I’m very pleased to say that discussion is taking place. At the ministerial task group that I set up—I chaired it a few weeks ago—it is part of our ongoing and engaging discussion. Indeed, in the early months of my time in this particular post, I’ve met those particular stakeholders, and they are continuing to work with the Government on designing and delivering our campaign. I’m actually positive about the constructive and generally positive way that they are engaging with us, and they are supportive of the direction that we are taking.

I’ve previously said in this Chamber that we are committed to developing a 10-year workforce plan for the NHS. It should be a clear vision, with priority areas of work for the Government, for NHS Wales, and for our partners, to address the challenges that we face now and in the future. The plan must take account of the full range of professionals working in the NHS and be based on new models of care, and not plugging gaps in existing services—this, again, has been mentioned in other Members’ contributions, including in the opening from Angela Burns—because we know that we need to change how we provide health and care to continue to meet the rising levels of complexity and demand that we face. Simply trying to increase capacity will not be enough to deliver the health and care services that we need.

In the summer recess, I jointly met the deans of both medical schools in Wales, and they identified the importance of reviewing the activities already in place to encourage Welsh students to aspire to a career in medicine and to encourage them to consider starting their education for that career here in Wales. We’ve looked to identify barriers or obstacles that might exist or disadvantage candidates from Wales.

Turning to the ambulance trust mentioned in the motion, in fact, sickness absence in the ambulance service has reduced over the last year, but we recognise that it is still too high. Support for staff has been raised with me by the staff trade unions, in my conversations with them, for the stressful environment they do already work in. I’m pleased to say that the ambulance trust is investing significantly in their own health and well-being services. That includes a new employee assistance programme with direct 24/7 access to counsellors and fully tailored packages of counselling.

It’s also important to note that the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is an improving organisation, albeit certainly not perfect, not only in response times, but in the highly competitive world of paramedic recruitment. Staff are now positively coming to Wales for their careers in paramedicine, and we expect to be at or near full head count this year. Given the position that the ambulance trust was in even 18 months ago, that is a remarkable improvement and a real success story that I hope will be recognised and welcomed across this Chamber.

Our vision is for a high-quality and compassionate national health service here in Wales with improving outcomes with and for our citizens. Staff recruitment and retention are of course undeniably significant challenges here in Wales to be met to achieve that vision. We will continue to act with partners to recruit the staff that we need to deliver and improve upon the high-quality compassionate care that I’m proud to say that NHS Wales delivers with and for communities right across Wales as a regular experience that we already have.