May I thank the Cabinet Secretary for this statement? I, too, will take this opportunity to thank Ruth Hussey and her team for the work that they have done to date, and I’m very pleased that we are in a situation now where we can hear this statement, and I’m pleased to see the coverage in the press today for this report. But the Cabinet Secretary, I think, is right in reminding us that we are at an early stage, if truth be told, in the work that this panel is undertaking, and that this is an interim report.

I welcome many of the findings that have been brought to our attention—many of them, as the Conservative spokesperson said, are relatively obvious, but what’s important now is what is done with these findings as the work of the panel continues, and what kind of recommendations will be made based on these findings and what kind of models will be developed. I look forward to seeing that happening over the next few months.

Although it is an interim report, I do think that some of the questions that I’d like to ask refer to the steps that could be taken now by Government, if truth be told, given what we heard from the Cabinet Secretary himself, stating that the case for change in how health and social care is arranged for the future is entirely clear now. Well, if it is clear, then, surely, there are some steps that the Government could be taking now, without awaiting the final report.

The interim report, again, emphasises the value of integrating health and social care. I would also add to that that integrating local government housing services is also important. And we know that there is a realisation of the value of integration, but that doesn’t happen. So, although the final report will put more meat on the bones, as it were, I wonder whether the Cabinet Secretary would agree that we perhaps don’t have to wait to start to see how guidance and protocols and action points for organisations and institutions, to enable them to work together, could be tightened up so that the work can happen now.

Related to this is the problem of individual institutions and organisations taking decisions on their budgets, which are sensible from their own perspective, but sometimes lead to additional pressures on the budgets of other services. So, how can the Welsh Government start to encourage that culture change within public services so that this ceases, because that will be an important step towards delivering this concept of integration?

The interim report also supports far more investment in primary care. We agree entirely with that, so what changes can the Cabinet Secretary make now in order to ensure that we start to think more about putting primary care first?

And finally, the report also recognises the value of technology. On occasion, technology and particularly the pace of change that we see in technology, and the new possibilities provided for by technologies, are not sufficiently understood by managers and commissioners within the health system, and that may have meant that the appropriate attention hasn’t been given to this area in the past. Given that, does the Cabinet Secretary believe that we should now think about professionals in IT and professionals in other technologies—that we should start to consider them as professional health workers who play a central role in delivering services and ensuring that services work and ensuring that technology is included as much as possible in care pathways for patients in Wales?

I’ll leave the questions there. It is an interim report, yes. It’s an important step, but I do think that there are certain steps that the Government could be taking at this point in the process.