Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and thank you to everybody who has contributed to this debate. Everyone in Wales deserves support to live independently when they require that support. The independent living fund was established over 30 years ago across the UK to support disabled people with complex needs to live independently. The UK Government closed this scheme to new entrants in 2010, and in 2015 they transferred responsibility for it to the devolved administrations. At that time, to ensure continuity of support, the Welsh Government established interim arrangements by creating a Welsh independent living grant. On the basis of a consultation exercise and with input from a stakeholder group, a new approach was developed, whereby local authorities would plan, with Welsh independent living grant recipients, their whole care and support needs and arrange for this to be provided. 

So, starting in 2017, a two-year transition period was put in place to establish these arrangements. By the end of December 2018, approximately 1,000 of the 1,300 former WILG recipients were having their whole care package arranged through local authorities, and the remainder are scheduled to complete that transition by the end of next month. For most of those people, their new care package is the same or greater than their previous arrangements, and for these people, the transition taking place is supporting their ability to live independently, as envisaged. In some cases, it is enhancing this further than previously. However, for approximately 150 people, their care plan is smaller than previously, and this could be for specific reasons. For example, I've been given the example of the effective use of modern technology and a focus on ablement not dependence. We know from our own inquiries and from the independent survey of recipients conducted by the All Wales Forum of Parents and Carers of People with Learning Disabilities that most people are happy with these outcomes, and this is even true in some cases where hours of care have reduced, and this is by agreement.

However, concerns have been raised, particularly over recent months, about the transition, because there is a considerable variation across Wales—and I know people have already raised that in this debate—with the percentage of recipients within the local authority whose hours of care have reduced following a transition care review ranging from 0 per cent to 44 per cent. And at this stage, I would also like to thank Nathan Davies and his colleagues, from the #SaveWILG campaign, for the representations they have made to Welsh Government on this matter. They have been relentless in drawing the disadvantages of this scheme to our attention. I've met with Nathan twice in the last three weeks to hear his concerns and to seek to develop a new approach, and I was developing this new approach before I knew of this debate today, but I'm very pleased we're having the debate, because, obviously, it does give us the opportunity to discuss in more detail what this means. 

I've considered all the available evidence, including that gathered through a deep dive, which was undertaken by my predecessor, Huw Irranca-Davies, and I would like to thank him for all the efforts that he's made to look at this issue, but I have concluded that the variation between local authorities does warrant a change in direction. I therefore wrote to local government leaders yesterday to request a pause in the transition with immediate effect, in order to bring in revised arrangements. Now, the details of the new arrangements need to be worked through with the local government partners, but the key elements I'm seeking to secure are as follows: first, an independent social work assessment will be offered to all former recipients who are unhappy with their results and care and support package and would like a second opinion. The independent social work assessment, in answer to Helen Mary Jones's question, will be done by an independent social worker who is not employed by the local authority and who will be totally independent. This independent view will mirror the arrangements that existed under the ILF and so will restore a tripartite decision-making system.