Julie Morgan: I thank Hefin David for that contribution and for all the work that he's done in this area and in other connected areas. With the parallel routes, it does cause problems and it does cause delays, so the action plan does want the development of improved and integrated children's and young person's learning disability services across early learning, schools, health and social care, and also...
Julie Morgan: Diolch, and I welcome this debate this afternoon and thank Members for their comments. As Jack Sargeant said in his introduction, today is timely as we are currently in the middle of Tourette's Awareness Month, and the greater awareness we can get, the better. I've recently met, last week in fact, with Helen and with other parents of children with tic disorders and Tourette's syndrome, and...
Julie Morgan: We are supporting a range of recruitment initiatives. We have introduced the real living wage for care workers and will make further improvements to terms and conditions. We strongly support joint approaches by local authorities and health boards to improve patient flow from hospitals into care services in the community.
Julie Morgan: I thank Mike Hedges for that supplementary question. Obviously, I agree with him how important social care is for people to live in their own homes and to live happy and fulfilled lives. As the Member will know, we've set up a social care fair work forum, made up of employers, unions and other bodies, and they advised us on how to introduce the real living wage. Their next steps now will be...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Jane Dodds, for that question. Certainly, we know that the financial pressures that Jane describes are something that are affecting everybody in the community, and specifically on carers. I'm sure Jane is referring to carers and unpaid carers as well. The cost of travelling between different calls that they have to do, I know is putting a huge strain on their resources. I...
Julie Morgan: This is a very important issue. Obviously, we welcome any moves that there have been on the fuel duty and would welcome further moves. Again, it’s crucially important that carers, particularly in places like Ceredigion, have access to fuel because it’s absolutely necessary for them, to help the vulnerable people, that they have to travel to work. So, I think that we need a whole package...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much for that question and I am thoroughly in agreement with what the First Minister said last week. I don’t think we need another inquiry in Wales at the moment. I think we can learn from the inquiries that have taken place and certainly we’re studying the English inquiry. And I think there are lots of points in the English inquiry that are very similar to the sort of...
Julie Morgan: Thank you for that question. Yes, we’ve rejected the WAVE recommendations, because we don’t think you can say you’ll only help 70 per cent of children and 30 per cent you don’t help—we want to help 100 per cent of children. So, I’m sure that the intentions behind the WAVE recommendations, I’m sure, are very good, but you can’t say you reject 30 per cent of the children—you...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much. I can only speak for what our policy is here, and our policy here is not to adopt the WAVE Trust's proposals. I have met with the WAVE Trust, I had a lengthy meeting with the WAVE Trust, I have discussed with them in detail why we don't support their proposals. I think they understood why, because we are ambitious, and we don't think we can write off 30 per cent of our...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. And thank you for the opportunity to come here today to speak to Members about our plans to support children and young people across Wales to have a summer of fun.
Julie Morgan: Members will be aware that over the course of the last year, we've funded both a Summer of Fun and a Winter of Well-being to support our children and young people as they recover from the impacts of the pandemic. Working with a range of providers across Wales, we've been able to deliver countless free activities to support the social and emotional well-being of children and young people aged...
Julie Morgan: I thank Gareth Davies for those comments, and I'm glad that he welcomes what we're doing. I'm pleased to be able to respond to the points that he makes. I'd like to make the point that the independent evaluation was totally independent of Government, and it came forward with the figure of 167,500 children who were reached by the programme. So, I think we can accept that as a valid figure, as...
Julie Morgan: Diolch. Thank you very much for your support for the Summer of Fun. The issue about whether everyone can access them is obviously something that we are addressing. It's really important that the local authorities, in what they develop, are thinking all the time about whether people can reach places. I notice you mentioned the small amount available for transport. I think the aim is to get as...
Julie Morgan: Yes, I thank Jenny Rathbone for that very important point, and I absolutely agree with her that we want all children to have the opportunity to access fun and to access activities in the summer holidays. As I've already said, the guidance to local authorities for the Summer of Fun asks them to arrange activities in accessible locations and allows some transport costs to be covered, and that...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Vikki Howells, for that very important question, and thank you for your support for the activities and the way that they've grown. We are particularly concerned to involve refugee children in play activities, and that is one of the messages that we've sent out to all the providers who are providing activities during the summer—that we'd like them to arrange activities...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Buffy Williams, for that question. We have extensive discussions with the local authorities about where these activities should take place, who they should be aimed at, and I can assure you that that is happening between officials in the Welsh Government and local government, which is completely ongoing. So, we're very involved with the local authorities. In terms of...
Julie Morgan: Our legislation requires the use of accommodation that meets the needs of care-experienced young people in accordance with their pathway plan. It does not provide for unregulated settings, however there can be occasions where these are used as an emergency resort, and providers must be approved to required standards.
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Jane Dodds, for that question. I know how great a concern you have about these issues, and of course it is so distressing to hear about Logan and to hear about the care-experienced young people who were featured last night on the documentary. In terms of an independent inquiry with regard to Logan, I'm sure the Member is aware that there will be a child practice review...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Gareth Davies, for that question. I'd just like to correct him, I didn't say we had a good rate of children in care. I think he must have misheard that. I said we had a good rate of listening to children. We've got a good record of listening to children. And in fact, the Welsh Government has been working very hard over the last three years to try to bring down the number of...
Julie Morgan: I thank Heledd Fychan for that question. In terms of a review, I think our position has been laid out by the First Minister, as he did in First Minister's questions. But, as I've said, we're looking at the result of the practice review later on this year and at what Care Inspectorate Wales says about the social services, and we will see if there are any wider lessons that we need to learn...
