4. What progress is the Welsh Government making in combatting loneliness and social isolation? OAQ52064

We'll deliver on our commitment to produce a strategy by March 2019. Building on the work of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee inquiry into loneliness and isolation, we are engaging widely with stakeholders, including the Scottish and UK Governments, to help us to set the direction that will drive our work.

Thank you, First Minister. Loneliness and isolation can affect anyone at any time in our lives. It's a significant public health issue and we know it can be as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. I hosted a round-table discussion with Age Cymru in my constituency last month about tackling loneliness, and one good example is the work of Ffrind i Mi in Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board. They're working to pair up care homes and schools, and the benefits there are clear for everyone to see. What role can Welsh Government play in supporting initiatives like this, which bring all generations together and tackle loneliness and isolation across Wales?

Ffrind i Mi is an excellent project, of course, that's been developed by Aneurin Bevan board. We know that, where people are lonely, it's not just a question of them not having company and a sense of isolation, but it affects people's health. That's why, obviously, as a health board, it's  correct to actually get involved in making sure that loneliness as an issue is dealt with.

I can say to the Member that, on 23 April, we commissioned research looking at the basic principles of sustainable community-based volunteering approaches to tackling loneliness and social isolation amongst older people. It is not, perhaps, the snappiest title ever invented by Government— nevertheless, it does explain what it's going to do. That is there, of course, to enable us to find out what the most effective ways of tackling loneliness actually are, to make sure that what is developed in months and years to come is as effective as it can be.

Ffrind i Mi is, indeed, an excellent innovation, First Minister. In fact, next month, you will be paying tribute to, and recognising the work of, Mary Adams, who's a constituent of mine in west Wales, for the work that she undertakes through the Rotary-backed RotaKids project. RotaKids spends time with people with dementia, with people suffering from loneliness and who feel very, very isolated in order to bring some of that relief into some of the hours of their days.

These projects are absolutely vital, and yet, in that very important Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report, the Government only partially accepted one of the recommendations. That was the recommendation to ask for three-year funding for projects such as this in order to ensure that they have a chance to embed in the local community and become self-sustaining. Will you work with your Secretaries of health, social care and finance whilst you're doing this review in order to ensure that we look at this, because all these projects are worth nothing if they evaporate after a year? In fact, they leave behind a really sad wake of people who once had something who can no longer access a very vital service.

It is a challenge in Government to seek to provide three-year revenue funding when our own budget often—necessarily, because of the block grant that we get—has to be developed on a shorter timescale. That is an issue that's always been with us—it's not a political point I make—but that, nevertheless, is true. But, yes, as far as possible, we try to ensure that we don't simply see revenue funding for organisations disappear after a particular period of time. Where that does happen, and it has, we look to work with them—we encourage them to work with us to look at sustainable funding solutions elsewhere. I know that there are some organisations like Men's Sheds—I visited one in your constituency, in fact, in Pembroke Dock—that have been very successful in terms of combating loneliness amongst men who've lost their partners.

Well, that’s the fundamental point emerging from our report as a health committee. Further to the examples that we’ve already heard mentioned, which are going to be vulnerable in terms of long-term funding, do you believe that you, as a Government, should be providing greater clarity and more priority to this fundamental point—not only praising the service, but also saying something about long-term financial assurances?

Yes, that is the problem, of course. In a situation where the amount of money available falls year on year, it’s very difficult to give any kind of pledge or promise in that way because it’s not clear how much funding will be available to the Government. Where we can, we try to do so, but it is difficult to give that promise on all funding, because we know that the budget will be declining year on year.