Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:31 pm on 21 November 2018.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:31, 21 November 2018

Well, thank you, again, Minister. Obviously, nobody's going to blame the Welsh Government for Brexit, but I think it is appropriate that we raise some questions about how long it's taken to get this information, because, of course, there are many other reasons why we ought to have a better and clearer idea of what the skills mix and what the qualifications mix of our social care workforce is. 

Of course, in the previous Assembly, we passed the legislation to create minimum nurse staffing levels in certain hospital settings. Those settings were chosen because there was robust evidence to prove that the levels of the staff nursing had an effect on patient outcomes. We now, of course, have the British Medical Journal study that shows that having qualified nursing staff in care homes can also have a similar impact on mortality and on outcomes. In principle, or on this side of the house, we would support the extension of that legislation ultimately to cover care home settings. We realise that that's aspirational at the moment, but would you commit in principle to considering extending the Act to registered nurses in care home settings, providing the evidence is sufficiently robust in future?