda and beyond if 24-hour A&E services are reduced at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital? 386
Leanne Wood: Last week we received the news that the dreaded south Wales programme is being resurrected after six years, in terms of accident and emergency configuration. This means consultant-led services are recommended for removal from the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant. During the same briefing, we were told that the Royal Glamorgan has the busiest A&E of the three district general hospitals...
Leanne Wood: Llongyfarchiadau mawr to Treorchy on winning the title of the UK's best high street. It's great that the hard work in this Rhondda town has been recognised, and I'm glad to be able to recognise it here in the Senedd too. Local traders have banded together with local councillors and other community figures to make things happen for themselves. The local chamber of commerce is thriving in a...
Leanne Wood: The mismanagement and poor performance highlighted by my colleagues in the north of Wales is indeed shocking, but I can't help but feel that this is also something that my own constituents may be facing, so I want to talk about the issues facing people in the Cwm Taf health board, as the range of special measures continues to become the new normal. Whilst waiting times may not be as bad as in...
