Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:53 pm on 26 June 2018.
I thank you very much for those comments, and before I address those points, I realise I had neglected to answer the point that Angela Burns raised in terms of how we're going to be monitoring and overseeing what is very significant spend. Effective monitoring and evaluation arrangements are important in order to provide us with those assurances that ICF capital funding is being fully utilised in the support of effective integrated and preventative services, and, of course, when we see the projects coming forward, it will also help us be informed about where we're going to in terms of future spend through the ICF capital investment as well. So, regional partnership boards must ensure that they have robust monitoring arrangements in place to ensure that schemes funded via the ICF capital deliver those intended outcomes on time and within budget. Evaluation arrangements must also be established to identify and evidence the impact as well as the general appropriate use of funds, and reports must be made on a quarterly basis, as detailed in the guidance that is presented to regional partnership boards. In terms of overseeing the main capital programme, well, projects should be agreed at regional partnership board level, but then submitted to the Welsh Government. We recognise that as an appropriate level of oversight there. However, there must also be robust internal processes for scrutiny and sign-off for regional partnership boards with regard to the discretionary capital programme, but that would need to be proportionate to the kind of level of projects that we're talking about there. So, discretionary projects are anything under £100,000, and main projects are anything over £100,000.
Bad housing leads to bad health. That's well recognised, I think, and that's something that came forward very strongly in Dai Lloyd's contribution. The kind of project he was describing early on in his contribution, about a project which demonstrated good practice, was very much what we consider in terms of extra care. Welsh Government has got a long history of supporting extra care since 2002. With the support of £197 million of Welsh Government funding, we've seen 49 extra-care schemes funded across Wales, providing over 2,000 homes for older people, where they can maintain their independence and avoid the need for unnecessary hospital admissions. But I think that the ICF capital funding, which we've announced today, really does take that commitment now to a new level, and certainly, I would imagine that extra-care projects might be some of those coming forward via regional partnership boards, because I think extra care has gone much further on from sheltered accommodation because there can be on-site care for people, so that means that people's health and social care needs can be responded to quickly and responsibly and can help them cope better with crises. Also, we can't forget the important role that care technology plays in supporting people to better manage their risks, and also some monitoring of people's vital signs, which assists proactive healthcare, and extended clinical supervision, and that reduces admissions and enables earlier discharge, again, from hospital. So, I think we'll certainly see some of those step-up, step-down projects coming forward from regional partnership boards, and I'm sure that would be very welcome as well.
In terms of integrated health and social care settings, this is another part of the response that Vaughan Gething has outlined in terms of the parliamentary review, and a pipeline of 19 projects was identified in December as part of £68 million of investment in a new generation of integrated health and care centres. A theme of the pipeline is integration, and health boards are looking to work with a range of delivery partners, including local authorities, housing associations and the third sector. The model of care for each of those will differ. Business cases, I understand, are currently being developed, and there is engagement with a wide range of stakeholders to identify the opportunities to promote integration. This really is the biggest targeted investment in primary and community care infrastructure by the Welsh Government, and I very much look forward to those projects moving forward.
There was a question regarding how we are funding this, because, obviously, these projects also need revenue funding. So, in this financial year, the Minister for social care has announced that there will be £50 million of revenue funding in the integrated care fund as well. And, obviously, there are opportunities to marry up this funding with regeneration funding, for example, and other funding from health. So, this potentially could have the opportunity to look elsewhere for funding for projects that meet other wider objectives as well. But there is certainly that revenue funding to support what's needed.