3. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: The Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:47 pm on 16 January 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:47, 16 January 2018

Thank you for those points. I recognise someone who was previously on the other side of the table as the former Unison head of health—other health service trade unions are, of course, available. But you were right that this is a challenge for all of us, for all of us in this place. Because, as I said, choosing not to do something is still a choice, and I think it's a really important point that the report really highlights and follows through from the case for change, and you said it yourself, that this is about delivering services differently and sometimes delivering different services. And, to do that, you can't invest in everything that we do now, as you said. That does mean that we need to do things differently, and that's difficult, because most people want to be able to add to things as opposed to saying, 'You've got to decide, within the financial envelope, what are we not going to do, as well as what are we going to choose to do and to enhance what we do in the future.' That will be difficult and we need to understand that that's difficult for people in the services, difficult for some local communities that are attached to services—people do get very attached to bricks and mortar. Even though they say they're not, the reality is that people do. You can understand some of that emotional attachment to long-running services and to people they trust, but if we can't get through having a programme for change and transformation as the report sets out then we will manage a declining service, and that can't be acceptable for any of us in any party.

On your specific points about the direction of travel and the quadruple aim and staff, I think the report does set a direction of travel for us and it's about how we deliver that and how we choose priorities within Government, with the service, with local government partners and others as well, to deliver against the very real challenges and the direction that the report sets out. It is crucial, in doing so, that we do take seriously the part of the quadruple aim that is about the engagement and enriching the way staff do their jobs. People who enjoy their jobs tend to provide better care in health, social care and other services and sectors too. And that's not easy, given the pressure on workers in health and social care, especially—we rarely talk about it, but social care workers, who are not paid a significant amount of money to do jobs that are difficult, demanding and very physical, often, and the credence we give to those people, and the way we hardly ever talk about them—. And when we do, actually, there's still quite a lot of stigma around the social care sector as well, so the work that Rebecca Evans started off leading on, which Huw Irranca-Davies is now taking forward, on raising the esteem of people within that sector, is crucial to delivering the aims within this report and, in particular, that point you make about the quadruple aim and engaging staff in the future of the whole service.