3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Launch of the new Health and Social Care Regional Integration Fund

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:19 pm on 1 February 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:19, 1 February 2022

(Translated)

Thank you very much, Rhun. I think it's important that we don't throw everything out, everything that's happened previously, because there was good practice that was happening with the ICF and the transformation programme as well. So, it's important that we do take that and we take the innovation. But the trouble was, because people didn't see that there was any continuity, they didn't mainstream it, so that's why the way we do things this time is going to be slightly different. People will need to bring match funding to the table, and that means that they will have to put a lot more of their own funding into it. And do I hope that that, then, will genuinely work towards that integration that you mentioned, rather than just collaboration. And the idea, then, is that things are embedded. And the other thing is that there will be tapering, so they will start off with funding from this budget, but then the idea is that they will see the benefit and they will move funding from other pots to the things they know that work. So, do I hope—at least, that's the idea—that some of the measures that, as you said, were shown by the auditor general—. It's important that we do learn from what we have seen previously.

There are very good examples, I think, of where things have worked well. For example, in Cardiff, the discharge hub has done things like had a full-time occupational therapist to ensure that people can move out and that there is someone on call all the time. And social prescribing has been very successful in Cardiff, with 10 clusters working with social prescribing. In Cwm Taf, we have the  assisted technology programme, which is very interesting, because it allows older people to stay in their homes and there is a responsive system if anything goes wrong. And then in Gwent, we have a home first programme, and the idea is that we put that hospital discharge in place, and the same thing at the Grange Hospital—home first. These are all examples of where we have seen innovative things happening, they have been successful, but we now need to see that things move into the mainstream. In the north, you'll be aware of the ICAN community mental health hub, which has also been very successful. So, there are many good things that are happening, but you're right, what we need to do is to take the ICAN model and ask, 'Why can't we see this happening in other places across the country?'