Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 1 February 2017.
I agree, because, sadly, as you know, Wales still has higher child poverty than Scotland, Northern Ireland and all but two of the nine English regions. At least we’ve pulled ahead of two of those regions—I think London and the East Midlands. But, last week, the royal college of paediatricians said that poverty was the biggest threat to children’s health in Wales. I welcome the news, given your previous comments, that your officials have now met the co-production network for Wales, re-named All in this Together, and I even heard you yesterday refer positively to co-production. How do you respond to the statement from the Well North Wales programme, with which you might be familiar, that the more deprived communities of north Wales have around a 25 per cent higher rate of emergency admission than the more affluent communities, and that there is, therefore, a requirement to tackle issues around deprivation and poverty at a local community level by meeting the principles of prudent health, particularly around co-production?