Julie Morgan: Diolch. I welcome this amendment, and the willingness of Janet Finch-Saunders and Suzy Davies to work with me to find a middle way, really, regarding the post-implementation review. I'm grateful to Janet for working with me and my officials to draft this amendment, and I thank Helen Mary Jones again for her support and her group's support. Following Stage 2 and a productive meeting with my...
Julie Morgan: Diolch. I can understand that the Member is concerned about the impacts of this Bill on public services, and absolutely accept that that is a genuine concern. However, you will see from the updated explanatory memorandum, and from the raft of impact statements published with the Bill, that we have done a thorough and extremely diligent job of considering the potential impacts of this Bill,...
Julie Morgan: Thank you. The amendment is technical in nature and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee were content that, in this case, no procedure was the appropriate procedure. The absence of an Assembly procedure does not mean that Ministers' decisions in relation to transitional powers cannot be scrutinised by Members. Any concerns about the Welsh Ministers' proposals could be put to...
Julie Morgan: Diolch. I listened carefully to what stakeholders and the three committees said during Stage 1 about the importance of ensuring sufficient time is available prior to the change in the law to abolish the defence of reasonable punishment. As a result, I brought forth amendments at Stage 2 to provide certainty around the date for the change in the law and for a period of two years between...
Julie Morgan: I've listened to the arguments put forward by Janet Finch-Saunders and other Members, and I think it is very important to acknowledge, as has already been said—and Helen Mary Jones has made this point very strongly—if this amendment is accepted, it will make commencement of the Bill conditional on something else happening first, whether that's waiting for the revision of Crown Prosecution...
Julie Morgan: If I can continue, Members have referred to public opinion, and I think it's very important to say that 58 per cent already think it's not lawful to hit a child. So, a majority actually think that this law is in place already and, on the whole, public opinion is changing. More and more people in Wales are thinking that physical punishment is not acceptable and we are tracking that, and we...
Julie Morgan: Diolch, and opening this Stage 4 debate is a huge privilege. I believe that we should be proud that our nation has taken forward this important reform to ensure that children have the same protection from physical punishment as adults. Like me, many in this Chamber, past and present, from different parties, and many stakeholders across many different sectors, including those who I know are...
Julie Morgan: Many people of an older generation will recall being physically punished both by parents at home and by teachers at school. But things have changed, and this Bill is not about judging the actions or decisions of parents in the past, whose parenting decisions were based on the information and social norms prevalent then. Certainly, there is more research, professional advice and psychological...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank Members for their thoughtful and considered responses. I will just pick up a few of the points in the very brief time period I've got. I thank Llyr for his intervention, because, as the Finance Committee acknowledge in their letter, many of the additional costs in the latest explanatory memorandum are as a result of recommendations from...
Julie Morgan: Formally.
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Presiding Officer. First of all, I'd like to tell the Chamber that the health Minister is at a COBRA meeting about the coronavirus, so that's why I'm taking his place. At the outset, I'd like to reiterate my thanks to staff across NHS Wales, social care and all the other partners, who continue to work every day to provide care to the people of Wales. Their dedication to continuing...
Julie Morgan: Diolch, Llywydd, and thank you for this opportunity to update Members on the launch of Wales's first strategy for tackling loneliness and social isolation. Increasingly, we understand the impact that being lonely and/or socially isolated can have on our physical and mental health, and therefore the importance of the relationships we have with friends, family, colleagues and neighbours in...
Julie Morgan: As a Government, we made a commitment to tackling loneliness and social isolation in 'Taking Wales Forward'. The importance of addressing these issues was also confirmed in December 2017 in the report by the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. That report focused on the experiences of older people in Wales. However, it recognised that loneliness and social isolation can be experienced by...
Julie Morgan: I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for her contribution and also for her support for the strategy, and I'll be very happy to work together on the strategy. She said that all people can feel lonely at all ages, and I think that is a very important point—that we cannot say it's just older people who feel lonely, because Janet Finch-Saunders gave the figures for younger people. I totally agree that...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much and thank you for your support for the strategy. Certainly, the impact on health you clearly recognised—as bad as smoking cigarettes. I mean, it's very stark, and I'm very pleased that you welcome the steps. In terms of young people aged 16 to 24, I think it's absolutely crucial that we do work to help identify those young people, and so, I would certainly see us working...
Julie Morgan: I thank Joyce Watson for those very helpful comments. Again, she emphasised 16 to 24-year-olds, which I think is a crucial area. Obviously, some of those young people will still be in school and so I think it is very important that we continue our work in terms of mental health on the whole-school approach, and that is something that the Government is following up with the task and finish...
Julie Morgan: I thank Caroline Jones for her contribution, and recognise that we were on the health committee together, along with Rhun ap Iorwerth, and the Chair is now here as well—and did that very outstanding report, I think, about loneliness and isolation, particularly in relation to older people. So, Caroline Jones recognises the health risks, and she says that there are many reasons why people...
Julie Morgan: Arts-based initiatives can play an important role in improving the health and well-being outcomes of people in care settings. That is why we are supporting arts-based projects, including through the integrated care fund and Age Cymru's healthy ageing programme.
Julie Morgan: I'd like to thank Jayne Bryant for her question and for her work on the cross-party group on the arts and health. I was a member of that group and I know what important work it does and how important the arts are for health, and I'd be very pleased to come to one of the meetings. Obviously, one of the challenges to enable arts to happen in social care settings is cost, and I'm very pleased...
Julie Morgan: I thank Mohammad Asghar for that question, and I think he makes a very important point—how important it is for people with dementia to live as near to their homes as possible and to have the opportunity of benefiting from the arts. He'll be aware of the dementia action plan for Wales from 2018 to 2022, which sets out our vision for Wales to be a dementia-friendly nation and that absolutely...
