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 3:33 pm on 1 February 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:33, 1 February 2022

Thanks, Alun. I've got to tell you that, actually, we have learnt a hell of a lot from the transformation fund, aspects of which have been extremely successful if you just look at some of the work that's been done on mental health in places like Gwent, some of the other examples I gave. We know that this approach works. I tell you what hasn't happened is it hasn't been mainstreamed, it hasn't been there for the long term. So, what we've had is lots and lots of good pilots. So, the issue is: how do you move from pilots to the mainstream? What we've got here is the opportunity to do that. We've got a five-year programme. We're telling them, 'If you want to play, put your money in your own pocket and you can play, because if you don't, you're not playing in this space.'

So, it's about bringing people together as well. And I think it's really important. This is not a new committee, Alun; this is a committee that's been around for a very long time that's come as a result of, actually, many, many years of people saying that we need to do things differently. This is what we've come up with. I'm certainly not in the business of throwing it all up in the air and saying, 'Let's start again.' We have something that works here. I think it's really important, and I've made it very clear to the RPBs that they need to be much more flexible, they need to be much faster, they need to be much more responsive—all of those things are absolutely crucial. And when it comes to the outcomes, that is what we're going to be discussing now, the outcomes framework—what do we get for this. And that's why what we'll be doing now in the RPB meetings is to make sure that we don't let any of this money go until we're absolutely sure about what we're going to get for it.

So, that outcomes framework, I think, is really important—that we develop that with them. It's much better if you work with people than if you impose something on them, because they're more likely to play the game with you. So, I think that, actually, we've got to take the best practice; there have been some great examples of best practice. We had that £6 million transformation fund, specifically to scale up hospital to home activity. We saw a difference there. Everybody is saying, 'We need more of this.' All of the royal colleges are saying, 'Do more of this.' That's our plan. But you're right, we need to count numbers—how many people have we managed to keep out of hospital as a result? Absolutely right, and that's what we'll be talking about in relation to the outcomes framework.