Huw Irranca-Davies: 'Taking Wales Forward', Deputy Presiding Officer, sets out this Government’s commitment to ‘examine ways of ensuring looked after children enjoy the same life chances as other children and if necessary reform the way they are looked after’. Our national strategy, 'Prosperity for All', also describes our priorities around supporting children and families at the edge of care and young...
Huw Irranca-Davies: The ministerial advisory group has representation from all senior leaders and organisations with an involvement in children’s services. The group has been instrumental in advising me on, and co-producing, the improving outcomes for children work programme, and I'm pleased our partners are actively involved in this work. In fact, I attended the last ministerial advisory group meeting, and I...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I hope, therefore, that you will agree that we have made significant progress in terms of improving outcomes for children in Wales. I am looking forward to attending the improving outcomes for children national event on Thursday, where there will be an opportunity to share learning, to share innovative approaches and to recognise successes. But, most importantly, it'll be an opportunity to...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'll keep my response very, very brief. It is, undoubtedly, a big strength of our approach that this is cross-Government, cross-sector, but also, it is non-partisan. This is an agenda that we all have a role to play in, and we all need to bring our experience and knowledge and understanding, including, by the way—and I welcome your words of tribute to both your...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Helen, thank you very much for those detailed comments. Let me begin where you began: our expectation is that all local authorities and those who provide support should rise to the level of the best. We know, as was remarked by the chair of the MAG earlier on, there is some really good practice out there; we've unearthed that ourselves. We expect that to be standard. In terms of the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Jenny. You rightly remind us that we actually need to look at the whole care experience here. It's those people, the children and young people, who are in care—we absolutely need to put the right priorities for them to improve their outcomes—those who are leaving care, but also to focus on, as is the No. 1 work stream now, how we reduce the numbers of children and young people...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes. Thank you. I've mentioned already in my preceding answers a lot of the work that we're doing on increasing family support and therapeutic support in order, where we can, to safely and appropriately keep children within the family unit. I mentioned it in my opening remarks but also some of the work streams that the MAG is taking forward as well. You majored in a couple of your points...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd. I would like to begin my contribution to this debate by thanking the children’s commissioner, not only for her annual report, but also for her tireless work on behalf of children and young people in Wales throughout the year. I'm sure that Members would agree that giving children a voice and advocating on their behalf is a crucially important role. Therefore, I welcome...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Wales has led the way in children's rights by enshrining them in law through the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011—the first UK nation to do so, and it's something that we in Wales should be very proud of. We are passionately committed to children's rights, and this is clearly demonstrated by us being the first UK nation to appoint a children's commissioner....
Huw Irranca-Davies: Therefore, I look forward to having conversations with the children’s commissioner and practitioners who work with children, and, most importantly, with children and young people themselves about how we will do that. Thank you very much.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. I don't think, in the time remaining, I'll be able to answer every single point in the full detail I normally give, but I will do my very best. Can I just, first of all, say to Siân and to others who have challenged us on what we're doing? We do not—we recognise—embed a rights agenda overnight and we welcome the challenge, both from the children's commissioner and from...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I don't think I have time, Darren, unfortunately.
Huw Irranca-Davies: And the issue of Parc prison, can I say it is important that we look upon those youngsters in Parc prison as young people first and foremost and make sure that the support is there available for them, so that the worrying stories we've heard about self-harm are addressed? I believe that Parc prison has responded in some way by saying that the data that has been brought forward might not...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. Now, the discussion that we've had today will help shape our response, and I'll make sure that a response is available to Assembly Members. We'll respond to all of the 15 recommendations that the commissioner has made. We might not be able to agree with every single recommendation to the nth degree, but I can commit that we will continue to drive forward progress on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Helen Mary, can I welcome you both to your spokesperson role, but also the way you've just laid out the importance of health and social care in the round? The Brexit stakeholder group that the Cabinet Secretary and I co-chair has looked at this issue. There is a relative paucity of data on the social care sector compared to the health sector. The health sector, we have quite accurate figures...
Huw Irranca-Davies: We absolutely have to guard against that happening. We've made our views very clear to the UK Government, not only in terms of the need for our existing care staff to stay and be welcome here in Wales come what may, but also to avoid tightening up on rules either around the individuals who work in the front line or their families as well, because we have to deal with both. And one of our...
Huw Irranca-Davies: We will always keep our minds open on this, because I think you're right in saying that we always need to go with the evidence. And, of course, only in recent years, we've actually reviewed and renewed the guidance around nursing provision within the care home sector, recognising that, once again, care homes vary significantly in the type of residents they have—whether they need 24-hour...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you for the question, and yes, I've seen the programme Y Byd ar Bedwar, and we're very aware of the concerns that have been raised regarding the Pines in Criccieth, as is the care inspectorate. The inspectorate took immediate action on being made aware of those issues identified by S4C at the Pines, and its inspection is ongoing as we speak. Now, because of that, it's difficult for me...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I think, Janet, that there are a number of things that we can do. In fact, when Sarah Rochira left post back in June, I think it was, we stood here in the Senedd and we made that commitment to actually making rights real for older people and we laid out a number of the ways in which we would do that. You’re right in saying this is not simply to do with the care setting: it’s every setting...
Huw Irranca-Davies: The first thing to say in response is that all rights—older people's, children's rights, the rights of disabled people—are universal and they should be applied in that way. The other thing is I think there is cross-party support for driving the rights agenda as well. I think the question is how we best do that. I'm more than happy to work constructively with Darren and any Member who...
