6. 5. Statement: The Dementia Action Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:40 pm on 16 May 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:40, 16 May 2017

Thank you. To be honest, I don’t think we’re going to cover in the strategy the opportunity to learn an alternative language specifically, but there is a range of activities that we understand people can undertake to help to reduce their risk of actually acquiring dementia or to delay the onset of it, and that is absolutely part of the work that we’re undertaking. We’ll continue to work with communities and individuals to promote awareness of that, and, hopefully, to encourage people to take ownership of the choices that they could and should make for themselves.

I’m really clear that we will take account of the consultation, we’ll take account of the report that the committee has provided and we’ll take account of what is said in today’s debate. As in any consultation, we’ll have a range of ideas that we could and should take account of and do something with. There will also be parts that we simply can’t, but there’s got to be some honesty in actually saying, ‘This is a meaningful exercise’. I think that Members and, indeed, stakeholders will see how they’ve had an influence on the final plan when it’s published.

Again, I hear what’s said, both by yourself and Suzy Davies, on respite for carers, and I’m really clear that this is a commitment that the Government has itself about improving the availability of respite care.

On your point about longer-term commissioning of services, there needs to be some honesty about this amongst people in this Chamber, regardless of our party background. When local authorities have annual budgets to plan for and to manage, when we don’t know the scale of the cuts that we face and what that means in terms of budget planning for ourselves, let alone other actors and agents within the country, it’s very difficult to then say, ‘We require someone else to plan on a much longer-term basis’.