Rhun ap Iorwerth: You mentioned their accountability within the NHS and how the NHS itself seeks to better itself through its own governance. You have recently published a White Paper on reforming NHS governance, and real concerns, actually, have been brought to my attention about some of the suggestions that have been made, certainly in relation to the replacement of community health councils with new...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The report itself highlighted what I think we’re justified in calling ‘nepotism’ when it came to procurement and recruitment. The auditor general also noted it proved extremely difficult to obtain a clear position of the facts relating to the matters subject to audit. UHB officers and former officers provided conflicting and inconsistent accounts. There was a tendency for them to blame...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr. On Monday, the auditor general released a critical report about the behaviour of Cardiff and Vale regarding procurement and recruitment. Now, I understand that. In response, NHS Wales’s chief executive has written to LHBs to seek assurances about their processes. What’s your hunch? Do you think that this was a one-off?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: More than 1,200 patients are waiting longer than a year for treatment in north Wales and that is unacceptable. I hope that you would agree with that. A recent paper from the board on developing orthopaedic services emphasises the need for more training places in order to provide the necessary workforce to create a sustainable service that can meet reasonable targets. Isn’t the statement...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the number of patients referred for orthopaedic treatment in north Wales? OAQ(5)0201(HWS)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Mi gofiaf i heddiw fel y diwrnod lle cyrhaeddom ni gwestiwn 13, ac mae fy niolch i Neil Hamilton ac i Mark Reckless am fethu ag ymestyn am eu ffeiliau yn ddigon cyflym. Rwy’n ddiolchgar o gael y cyfle, ac mae hwn yn fater, digwydd bod, rydw i’n teimlo’n reit gryf yn ei gylch o. Mae cofebau’r rhyfel mawr—mi wyddoch chi amdanyn nhw—ar sgwâr y pentref yn bethau sy’n cael eu...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I draw your attention to a recent case of a constituent who was homeless? Citizens Advice and I tried to assist him in securing a crisis home until a more permanent home could be provided for him. I understand the pressures on local authorities, naturally, but in this case the council didn’t believe that they could place this individual in the priority category. But in this case, what...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 13. Will the First Minister make a statement on the protection of war memorials in Wales? OAQ(5)0734(FM)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ll begin by talking about the experience of a young person, Kelly O’Keefe from Talsarnau in Gwynedd, who is in her 20s by now but who has been suffering from arthritis from a very early age, receiving treatment in Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool—an excellent hospital, but that’s not the point in this context. Her parents had to take a day off work to take her to Liverpool, with...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Norman and Jennifer Hutchinson, my constituents, who have very gently kept up the pressure on me to keep up the pressure, along with Julie Morgan and others here in this Chamber, on the UK Government to press ahead and help get us to this point. We’re not there yet, as Norman and Jennifer said last night to me. With the right leadership on the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The report on language trends was discussed at the last meeting of the cross-party group on international Wales, and, by the way, I invite everyone to a meeting next week to discuss connecting with the Welsh diaspora and hearing what GlobalWelsh and Cymru a’r Byd have to say at that point. But one specific concern raised was that the Welsh baccalaureate used to include modern foreign...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the teaching of languages in schools in Wales?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I thank the Cabinet Secretary for this statement? I, too, will take this opportunity to thank Ruth Hussey and her team for the work that they have done to date, and I’m very pleased that we are in a situation now where we can hear this statement, and I’m pleased to see the coverage in the press today for this report. But the Cabinet Secretary, I think, is right in reminding us that we...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: It's been a pleasure to welcome pupils from three primary schools from Anglesey to the Assembly today: Ysgol Porthaethwy; Ysgol Corn Hir, Llangefni and Parc y Bont in Llanddaniel. I was discussing learning additional languages with pupils from Parc y Bont and Corn Hir, and the pupils from Corn Hir are already being given French lessons on a weekly basis. As bilingual pupils, they were very...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: On very similar lines:
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on the state of modern languages teaching in secondary schools in Wales? OAQ(5)0725(FM)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The specific point that I put to the finance Minister earlier today. I think there’s a danger in the north-west of Wales that Wylfa is seen as the one that ticks the box. What are your thoughts on what happens if Wylfa is not deliverable for some reason—of course, that is a danger—and the danger then that the north-west has nothing planned to come out of the north Wales growth deal?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you be asking him to similarly join you in work on joining the north Wales economy with the south of Wales and with Ireland?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The people of Anglesey would like an assurance that the north Wales growth deal will seek to develop the economy across all counties of north Wales, not tying the eastern counties to what’s happening in England only. There are opportunities to the west also, in Ireland, never mind the rest of Wales, and not just in the north west of England. There is a risk that Wylfa Newydd will be seen...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You have described how the 111 service works, and, for the record, I think it’s a good idea, and I look forward to measuring its success in future. You say the pathfinder service has been a success so far, but its success, of course, will be measured in its outcomes. You tell us that 73,000 calls were made to the ABM service between October 2016 and April 2017, but, again, it’s outcomes...
