Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 15 June 2016.
Thank you for the question. I do wonder if you thought you were asking a question about the English system, because in Wales we have ring-fenced mental health funding, and as I said earlier, it is the biggest single area of spend within NHS Wales. I’ve seen campaigns that have taken place on an England and Wales basis, and, actually, they’re really talking about the English system. I remember responding to letters as a Deputy Minister and writing back to Members of Parliament saying, ‘You’re writing to me about England and we’re doing things differently here.’ The challenge is for England to catch up with Wales in this area, so I really do think we’ve got a good story to tell, and not just from the Government’s point of view, but so much of this flows from work done in the third Assembly when the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010 was passed. We took a view at that point in time that there needed to be greater priority given to this particular area of service and the impact that it has, and I’m really pleased that we’re delivering upon that. It’s not perfect, but we are making real progress, and the challenge is how we further improve what we’re already doing.