Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you for that question. Colleagues may be interested to know that we convened the first formal meeting of the ministerial advisory group on carers today. I met them in the centre of Cardiff. All the relevant stakeholders, from a wide range of organisations, are there. And, in a similar way to the work that's been taken forward by our colleague here, David Melding, on the ministerial...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Our priority for children’s services in Wales is to help families stay together where possible, avoiding the need for care. So, programmes such as Flying Start and family support services provide those families with early help, emotional and practical support so that all children in Wales can enjoy the same chances in life.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'm glad to report, Mike, that our local authority funding towards children's and families' services spend has increased, in fact, over the five-year period from 2012-13 to 2016-17 by 24 per cent. It's gone up from £467 million to £577 million, but, of course, that is alongside the investment that we are putting into things like Flying Start, and other aspects of funding as well. And I...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, for this opportunity to give an update to Members on the Learning Disability: Improving Lives Programme after the publication of the report last week.
Huw Irranca-Davies: This cross-government review of learning disability policy, services and funding stems from our commitment to improve the lives of all our citizens and to address inequalities where they exist. This work was commissioned by several of my ministerial colleagues, and we have taken an approach of looking across the whole life course, covering early years, housing, social care, health, education,...
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, our long-term plan for health and social care and 'Prosperity for All' have embedded within them the need to centre our services around the person and to build the capacity of our communities to support better health and well-being. As a Government, we need to do all that we can to support people to be more included in their communities and...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Mark. I think there may have been about seven or eight points there, so I'm going to try, if I can, to deal with them as quickly as I possibly can. First, in terms of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report, which made some recommendations against themes such as more accessible and adaptable homes, installation of home adaptations, matching people to the right...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Dai.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Some important points there. First of all, thanks to you and others who do work with organisations that represent people with learning disabilities—your role with Swansea People First. But there are many others throughout the land, actually, that do tremendous work as well, and you rightly paid credit there to all the volunteers and the charitable sector, the third sector, who make this...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Michelle. I'm not going to cause you any anger, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'll try and be very, very quick, but there were about seven questions in that as well. Can I go to the core ones here—
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'm not going to. Otherwise I would be here—. But I'm going to try and address the key ones. First of all, in terms of learning the lessons from England or elsewhere, we definitely do that. The LeDeR report that came out looking at issues around the mortality review for people with learning disabilities—we're very aware of that. So, the recently agreed improving lives work actually has...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Jenny, very much. I also recognise the work of that organisation, Autistic Spectrum Connections Cymru, and others. The issue that you raised is that this needs to be a life-course approach—it's those wide areas outside of viewing it through a medical-only spectrum. It's very much that social model. This is a new way of working, and it's the way of working that has been put...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Julie, very much. The prime legacy of that earlier strategy is indeed the philosophy of this in taking it forward. So, it is cross cutting, it is very much driven by stakeholders, it is very much that lived experience approach rather than a top-down Government-driven one that says, 'Here are the easy answers'. That philosophy of working, and in taking forward the work streams on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much. On the specific of Hijinx, I can't comment directly on that one, clearly, but there is an expectation that in delivering this the statutory obligation that we place on providers, but also those who have funding at their fingertips, is that they actually use it to deliver these outcomes that we are focused on. And, yes, in terms of bringing this forward, it's not only been...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Dirprwy Llywydd, and I move the motion. I'm very pleased to open this debate on the general principles of the Childcare Funding (Wales) Bill. I would like to begin by thanking the three committees involved in the scrutiny of this Bill for their time and their hard work. It is in recognition of their efforts that I wrote to all three committees, in advance of today's debate, setting...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch Dirprwy Lywydd, and I just begin by thanking all the Members for their contributions today, not least the Chairs of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, the Finance Committee and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, but also my congratulations go to Janet on taking on her new role, but also to all other Members who've taken part as well and spoken in...
Huw Irranca-Davies: If I do, it's going to eat into time, but I'm happy to take one.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I think, curiously, in respect of Mark's comments there, in an ideal world, if we had unlimited budgets, if austerity was lifted, I think we know what we'd do, and I think I know where the evidence takes us, but, unfortunately, we're not in that situation. So, some of our challenge here as responsible Assembly Members is to decide how we can make best use of the resource we have to change the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much. If I could turn to the comments about parents and education and training, I'm very aware of and very sympathetic to the challenges all parents face in accessing affordable childcare when they need it, but this offer is aimed at the working parents of three and four-year-olds. And, actually, colleagues around the Chamber, if they go back and look, with one exception, at...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Okay.
