6. 5. Statement: The Dementia Action Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:33 pm on 16 May 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:33, 16 May 2017

Thank you for that series of questions. Of course, to be very clear, we’ve got national manifesto commitments on improving respite care for carers. You can expect us to make progress on that in the course of this Government. On your general point about awareness generally, which I think is a completely fair one, across the public—. It’s something about what is a generally dementia-friendly community, it isn’t just about a handful of individuals or just about public services, it is about public-facing interactions, and that does include individuals and companies as well as public services. That’s recognised in what we try to achieve in having generally dementia-friendly communities.

You asked a particular point about what a future care worker or a specialist support worker looks like and, of course, that will be something for us to develop in understanding the needs of individuals and how we can understand how we actually commission and provide that, whether it’s through the statutory sector or the voluntary sector. Examples are, for example, an understanding that is being developed through work undertaken in Wales of people, for example, who have alcohol-related dementia and what we can do to support those people in a particular and specific field as well. So, there is specific work that we are undertaking to try and understand what that could and should look like.

Then, of course, we come back to the broader question of how we commission that support and how it is then practically provided. And here I think this goes back to your opening salvo of questions about the role for the NHS and who’s going to be responsible for delivering the actions we set out in the plan. Well, of course, from a Government point of view, if we set out that it must be the third sector who undertake a range of activities, it’s difficult for individuals in this place, or even the public, to hold us to account for what the third sector do and don’t do of their own volition. There is something about us understanding the balance in the action plan, what will set out what the Government, or organisations in Government, could reasonably expect to take responsibility for will do. But it also comes back to the point that this has been drawn up as part of the pre-consultation within the sector and with individuals. So, much of what you will see in here directly comes from those organisations and individuals that said, ‘This is what we want to see’. I think that’s a good thing. It does show that we have really listened to what people have had to say, but they recognise, too, that there is this balance in non-medical support that is to be provided, and getting that right in the future.

So, it’s about the commissioning and the understanding of needs in the first place. Again, you see that process taking place within the architecture drawn up by the social services and well-being Act, but you will see that as we go on to deliver this. As I said in my speech, there is a cross-Government approach that is needed to do that, but also an approach to outside Government, to local government, to the third sector, and, of course, as you rightly mentioned, individuals and communities.