Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 19 September 2018.
Since the introduction of special measures, we have announced a range of improvement frameworks, a range of actions and support that we have taken. Of course, I'll be dealing with more of this in question 3, but you will have noticed over the summer, for example, the additional £6.8 million of investment we've made within the health board.
The reasons why the health board performance has not improved to a level that we would say is acceptable on all counts are varied. There are challenges about central leadership within the health board and there are challenges about shifting some local culture within the health board as well. We have seen some improvements, for example, in maternity services, which have been removed from special measures. We've seen improvement in some out-of-hours services. But I think I've covered the reasons for and my frustration with the inability to make as rapid a progress on a number of occasions—I'm sure I'll have an opportunity to do so again—including in the last statement I made in this place before summer recess.