Angela Burns: First Minister, a number of deaths by suicide have occurred in the recent past in schools in my constituency. Now, earlier this year, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom made an announcement that every secondary school in England should be offered mental health first aid training, which teaches people how to identify young people who might be developing a mental health issue, and this...
Angela Burns: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the Welsh Government's plans to improve transparency in Welsh local authorities?
Angela Burns: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the Welsh Government's plans to increase democratic participation in local government?
Angela Burns: I don’t dispute that observation at all. The reality is that PE lessons have reduced by one minute and thirty seconds over the last decade, so they’re certainly not on the increase. I do think we should try and normalise activity. It’s very difficult to do, though, when schools are being shut down more and more in terms of play facilities, outdoor facilities et cetera. That’s why I...
Angela Burns: I’m delighted to be able to speak today in the debate. I’d first of all like to actually thank very much Allison Williams, the chair of the diabetes implementation group, and all of the partners within it, because, reading both the 2016 delivery plan and the 2017 annual statement, I do see real progress. There are some very good ways forward. There have been some very strong and...
Angela Burns: Patients not only need to have access to good GP surgeries and good GPs, but also they need to have quality in that access. We all accept, and I think there’s a growing recognition, that GPs should be left to deal with the more complex cases and those with multiple comorbidities. We welcome the growth in the allied healthcare professionals, and we welcome the growth in having counsellors in...
Angela Burns: Sounds like a great mum.
Angela Burns: I’m delighted to speak in this debate. I wasn’t a member of the committee at the time, but I have read the report and the Government response, and I have spoken to a number of organisations who’ve brought forward concerns on this matter. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this report. I’d like to thank the Chair and his clerking team, and I’d particularly like to thank...
Angela Burns: Thank you for that answer, but I wonder if you are intending to—or are working with the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales? Because, of course, you recently published a report that was entitled ‘GP Services in Wales: The Perspective of Older People’, and it highlighted that far too many of the older population find making an appointment challenging, find the GP service inflexible...
Angela Burns: I couldn’t agree with you more that this is an issue that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. It’s more than just the individual. Yesterday, we had a long discussion about the deficits that we are seeing in the Welsh NHS in some of our trusts. We know that we have a recruitment issue—we can’t get enough doctors, nurses and all the other staff. We also know that, for example,...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, what assessment have you made of the rates of ill health and absences within the Welsh NHS?
Angela Burns: Let me give you a little bit of help on that one then. The data that the Welsh Conservatives have obtained from health boards show that anxiety, stress, depression and other unspecified psychiatric illnesses affected 7,945 NHS staff members in 2015-16. Those 7,945 staff members racked up a total of 345,957 days of absence, which is equivalent to 948 years of person hours that were lost to the...
Angela Burns: 6. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what the Welsh Government is doing to improve access to GP services? OAQ(5)0145(HWS)
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. I’d like to raise a point of order, Presiding Officer. I have absolutely no problem with the rough and tumble of politics. What I do have an objection to is being deliberately misquoted. I know what I said, because I was very, very clear, because I wanted to make sure that people in these health boards are reassured. What I did say was that I know that—and I think I...
Angela Burns: I did not say that.
Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, people talk about this in tones of shock and horror as if it’s a surprise, but it’s certainly not a surprise to me when looking at some of the integrated medium term plans. Could you please confirm which of the health boards’ IMTPs showed a deficit from the beginning of this funding round? Could you also confirm to me where you see the health boards could review their...
Angela Burns: Good afternoon, First Minister. Could you perhaps just give us an overview of what monitoring arrangements are in place to ensure that the funds that have gone to the health boards for this very worthy initiative are being spent on just this initiative?
Angela Burns: Absolutely. Of course, Oscar.
Angela Burns: I think you make a very good point. Just to reinforce the business case, Cabinet Secretary, the Milford Haven waterway, as part of the Swansea bay city deal, has got a massive funding project to design the Pembroke Dock marina—it’s to do renewable energy device design, fabrication, testing. The sector that they are aiming for is absolutely vast, they’re looking at bringing a huge amount...
Angela Burns: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, for your reassuring statement on the matters that you have just mentioned. Thank you, Jeremy Miles, for pulling us all together—a disparate group of people—to bring forward a debate on the blue economy. I’m very grateful that you have done so. Our oceans are probably the single most important resource, which is why, in this debate, we are calling...
