Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 20 November 2019.
I listened to the numbers that you have just laid out for Lynne Neagle. They sound big and they sound great, they sound like there's an awful lot of money, but the reality is: is it enough money for the amount of requirement that there is? One of the concerns I have is about how we are targeting our preventative spend in the health sector.
I asked a question along these lines last week to the First Minister. I asked it again yesterday, and the Minister for Health and Social Services took First Minister's questions. I do not see, and I do not have a sense, that there is a sea change in the planning for the health budget—that the health spend should start to, if you like, go on a different trajectory and go towards primary care, community care services and preventative spend. When you meet with groups and cross-party groups where you hear that social prescribing is being knocked out of the window because the facilities aren't open—. There seems to be no joined-up thinking that says from health to social services and to local authorities, 'Let's keep this swimming pool open—that's a good social prescribing area. Let's keep these play parks open, and let's do this and let's do that.' You talk the talk, but there's little evidence that the funding is walking the walk.
What can you do or say to reassure us, rather than just say—? I appreciate you've got these pots of money, but they're not growing in real terms. It's about the whole cultural imperative that says that what we need to do is spend our money on stopping people from being unwell and helping them so that they do not, in the end, end up in hospitals, long-term care, with chronic conditions.