Janet Finch-Saunders: 6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the provision of play facilities in local schools? OAQ52581
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...outcomes for our parents in Wales. I was disappointed to see that the Minister rejected recommendation 7 in his response to the report on this Bill. To exclude and to disadvantage parents in education or those looking for work flies in the face of the rhetoric that we hear so often from this Government on a daily basis on equality and fairness. The Minister points out in his response...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...group for local authorities to feed into? Why not consider streamlining these structures? You say that finding more money is not an option. However, we now know that local government, housing, education, social services and health are all intrinsically linked. Why, oh why, will you not seek to work with your other Cabinet Members around the table and seek a wholesale reform of all our...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...with your other Cabinet colleagues? One thing that was fundamentally agreed to in that room was that you cannot bring local government reform forward on its own; you do need to integrate health, education, social care and housing. So, Cabinet Secretary, Williams identified this in his report, 62 recommendations of which this Welsh Government has only ever gone forward with four, all...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...Holtham also about health and social care, and the integration of it, and making that a reality. One thing became abundantly clear, namely that good housing or bad housing affects our health. Education affects our health, and social care. Housing—. Sorry, education—I thought I'd written these down earlier. With local government, we have social care. Those are five fundamental services...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...at the moment—and you haven't answered that question. Additionally, we know that local government has integral links with other areas of the public service delivery, such as the health service, education, provision of housing and social care, and, particularly, the considerable concerns facing the health service in Wales, including nursing and doctor shortages, systematic failures to...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...public services sector. We know that to fulfil our obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we must ensure better working between local authorities, health, social services, education and housing. Cabinet Secretary, why are you not being more radical here? Why are you not seeking a wholescale reform of public services in Wales? Why are you not opening this up to a much...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...any time that your resistance is low. So, this is really an important debate here tonight, and it's one that I wholeheartedly support Angela Burns on. Please make an awareness campaign. Get that education out there in schools, in hospitals, in care homes, in hospitals at home, in people's own homes. And please, Cabinet Secretary; you have the levers, please use them and let's not see...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...very high. However, a number of local authorities have raised serious concerns that the £13 million that was previously allocated for the minority ethnic, Gypsy/Traveller and Roma element of the educational improvement grant was actually withheld and not actually passed on to this particular budget line. The education Secretary has since admitted error in this regard, thereby transferring...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Can I thank Simon Thomas for bringing this question? Because I'm a really keen supporter of children receiving free milk in schools and, preferably, until they leave school, but there we go. Can I thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for saying that you're as committed to providing that? But post Brexit, what consideration will you make of encouraging direct partnerships between our local milk...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...to marry or serve in the forces. I would also at this point mention that, as a serial campaigner, the 18 to 30-year-olds are often disenfranchised because, of course, politics isn't taught in schools. There is that sort of void—[Interruption.] Yes, all my schools in Aberconwy would like to see the political system more on the curriculum. So, I would ask you how you intend to ensure we...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...of an increase to social care budgets to £42 million in 2018-19, rising to £73 million in 2019-20, and, allegedly, an extra £62 million, increasing to £108 million, in funding support for school services have been challenged by the Welsh Local Government Association, claiming it is already existing within the settlement, whilst the standard spending assessments has only gone up by just...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...in actually putting a ban on those. That was action that you have meaningfully taken, and I am really appreciative of that. I have called for the Welsh Government to commission work through the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University to look at the impact of harvesting and salting on the species. How lucky are we to have such a university at Bangor. They are incredibly well renowned...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...have to be adequately trained and the resources available to carry out the test—and, obviously, the required follow-ups. Additionally, Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board has noted that education for primary care health professionals should include raising the awareness of the classic symptoms for type 1 diabetes and prompt on-the-spot finger-prick blood glucose testing for any...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ..., along with Diabetes UK, have worked very hard to try and ensure that no other family have to go through what they've had to endure. In her words—this is the mother's words: 'Peter loved life at school and his friends. He was a fit and healthy teenager who had the world at his feet. He'd just been to Germany with the school and had come back with a winter cold. On New Year's Eve, he was...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...College of Psychiatrists have stated that there has always been a shortfall of perinatal mental health services in Wales and that is a worry. The recent report of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, published in October, noted that the Betsi board had still not filled the majority of posts within their new perinatal mental health service teams, despite funding having been...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...few remaining greenfield sites, and frankly, developers are looking now to be able to land bank, to the detriment of our local communities. We haven't got the health services. We haven't got the education facilities, and there aren't places in the schools. The whole thing is a fiasco, and I would ask you, as your responsibility as the First Minister, to really look at this and perhaps...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...must be near the top of any Government’s agenda. The benefits to the environment, economy, public health, are undeniable. Additionally, supporting our young people in accessing employment and education opportunities is essential to the growth and development of our future workforce. Our debate today—
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...49-year-olds. Further, the employment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds is considerably lower here than in England and Scotland, and 57,400 people aged 16 to 24 are classed as NEETs—not in employment, education or training. Now, given that almost 40 per cent of jobseekers say that their job search is limited because of the costs involved, it is clear that access via free bus travel really can...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...authorities do it all the time. Where are they in this document? Maybe this Welsh Labour Government is dissuaded from drawing attention to their record on the economy, business, housing, health, education, infrastructure, rural communities, because they have so consistently failed in those areas. Health and social services—we know that, in their current form, health and social services...
