May I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement, and for all of the work staff and volunteers in the health service and the third sector do in providing end-of-life care and palliative care across Wales? I don’t think there’s much new, truth be told, in today’s statement—although it’s always useful to have an update—so may I refer, perhaps, to what should happen in the mind of one of the organisations involved in the area, namely Age Cymru? I will just list some of the requirements that they have set out.

They want palliative and end-of-life care to be an entirely central part of care planning for those with chronic and long-term conditions. They want better co-ordination between local authorities and heath boards, in order to give equal opportunity for everyone in our older population to have access to hospice care. They want end-of-life care commissioned by local health boards to include comprehensive care for people in care homes. They want every institution and professional worker to have the necessary training and ensure continuity of training throughout their working lives. They want the orders that you do not attempt resuscitation or to cease to provide food or drink not to be put in place without full consultation with family or other carers. Finally, they want an assurance of very careful monitoring on the implementation and delivery of end-of-life care plans so that it does deliver better care. So, although we are in a situation where some steps have been put in place by Government, there is clearly more to be done in the eyes of those involved in this area.

So, three questions emerge from that. One: do you disagree with any of those recommendations, and, if you don’t, when can we be given assurance that those will have been implemented? Secondly, the annual report mentions improvements in palliative care for children—and, naturally, that’s something that we welcome—but there are far too many children who can’t spend their last days in their own homes. Would you agree that there is some work to be done in that area? Do you acknowledge that we need to strengthen services to support the siblings of those who have suffered bereavement? Finally, minority ethnic groups are particularly identified by Marie Curie as an area where services need to improve. So, what does the Government intend to do about that specifically?