Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:33 pm on 15 June 2016.
Thank you for the question. Mental health is a priority area for this Government. As I said yesterday, in response to a range of questions, we will be refreshing the mental health delivery plan. That will take place this year as well, so it’s not been forgotten. And, really importantly, in undertaking both the consultation and delivering the action plan, we’ll be talking with and listening to service users themselves. It’s been one of the strengths of what we’ve actually managed to do over the last few years, to understand the current impact of the service, and things that will make a difference for them. There are a range of things for us to do, and, actually, mental health is the biggest single area of spend within the national health service. So, it does receive very real priority.
We’ve changed our mental health waiting time standards to make them tougher and, in fact, we are in a better position than England. We have different waiting time standards—much more rigorous—and more people are seen within the target time. The challenge for us—and, following the earlier question—is to recognise the progress we’ve made, and, at the same time, to understand what more we need to do. There is something about recruitment and retention, both in the community service as well as in the secondary care service. So, our next challenge is to confront. But, again, working with the third sector, and service users themselves, I’m confident we will continue to see an improvement in mental health treatment and outcomes here in Wales.