Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. On 27 July this year, I published the updated neurological conditions delivery plan. This plan reaffirms our continued commitment to ensuring those affected by neurological conditions have timely access to care when they need it and as close to their homes as possible.

The plan was first published in May 2014. It focuses on raising awareness of neurological conditions, ensuring quick diagnosis, providing fast and effective care, and working together across sectors to help people live with their condition. The plan also aims to improve the information available on neurological conditions and treatment, as well as help to target research into causes, treatments, and cures. The delivery plan sets out our expectations of all stakeholders and provides a framework for action by health boards, NHS trusts and partner organisations.

There are more than 100,000 people in Wales affected with a long term neurological condition. Conditions range from—without an exhaustive list—cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s, through to multiple sclerosis and epilepsy and others. Numerous other people suffer from short-term or infrequent neurological conditions.

Good progress has been made since the original plan was published in 2014. In the last annual statement of progress, published this March, there was a reduction in the average time an individual spent in hospital, falling from 6.4 days in 2010-11 to 4.2 days in 2015-16. The length of stay following an elective admission has also reduced from 3.9 days to 2.2 days, and a similar reduction has been seen in emergency admissions, from 9.2 days to seven days.

Along with positive improvements in the treatment and care of neurological patients, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of patients recruited into neurological health and care research in Wales clinical studies: 511 patients took part in 2015-16, compared to 300 patients in 2010-11.

Neurological care represents the tenth biggest expenditure area for the NHS in Wales. Over the four years to 2015, this rose 65 per cent, up to £293.7 million. In terms of spend per head of population, that equates to £91.76 per person. The updated plan contains key actions, which build on the foundations of the previous plan and continue to drive forward the vision for improving services across Wales more effectively, at greater pace, and in conjunction with each health board’s local vision for their resident population. Actions include strongly encouraging health boards to talk and listen to their patients and stakeholders, and to strengthen their partnerships with local authorities and the third sector.

The plan reaffirms the Welsh Government’s resolve to ensure people receive a faster diagnosis wherever possible. Actions in the plan require health boards and networks to take steps to raise awareness of neurological conditions at a primary care level, and to provide the right access and support to specialist assessments and tests. The plan also recognises the valuable role played by the third sector, who’ve come together under one umbrella as the Wales Neurological Alliance. The alliance is seeking to raise awareness among healthcare professionals, using funding secured from the neurological conditions implementation group.

So, we are now in a place to move ahead with greater pace. The conditions implementation group provides national leadership and support to do so. That implementation group brings together all the health boards, the third sector, and the Welsh Government to work together collaboratively. That group has identified priorities for 2017-18, and these include developing a co-productive approach to increasing awareness of neurological conditions, delivering clear and consistent patient information, the consistent delivery of access to neurology services for patients of all ages throughout Wales, developing consistent and coherent neuro-rehabilitation services for patients of all ages, and developing and responding to both patient experience and outcome measures. These priorities continue to be supported by £1 million of funding each year. Together, the neurological conditions and the stroke implementation groups have continued to work together and combine their moneys for a joint project. For example, combined funding has been used to deliver a pan-Wales £1.2 million neurological rehabilitation improvement programme.

In 2016, the implementation groups worked in partnership to develop patient-related experience measures, or PREMs, and patient-related outcome measures, or PROMs, for both stroke and neurological conditions in Wales. This programme aims to gain an insight into services from a patient perspective and use their real-life experience to help improve our services. By March of next year, the aim is for Wales to have PREMs and PROMs that can be administered, collected, and collated on a national level. These should help both to identify inequalities in health and care provision across Wales, to support the evaluation of service development, and demonstrate change over time.

Patients are able to access the new treatment fund that I announced at the beginning of this year. We’ve built on the equitable system we have in place by ensuring the fund supports all new medicines that have been proven to have a good balance between cost and price charged to the NHS by the manufacturer. The fund underpins our evidence-based approach to the availability of new medicines, and supports faster access to the full range of new medicines coming through the appraisal pipeline.

Through Health and Care Research Wales, the Welsh Government has invested £1.2 million in the Brain Repair and Intracranial Neurotherapeutics Unit, or BRAIN Unit, set up in May 2015 and led by Cardiff University. This unit is seeking to deliver novel cell, drug, and growth factor therapies to patients with currently untreatable neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.

We must make the most of our resources in Wales—not least the skill, dedication, and hard work of our clinical staff, service managers, and our third sector organisations. We want to create a more equal relationship between patient and healthcare professionals, enabling people to co-produce their treatment based on their values, goals, and circumstances.

Whilst there are clear areas where progress has been made, often through collaboration between NHS Wales, the third sector, and other partners, I will not, of course, fail to acknowledge that there is still work to be done. The updated neurological conditions delivery plan recognises this and contains a set of actions to continue to build on this progress and ultimately to improve the services for those with a neurological condition, no matter where in Wales somebody lives. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those involved in the progress to date and offer my continued support and encouragement to those responsible for taking this forward.