7. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to improve health and social care services in south-east Wales? OAQ52968

Thank you. On 8 November, the Cabinet Secretary for health announced around £13.4 million funding from the transformation fund to support improved access to services in Gwent. The Gwent proposal focuses on prevention, well-being, and new seamless models of health and care, delivered closer to home. We're delighted to say that it also includes the development of a pan-Gwent integrated system of emotional and mental well-being for children and young people. This confident and ambitious programme is supported by the Gwent regional partnership board. 

Thank you, Minister, and as you've mentioned, you and the Cabinet Secretary made the recent announcement of the £13.4 million investment in health and social care services in Gwent during your visit to the Serennu children's centre in Rogerstone. The centre and its dedicated staff have been providing an invaluable service to children with complex needs from across Newport and the wider region since it opened in 2011. I know from speaking to children, parents and staff, both past and present, that the centre has transformed the lives of those who use it and their families. The Serennu centre is unique in its provision: treatment, care, information, consultations and leisure services all under one roof. Children can benefit from the continuity of care and this significantly eases the burden on families. So, can the Minister set out how the centre will be used as an excellent example of the way health and social care services are delivered locally?

Thank you, Jayne. I think the Cabinet Secretary and I were blown away by the conversations that we had with parents and staff and young people themselves there, who were eloquent in their praise for what the centre is doing, and also, I have to say, by how it fits in within the approach that we're now taking across Gwent, because the principles they have there are about being focused on the individual, about co-production of solutions that wrap around the individual, about working on early intervention and prevention with families and young people, giving them that support at the right time in the right way.

Well, that was the ideal place, I have to say, to launch not only the overall transformation proposal that they have but also the aspects around children and young people. One of the interesting aspects being taken forward in Gwent, on a pan-Gwent basis, is that they're trying to embed their version, a Welsh version, a Gwent version, of the iceberg model, which I know the CYPE committee has looked at in detail—it's interested Members here from the Assembly—and which looks at that more integrated work across organisational boundaries. It looks at the early intervention, the right support at the right time, so that, in terms of things like mental health and well-being, child and adolescent mental health services are not the only game in town. It's a much more holistic approach and involving children and young people, reflecting their voice in the design of services. The Serennu centre does all of that. I said to them when I left there that I look forward to coming back and spending some more time there, because it's a joy to behold and we need to see more of that, and of this approach, I have to say, which they're taking across Gwent, right across Wales. And that's the idea of the transformation fund—that you don't just do it in Gwent; you then learn the lessons and then you upscale it and you say, 'Can we do this right across Wales?'

In September, around a third of patients, 22,300 people, who attended A&E at the Royal Gwent Hospital waited more than four hours to be dealt with. Just over 66.4 per cent were seen inside four hours, compared to the Welsh Government target of 95 per cent. Only two A&E units in Wales produced a worse performance. What action will the Cabinet Secretary take to improve waiting times at A&E at the Royal Gwent Hospital to ensure it meets the targets his own department has set?

The Cabinet Secretary heard what the Member just said, and we continue to work on improvement within A&E because we're never complacent about it, but we do have areas where performance, as you highlighted, is working, but it's not consistent. So, what we need to do is work with the health boards to put the onus on them to make sure that they are bringing down those waiting times within A&E and working with the Welsh ambulance service as well to make sure there is a seamless transfer of patients, that there is effective discharge and so on. So, we're not complacent about this at all, but there are areas of very good practice within the Welsh NHS. We need to make those areas of good practice commonplace.

Question 8, Angela Burns.

Thank you. Good fielding. [Laughter.]