Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 14 January 2020.
The two best years since figures have been recorded for delayed transfers of care in the Welsh health service were 2017 and 2018. So, we had fewer delayed transfers of care in those two years than at any time since those figures have been recorded, and that is a huge tribute to the effort that our colleagues in social services departments have made, with extra funding through the ICF, with the work that's been done in the regional partnership boards.
And yes, it is a struggle for social services departments, as well as the health service, to deal with a sudden surge in demand, but last week, when Hywel Dda was under the pressure that it was under, it was because of the help that they received from social services departments in those areas that they were able to recover the position so that, by the end of last week, things were in a much better position.
I was very grateful, Llywydd, that I was in Carmarthenshire on Thursday with social services staff and able to thank them, and the Plaid Cymru leader of that council, for the enormous efforts that they had made that week to assist the health service and to make sure that, as much as possible, people who were fit to be discharged from hospital were being assisted by those local authority services.