Welcome back. The next item is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Services: 'Age Friendly Wales: Our Strategy for an Ageing Society'. And I call on the Deputy Minister, Julie Morgan. 

Diolch. 'Age Friendly Wales: Our Strategy for an Ageing Society' was published on 7 October. following an extensive programme of engagement with older people and their representatives. The strategy sets out our vision for an age-friendly Wales, which supports people of all ages to live and age well. The strategy challenges ageist stereotypes of older people as passive recipients of health and social care, and I am concerned that the pandemic may have helped to embed such stereotypes in people’s minds. It's all too easy to overlook the many ways older people support our communities to flourish.

We should not forget that many older people living with dementia are cared for by their partner, siblings or a neighbour who are often older too, or that many working adults rely on grandparents for childcare. The value of older volunteers certainly became clear during the pandemic, as many charities struggled to cope without their support. Before COVID-19, older people’s contribution to the Welsh economy was estimated to be over £2 billion a year.

The strategy for an ageing society aims to change the way we all think and feel about ageing. We want to create a Wales where everyone looks forward to growing older, a Wales where individuals can take responsibility for their own health and well-being whilst feeling confident that support will be available and easily accessible if needed.

Thanks to groundbreaking developments in health and technology, the global population of people aged over 60 has been growing faster than any other age group, but the pandemic showed how easily these gains can be taken away. It also showed how important it is that different generations understand each other, so they can pull together at times of crisis and play to our strengths as strong, vibrant communities across Wales. Working in partnership across generations, sectors and communities is fundamental to the creation of an age-friendly Wales.

To turn our vision into reality this year, we've allocated £550,000 to local authorities to support their work to become age-friendly and to gain membership of the World Health Organization's network of age-friendly cities and communities. To gain membership, local authorities must show how they are engaging with older people. Our vision is shared with the Older People's Commissioner for Wales, who is providing valuable support and guidance to local authorities as they work towards age-friendly status.

The United Nations' principles for older people have informed the development of this strategy and run throughout it. I want Wales to be a nation that celebrates age and, in line with the UN principles, a nation that upholds the independence, participation, care, self-fulfilment and dignity of older people at all times. This year, we will allocate £100,000 to promote awareness of older people's rights and inspire a common understanding of the transformative effects of a rights-based approach.

We are fortunate that we have a firm grasp on the circumstances of older people in Wales. In 2019, we commissioned the internationally recognised Centre for Innovative Ageing at Swansea University to benchmark the situation of older people in Wales against the other three UK nations. This measure was updated in 2021. The centre used a range of measures to create a UK age index and the results show that Wales was ranked first, with the highest overall score, followed by Scotland, England and finally Northern Ireland. This shows that there is much that we are doing well, and we should feel proud that our commitment to support older people is clearly evidenced.

In addition, the Older People's Commissioner for Wales's state of the nation reports of 2019 and 2021 offer a firm statistical and empirical grounding to build on, which charts the impact of COVID-19. Collectively, these reports provide a clear indication of where action is needed to improve lives for older people across Wales.

Older people have been directly involved in creating this strategy and will be involved in its delivery via my ministerial advisory forum on ageing. We will put the voice and experience of older people at the heart of our policy process and continue to support five national older people's groups and forums, hosted by Age Cymru. Collectively, their work helps us to understand and respond to the key issues affecting older people today.

We will work across Government to address the wide range of factors that influence how we age, from our health, social care and transport systems to the way we socialise, work and care for others. The strategy aims to unlock the potential of today’s older people and tomorrow's ageing society. Work is already under way to develop a delivery plan setting out clear actions, milestones and timescales to monitor the strategy's implementation.

This strategy is about how we look to the future, based on sound knowledge and understanding—a strategy developed with and for the people of Wales. By acknowledging and valuing the contributions of all older people in Wales, we can reject ageism and work across generations to create an age-friendly Wales.

Conservative spokesperson, Gareth Davies.

Thank you very much, Deputy Llywydd, and thank you very much for your statement this afternoon, Deputy Minister. I also welcome the age-friendly Wales strategy—I mean, what's not to like with it really—apart from the fact that we have yet another aspirational strategy with very little detail on how we will achieve that strategy or targets to measure our progress against. When will we see an action plan and deliverable targets? We should have an age-friendly Wales today, not in some yet-to-be-decided timescale. Older people in Wales, the very ones who helped inform your strategy, need action now, not yet more committees, ministerial panels or focus groups.

In the weeks following the publication of your document, Deputy Minister, the Welsh Government have continued to pursue age-unfriendly policies. You introduced vaccine passports for theatres and cinemas, yet older people struggle to get through on the line established to supply paper passes to those who don't have a smartphone. Yesterday, your Government announced that, from today, it would add the booster jab status to the vaccine passports, but older people wishing to travel overseas to visit loved ones over Christmas are out of luck because the status won't be added to paper passes until some time in January. Is this an age-friendly Welsh Government?

Why then do older people spend much longer in our A&E departments? The average waiting time in A&E for those over the age of 85 is seven hours and 47 minutes—almost double the target wait. Deputy Minister, you say that your strategy is informed by the United Nations' principles for older persons, but you have refused to support my calls to enshrine these principles in a rights-based approach to services for older people in Wales, so you can't say one thing and then vote against it in practice.

In the next 10 to 15 years, the number of people over the age of 65 who struggle with day-to-day activities is set to grow by over a third. Do you believe that your Government can deliver a health and care service that can meet this growing need? Deputy Minister, when it comes to health and care in Wales, we should be spending around £1.18 for every pound spent in England to meet the added needs of our older population, yet recent figures from Audit Wales show that spending is around £1.05. Will you be urging the finance Minister to massively increase health and care spending in order to meet the objectives set out in your strategy?

Deputy Minister, the key underpinnings of your ageing strategy is to enable older people to participate and make their voices heard. Our older population has felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic more keenly than any other segment of our community. Do you therefore agree with my party—and now the older people's commissioner—that we need a Wales-specific public inquiry into the handling of this pandemic? Mrs Herklots says, and I quote,

'Holding a Wales-specific Public Inquiry will ensure that the Chair and the panel running the Inquiry understand devolution and the cultural and political distinctiveness of Wales, as well as being representative of the diversity of our nation and accessible in a way that a UK-wide Inquiry may not be able to achieve.'

She goes on to say,

'This will be crucially important if we are to hear directly from older people and their loved ones, many of whom will have lost someone, and give them the opportunity for their stories to be heard. Enabling people to share their experiences and have their voices heard will be a fundamental part of an Inquiry, and will be part of our collective recovery from this most devastating period.'

Do you support this view, Deputy Minister, and do you agree that not holding a Wales-specific COVID inquiry risks missing potential opportunities to make our health and care services more resilient and sustainable? Deputy Minister, I look forward to seeing your delivery plan and I support your aspirations, but we have to ensure that they become more than that. Older people in Wales need more than warm words. Thank you.

I thank you for those comments. Just to deal with what I can of all of those points: aspiration and little detail, I think we have specified specifically the money that we are allocating in order to bring about age-friendly communities. We've done this in conjunction with the older person's commission, and each local authority is taking forward plans to bring forward more age-friendly communities in their areas. And if they become members of the World Health Organization network, it will be monitored, so there's quite a lot of detail in all this. So, I think it's quite wrong to say that this is short of detail.

This is also very strongly supported by the older persons' commissioner; in fact, she took the original initiative, going around local authorities trying to encourage them to have age-friendly communities. I think it's absolutely vital that we do this, and I think there is a lot of detail in the action plan. Of course, it takes quite a long time to work out the action plan, because it is being done co-productively, so that is very important.

Obviously, older people want to be safe. Many of them have said to me, and have said to all of us, how reassured they are about the fact that the Welsh Government has been cautious about the way it has dealt with the COVID pandemic. They've been very pleased that we have been cautious and that we have had vaccine passports, so I think it's important to remember that.

In terms of the budget, obviously the budget will be announced next month and we'll see what's coming for health and social care. But I'm sure you will recognise that already the budget takes up nearly half of the Welsh Government budget, and we certainly spend a lot of our money on health and social care.

Now, to turn to the last point that you make about the inquiry, I think you probably heard at First Minister's questions that the First Minister asked the Prime Minister about guarantees with an inquiry that is UK-wide, because it is absolutely essential that the views of the people of Wales are taken into account. It's absolutely essential that those people who have lost people, that their experiences are heard. So, the First Minister has been pressing the Prime Minister for that and I think he said today that he has received a response. I don't think we can avoid the fact that the evidence that will come up will show the interconnected nature of the way that the pandemic has had to be dealt with, but I absolutely agree that the experiences of Welsh patients and Welsh relatives must be taken into account. Any UK-wide inquiry must include that, and I know that the First Minister also is very sure that that should happen.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Peredur Owen Griffiths.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I broadly welcome the statement from the Government today. People in Wales are generally living longer; it is estimated that in 20 years, a quarter of the population may be over 65. With an ageing population, publishing a strategy that makes life easier for older people is something that any responsible government should be doing, from the practical side of things. Looking after our most vulnerable is not just practical, however; it is also a moral thing to do. We have a duty to look after our most vulnerable in society, and some of our elderly people are among the most vulnerable.

Just last week, we had Carers Rights Day, so this strategy is quite timely. The National Pensioners Convention Wales say that older unpaid carers often find it difficult to access support as information and advice services continue to move online. There is a real danger that older people could be digitally excluded here and in other ways too. How will the Government ensure that information regarding services and support will be made widely available and accessible in all formats? Does the Minister agree that improved integration of health and care services would improve the accessibility of information, and that further work needs to be done to support unpaid carers and to ensure their physical and mental well-being?

The pandemic has also changed the way in which we access health services. Many consultations have moved online, which means many older people are left unable to access essential services unless they are information-technology proficient. This was backed up by an Age Cymru survey of older people's experiences in Wales during the COVID-19 lockdown. It found that 40.5 per cent of responders had issues with accessing GP services, and 6 per cent responded that they could not access GP services at all. I'm keen to ensure that those people who are not online, for whatever reason, and those who prefer face-to-face consultations are not left languishing in the queue, receiving a second-class service. Will the Government, therefore, implement a blended approach that offers appropriate access to those who need and/or prefer face-to-face consultations? 

It is well established that some people who have Welsh as a first language lose their ability to communicate through the medium of English as they get older. I'm pleased that this strategy acknowledges that this matter is important for all services, but this is especially the case in health and social care, because the quality of the care may be compromised by ineffective communication. Could the Minister, therefore, provide an update on the current level of Welsh language provision in the health and care service? Does the Government believe that there are enough Welsh-speaking staff currently working in health and care services?

In summary, for this strategy to be effective, it must be interwoven throughout Government. Will all departments be engaged to create an age-friendly society? Will this plan, laudable in print, have the necessary budget and backing to be put into action? Will outputs be monitored, reviewed, and lead to changes if necessary? For the sake of older people, I sincerely hope so. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your welcome to the plan, and for your very positive words. I think it’s absolutely right, as you say, that we do what we can for the most vulnerable in society, but I also think it’s important to remember the contribution that older people make, because I think there are many positive things that we can draw attention to, such as the volunteering that older people do. I’m sure the Member is aware of the charity shops that are kept going by older people, and during the pandemic it was really noticed how older people, who were tending to stay in their homes—how much they were missed. So, I think it’s important we look at the positive side of ageing as well. But I absolutely agree with him that they are some of the most vulnerable people, and we need to do what we can to help them.

I’m pleased he mentioned Carers Rights Day. I met a number of groups of unpaid carers last week to listen to the stories of how they’d coped in the pandemic and the difficulties that they had encountered. It was very moving—deeply moving, really—their commitment to the people that they loved, looking after them, and what they were doing, and I think it’s absolutely right that we do all we possibly can to help them. That’s why, during this financial year, we have given £10 million to carers, and that money is going to provide—. Well, £3 million of it is for respite care, because that’s what unpaid carers have told us—that having the respite and having a break is the most important thing for them that they can possibly have. And then we’ve given another £5.5 million to the local authorities to give directly to carers to help them with what is most important to them. So, we certainly have recognised this. Older unpaid carers are also recognised, because we know there are so many situations where an older person is looking after a husband, possibly, with Alzheimer’s—a really hard, difficult time, and as much help as possible is needed.

The issue of digital inclusion is very important, and our digital strategy in Wales does recognise the fact that people do need not only devices to use, but they also need help in order to use them. So, that is part of our strategy. But also we do recognise that there are many older people in particular who don’t want to be digitally literate or are unable to be, and so part of our strategy is to recognise that and we need to get information to all members of society how they choose to get their information. So, I think it is recognised that that is a very important point.

On integration of services, absolutely; that’s one of the key things that we want in the Welsh Government to do—to get greater integration of health and social services. The Minister for Health and Social Services and myself work very closely together to make sure that this integration is there, and we hope to see even more integration of health and social services. On the issue of access to GPs, again, some people benefited enormously from the digital way of working, and we know that, I think. But I know there are a significant number of older people who want the face-to-face contact. I think that he has suggested a blended approach, and I think that is something that we will probably move towards.

On Welsh and the first language, I absolutely agree. From my own family experience, I know perhaps when you get older, it's only your own first language that you want to use. But, in any case, people should have the opportunity to use Welsh when they access services, and certainly if they are in a care home. Our strategy in health and social services, 'More than just words' is a strategy that we're working on to improve the number of Welsh speakers. I don't think there are enough Welsh-speaking staff. We want to have an age-friendly society where everybody feels that they have a place,  and then it's absolutely essential that we get the Welsh language rightly in its right place.

And then, finally, how are we going to review it and see how we're going to make progress? Well, certainly, the Swansea research has given us a baseline. The research of the older persons commissioner has given us a baseline, and so we will be measuring how this strategy works.

Perhaps I should declare an interest as an older person. But I have every intention to grow old disgracefully, because I do not think that I want to be in my bath chair any time soon.

I think that the role played by older people during the pandemic has been absolutely huge. Just imagine, most of the carers—I appreciate there are young carers, and they do a valuable job too, but most carers are older people looking after their loved ones, whether they've got dementia or whether they've got young adults with learning difficulties. These are people who, during the pandemic, have just had to do it all on their own, and so we absolutely have to salute them for the work they've done without any respite. We need to ensure that, as people live longer, they also need to live healthier lives, because it's pretty miserable to live with multiple health conditions. You know, some people just say, 'I just can't take any more of this'. I was just reflecting on how many of the things that we're doing, for example, to tackle the climate emergency, which is all about saving the world for future generations. Nevertheless, it's also making life better for older people as well. So, when we're—

You need to ask a question now.

—reducing our carbon emissions, with fewer cars on the road, that makes it more human. So, my question, Deputy Presiding Officer, is, really: as we build back a fairer, greener Wales, how can we integrate all our services to be both open to the wisdom that older people can provide? But also, with the growth in dementia, how can we make all our services dementia friendly, so people don't have to be bussed all over the place, and they can just go to their local communities to get support and stimulation?

Thanks very much to Jenny Rathbone for that interesting commentary and question. I totally agree with her that we want to see healthy ageing. I think it's really important that we encourage older people to be active. I declare an interest as well, being an older person. Actually, under our healthy ageing strategy, we are funding Nordic walking, tai chi—under the healthy ageing programme. I went on the Nordic walking, which was great fun. I enjoyed it enormously and had no idea the benefits until I actually did it. We've been funding Age Cymru to provide those services since 2007, actually, which does increase activity and is so appreciated by the older people who are doing it. Because it's not only active and healthy—a carbon-free environment would be wonderful—but it also is social. So, I think that in terms of addressing the health of older people, that we can do that, and we are doing that to a certain measure.

In terms of dementia, we know that the number of people who have dementia is certainly either rising or it is being reported more widely, and it is an issue that we have to do what we can to help with. Because, certainly, of the number of people who need to go into older people's residential care, a huge number now suffer from dementia. I agree that we should be able to have people who suffer from dementia using the services that are already there. As the Member will know, there is dementia-friendly training that many of us have undertaken, so I think we have to do all we can to encourage the dementia-friendly training and the work that is done by the Alzheimer's Society to raise awareness. I think the point she's making is that people with dementia should be able to go to, say, a local day centre, not one that is specifically designed for people with dementia. Ideally, I think that would be excellent if that could be done, but, obviously, we need a lot of work on the understanding of dementia, so that people realise that it is possible to integrate. I think that is definitely something that we should work towards.

And lastly, Altaf Hussain.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Ageing is a blessing. The ministerial advisory forum on ageing in 2018 convened five working groups to focus on the key areas that Members felt we must get right in planning for ageing, including how to make rights real for older people. Minister, surely it is now time to enshrine in law the rights of older people. We need to set a standard for others to follow. So, does she agree that making rights real means establishing what those rights are? Many older people are vulnerable to attack. Building the capabilities of older people sometimes relies on good-quality information. My question to the Minister is: would you support my call for the Welsh Government to run annual awareness campaigns against elder abuse, age discrimination and scams and swindles to help inform and arm our older population? Many older people will be wary of yet another strategy without a clear vision from Government as to what positive benefit they will see in practice. Minister, at the time of the next Senedd election, how will Wales be more age friendly, and how will you know what success actually looks like? Thank you.

Thank you very much for those questions. I'm pleased to say that the ministerial advisory group and the sub-groups that he mentioned are filled with older people who are advising our strategy, and everything we're doing is done in co-production with older people.

The question he asked me was how important it is to campaign for elder abuse, for example. That is one of the strands of our strategy for an age-friendly society. Elder abuse is advised by the group that was set up by the older person's commissioner, who's taken a particular interest in elder abuse. There are specific aspects of elder abuse that we have been looking at, and we have a group addressing that. I think, often, when you think of abuse, you think maybe of domestic abuse and you think of younger people, but we know that there are very few facilities available, for example, for an older woman to go to if she was in an abusive relationship and needed to leave. That is one of the issues that we certainly have to look at. So, yes, the abuse of older people is a key part of our strategy.

On scams, our digital strategy includes an element of safety online, and certainly there are lots of tips and proposals about how you can avoid and deal with scams. And then, I think, finally, about how, at the next Senedd election, will we see if we've been successful, well, there'll be some basic stuff like, for example, will all the local authorities be part of the World Health Organization network for an age-friendly society. That'll be one of the things we can do. And if they are, I think we would say that might be one small measure of success. But I think it would be, basically, how older people feel. As far as we're able to measure it, we will be using the baseline provided by the research that has been done in Swansea University. So, I think we have got a good baseline to work from.

Thank you, Deputy Minister.