Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 17 May 2017.
We know that there are a number of people who are being sent out of area. We’ve seen a significant improvement in the number of people going out of area for treatment. Some of those people will go out of area because they require specialist support that is not available in Wales—we don’t have the number or the ability to commission and provide that care directly in Wales. Some people are still, though, going inappropriately out of area, but we’ve made significant progress on this issue over this year. So, for example, there are now single-digit numbers of children going out of area for placements. I accept that, for each person where there’s long travel to go to an appropriate placement, that would be a real issue for them, their family and their loved ones. The point is, though, there is real progress that has been made over this last year, and we expect further progress to be made in the years to come.