2. What recent discussions has the Welsh Government had regarding the integration of health and social care in west Wales? OAQ52834

Welsh Ministers are having regular discussions in west Wales about delivering our ambitious integration agenda for seamless health and social care, as set out in 'A Healthier Wales', including how this can be supported by our £100 million transformation fund.

Thank you, leader of the house. I'm sure that you will be aware that this is an agenda that we've been talking about here in Wales for 18 years, to my sure and certain knowledge, and probably long before devolution. And I'm sure that you will understand that communities are beginning to lose patience with the speed of change. You may be aware that, on 13 June this year, Carmarthenshire County Council passed a motion requesting the Welsh Government to urgently look at the lack of integration between their social care policies, their social care activities and the Hywel Dda Local Health Board. There is real concern, I'm sure you'll acknowledge, in the west about the capacity of that health board to deliver on this ambitious agenda.

We have the announcement of a further £180 million today to deliver seamless health and social care. Of course, we're going to welcome that. I'm unclear whether it's new money, but, put against the £8 billion of the total health budget, it does really slightly look that perhaps we're putting a bit of a sticking plaster on a haemorrhage. What reassurances, leader of the house, can you give that the Welsh Government will focus on this area of work and that communities in the west can see an accelerated pace of change towards that seamless service, which we have all been talking about as the right way to proceed for many years now?

Yes, the Member's right to highlight the benefits of working together in that way. 'A Healthier Wales' identifies the regional partnership boards as key drivers of change in this regard, and, obviously, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 provides for the boards to bring together health, social services, the third sector and other partners to deliver effective, integrated and collaborative care services. I know west Wales are in the process of finalising the proposal, and, last month, the Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care attended a meeting of the west Wales regional board to hear first hand the progress that partners in Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Hywel Dda have made to strengthen all of their integrated arrangements. The Member's right to say that we have allocated additional moneys in this year to strengthen our determination to ensure that social care remains a key plank in our health service delivery. 

Of course, a vital component, which you touched on very slightly in your answer to this, leader of the house, is the role of the third sector. It is extremely important in terms of ensuring that a lot of our services get delivered on the ground. However, the third sector are finding it more and more difficult to engage with health and social care—harder to engage with councils, harder to engage with health boards. This is partly because a lot of the third sector organisations are becoming far more policy orientated rather than the doing of the job. What are you doing to ensure that we have a proper engagement with the third sector, that they're not left out of this integration discussion,  and that we engage with the ones who actually can deliver a service and not just the ones who spend a lot of their time and their resources on lobbying us with policy ideas? 

Yes, well, I very much agree with the Member that the third sector is very much part of this integrated plan. Social care is, of course, a key national priority for this Government and we absolutely acknowledge that third sector partners need to be facilitated in order to have those discussions. That's very much part of the conversation that I just outlined, for example, the Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care is having with a range of partners around Wales, with a view to facilitating exactly what the Member has set out.