Suzy Davies: Point 2 of the motion draws attention to the families of veterans, and supporting veterans doesn’t stop with direct intervention. Keeping a family together around serving members of the armed forces, as well as, sometimes, particularly vulnerable veterans, can be the most effective support of all. The service of an individual affects their relationships with partners, children, parents and...
Suzy Davies: No, I’ve finished.
Suzy Davies: Sorry.
Suzy Davies: Thank you, Llywydd. May I thank Plaid Cymru also for tabling this debate today? We will be supporting the motion, and we would have been happy to support the Government’s amendment too, but it deletes point 2. I can’t see why the Government couldn’t accept the point, identify the reasons why and contrast that with the new ambitions for their forthcoming strategy. I move the amendment...
Suzy Davies: The national exercise referral scheme can help with the rehabilitation of people with COPD, as well as, of course, people with other health issues. The scheme is funded by Welsh Government but, nevertheless, local authorities in South Wales West charge for the service. Access to the scheme is through GP referral and, bearing in mind that, obviously, your Government supports free...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Lywydd. Thank you for your statement, Minister, and for some of the reassurance you’ve just given in terms of gender balance in terms of this way forward. I just wanted to know where Welsh language skills might come into your considerations here. Obviously, the new advisory service will be an appropriate place to identify somebody’s latent Welsh language skills, but then so would...
Suzy Davies: 1. Will the Minister make a statement on his evaluation of partnership working within Communities First? OAQ(5)0065(CC)
Suzy Davies: Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's current position regarding the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that, Cabinet Secretary. The activities of Communities First weren’t popular with town and community councils on all occasions, or indeed with some local groups, and I’m not the only one who heard about community activists, about tanks on lawns and takeovers, and so on. Now, I don’t care who’s right or wrong in this, but I am concerned that a silo mindset and an...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Lywydd, and I move the Commission’s budget motion for 2017-18 and ask that it be incorporated into the annual budget motion. This budget is for 2017-18, the second year of this fifth Assembly, and in the budget, the Commission is seeking £53.7 million, which is an increase of 1 per cent above inflation compared to this year. The budget is made up of three parts: £34.4 million for...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr. Thank you very much, Simon Thomas and Jenny Rathbone. I’ll start with Jenny Rathbone’s question, if I may. What I can’t give you off the top of my head is the specific amount that we spend on the contract. It is actually in the report, which, of course, I haven’t brought with me. But I can certainly make sure that you get a note on that immediately. In terms of the...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Lywydd. Thank you to everyone who’s taken part in the debate today. Perhaps I can offer my thanks also to the older people’s commissioner to be recorded as well. Personally, I’m still a little bit baffled by the thought that policy makers consider me to be an older person, and I face the temptation that perhaps we should ask for that threshold to be moved a little further north,...
Suzy Davies: I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for his question, because I must admit, I’m a little bit sceptical about the attention that my region has been given in the course of all this—even that non-specific third phase that we’re talking about, in a number of years to come. There’s talk about things like a fast bus for Porthcawl, rather than anything more integrated. My constituents, including...
Suzy Davies: What’s that got to do with my question?
Suzy Davies: I just wonder if you can clarify this, because I don’t think you actually answered the question that Bethan Jenkins put to you in a way that I understood. Are these agency staff or not? Because David Rees seems to suggest they’re not. In your response to us originally, you suggested that they are. They may be agency staff, but they may be former Tata employees. Can you clarify that? If...
Suzy Davies: I wonder if I could ask for a statement from the health Secretary, or possibly from the Minister for public health, about the provision of publicly accessible defibrillators in Wales. In particular, I’d like know about Wales’s response to the European Restart A Heart Day initiative and what support and advice Welsh Government has been giving to community councils about the options for...
Suzy Davies: Last month, the City and County of Swansea council settled a claim brought by 11 of its occupational therapists that they were being paid less than their equivalents in the NHS. Unison said that occupational therapists right across Welsh local government, not only in Swansea, suffer lower pay and poorer access to professional development opportunities than their colleagues in the health...
Suzy Davies: We always try and ensure that anyone who wishes to make an intervention does it from a standing position, but we do invite lively debate here as well. I just hope that nobody here oversteps the mark in future.
Suzy Davies: Carry on, please.
Suzy Davies: Can we please have no more interventions from a seated position? Thank you.
