Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Michelle, and, again, thank you for the broad welcome there. On the HMRC issues, we are aware—everybody's aware because they've been made quite public—of some of the early implementation problems there have been, both in terms of the tax credits, but also their offer, their parallel offer, in England. However, they are overcoming those, and we've been in discussion with them...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Llyr, thank you very much. Can I address the more fundamental question you put first of all, whilst welcoming again your broad support, and the question you raised of, 'Where next on the journey?' That's always the question we should be asking as policymakers and policy influencers. But, again, I simply do not want to overstep the mark or over-promise in terms of this particular Bill. It's a...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Darren, thank you very much indeed. Several points there, but can I just begin by welcoming your broad support for this? As you rightly say, versions of childcare, early education offers, appeared in most manifestos of some sort, with variations on a theme, differently cut and spliced. But it is good that we are now at this point where, with the support of this house around this Bill, we can...
Huw Irranca-Davies: The childcare offer was a key commitment in the Welsh Labour manifesto 'Together for Wales', and we are committed to providing 30 hours a week of Government-funded early education and childcare to working parents of three and four-year-olds in Wales for up to 48 weeks per year. The childcare element is aimed at working parents, which means that we need to establish a means by which parents...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd, for the opportunity to make a statement about the Childcare Funding (Wales) Bill, which was introduced to the National Assembly yesterday. The Bill, although technical in nature, will make it possible for the Welsh Government to put in place a national application and eligibility checking system to support the childcare offer in Wales.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thanks for giving way. I actually agree with the thrust of what you were saying there, that those young people are going to be the driving force of our communities but also our economy as well. But this gives me the opportunity just to highlight that, three years after graduating, the proportion of Welsh graduates working in Wales isn't 55 per cent, it is 70 per cent. We'd like it to be 80...
Huw Irranca-Davies: It covered a lot of non-devolved areas: immigration, tax, national insurance, foreign aid—all UK Government. It did also put up once again, I think, the shibboleth of climate change. I would simply say that climate change is one of those factors that is actually driving one of the other aspects of the amendment, which is migration and so on. It is a direct result of it, so we do need to...
Huw Irranca-Davies: We've touched on out-migration, clearly, and the impact on the Welsh language is key, without a doubt, and it's more specific to certain areas as well. There are flows with the Welsh language. The Welsh language is increasing in some areas. In some areas it's declining, including in what we would regard as traditionally some of the heartland areas. And that is to do with economic...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes, and we need to do more. I'll come to some of the things that were touched on in the debate, and also what we are already doing as well.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I've filled a lot into these years, I tell you. But part of it has been because of the availability of economic opportunities within my own communities. Part of it, I have to say as well, has been the draw of Wales and the desire to come home. I will say something before I return to the individual contributions, of which there have been many in this debate: it is interesting that sometimes...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. I'm delighted to take part in this debate today and welcome the spirit and the wide-ranging, actually, contributions to this debate as well. We may disagree, at the end of this, on where our voting preferences will lie, but I think it's quite healthy, in terms of the debate, that we've had such a wide range, across the sphere here, of suggestions on how—if I can just...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Formally.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes, indeed, absolutely. Delayed transfers of care are at the centre of this—managing this transition effectively. And, of course, the right care that I was referring to earlier includes the right mental health care as well, and treatment, in the right setting as well. The good news is that this is not flicking a switch and we've suddenly removed delayed transfers of care overnight to the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes, and it's a critical point. In some ways, the intermediate care fund and the use of it to enable effective not only discharge, but to ease that transition to the right care setting for the individual, whether that's in their home with the wraparound care that they need to support independent living or, actually, to a care home itself and, again, with the appropriate support as well, is...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes. Effective collaboration between our NHS, local authorities and their partners is critical to achieving the transition of patients to settings that best meet their own ongoing care needs. The Welsh Government has issued guidance on managing that important process and recent trends suggest it is having a positive effect.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Bethan, thank you very much for that, and we concur entirely with what you're saying. It needs to be on an exceptional basis. We'd only want secure accommodation used when it is the appropriate option and other things have been ruled out. We'd want secure accommodation used in Wales where it is available, but because of the nature of this, and very often the temporary nature of this...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the motion.
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Children (Secure Accommodation) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 amend the regulations on secure accommodation for children that were made in 2015. Secure accommodation forms a small but important part of residential provision for looked-after children. Placements by local authorities are only used where a child is likely to abscond from any other type of placement and is a...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I won't be able to do credit to everything. The Supporting People programme, designed to help people remain independent in their own homes, and, again, that aspect of tackling isolation—. I suspect it would be better, Deputy Presiding Officer, to refer people to the work that we're doing. Our response to the committee on the work of the committee has been done. We regard this with the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you to everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to reply to this important discussion. The quality and strength of the contributions this afternoon have shown that we're doing the right thing in ensuring that loneliness and isolation are a priority for the Welsh Government.
