Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 19 November 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:43, 19 November 2019

Can I first just deal with the regular accusation that I'm somehow complacent in my duties? I take my duties seriously. It's a job that I enjoy, despite all the pressures, but that requires you to understand issues and to actually work hard to go about your duties and to recognise the impact on staff and the public. And I do think it's distasteful to regularly suggest that I'm somehow complacent because I don't always agree with what the Member demands of me. 

When it comes to the action being taken, I've already written today, and you'll have seen my written statement, to every single NHS organisation in Wales, requiring them to respond to me by the first week of January with the level of assurance they have about a number of issues that have been raised within this report today into Cwm Taf Morgannwg. I have provided a pro forma that I expect them to respond to to make sure that there are consistent responses to the same issues, for us to understand, both for each individual organisation but then collectively across the NHS Wales family. And I will, of course, report back to Members once we've had an opportunity to scrutinise and look at those responses to see if they have provided the assurance that I am looking for. 

When it comes to David Jenkins's role, he was really clear in the evidence he also gave to the committee that he felt that the board had done what it could and should do by that point in time, in terms of being properly reflective on what had gone wrong, and they're looking seriously to address and respond to that, but he recognised there was more to do.

On the broader point about how independent members behave, we are already taking a series of steps to reinforce the point that independent members are there in terms of their public duty, and they have a public role to undertake in scrutinising, challenging and, at points in time, supporting the way that health boards work. But it is not a role where they're there to be cheerleaders for the organisation. So, we're already acting on a range of the recommendations before the report today, and I will continue to do so as we take forward the measures that it recommends for us to undertake as well.