Rebecca Evans: I was pleased to introduce the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill to the National Assembly for Wales yesterday. The Bill affirms the Welsh Government’s continuing commitment to take a lead in public health and to do everything we can to improve and protect the health of people in Wales. The aim of the Bill is to tackle alcohol-related harm in Wales. This includes...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those points that you’ve made, and certainly the implementation board will be looking very closely at the culture within the organisation and taking on board all of the many comments that have been raised in the inspection report as well. I think it’s important that Powys County Council now looks to seek out peer support and looks for good practice amongst other...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those questions, and you’re right, the report is very clear that inspectors did note that there was real commitment shown amongst the staff who actually showed some real resilience and professionalism during this period, but serious performance issues did arise and that was, in the view of the report, because of instability in management, poor and confused...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions, and also for the opportunity to bring this issue to the floor of the Assembly today. As you say, safeguarding of vulnerable children has to be the No. 1 priority, and that was certainly my priority when I first was made aware of the situation, and that was through the submission, actually, of a confidential note from the chief inspector of CSSIW, and...
Rebecca Evans: Safeguarding children must be the highest priority for public bodies. The CSSIW report raised serious concerns, and I have issued a warning notice to Powys County Council. This was laid before the Assembly yesterday, and I have also published a written statement. I expect rapid improvement, or more direct intervention action will be taken.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, and that’s one of the reasons that I’ve commissioned this large-scale look—or that I will be commissioning in the next financial year—at the ICF, and that is to find out the truth: you know, what kind of value for money are we having? We’ve already had the work done looking at examples of good practice, so we know that exists, but actually we need to be understanding the...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for those questions. You’re absolutely right that social care and social services are some of the big challenges that we’re facing in our time, and that’s why, in our programme for government, Welsh Government recognised the sector as a sector of national strategic importance. I’m really pleased that, within ‘Prosperity for All’ it has been recognised as one of the five...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for those questions and begin by also recognising your comments particularly on the enthusiasm and commitment of the people who are working on the front line in health and social care—I’ve seen that for myself when I’ve visited many of the ICF projects that are taking place across Wales. I’d certainly, as always, encourage Members to go and visit the projects to...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much. I would begin by saying that, in those letters to which I referred in my statement, where all chairs of regional partnership boards wrote to me by the end of last month, providing an update on the progress—each of those letters included an update on the progress towards those six different steps towards pooled budgets, which I spoke about in my response to Angela Burns,...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much indeed for those questions. You began by talking about the population needs assessments, and they’ve been tremendously useful in identifying some core themes, I think, that stretch across all of those population needs assessments. Loneliness and isolation has come out loud and clear as one of those particular areas across all of those population needs assessments, but...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. It has now been over a year since the commencement of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which is now transforming the way that care and support services are delivered across Wales. I have been pleased to be able to see for myself how this legislation is resulting in improved outcomes for people within our society with the most need. It is also helping to ensure...
Rebecca Evans: Welsh Government, as I said, works closely with the national governing bodies of sports and actually they are best placed to understand the specific risk areas within those sports and they do provide their own concussion guidance. Welsh Government, when we’ve provided guidance, has worked closely with those bodies. I would absolutely be evangelical about the importance of encouraging...
Rebecca Evans: Sport Wales, my officials and I are in regular contact with the national governing bodies of sport and, of course, responsibility rests with them as well in terms of making sure that individuals who participate in those sports do so safely. I know that the governing bodies have taken good leadership in this area. For example, the rugby union have published their own concussion guidance and...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. The UK Chief Medical Officer has commissioned the UK physical activity committee to consider the evidence calling for a ban on contact rugby for school-age children. The committee rejected the call to ban tackling and did not feel that rugby participation poses an unacceptable risk of harm.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for that question. We’re very alive to the importance that we put on keeping children safe in school in all aspects, but we’re particularly taking the issue of safety of school sport seriously. It is important to put in place proportionate steps to create those safe environments for children to participate in sport. Injury, of course, can occur in any recreational activity...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for that question, and I have certainly had discussions with the Cabinet Secretary for the economy on the fact that we have identified social care as a sector of national strategic importance. And, of course, you will have seen in ‘Prosperity for All’ that it is one of our key cross-cutting themes alongside housing, which also plays into this kind of area as well....
Rebecca Evans: I thank you very much for that question and the recognition of the huge range of assistive technologies that there are, and the sheer potential of them in terms of improving the care that we offer people. There are already established funding mechanisms in place and established approaches with regard to the adoption and expansion of the use of assistive technologies. For example, our digital...
Rebecca Evans: Health Technology Wales has a remit to assess emerging technologies across health and social care and make recommendations for their adoption. Our efficiency through technology and integrated care funds support the rapid evaluation and upscale of new and emerging technologies within real-world care settings.
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question. Developing the workforce and providing public assurance are two of my personal key priorities, but they’re also priorities of Social Care Wales, which, as you’ll be aware, came into existence in April of this year. And those two issues, I think, are very much front and centre as well of their strategic plan for the next five years. And they’re very much...
Rebecca Evans: I thank you for that question. We certainly were proposing to remove that 24-hour nurse requirement within the regulations because it was very stringent and very strict, and actually didn’t give residential homes the flexibility that they actually need—that we believe they need—to meet the needs of the people they care for in the most appropriate way. So, in future, the statement of...
