Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 3:18 pm on 1 March 2017.
Thank you very much for that answer, actually. I still want to develop that a little bit further because the future of social care—we’re not talking about it because it’s fashionable. It’s because it matters to so many people and we all recognise that it needs change. And even though I, personally, have no fixed view on whether this should be evolutionary or revolutionary, what I’m really looking for is an indication from you about quite how brave you’re going to be when it comes to innovation. So, for example—this is just an example, as well—there’s a nursing home in the Netherlands that allows university students to live rent free alongside elderly residents in that nursing home, in a 30-hour per month ‘acting as a good neighbour’ contract, as part of a project aimed at warding off negative effects, and there are similar intergenerational programmes in Lyon and in Cleveland in Ohio. One programme, which began in Barcelona in the 1990s, has been replicated in more than 20 cities. We really have to lift our eyes at what’s going on in the rest of the world, I think. So, I’d be very interested to know whether you’re discussing similar ideas with private providers, housing associations and colleges and universities. And I’m glad that you hinted at that earlier on, because if we’re going to make this really work, it has got to be about more than just local authorities and the NHS.