Julie Morgan: Thank you for that question. We are continuing to monitor and review Choose Well materials to ensure these target the intended audience. We are also focusing specifically on a digital first approach this winter, while retaining the My Winter Health Plan scheme for those who don't have access to the internet or social media.
Julie Morgan: Certainly, the £30 million was used very effectively by local authorities. The decision as to how it was actually used was left largely to the local authorities, because they are closer to their needs. But certainly, we know of the sorts of issues that they used that £30 million for: nine local authorities utilised this funding to support adult and older people's services; eight local...
Julie Morgan: It was groundbreaking, in the Act that Janet Finch-Saunders referred to, that carers had a right to a carers assessment, and we want to ensure that as many carers as possible get access to that right. That's why one of our priorities is identifying carers and for carers to self-identify, because many people carry out the role of caring for a loved person and don't identify themselves as a...
Julie Morgan: I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for that very important question. I think we all appreciate the huge contribution that carers make—the 370,000 that she referred to—and we want to make their lives as easy as we possibly can. She mentioned that one of the Welsh Government's priorities was life alongside caring. It's also to ensure that carers can identify themselves as carers and that we know...
Julie Morgan: Angela Burns is right, there is sometimes difficulty over those different elements of funding. But it's absolutely essential that the patient, the individual, is at the absolute centre of the way that decisions are made. And I know that there have been projects, under the transformation funding, looking at how that can develop, and I hope that we'll be able to learn through that. Continuing...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, David Rees, for making those very important points. We do expect health boards to work together with local authorities and with the third sector to ensure that people do return home from hospital as soon as they are fit to do so, because I think we all know about the damage of people staying in hospital longer, as well as affecting the flow through the hospital. I know from recent...
Julie Morgan: I thank David Rees for that question. I am having regular discussions about these issues with health and social care partners, as is the Minister, including meetings in Swansea Bay last week. It is vital to prevent unnecessary admissions and transfer people from hospital to their homes or community settings as soon as they are ready.
Julie Morgan: However, I know that Vikki is concentrating on adults in her contribution, but I think people don't often realise that it is children that are causing the most expense. We are trying to bring down the number of children that have to be looked after in care, but safety is the basis of bringing down those numbers. We have to better support families and communities, and build responses that will...
Julie Morgan: I'd like to begin by thanking Vikki Howells for convening this debate today on this very important subject. I think the short debates are very useful in order to highlight particular subject areas, and I think she's done that very well today. Social care is an area of public services that is getting much more attention, and I think the reason for that is that we can all see the demands on...
Julie Morgan: I can assure you that the Government has certainly considered the issue of parental alienation and England, in fact, has very much the same approach now as Wales. We've certainly come together in our approach to this and we're taking a very balanced, very non-emotive response to parental alienation and looking at it in a very balanced way. So, I can assure him that it is on our agenda. Thank you.
Julie Morgan: —yes, in a second—very concerned about children in care and is certainly very supportive of our agenda to reduce the number of children in care.
Julie Morgan: Well, the commissioner is calling for every child with special needs to have transport, and we don't think it's necessarily necessary for every child because some children will be able to walk. So, if you take it in that sort of technical way, we are rejecting it for those reasons, but we do acknowledge that there are issues, particularly post 16, and that's what we're going to look at. And...
Julie Morgan: Yes, of course.
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you very much to the Members who've contributed to the debate, and thank you to those who thanked the children's commissioner for her work. I want to draw attention right at the beginning here that I didn't mention in my speech the creation of the Youth Parliament, and I'm very glad that Janet Finch-Saunders mentioned that because, obviously,...
Julie Morgan: That could cause some difficulties, yes.
Julie Morgan: Yes. I think that is something that we could certainly discuss with schools in terms of making it available. Thank you. Where we have the levers for change, we will act in the interest of children's rights, but, as I've just said, the decisions made in Westminster do profoundly affect children's lives here in Wales, and we have debated that vigorously this afternoon. For example, the Minister...
Julie Morgan: Certainly, yes.
Julie Morgan: I understand that the Member is asking that the schools publish the data that they gather—
Julie Morgan: Diolch. I'd like to start by thanking the children's commissioner for her tireless work on behalf of our children and young people. I know that Assembly Members will agree with me that the commissioner plays a crucial role as an independent champion advocating for children's rights and well-being. As Deputy Minister leading the work across the Welsh Government on children's rights, I welcome...
Julie Morgan: I thank David Melding for that question and I'm very sorry for the experiences that his constituent has had. Overall, there is a reducing trend in the level of patients who are delayed in hospital beds in the South Wales Central region. However, I am concerned about a variation between the different local authorities in the region, with some areas recently seeing an increase on last year's...
