3. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: A Healthier Wales: Update on the Transformation Fund

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:28 pm on 23 October 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:28, 23 October 2018

I recognise the point that you make very well, and, to be fair, it was interesting for me to come to some of the events that you ran over the summer in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, in trying to understand more of the detail of how health and social care are delivered—good things, bad things and different things, and areas of opportunity as well as areas to highlight.

I recognise the point you've made because, of course, when we visited one of the practices in your constituency, and the conversation about having early dentistry access, about having a social worker in that practice as well, and how that deliberate join-up had helped the GPs to do their job—it's not just about saying, 'This is a weight off my mind, I don't have to do it', but, actually, they knew that person was going to get a better service and they could then spend more of their time on people who they really needed to see and who needed to see them. And they didn't medicalise the social problems that existed. But I recognise your point that, at some point, after all the pilots are done, and we understand what we think will work, we'll make choices. If we're going to have a national roll-out, not to say things are different by accident, but actually while we've made a choice about why they seem different, and how to make it easy for the citizen to engage in the service. Because lots of this debate that we've had today will not mean much to people watching. When we talk about the integration agenda, if you then ask someone who was watching this programme, 'What does that mean?', well, actually, I think, for the citizen, we should make it easier for them to navigate their way through. So, it's a consistency in expectation, some consistency in the sort of titles people have—I can see that would be useful. And at some point, you're right, we'll need to get to a point where we make choices: what will be national and consistent and what will be down to national principles delivered locally. And that's what we set out in 'A Healthier Wales'. But all of us need to bear in mind that the conversation we have has to mean something to the people whom we're here to serve.