Thank you for those questions. You’re absolutely right that social care and social services are some of the big challenges that we’re facing in our time, and that’s why, in our programme for government, Welsh Government recognised the sector as a sector of national strategic importance. I’m really pleased that, within ‘Prosperity for All’ it has been recognised as one of the five key areas that can make the most difference to the people of Wales, and I think that’s really, really positive.

In terms of how pooled budgets work in practice, we’ve provided the statutory guidance to local authorities to describe that, and really pooled budgets are about an integrated approach to agreeing the fees with providers, agreeing specifications, and agreeing those financial commitments that each of the parties within the partnership will make.

The cross-party issue you suggested is actually very interesting in the sense that regional partnership boards are made up of partners brought together from across the sectors. So it is important that there is good cross-party working, and I certainly haven’t had any information to suggest otherwise. The third sector also are absolutely crucial partners, and that’s why, actually, on regional partnership boards, there’s a mandate for two people to be representing the third sector on those regional partnership boards, and I think that just is symbolic, really, of the importance that Welsh Government attaches to the role that the third sector can play in terms of meeting social care needs and also the expertise that they bring and the fact that they are very, very close to the grass roots, so that they can certainly be a voice for people who they represent as well.

The ICF also has a £10 million capital funding element to it, and that certainly does provide opportunities, perhaps, to make adaptations to existing facilities, and so on, in order to make them suitable to meet people’s needs. We’ve seen examples of this in some of the step-up, step-down services, for example, which have been tremendously successful in terms of preventing unnecessary hospital admissions, but also facilitating an earlier return home.