Huw Irranca-Davies: I will in a moment. Siân, you also raised the issue of the school uniforms grant. Well, the Cabinet Secretary for Education has already made clear her intention to introduce an improved scheme from September 2018—a scheme that will be more flexible, more relevant for the needs of disadvantaged learners. My officials have already been involved in discussions regarding the development of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I agree that poverty is a scandal whatever level it is at, but I'll turn to some of the practical policies that actually change that as opposed to big words in strategies and what is actually going on. It's without any sense of complacency because we actually need to do more. So, let me first of all say where we can agree. It is our clear moral duty to do all in our power to tackle poverty...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Okay. Well, let me turn to the aspect of devolution of welfare or administrative control. We do not support this for reasons of principle and hard-headed practicality. On principle, we believe that we should all be entitled to an equal claim from a welfare state to provide support when needed and to tackle poverty in Swansea and in Swindon, in Bangor but also in Bognor. In practical terms...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'm closing, Dirprwy Lywydd. But breaking that cycle, Dirprwy Lywydd, of deprivation and poverty is a long-term commitment of this Welsh Government. It underpins our national strategy and our responsibility to make a difference to people's lives. It's a moral imperative too, but the UK Government must play its part.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you for taking the intervention. If we thought that simply devolving administration or something else in terms of this would suddenly solve the problem, then it would be something worth going about. But would you agree with me that, actually, in looking at that, we also need to be very careful of the unintended consequences and the costs that would come with that and the danger to the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes, simply to help clarify as part of the debate. So, the key performance indicators remain in place, and one of the things that we are looking at across Government and across Government Ministers are milestones that underpin those key performance indicators. So, we already know things such as the number of people with are entering the NEET category, young pregnancies, et cetera, et cetera,...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Since April 2016, we have seen the embedding of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 across Wales. I see good progress in some areas, and on the other hand I see that there is more to be done in others. In moving forward, I want us to focus on supporting all services to reach the best standards. To date, there are three things that are cause for...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Firstly, I hear our stakeholders such as the older people’s Commissioner telling us that our statutory framework is broadly the right one, although only if we ensure that it is properly implemented. Secondly, I see for myself that the structures we tasked our partners to put into place, such as regional partnership boards and the safeguarding boards, are becoming embedded in our landscape...
Huw Irranca-Davies: In concluding, I would like to thank you for your support and your insightful scrutiny thus far. We all have an aim in building a sustainable system of social care here in Wales, which respects and values the people it supports, and helps them to achieve their personal well-being outcomes. We can only achieve this by engaging the energy of policy makers, staff and stakeholders in the social...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Suzy, thank you very much for that series of questions. Let me turn to them one by one. First, have we picked up with regard to the drive towards increasing standards in residential sectors—is it having any impact, anecdotally? I am having the occasional piece of correspondence or representation from individual Assembly Members, which the care inspectorate is trying to deal with...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Dai.
Huw Irranca-Davies: First of all, can I thank you and other Members who've come to me with details of individual providers who may be facing difficulties in meeting the challenges? Hopefully, we've taken a proportionate but sympathetic view and tried to put them in touch with the right people to help them along the way. So, I thank you and others for continuing with that, and also for your support for the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much. Thank you, Caroline, and thank you as well for the recognition that you made there very clearly of those who work within the sector. Too often, you only see the bad headlines when they hit, and we forget about the army of people out there who are doing tremendous work every single day. So, thank you for that. You remind us as well of how far we've travelled with the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd. I'm pleased to open this debate on the Commissioner for Older People in Wales's annual impact and reach report.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'd like to start by publicly congratulating and thanking the commissioner and her team for all the valuable work over the past year, and indeed over the last six years. The commissioner has earned the respect and trust of older people right across Wales, and in the last 12 months alone, the commissioner and her team have met with 169 groups and 3,300 individuals. This extensive engagement...
Huw Irranca-Davies: If I can just continue for a moment. That's why I am happy to support the second amendment, which has also been tabled by Paul Davies. I will take the intervention.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I can see the headline point that you're making, Darren, but I would refer you back to the statement made by the older persons' commissioner last week in launching her legacy report, in which she actually welcomed the approach we were taking, because it makes rights real. It doesn't look for another piece of reach-down-from-the-shelf legislation on a Bill of rights, it actually says, 'How do...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Last week, the First Minister published that my title from now on will be the Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care. By making my role more prominent and clear, I will be able to proceed to establish an approach across the Government on older people’s issues. I am confident that the work programme that we’ve agreed on with the commissioner will build on our transformative...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Llywydd, and can I just begin by thanking all Members who've contributed today for their very constructive engagement, even though we might agree to go in slightly different directions in delivering the rights particularly? Although I would say to Darren that we never have a totally closed mind; we're not being unduly stubborn, but what we have come to is an agreement with Sarah that...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Suzy, for that question. I'm delighted to take on explicitly those new responsibilities for older people. It was great to be at that legacy event last week with the older persons' commissioner. My officials, in fact, have met with her, I think, on three occasions over the last month, working forward on a set of proposals to, as she put it, and as I will reiterate here, 'make those...
