Thank you, Llywydd. I’m grateful to the Conservative Party for tabling today’s debate, and the opportunity it provides to set out the significant work being done in this area by health boards, trusts and the Welsh Government. There are, of course, challenges for recruitment and retention in Wales, across the NHS family in the UK and further afield in most western healthcare systems. I can confirm that the Government will support both the motion and the amendment today. We have already had some successes here in Wales, and we should recognise that. But this is not an exercise in complacency by the Government. We do, as I say, recognise that there are challenges, and we are in the process of taking action.

It’s fair to say that, in Wales, our retention and recruitment rates have remained consistent, with staff, for example, leaving in fewer numbers when compared to those in England. However, there are areas where there are real difficulties. We know there are particular roles that are in high demand and have a comparatively high turnover.

And part of our challenge is the way in which we do talk about NHS Wales. We know it has a real impact on morale and recruitment, and a range of the criticism that is regularly meted out is not fair and objectively accurate. Paramedics, for example, regularly described this to me over the last period of the year or two. For example, Ceri Phillips mentioned it this week when talking about the ability to encourage people to consider careers in medicine and allied professions. But I’m actually encouraged by the manner—the constructive manner—both of the opening of the debate and the contribution of Members around the Chamber. The way that we talk constructively about the service can make a difference to having a real and searching debate about the health service, but doing it in such a way that we do not reach for headline-grabbing and unsupportable calls.

I recognise that retention is a key area of focus, and significant work is already under way, with health boards currently considering the broader aspect of staff engagement, such as appraisal and development, so staff feel supported and valued throughout their careers. An NHS staff survey is already under way, with the support of trade unions, to help us to understand the issues faced by our staff, and the results of that will feed into the changes that we wish to make to help aid retention. Of course, where turnover and vacancies exist, we need to recruit on a regular basis, and health boards already take a range of measures to try and fill those vacancies. They include European and international recruitment drives, promotion and the extension of return-to-practice schemes, local marketing and recruitment activity, to name but a few.

Whilst today’s discussion has focused on recruitment and retention challenges, it is a fact that there are now more front-line NHS staff working in Wales than ever before. Full-time equivalent staff numbers have increased by more than 2,200 in the last year. That’s an increase of 3.1 per cent, and an increase of double on the previous year. It is a fact that the numbers of consultants, other doctors, nurses and midwives have reached record highs. That means that the NHS workforce in Wales continues to grow in the face of continuing austerity, and yet, despite those record staff numbers, we know that we still face a challenging recruitment market, and that’s why the Government is already taking action to support health boards to recruit and train additional doctors. We’re building on last year’s campaign by launching a major national and international campaign to market Wales as a great place for doctors to train, work and live. The campaign will launch in October and has been developed to support health board and trust activity consistently, under the banner of NHS Wales. Its initial focus will be on doctors, but it will then extend to take into account the wider NHS workforce, and I’m pleased to hear a range of speakers in the Chamber today mention the fact that the NHS is not just doctors, not just nurses, but a whole range of different professional and supportive groups. I will be making a fuller statement on that campaign in the Chamber next week.