5. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: The Health and Social Care Outcome Framework

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:12 pm on 10 May 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:12, 10 May 2022

Diolch yn fawr. I'm pleased that we're on the same page on this. So, I'm very keen to stop being in a situation where we're just constantly looking at how much money do we put into the system. What we've got to start measuring is what comes out the other end. What difference will it make to the public and to patients? And if we can do that in an efficient and effective way, measuring what matters to people—that's the other thing. It's really important that it's not just constantly trying to make sure that people are—that we're fixing people, but actually missing the point of their lives.

That's really what's fundamental in 'A Healthier Wales'. It's really trying to make a system that really focuses on what matters to people. I can assure you that what we're trying to do here is to avoid duplication. Now, there are lots of things going on here, but this is the kind of umbrella framework underneath which some of the other things will be measured. So, we already have legislation, for example, in the social care Act that we have to comply with, but which will come under this umbrella now, in the sense that we'll need to know where they meet. So, there are responsibilities on social care, for example, to make sure that people are cared for in their own homes, but that can't be dissociated from the fact that, actually, at the moment, people are stuck in hospital, they can't get out of homes—we're going to look at the whole integration of the system. Accident and emergency—there's an issue there.

So, bringing all this together and making sure everybody knows what their responsibility is is going to be crucial, and I can assure you there are going to be lots of different ways of monitoring. So, one of the things I've been doing today is going through in meticulous detail the integrated medium-term plans in each of the health boards. I don't think they've seen anybody go through it quite with the tooth comb that I'm going through it with at the moment. And this is just looking at: what is it that's in your programme? What's not in your programme? I'm going to be absolutely clear about what is missing from those programmes, but also trying to make sure that we've got the emphasis in the right place. On top of that, there will be the chair's letter—the letter that I send to the chair, and I will hold chairs to account on the basis of that. And obviously we have targets as well, which we will be monitoring, and I'm sure, as a committee, you will be wanting to monitor as well. I can assure you we won't be just taking our reports from the Welsh survey. I think it is important that we get under the bonnet a bit more of that, and I'm absolutely determined that we measure progress. But this is about prevention. A lot of it is about prevention and, in the past, I don't think—. Because prevention is a longer term programme, we haven't measured it in quite the same way. I'm absolutely determined to try to get to a place where we're measuring prevention so that we see the shift in focus from all of our services onto that.