Michelle Brown: Thank you for your update, Cabinet Secretary, but I have to say that it’s such a shame for the people who need Betsi Cadwaladr that the Cabinet Secretary’s statement doesn’t contain more good news than the broad assertions that there have been unquantified improvements in some areas. Now, I’m not going to rehearse the disgraceful statistics that have come out of Betsi Cadwaladr;...
Michelle Brown: Okay. Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I'm really, really interested to know what sort of service level agreement you've got set up with the new franchise holder, particularly around the targets and performance indicators that are laid down in that SLA. How strict on enforcing those performance indicators in SLAs—? What remedies do you have in the SLA and the franchise...
Michelle Brown: 3. How does the Welsh Government intend to measure the success of improvements to services emanating from the new rail franchise? OAQ52823
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Minister, although I am sorry to have to observe that it's rather thin on detail, and it does seem to be largely a list of aspirations, laudable though those aspirations are. Your statement talks about a plan, but I can't see a detailed plan in your statement. So, I'm just wondering: would you let us know when the detailed plan is going to be issued, and will we...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for the list of red herrings, Cabinet Secretary. I'll crack on to the practical aspect of this. I'd like to know what you're actually doing to help universities and colleges market themselves to the wider and more lucrative international student base. For example, have you asked vice-chancellors in FE colleges what practical support you can give them? For instance, sponsoring and...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for the answer, Cabinet Secretary. The vice-principal went on to say: 'Our partnership with China has become very strong over the last two years, potentially helped by Brexit.' Your party—by which I mean the Liberal Democrat party that you represent, rather than the Labour Party that you've ended up serving—wants to ignore the votes of the majority of Welsh voters and stay in...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, some time ago, I asked you if you saw any advantages for further and higher education establishments in leaving the EU and you replied that you didn't. An article by the BBC earlier this month highlighted that our colleges are discovering that there are opportunities for further and higher education for those who take the trouble to look for...
Michelle Brown: Not really.
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Minister. I would like to join the Minister in paying tribute to those who put themselves forward to adopt a child in need of a loving and stable home, and I welcome this statement. Although the Minister hasn't quantified the improvements he set out in his statement, I welcome the news that children are being placed with adopting families quicker, that a sizeable...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Minister. Along with Angela Burns, my heartfelt sympathies go to the family and friends of Corey Sharpling, who sadly died in a landslip. And also my sympathies go to other people in the UK who died or who have suffered injury in the recent storm. I'm sure that all Members in this place will do our utmost to assist them and those people whose homes and...
Michelle Brown: I support this motion. There is, of course, a great variety of disability and, in a sense, every disability is unique to the person concerned. Disabled people face issues in accessing education, training, employment and services, whether public or private. It's true that the rights of disabled people have improved over the last 40 years, although given how they were treated in the past,...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. Are you concerned to know how a maternity service suddenly discovers that it's 15 midwives short? At what point did they find out they were 15 midwives short? A dedicated and hardworking staff, behind whom you will no doubt hide today, must have been sounding the alarm about staff shortages and their consequences for a long time; they mustn't...
Michelle Brown: First Minister, I see that the Government in England is introducing a ban on third party puppy sales. I just would like to know from you, you're saying now that you're going to consider it, how long you're going to continue trying to regulate the misery instead of banning it outright.
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I'm sure you'd like to make that inference from my question, but, in your final speech to the Labour conference as First Minister, you made great play of saying that what you have achieved in Wales shows what Labour can do when in power. Perhaps you were caught up in your demob happiness, but you forgot to mention that, since becoming First Minister,...
Michelle Brown: 1. What assessment has the First Minister made of improvements to hospital waiting times since he became First Minister? OAQ52698
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. Self-evaluation is an important internal exercise, but when used in this context, where it will form part of a larger evaluation and assessment process, and where schools operate under a funding model that sees schools competing for pupils, will the self-evaluation of schools and consortia simply end up being an exercise in self-promotion? I...
Michelle Brown: 'No significant improvements in Welsh education until 2022'. Those aren't my words, but those of the chief inspector of schools in Wales. Now, that might not be too bad if the Welsh education system were the best in the world, or even the best in Europe. The best in the UK would make it less worrying that there will be four years of stagnation. But, that isn't the case, is it? Under this...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I hope you're familiar with the shocking and distressing case of Reece Yates, the baby who died at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and whose inquest took place yesterday. As you know, this is a hospital run by Betsi Cadwaladr board. The inquest heard that Reece would have had every chance of surviving his complications having been treated elsewhere, and...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I am rather surprised that you would think that safeguarding a child would be peripheral to anything, but I'll move slightly on. Can you tell me if you've had any conversations with the Cabinet Secretary for health over a way that home-schooled children can receive similar or the same medical checks that children schooled in a normal school would...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. On the point of the principle of whether children are safe with their parents, I would completely agree with you—we shouldn't be approaching this from the point of view that children are inherently at risk with their parents. However, Sally Holland has identified a risk. There is obviously a risk because one child who was being home schooled,...
