Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...have to look at the evaluation. But what was beneficial in Blaenau Ffestiniog is that, actually, we knew that Betsi had these mobile units that we could use, and also we’ve had to check that the school has access to the right power supplies and water supplies and all of those other things. So, there are some technical and practical things that we have to consider before we’re able to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ..., can we think about creating a new kind of model here. In particular, let’s have a look at children. So, through this pilot that we’re running in north Wales, a mobile unit goes into the school, sees every child in the school. We don’t necessarily need a dentist; we can use dental therapists to do this work. And I think it’ll be really interesting to see how that works out, and,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...funding on the table. In Betsi, we've got these 26,000 extra appointments that have been given, and, crucially, as the First Minister mentioned this morning, we're developing this new dental school in north Wales. Key to what we're trying to do here is to broaden the dental skill mix. You asked me about training—well, we've got now 67 new dental trainees, we've got 50 dental care...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...13 years ago. This programme normalises the habit of tooth brushing and provides direct fluoride application for children. But the age group of children I really want to focus on next is secondary school age, because this is the formative age when children start to make more independent choices around what they eat and drink. During the spring, we will be trialling the use of a mobile...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. Of course, we do hope that things like developing the medical school in north Wales will help and, of course, there will be an opportunity for people to do their practical work in places like Tywyn. And it's good to see that there's been a significant increase in the number of medical undergraduates in Wales. Forty-seven per cent of people studying in Wales now live in Wales, and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...'t talk down Betsi. We've got to be really careful about actually trying to attract new people to work in the health board. I think there are things that we can do. I think the north Wales medical school is a real opportunity for Betsi. I think we could be attracting some significant new people to north Wales as a result of that new medical school. We have the north Wales dental academy....
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...and organisations that are research-active have a stronger ability to attract the best staff and retain them. And that's why, last year, Health and Care Research Wales, Social Care Wales and Health Education and Improvement Wales initiated a joint review of research career and training pathways, which set out recommendations in the 'Making research careers work: a review of career pathways...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...the development of the workforce is, and that's why we have committed to planning the workforce to meet future need for cancer care. So, I was very pleased to announce, on 18 January, the education and training plan of Health Education and Improvement Wales. That included uplifts, for the the third successive year, in the number of higher training posts for clinical and medical...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...services. The intended benefits brought forward by the new optometry contracted terms of service will provide a service framework fit for the future. This will be underpinned by the continued education and training of our primary care optometry workforce.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We are increasing staffing numbers through a range of recruitment and attraction approaches, including international recruitment and record investment in education and training programmes. Improving staff retention in the NHS and the sustainability of our workforce is paramount.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Last week, I announced a £281 million investment package to support education and training programmes for healthcare professionals in Wales. For the ninth consecutive year, funding in Wales will increase, with an extra 8 per cent for 2023-24, and this will support the highest ever number of training opportunities in Wales. The NHS has more people working in it than at any time before in its...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...want to upgrade and whatever, but let's get them into that space first. So, I think that's very exciting. The whole point of this programme is that it shouldn't be linked to a hospital or a medical school or whatever. This is about support in the community, in whichever community it is. This is about getting that support out of the hospitals, making sure that we understand that people,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...some very vibrant community hubs, there'll be others where there'll be GP surgeries, so it depends on what's right for that community. Just in terms of trained people, obviously we published Health Education and Improvement Wales's improvement training plan last week, and just to let you know, for example, physiotherapist training places will increase next year to 180, occupational...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I'd just like to say something also about the HEIW education plan that was published today. It's absolutely right that we need more nurses, and that's why we've put an 8 per cent increase in terms of the money we're putting into training people: £281 million will be invested in training the next generation of NHS workers, and that includes the fact that we will have 400 more nurse training...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...the workforce, you'll be aware that more people work in the NHS today than have ever worked before. We are still recruiting and, tomorrow, I will be issuing a statement in terms of how Health Education and Improvement Wales will be training the future workforce, in terms of what they have planned in the next years. In terms of the minimum service levels, I think we've got to be absolutely...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...we try and encourage people to make sure that they participate, and they understand what healthy food is and how they use it and how they cook it. We've put a lot of support, of course, into our schools. So free school meals have now gone into primary schools; making sure that that is the right kind of food is really important. So, there's a huge amount that people can do, and, of course,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...than we're losing, which is not enough. We know it's not enough, and we know we need to do more, which is why we've seen a huge, huge increase in the number of people we are training with Health Education and Improvement Wales and others. And that's why we've given an additional sum to HEIW in the budget: £265 million to train the next generation of health workers. When it comes to the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ..., the actions that have been put in place have enabled us to broadly stabilise the position since the festive period. We’re now preparing for the next phase of pressure as children return to school and as life begins to go back to normal after the Christmas break, as well as changes in the weather, which we know often bring a new surge in the demand during this time of year. Thank you...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...nursing training centre in Aberystwyth University recently, and they certainly had areas where there are simulation areas as well. Obviously, we'll have to wait and see how things develop in the school. You'll be aware that the capital constraints are very, very tight at the moment. So, at the moment, we'll see, as things continue, how things develop. Hopefully, by the time we get up to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Intake numbers for the Bangor medical school have been approved, and funding has also approved for 140 students per year once the school reaches optimum capacity. A letter of assurance was sent to General Medical Council colleagues in November to allow Bangor University to continue their forward momentum through the accreditation process. Thank you.
