Thank you, Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to participate in this important debate this afternoon. I can confirm, from the outset, that the Welsh Conservatives will support this motion.

Of course, we on this side of the Chamber recognise that Wales faces a number of challenges when it comes to our health, our education system and out economy, and I’ll be focusing on the future.

As the second point of the motion says, performance in these policy areas clearly shows that the Welsh Government must be more creative and collaborative in developing policies for our public services. If we are serious about transforming the economy, we must support our small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy, and we must invest in key infrastructure projects.

The Welsh Government must recognise the potential of SMEs to grow the Welsh economy and create the conditions necessary for more enterprise here in Wales. Only recently, some businesses have suffered terribly because of increases in business rates. Businesses need to know whether they actually qualify for some of the additional funding announced by the Welsh Government.

I appreciate that the Welsh Government is going to look at the business rates system in the future, but the Government can take action now on this issue. For example, it could split the business rate multiplier in order to provide a level playing field for small businesses to compete with larger businesses.

SMEs also need support in accessing finance, and I believe that the Welsh Government must develop a regional approach to enable businesses to gain access to funding in order to reflect their local economies.

We must think much more creatively if we’re going to transform the economy, and creating a series of regional high-street banks across Wales would certainly localise access to finance for small businesses. Proposals like this could be submitted fairly quickly and would have a positive effect on the local and national economy in Wales, and I hope that the Welsh Government looks carefully at these kinds of policies and finds a better way to support small businesses across Wales.

Of course, there are also fundamental problems in the health service in Wales. The Welsh Government continues to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to providing health services across Wales, which is failing Welsh patients. The Government must move away from its centralising agenda for healthcare services. We need to see policies that protect local services and we need to see stronger services across Welsh hospitals.

Centralising services does not necessarily mean better services when it comes to meeting healthcare needs and the Welsh Government must reverse this worrying trend and start developing more integrated local services within our communities. The Welsh Government must expand the role of community hospitals across Wales in order to help reduce the pressure on our hospital units, which are already under enormous strain. I also believe that the health service must be more accountable to those it serves. In my opinion, this would lead to improvements by giving patients a voice at the heart of decisions made in the health service. Indeed, establishing local accountability and transferring decisions relating to health services away from the central government in Cardiff Bay and putting that authority back in the hands of local communities, in my opinion, would improve our local health services.

In terms of our education system, I’m sure that all Members in the Chamber agree that our children deserve better. I appreciate that the Cabinet Secretary is embarking on a broad range of measures in relation to the education system in Wales, but as things stand, the figures show that Wales is simply not where we want it to be in terms of international benchmarks.

Going forward, there must be greater ambition and leadership from the Welsh Government and that must be passed on to teachers throughout Wales. A recent report by Estyn stated that a significant lack of strong leadership was holding teachers and children back from achieving their potential. Thus, the Welsh Government needs to focus more on improving teaching standards and developing a strategy to target and develop leadership issues in the education system.

As part of a campaign to empower teachers, the Welsh Government must establish a national formula with money being directly targeted at schools to put all learners, whether in rural or urban settings, on a more equal footing. By doing this, it will release more resources for the classroom. Directly funding schools would actually drive power down to the teachers and headteachers who know what is best for their schools, giving them more flexibility and control over the priorities of their schools. And the Welsh Government must provide the tools for schools to be more creative in implementing the curriculum, for example, by making schools entrepreneurial hubs by establishing social enterprises in each school to improve the business skills of future generations.

In closing, Llywydd, the Welsh Government must be much more innovative and creative in order to improve the lives of people in Wales. Continuing with the same old approaches will not bring improvements to our health service, or our education system and will not grow our economy. Therefore, I urge the Welsh Government to act and to be much more innovative.