Experiences of the pandemic, of course, only reinforced what we already know about the NHS and the nursing workforce—one that was suffering from staff shortages, low pay, low morale, one that operated in an environment deprived of investment and resources. It's no wonder that one of the biggest challenges we have is the sustainability of the nursing workforce. There are far more nurses leaving the NHS than can be matched by newly qualified nurses or internationally recruited nurses. And regrettably, there's been far too little action by Welsh Government since RCN’s last report in 2019 to address nursing retention issues.

It's up to Welsh Government to lead, to take the lead, on nursing retention through a national retention strategy. RCN Wales have published a retention paper that sets out what's being done elsewhere in the UK and what could be done in Wales. Instead, it seems Welsh Government would rather stick its head in the sand when it comes to the scale of the problem. There are no published national statistics provided by Welsh Government for nursing vacancies. Well, we've tried to help with that; the petition we have in front of us mentions 1,700 vacancies. I was recently given a figure of over 400 vacancies in one health board. So, seeing that, I knew that 1,700 sounded too low, so we conducted our own fresh research in parallel. So did the Royal College of Nursing, and we both came to the same result: approaching 3,000 nursing vacancies in Wales. It's a frightening figure, but the RCN's wider research tells us more: figures earlier this year showed that more than half of Wales's nurses are demoralised due to a staffing crisis. Seventy-eight per cent of nurses felt that patient care was being compromised. These are issues that are not going away; they need to be addressed right now.

In the past, the health Minister has commented that section 25B is based on evidence; being grounded in evidence is what gives the Act its credibility, but even though the evidence points clearly to the need to ensure patient safety through safe staffing, she is reluctant to act, still. Just look at the findings of the Tawel Fan report in September 2014; that surely demonstrates the horrific impact on patient care that results when lack of funding, lack of sufficient staff, lack of skills in the workforce, lack of leadership all combine, and the resulting issue isn't addressed. In June 2021, 16 organisations wrote to the First Minister to urge the Government to ensure safe nurse staffing and expand section 25B of the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016 to mental health in-patient wards and community settings. But still, we wait. When will the Welsh Government commit to valuing our nursing workforce in this way?

I understand that the chief nursing officer has written to Health Education and Improvement Wales regarding the all-Wales nurse staffing programme, and indicated that she is not going to publish the principles for mental health or health visiting. Now, that doesn't bode well. It would mean that the work for those workstreams are unlikely to move forward. Can I ask, does the Minister intend to publish the principles for mental health and health visiting, and if not, why not? We know that staffing levels that are too low endanger the well-being—the lives, even—of patients. We know that it exacerbates low morale in the workforce, leading to a loss of experienced, valued staff. We cannot wait any longer. Can we please see a Labour Government willing to do what's right for the nursing workforce and for patients? And again, I thank the petitioners.