Access to CAMHS In-patient Care

Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:32 pm on 3 April 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 3:32, 3 April 2019

Can I associate myself with everything that Lynne Neagle has said, and Darren Millar, about the seriousness of the situation? The Minister says that the current level of capacity reflects the level of what we would expect from population, but, clearly, it doesn't reflect the level of need, if we continually have, for that very small number of young people, accommodation facilities outside Wales. Given that the Minister has told us that we think we're talking in single figures here, is there more that the Minister can do to increase the capacity and to ensure that the capacity is in the correct locations, as well as being safely staffed? Does the Minister agree with me that young people should only be being treated with these serious conditions outside Wales if their condition requires it—if their condition is so unusual that we simply could not—not only that we cannot at present, but that we simply could not—meaningfully provide for that very particular need within our own country? And, accepting everything that he's said today, that he will take steps to try to address this, there is a slight sense that we have, as Lynne Neagle said, been raising these issues for a number of years. But, if we are still in a situation where young people are being treated outside Wales—even if we all accept that that isn't what we want to see—what further steps can the Minister take to ensure that young people being treated outside Wales are appropriately monitored, that we know that their care reaches the standards that we here in Wales expect, and that they are regularly visited by appropriate professionals, as well as by their families, to make sure that they are as safe and as comfortable and, I would say, as happy as they possibly can be?