5. Statement by the Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care: The Learning Disability: Improving Lives Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:55 pm on 3 July 2018.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 4:55, 3 July 2018

I welcome this report and I welcome the philosophy behind it. It does remind me of the all-Wales mental handicap strategy that was introduced here in Wales in 1983, which at its time was seen as being very visionary, and I know that is referred to in this report. I was involved in some work with that strategy. So, I wondered if you could tell us if you see a legacy in Wales of that strategy, which was acclaimed at the time. I'd like to be reassured that we're not beginning again, because that was a stress on—you know, the philosophy that was behind that, I think, is very much the same as the philosophy that's here now. So, that's one question. 

The other question is: I wondered if we had many or any adults with learning disabilities who are placed outside Wales and whether you are able to give an estimate of the cost of that and whether there's any chance of bringing them back to Wales.

Finally, in terms of the health inequalities, I was staggered to read in one of the English reports that the overall life expectancy of people with learning disabilities lagged far behind: 23 years for men and 29 years for women, which I think is an absolutely staggering figure. I wondered whether we had any Welsh-based research that's indicated whether that was a similar figure for Wales. I think you've already answered about how you're going to tackle health inequalities, but could you comment on those figures?