Thank you for your statement, Minister. This legislation, of course, was supported by us and we want to see it succeed. I was pleased to hear the good news on adoption as well, because that was actually a model with which we were pretty sceptical, if I’m honest, so I’m pleased to say that we may have been persuaded otherwise on that now that we have the evidence.

I think we do agree that an ageing population increases likely demand on social services and so we look forward to an indication of the milestones thta the parliamentary review on health and social care integration may have reached. I’m wondering if perhaps you can exercise some influence there about when we might hear about some of those milestones.

You claim in the statement that you’ve given today that the implementation of the Act is strengthening integration further. Now, bearing in mind the points that have already been made on data capture, can you at least give us a flavour of the type of evidence you’ve already had to support the expectation that the seven regional partnership board assessments have begun to improve prevention, rehabilitation and care in their regions, and the evidence that the citizen is in fact leading the way, contributing to the design of their care? I suppose, in short, what I’m asking is: what do you think co-production currently looks like, and what can you do to reassure me, if you like, that the duty to promote social enterprises and co-ops, and the duty to promote the involvement of the person for care or preventative services, are to be provided, which was imposed on local authorities by the Act? Those two duties—are they actually being observed?

We support your investment in the intermediate care fund—that £60 million and now the additional £15 million. However, I am a bit surprised, especially as you’ve indicated that you hope to develop those services further, from your statement, that you’re not really willing to publish the new independent report you commissioned on how to identify good practice and effective use of funding. Now, that’s not just useful for the regional partnerships. That’s actually useful for us as an Assembly to scrutinise and, of course, support you in making good decisions. But I think it’s also useful for those social workers who, at a conference in Swansea last month, were concerned that they were missing clear indicators of what practice actually looks like. So, if you would be prepared to consider releasing that report, I think I’d be very grateful, because I don’t really see why I should wait three years for a full report on what the intermediate care fund is looking like.

I’m happy to acknowledge the potential of the multifaceted care centre and share your interest in Trem-y-môr. I’m not sure why its success would lead to Bridgend council cutting the social care budget by £2.2 million as a result, but I am keen on hearing more about other successful, locally relevant models. I appreciate this is additional work, but if you are prepared to perhaps produce another written statement with some good examples, I think that might help those of us who are trying to scrutinise you.

Carers—I don’t need to repeat what Rhun ap Iorwerth said—but that refreshed strategy is now overdue, I would say. Again, accepting this issue of data capture, can you give us an indication now about how many carers have been told they are eligible for assessment? I’m quite astonished that some might have been assessed without their knowledge. I really wonder how that was allowed to happen. But then on the back of that, do you have any idea of the proportion of those who’ve been told that they could be assessed who have actually exercised that right; the approximate proportion of those who are still waiting to exercise that right; and again, roughly the proportion of carers who have exercised that right and been assessed and had a statement of their needs who have actually had those needs met? For this to work, it’s got to be more than about smiley faces and frowny faces. There’s got to be some realistic and firm measure of whether those needs have been met.

And then finally, even though I could ask you loads more, I’m afraid, the Act introduced an obligation on local authorities to have due regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN principles for older people. Now, my party believes that all local authority activity should pay due regard to those, but this is a start. So, how are you monitoring the observance of the due regard obligation, and how do you intend to monitor compliance with various codes being issued under the Act, not least that they’re in compliance with those due regard obligations? Thank you very much.