Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I welcome the opportunity provided by today's very important debate to highlight how the Welsh Government is working across departments to try to ensure everyone can access the support they need, regardless of whether they use the internet. We recognise that more services, as Rhun said in introducing the debate, including vital public...
Julie Morgan: Yes, I think that is the message that should go, and is going out, really: that paper applications are available. The other thing, of course, with all this—I think we've discussed the bus pass quite a bit—is that it has illustrated how popular the bus pass is and how important it is to older people. I know this issue of the bus pass applications has caused anxiety, and we certainly don't...
Julie Morgan: As corporate parents, local authorities have a duty to support looked-after children to access the same opportunities and enjoy the same life chances as other children. Through joint working across public services, our improving outcomes for children programme aims to improve the life chances of children in care.
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this debate today, and I'd like to thank the Conservatives for bringing this debate to the Chamber. I think there's been a lot of interest and a lot of very important points made. So, thank you for that. I first want to acknowledge the very helpful work of the Public Accounts Committee and...
Julie Morgan: Absolutely. I think that's a very important point—the children must be at the centre of this—and I value the work that the Public Accounts Committee did on that issue. Local authorities are under a statutory duty to assess the need for adoption support services for individual adoptive families, including making an assessment for financial support to meet the particular needs of children....
Julie Morgan: Thank you. I'd like to thank Bethan for bringing this debate today, and also use the opportunity to thank her for all the work that she's done in this field, and how she's made it a really important area of work for the Assembly, and for all her work with the all-party group, and to wish you all the best for the future. I'm really pleased to have an opportunity today to draw attention to...
Julie Morgan: Formally.
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, and I think that the examples used in the debate have been very powerful and illustrate the issue that we are addressing here today. And I do recognise how difficult it is for patients and their families when care has to be accessed away from home, and it's obviously much more difficult if families have concerns about the quality of the care being provided. So, I'm...
Julie Morgan: Yes, certainly.
Julie Morgan: Yes, and I wanted to make the point that we did have the units in Wales; that's the point I was making. And when a patient's mental health needs are best met in a specialist unit, health boards are looking at the quality. Firstly, decisions are made on the quality and type of specialist care provided to ensure it meets the needs of the individual. Secondly, the commissioner considers the...
Julie Morgan: Yes, certainly. Well, I'm just about to finish.
Julie Morgan: Certainly, the Tonna Hospital site will not be suitable for women coming from the north, so certainly that's got to be looked at. So, in any case, I hope I've been able to provide some assurance that we do have plans to look at this whole difficult area, but improving mental health services is an absolute priority for us, and we do have arrangements in place to look at the quality and safety...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the motions. The two statutory instruments before you today amend the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016, and there a number of regulations that flow from that Act. It's the intention that these amended regulations come into force on 1 April. Both sets of regulations are an important step towards realising our goal to...
Julie Morgan: We have reaffirmed our commitment to improve access and quality of perinatal mental health services both in the community and for in-patient care in the 'Together for Mental Health—Delivery Plan: 2019-22', which was published in January.
Julie Morgan: Well, I thank Siân Gwenllian very much for that very important question, and, as she says, we are making progress now with south Wales, but we certainly now need to move along with the situation in north Wales. We have been having discussions with providers in England to discuss options for a joint provision, but those proposals are now on hold, because the English service is actually...
Julie Morgan: I thank Mark Isherwood for those questions. As I said in response to Siân Gwenllian, the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee has engaged with providers in England to discuss options for the creation of a mother and baby unit in north-east Wales that could serve the population of both sides of the border. And I think, as you've acknowledged, those discussions have now stopped, because...
Julie Morgan: I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for that question and she's absolutely right that older people, and older people with complex health needs, are at much greater risk. And so we want to do all we can to protect them as much as possible, and we are working very hard to do that. The director for social services and integration is taking the lead in the Welsh Government. We're liaising very closely...
Julie Morgan: Yes, I believe they are, answering that last question, yes. If you look at the social care sector, there's a wide variety of issues that arise: there are the people who are living in residential care or in nursing homes; there are those people who are receiving domiciliary care, and then these are the staff who are going in, who Janet Finch-Saunders has referred to. And it's obviously crucial...
Julie Morgan: Well, I think the health Minister did, in his earlier response, say that these were going to be provided. And certainly this is an issue that we have discussed within the Government, but it's obviously a very important point that we are taking very seriously.
Julie Morgan: Through the Welsh infected blood support scheme, the Welsh Government provides a comprehensive package of ex gratia payments as well as extensive wraparound support, which includes psychological support, benefit advice and support and signposting to other public services we can provide across Wales.
