Lynne Neagle: Thank you very much, John, for those points. Just to reassure you, it's not just the one letter that we've written to the UK Government expressing concerns about their approach to partnership with us on these very important issues. Obviously, those discussions are going on on a regular basis with our officials. I attended, on behalf of the Welsh Government, the UK drugs summit, where I also...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you very much, Russell, and can I endorse your kind words about Kaleidoscope as well? We're very lucky in Wales to have some brilliant third sector organisations in this area. In relation to your comments about blood-borne viruses, I'm very happy to have a look at the target. I would need to do that, obviously, in partnership with the Minister for Health and Social Services, but I'm...
Lynne Neagle: Formally.
Lynne Neagle: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to begin by thanking Darren Millar for bringing forward this important topic for debate today. Obesity is a complex condition and it cannot be solved by the Government or by the NHS working in isolation. The evidence suggests that a partnership and whole-system approach is the only way to achieve change. The Welsh Government's 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales'...
Lynne Neagle: We are fulfilling our commitment in the programme for government to prioritise investment in mental health support. As part of the draft budget planning process for 2022-23, an additional £50 million, £75 million and £90 million ring-fenced funding for mental health has been agreed for 2022‑23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 respectively.
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Llywydd. I'm today launching the second of five delivery plans as part of our 10-year 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' strategy. Our delivery plan for 2022-24 will utilise a combination of funding, policy and legislation to develop approaches that place a strong focus on prevention and making the healthy choice the easy choice. The plan will support recovery from the pandemic and...
Lynne Neagle: The plan will build approaches across a range of our environments, from the way we eat and buy food out of the home to our educational and recreational settings in order to identify how we can make the healthy choice the easy choice. However, we have to be clear: we are trying to roll back established ways of living our lives that have built up over time and are having a negative impact on...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you to James Evans for that range of points, and also for your acknowledgement of the scale of the problem that we face and for your acknowledgement that that problem has become much worse due to the pandemic. And I entirely agree with you that prevention is better than cure, and this is a delivery plan, as part of our 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' strategy, that is very much rooted...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you very much, Rhun, and thank you for your welcome for the delivery plan that I've announced today. As you rightly highlight, the genesis of the 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' strategy came from the Public Health (Wales) Bill, and it's been good to do the work that I've done on committees around tackling inactivity, et cetera—it has been really useful. You referred to the funding...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you very much, Jenny, for your welcome, and thank you too for your continued commitment in this area of work. It is really very much appreciated, and I recognise that we've got a lot of work to do in terms of encouraging children and young people to eat more healthily. Yesterday I was at Ysgol-y-Graig Primary School in Cefn Coed in Merthyr for the start of Veg Power's 'Eat Them To...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you very much, Ken. I'm very happy to give you that assurance that I am really committed to the early years in the round. You'll have heard me as a backbencher raise many times the importance of the first 1,000 days. So, it is very much a priority for me. As you've heard me explain to Jenny Rathbone, the previous speaker, it is a key priority area as part of the delivery plan that we...
Lynne Neagle: Formally.
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Llywydd. I'd like to thank all Members today for their contributions and for bringing forward this debate on such an important topic. There is much in this motion I agree with. I am acutely aware that improvements need to be made to eating disorder services and I am sincerely committed to driving this forward. I also welcome the spotlight that Eating Disorders Awareness Week gives...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you for that intervention. I am conscious of time, Rhun, but I think the key bone of contention, really, is the need for a new framework, because we know exactly where we need to get to in eating disorder services. There is clear NICE guidance that we have to ensure is met. We're also putting in place new clinical governance arrangements, and there will be a work plan below that. So, I...
Lynne Neagle: We are prioritising an additional £50 million, £75 million and £90 million ring-fenced funding for mental health for 2022‑23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 respectively. This is in addition to the £760 million invested annually in the local health board mental health ring fence, and will support the continued transformation of our mental health services to provide earlier intervention and to...
Lynne Neagle: Can I thank the Member for that supplementary question? I share his concerns about the continued difficulties with waiting times in Cardiff and Vale. I have met Cardiff and Vale three times separately to discuss, in detail, their approach to managing their waiting times. I think it is important to recognise that they face particular challenges in Cardiff and Vale. Two thirds of children who...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you very much for that question, Jenny, and I'm very supportive of social prescribing as a way of linking people to community-based, non-clinical support, and regard such support as a really key part of our preventative agenda. You'll be aware that we have a programme for government commitment to have an all-Wales framework to support social prescribing. That framework is going to...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Peredur, for that question. And as I said in response to Andrew R.T. Davies, of course I'm concerned that we've got young people waiting longer than they should. I do think that the waiting times situation is distorted slightly by Cardiff and the Vale. As I said to Andrew, two thirds of the children who are waiting in Wales are actually on the waiting list in Cardiff and the Vale....
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Peredur. We've all been horrified by what we are seeing, and the trauma that people are experiencing in Ukraine is unthinkable, really. I'm pleased that we are taking a different approach in Wales with our supersponsor programme, which will mean that, when Ukrainian refugees arrive in Wales, they will be linked up with appropriate services. We'll be making sure that they register...
Lynne Neagle: The technical advisory group has published two reports on excess deaths since the start of the pandemic, which include information on deaths from dementia. We also published a companion document to the dementia action plan in September 2021, which confirmed our priorities for action.
