Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 7:16 pm on 26 June 2018.
Yes, thank you, Minister, for your statement, and can I say how pleased I am to hear about the news of this substantial investment in housing as part of the package to join up health, social care and housing? Last week, I spoke at the policy forum on older people's care, and I think Rhun was also there, chairing a session. We did draw attention to the unique opportunities we've got to drive forward policy in this area. Now, Dr Dai Lloyd has already talked about the origins of the intermediate care fund, as it was, back in 2014-15, and I would just like to have a brief moment to remember the time we spent, one hot summer, in closed rooms, with myself as finance Minister, Elin Jones as the Plaid Cymru shadow Minister, and I think it might have been Peter Black, because certainly we said, 'It should be health, social care and housing.' And I'd say that was £50 million to deliver a Welsh Government budget in 2014-15. It's now firmly embedded in policy delivery in Wales. But I think, and it's what came out of the policy forum last week, that actually housing hasn't actually been integrated—housing and social care. It's been more health and social care.
So, my two questions are, firstly: social housing partners at the forum last week had very different experiences of whether they were involved or not in the regional partnership boards. Can you confirm that they will be involved, and how that will happen, how that will progress in terms of taking forward decisions on the integrated care fund? And also, another point that was made very strongly: can we ensure that the housing element of the intermediate care fund doesn't run from one good, but time-limited, funding announcement, but is sustained for the longer term planning?