Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:04 pm on 12 October 2021.
Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. If I may send my best wishes to Andrew R.T. Davies. But I want to wish everyone well who is facing similar challenges wherever they may be. The truth is that we are in a very privileged position to do much more than wishing well, using words alone. The Government can take action, all of us can hold the Government to account and be determined not to be satisfied until we have the services in place that the people of Wales need. Because we are facing a crisis. And perhaps what is most frustrating is the slow progress despite how clear the crisis is. It’s a minority who receive treatment at all for mental health issues, and of those who receive treatment, many of them do have to wait too long.
I do welcome certainly the fact that a report has been commissioned by the Deputy Minister to learn more about where the progress is taking place, where the progress isn’t taking place. I will add a question asking for clarity about that work: who will be doing that work? It’s important for us to know, I think, that there is an independent look being taken at this. The Deputy Minister said in her response a moment ago that the work will be completed by, I think, September of next year. Will the report be published by September or will that be the end date of gathering the information? Because I would want to encourage things to move forward as quickly as possible. Also, because of the issue that we know that we have with child and adolescent mental health services, can I have an assurance that that assessment will include what is happening in terms of progress in that support for children and young people specifically?
We’ve had a list from the Deputy Minister today of the different ways, including some new initiatives, that people can access support. Those don’t work for people if they don’t know about them, of course. I think that there are many people who feel that they don’t know where to go to seek support. So, perhaps the Deputy Minister could tell us what work is being done to ensure that there is a strengthening of that signposting that is so vital, so that people who may have a small issue now can receive that timely support that they need to prevent that from becoming a more intensive issue that might need that elevated psychiatric care.
Finally, I turn to data and transparency. Mind Cymru have voiced concerns over years, I have to say, about the work of gathering the data to measure progress against the Government strategy, because the core mental health data—we’ve been waiting for that for a long time. That hasn’t been received yet. We’ve been waiting a long time, as I said, and I think it’s correct to say that the dataset was meant to be ready by December 2014. That timetable wasn’t adhered to, it slipped again and I think that the date that we now have is that it will be available by 2022. So, when? At the beginning of 2022? Will 2022 be achieved at all? Hopefully it will be achieved next year. Does the Deputy Minister accept, truth be told, that we can’t measure the progress and success of the strategy without having the measures and the core data in place?