3. Urgent Question: The Bryn Hesketh Mental Health Unit

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:21 pm on 5 October 2016.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:21, 5 October 2016

Thank you for the question. The report on the investigation won’t be for me, it will be for the health board, but I would expect they will make sure that Assembly Members are briefed. In fact, Assembly Members were briefed on this particular issue, and, again, it is to the credit of the health board—they were proactive in telling people about the problem, rather than waiting for it to leak out. So, the POVA—protection of vulnerable adults—investigation has started as well. So, as I say, they’re doing the right thing. In understanding what comes out in the report, I would expect Assembly Members to be briefed again as well, and I would expect that the learning from that would be provided to public representatives by the health board.

On your point about the nurse staffing levels Act, I’ve indicated that the Act will be rolled out in an evidence-based way. So, we understand—evidence now for when it will be rolled out in the initial stage, and in any further roll-out there has to be evidence about the impact of doing so, about where we are now and where we need to go. I’m really pleased I’ve had a very constructive couple of conversations already with the Royal College of Nursing about this point. They obviously want to see the Act further rolled out and not just in adult services, but in children’s services, too. I’ve been really clear, where there’s evidence that there’s a real gain to be made by the patient on rolling out the nurse staffing Act, then we’ll take that up and we’ll work in a way to understand how we need to plan the workforce to deliver that. But I’m certainly open to—we’ve got a commitment to roll the Act out in those areas where the evidence tells us it is the right thing to do. So, I’m happy to restate that commitment today.