Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to provide Members with an update on the progress being made to strengthen integrated planning across NHS Wales. We're all aware of the challenges that face our NHS both now and in the future. We continue to see increasing demands and pressures on services that are managed day to day by our committed front-line staff. This is within, of course, the context of great uncertainty in relation to Brexit, 10 years of austerity, and the need for us to ensure that quality, equity and prosperity continue to drive what improved population outcomes should result.

I firmly believe that a collaborative NHS Wales, which plans in an integrated manner with its partners, particularly at regional partnership and public services board level, is well placed to meet the challenges that lie ahead. The NHS Finance (Wales) Act 2014 is now five years old. Since its implementation, we have seen the evolution of the planning system here in Wales. Today, that system is more mature and robust. This has been demonstrated by the number of organisational plans that I was able to approve this year, increasing to seven in the last planning round. This included the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which received plan approval for the first time in three years, and the organisation was then de-escalated from targeted intervention following sustained improvements in performance and finance.

Looking ahead to the next round, I'm looking forward to cluster-level IMTPs informing overarching organisational IMTPs. This will strengthen and enhance collective understanding of population health and the required service provision even further. Those IMTPs—I should say integrated medium-term plans—are central to our approach to delivering services in a planned health and care system. These are rolling three-year plans that require health boards and trusts to plan and deliver services for their populations that are high quality, sustainable, deliverable and financially balanced. The system is complex and we should acknowledge the progress made to planning in an integrated manner across Wales.

We have made real strides forward but continue to see variation in the maturity of plans. Notably, we have seen those organisations with approved plans being better able to respond. This year, we saw a greater emphasis within plans on a number of key areas, including providing care closer to home and the implementation of the primary care model for Wales, collaboration and relationships with regional partnership boards that are driving integration and transformational projects, and organisations demonstrating their commitment to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.