1. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve services for stroke survivors in south-east Wales? OAQ52582

Thank you for the question. Our stroke delivery plan provides a framework for action by health boards and trusts, working with their partners. It sets out the expectations of all stakeholders to prevent, diagnose and treat stroke in people of all ages and to ensure they can return to independence as quickly as possible.

Thank you for the answer, Cabinet Secretary. The Stroke Association currently provides a stroke recovery service to stroke survivors across the Aneurin Bevan health board area with the exception of Newport, after the local authority cut funding for the service at the end of 2015. Caerphilly council cut funding for the service earlier this year, with the health board paying the authority's contribution for this financial year only. However, there is a lack of clarity over funding for the next year and beyond. If funding for the service is cut further, then there is a risk that the other areas within the health board will also miss out on this vital service or the service could cease altogether.

Will you commit to work with Aneurin Bevan health board and the local authorities in the region to ensure that adequate funding is available for the stroke recovery service in the area, so that all parts of health boards have equal access to this vital support in south-east Wales, please?  

Thank you for the question. It does highlight some of the challenges we face in trying to generate both integration and joint services between health and local government partners together with the third sector, but also some of the undeniable challenges we face with continued reductions in public funding.

The good news is, of course, that overall, we're seeing stroke survival rates increase. In Aneurin Bevan, for example, over the last 10 years, we've seen for those people who are 75 years and over a 15 per cent rise in survivorship. That's good news, but the challenge of how we work together across those areas is actually being developed together, between those partners.

I'm optimistic about Aneurin Bevan's ability to do more. They've actually reconfigured their stroke services across the health board area. That's a move supported by the Stroke Association, and that should be helping them provide earlier rehabilitation support as well. It's a matter that I continue to take an interest in and, indeed, discussions around the regional partnership board as well about how they will work together as partners.

I'll look again at the funding issues that he raises, but, as I say, these are about local authorities making their choices as well.FootnoteLink I'm not in a position to direct them about the use of their budgets, but I do think we can have broader agreement between partners on how to provide the right services for citizens regardless of whether that's health or local government.

Information further to Plenary

Cabinet Secretary, throughout the summer recess I've been taking a close look at local healthcare services in my own constituency, and can I say that I appreciated you taking some time out to come up to Merthyr and join me in one of those discussion sessions? In this and other work that I do, I continue to be so impressed by the work of the professions allied to medicine and their key role in rehabilitation and preventative healthcare. So, would you agree that, as we talk about shaping the future off our health services, it's not just about innovation or even necessarily about more money, but it is about strengthening the best practice, such as the early discharge and rehabilitation after a stroke, which is supported by allied health professionals as an effective and cost-efficient way of improving those services?

Yes, you're right to point out the role of allied health professionals and frequently in our debates about health in this place, we talk about doctors, and maybe nurses, and we ignore lots of the other healthcare professionals who are important in making the whole system work. And in this area, early rehabilitation, it is that earlier access to a range of different therapists that makes the biggest difference to getting people back into their own homes and the earliest possible recovery. And actually, Aneurin Bevan have a good record in this area of the improvement they've made.

The latest audit report suggests that they have twice the average of the audit of those people when they have completed their six-month follow-up. So, not just getting people out and mobilised early and back into their own homes, but the follow-up plan for after they've returned to their own homes too. And we have about 70 per cent compliance with the timescale to have their rehab goals agreed within five days, and that's much better than a range of other units across the UK. So, this is a health board that is looking forward, is looking at further improvements being made and is absolutely, as you made the point, thinking about those other allied health professionals and their crucial role in having effective recovery and rehabilitation.