Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:53 pm on 31 January 2018.
Well, Dai, thank you for raising that point. As you know, through not only the consultation that preceded this, which was quite extensive, but the bringing forward of the regulations—a wide range of regulations—part of this is also what we do with the nursing requirement, particularly in accommodation care settings. The traditional approach has been to say, in effect, 'If you can provide a nurse within a care home, then it's all hunky-dory and you're done', when, actually, what we know is that, in some care settings, you will require more than that. In other care settings, you may require nursing through the night; in others, you'll need, actually, more during the daytime or vice versa. So, within the proposals that we've taken forward, we have given more flexibility, but it doesn't take away the requirement, Dai, to make sure that the needs of those within care home settings are provided for; it gives more flexibility to do it according to the needs of those individuals.
Now, that requires, I have to say, that those care homes, and the wider monitoring of those, need to make sure that they are assessing accurately the needs of their residents and then providing for them. If that means more than one nurse, it should be more than one nurse. If it means more than one at night time, it means that, because we know that it's got to be based on the individual needs there and the collective needs within that care setting.
So, it has moved to a more flexible approach, and I realise that that has caused some people to say, 'Well, does that mean we don't need one in every home?' Well, what it needs is the right level of nursing for every single care home setting, and that's what we're committed to making sure is provided.