I welcome the fact that Janet Finch-Saunders says we need to double the amount of investment in social care, and I wish her well in her attempt to get that sort of money out of the UK Government—not likely with the current Government. But I also welcome the slightly more grounded position of Suzy Davies, that neither the Welsh Government nor the UK Government is a golden goose, and I think we have to look at this quite differently, really, particularly as there’s unlikely to be any change in the levels of funding between now and 2020.

I’m not sure that community hospitals are the answer as such, because, certainly based on my personal experience, older people nearing the end of their life want to be at home, most definitely. There is, of course, a role for respite hospices so that carers don’t collapse under the strain of looking after their loved ones, but I think that—. So, there need to be various models of support given, and it’s very important that, in line with the health and social care Act, we’re looking holistically at people’s needs and listening to what they want, and also understanding what level of support can come from their relatives, because, at the end of the day, they most want to be with their relatives or friends, where possible.

But we cannot underestimate the strain that these cause to people who provide unpaid care, which particularly falls on women aged 50 to 64, but the gender inequality diminishes once people retire and, in fact, men are slightly more likely to be providing care than women after retirement age. The health of unpaid carers deteriorates incrementally with increasing levels of unpaid care. The burden of providing 50 hours or more unpaid care a week nevertheless, in terms of impact on their general health, is greatest amongst young carers under the age of 24. But we have to applaud the over 9,000 men and over 5,000 women who are in full-time employment and providing 50 hours or more of unpaid care. It seems to me that, in those circumstances, it’s extremely important that we know who the unpaid carers are and that we’re able to give them the support to make them not also become in need of care themselves.

I think, if we look at what we are going to be able to do, the current situation, for example, in Cardiff—in Cardiff, in 2014, the last year that figures were available to me, they had 11 framework providers, plus spot contracts from another nearly 80 provider organisations. And the impact of competitive tendering drives down prices, depresses pay and conditions, and the race to the bottom, because of the return to the shareholders, is the key driver for private firms. And the continuity of care required is simply not there. If you think about the intimate care services that carers are having to provide, to not know the person who’s changing your bed linen or helping you with toileting really is devastating, and we really do need to think of—