4. Debate on a Statement: Draft Budget 2020-21

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:19 pm on 7 January 2020.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 4:19, 7 January 2020

Well, of course, we were told by the health and social services Minister that we would be hearing from him about his long-term social care plans back in the autumn. I may lack a grasp of the Welsh language, but I don't think that January is in the autumn. But, where I would agree with Angela Burns—and I think, probably, we'd have agreement across the Chamber—is that we do need to solve this problem long term, and that we will best do that if we can talk to each other and, very importantly, listen to each other, listen to the people who are providing services, and listen to the families who need them.

But, of course, as Rhun has said, in terms of preventing people from getting ill in the first place, the place to spend the money is not in the health service, and it becomes a vicious circle. If we don't spend sufficiently on housing, if we don't spend sufficiently on the right bits of education, if we don't change education policy to make it compulsory, as the committee recommended, for primary school children, for example, to do a certain number of hours of exercise every day, every week, we will still keep finding people with the diabetes problems, with all the other health problems. So, we have to take a radical look at how our money is spent.

Now, I am not suggesting for a moment, Llywydd, that this is easy. It's one of the most difficult things in the world to make money follow policy; everybody knows that. But, as Rhun has already said, this is an opportunity where there's a little bit of a breathing space. How sustainable that breathing space is going to be, we don't yet know, but it is really, really disappointing that we don't know across portfolios how key priorities are going to be delivered.

I want to specifically ask the Minister today how all of the policies across all portfolios were proofed against the sustainability goals, not with what I think was referred to as 'guidance'. This is law. This is what is supposed to drive all policy. And I'm trying not to be skeptical about what ought to be a groundbreaking piece of legislation, but unless when we pass that groundbreaking legislation the funding then follows, we're going to be in trouble.

What impact has been made? What child rights impact assessment has been made in this budget across portfolio? There is some welcome additional funding directly for children and young people, of course that's good news, but have we checked how the economic development spend is going to influence children and young people? Have we checked how transport spending is going to influence children and young people at a time when we know that we've got young people struggling to get appropriate transport to school in some of our communities?

This is disappointing. This is a missed opportunity. But, please, let's not have any more of these. The Government has sometimes the right ideas. What they seem to lack is the guts to put them into practice.