3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's priorities for the NHS in South Wales Central over the next 12 months? OAQ54769

Llywydd, amongst our priorities for the healthcare system over the next 12 months are prevention, reducing health inequalities, delivering the primary care model for Wales, timely access to care and further investment in mental health services.

Now, we've heard a lot over the past three years about the allegedly disastrous effect of Brexit on all kinds of public services in Wales, including the NHS, and we know that the Welsh NHS is already struggling to recruit enough staff to keep up with demand. But we now discover that the Labour Party's intention is to introduce a four-day week, which will surely exacerbate the problems of recruitment within the health service in Wales. It's a policy so damaging that Labour's health spokesman in England has already claimed it won't be applied to the NHS. Would the First Minister like to take this opportunity to repudiate this potentially disastrous policy?

Llywydd, well, it's good to hear, at last, Gareth Bennett acknowledge the disastrous impact of leaving the European Union on recruitment in the health service here in Wales. I thought his question got off to a very promising start in that way—it went downhill fairly fast after that.

I can tell him, Llywydd, that hard-working people in the Welsh NHS, who work every day to make sure that people in Wales have the services they need—they look forward to the day when there is a Labour Government prepared to invest in those public services so that the ambition of a four-day week can be realised here in Wales. Why could it possibly be thought of as an unworthy ambition to allow people to spend more time with their families, more time investing in their own development, when we are able to do that? We have a plan to do that. It will apply here in Wales. I look forward to the opportunity to be able to do it. 

First Minister, it's ironic that you're saying about hard-working health workers when your own party had to use an actress in your party political broadcast, because you couldn't find any health workers to endorse your policies.

But I'd like to ask you a serious point, if I may, because Health Inspectorate Wales and the Wales Audit Office just recently undertook an audit of Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, and they pointed to the failure of staff to have confidence that if they raise concerns, those concerns would be taken seriously. In fact, the report went on to say they felt they could do no more to escalate their concerns. Can you give me confidence today, First Minister, that your Government is working with the health boards in South Wales Central to make sure that health workers' concerns, when raised, are acted on, because the best friend in the health service is a critical friend to highlight failings that might lead to some disastrous consequences further down the line?  

Llywydd, I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for that serious question, and I agree with almost everything that he said. It is absolutely essential in our health service that, when people have concerns that they have to raise, that they have confidence that the system will listen to them carefully, respond to them seriously, and act on those concerns when those concerns are borne out on investigation. 

Now, the report published on 19 November by the healthcare inspectorate and the Wales Audit Office at Cwm Taf did say that there are steps that are being taken to strengthen quality, safety and governance within the health board, that the new chief executive, for now, is doing a great deal to lead the organisation in that direction. It then provides a series of further recommendations that the health board needs to respond to demonstrate that it is redesigning its structures and processes, and to make sure that the values of openness and of careful attention to what staff members are saying to the board are absolutely embedded in the culture of that organisation. And I share the views that the Member expressed about the importance of that happening right through our health services.