Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:45 pm on 8 October 2019.
If you look back to the initial royal colleges review, they recognise that information presented to the board was not always the full picture. It's one of the big challenges that face the organisation. The phrase that the board received false assurance was a real concern for me when reading that report. When I said in my statement there has been lots of soul-searching at board level, there really has. People really have taken very seriously and very much to heart what has happened on their watch and their responsibility for putting it right.
The work that David Jenkins has done is important in both not just advising the board, but providing a different level of assurance to me about the change in the board's behaviour and approach. So, they are already more challenging, they are already seeking further information and they're being very clear in wanting to have more independent members involved in different parts of the work of the board, as well as in reorganising their quality, safety and risk function, as well. These may sound, occasionally, as if they are simply moving pieces around, but it actually really matters about how an organisation works and functions. Actually, for Members here, I think David Jenkins has been invited and has accepted an invitation to go to the health committee so that people have an opportunity to question him directly about the behaviours he's seen and the move on that has plainly been required from the way they had previously worked.