Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 1 February 2017.
There are almost 80 charitable and voluntary groups working with patients and healthcare staff in north Wales alone, and if there are 80 organisations, then there are hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers and therefore thousands of voluntary hours donated to support their work. The return on quite a small investment is very substantial indeed. Can I ask you, therefore, given that you say that funding has been allocated to support much of this work, do you recognise that the statutory services in place at present are under more pressure than ever and that, as a result of that, the voluntary organisations and volunteers are also under pressure to meet the additional needs that fall on them? Can you tell us what more you as a Government hope to do to support them?