Julie Morgan: Well, I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for that contribution. I really wonder who she thinks that she is speaking for when you're continuing your opposition to this Act, and I'd like to remind her that when this law went through this Chamber we had very strong support from two members of her party and one particular Member was part of the core group that campaigned tirelessly for this legislation...
Julie Morgan: The past two years since the Act was passed have been exceptionally challenging. Despite the pandemic, a phenomenal response from stakeholders has enabled us to achieve a huge amount since the first meeting of our strategic implementation group in May 2019. The Children, Young People and Education Committee were clear during scrutiny that, to ensure the Act benefits children and their...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to be here today on a historic day for children and their rights.
Julie Morgan: I'm absolutely delighted that the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 came into force yesterday. The Government has a long-standing commitment to children’s rights, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our strong focus on children’s rights, and respecting children and young people as citizens in their own right, will help...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, Sam Rowlands, for that important point, and, absolutely, we want to give support to parents. As I said in my response to Jane Dodds, we want to move to a system where we give as much support as we possibly can to parents in order for children to thrive and remain with them, and that's why we have put a lot of investment into parenting classes, why we have help offered to...
Julie Morgan: Okay, thank you very much, and thank you very much, Jane, for welcoming this plan with such wholeheartedness. Advocacy for children in care I think is absolutely crucial. As you know, one of our main aims in the Government is to improve the lot of children in care, and that really links with your third question as well, about the not-for-profit providers, because we do want to transform the...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Heledd, for those very important points, and I absolutely agree with her that there are inequalities in Wales that we have to address. And it was very touching to hear your comments about your son listening to the television, and a lot of people have said that to me about the misery that is coming over, and when you think of what's happening to the children, it's just overwhelming,...
Julie Morgan: I thank Gareth Davies for those comments. I'm glad that he agrees with me that Wales is a wonderful place to live, to grow up. I belive that this plan is ambitious. I do belive that if we're able to succeed in doing the things we are putting in this plan, then Wales will be an even better place for young people and children to grow up. It's certainly not just warm words. What is in this plan...
Julie Morgan: I look forward to working with you all to deliver the children and young people's plan and to achieve our ambition to make Wales a wonderful place to grow up, live and work. Thank you.
Julie Morgan: I am delighted, on this important day, to be announcing the publication of the children and young people’s plan, which sets out our ambition for children and young people in Wales, both now and in the future. In Wales, we want the best for our children—all of our children, no matter what their backgrounds are, where they come from, or where they live. We want them all to have the best...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Today is an important day in the history of Wales, a day when we celebrate this incredible nation and show how excellent it is to grow up, live and work in Wales.
Julie Morgan: Yes, it's absolutely essential that we have that quality social care, and, as we all know, social care has been under huge pressure, and we are doing all we possibly can to boost the social care service. I announced yesterday ways we were working towards attracting more social care workers to the service, because we're very short of staff, by bringing in the real living wage, along with an...
Julie Morgan: Yes, I thank Peter Fox for that question, and I am concerned to hear about what happened to his constituent and the constituent's husband. It is, really, a lot of what we have been talking about this afternoon—how we get better co-ordination and better working together between the health and social services systems. Obviously, this family were in need of help—in need of social care help...
Julie Morgan: Thank you. Discharge service guidance is in place to manage the flow of patients, particularly during the pandemic. We recently updated this guidance, taking on board the latest and more positive position with regard to COVID, in order to continue to provide a safe mechanism for discharging people from hospitals following their treatment.
Julie Morgan: We are developing our services' data and we are analysing why those over 1,000 people are detained in hospital when they shouldn't be there. In the vast majority, the reason for it is because they haven't got the help from the social care services, but there are other reasons as well. For example, communications is a big issue. There are delays sometimes for things like medication. There are...
Julie Morgan: Gareth Davies highlights a crucial point. There is no way that the health service will flourish unless the social care system is operating to its maximum. The reason why over 1,000 people who are medically fit to be discharged are not able to be discharged is, to a large extent, because there is not the domiciliary support in their own homes for them to manage at home, and there aren't enough...
Julie Morgan: I thank Gareth Davies for that question. The integration of health and social care is something that we are working very hard to reach. Our regional partnership boards are where we are putting this into practice, where we have the health authorities and the local government authorities working together to come up with proposals that are totally integrated. It's also very important to remember...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Darren Millar, for welcoming this payment as a step in the right direction. I welcome his support. Yes, senior care staff and managers will receive the additional payment, and I think that I want to repeat, really, that our purpose is to try to professionalise the workforce—those who are directly giving care, the direct care givers. We did give two recognition payments during the...
Julie Morgan: Thank you, Mike, very much, and thank you for your welcome for these proposals. I absolutely agree that everyone in Wales needs to be paid the real living wage, but what we're tackling here are the people who directly deliver social care. And those who deliver it indirectly, of course I think they should be paid the real living wage as well, but what we're trying to do is boost the profession...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, James, for welcoming the announcement and the comments that you've made. I think it's absolutely vital that we do all we can to attract more people into the system. I'm aware that care packages are being given back due to staff shortages. We have been working very hard to try to attract more care workers. We've had a huge advertising campaign, which many people will have...
