I definitely won’t abandon it, and the fundamental point here is that there haven’t been any cost savings to date since the four-weekly collections came in

Social services and the care sector in Wales are in crisis. The Health Foundation states that demography, chronic conditions and rising costs will require the budget to almost double to £2.3 billion by 2030-31 to match demand, yet the lack of vision and investment under Plaid Cymru and Labour has been astounding. The Wales Public Services 2025 programme found that local authority spending per person was slashed by 13 per cent over the last seven years for our older residents. This is a national disgrace and it would take £134 million more per year, by 2020, to get back to 2009 per capita levels. Monmouthshire council, however, are leading the way with the Raglan project, remodelling the way in which social services are delivered to older people, cutting out waste, improving efficiency, and enabling better and easier access. Our amendment recognises the value of those working in our care industry, across the social care and health sector, and highlights the ineffective, day-to-day lack of joined-up services on the continuum.