7. Will the First Minister make a statement on end-of-life care in Wales? OQ58890

Llywydd, the Welsh Government's review of hospice care has led to an uplift in hospice funding of £2.2 million from this financial year and onwards. That includes the fantastic St David’s Foundation Hospice Care that serves the Newport area. Phase 2 of the review considers broader end-of-life care services, including those provided by health, social care and the third sector.

Diolch, Brif Weinidog. Palliative care can represent a huge spectrum of different emotions. It's an incredibly sensitive time for all involved, individuals, families and friends. For many, the decision to move to palliative care comes far, far too soon. For others, it can be an accepted relief. What we must ensure is that, when those difficult conversations are being made when the time comes for those decisions, all respect is given to the individual and, most importantly, that their wishes and preferences are listened to and, as much as possible, accommodated. Good palliative care can make a huge difference to a person's quality of life, as well as for those who care for them, helping them to live as well as possible and to die with dignity. I fully welcome the Welsh Government's new vision for palliative care in Wales. How will these plans help to develop greater resilience and co-production within end-of-life care to ensure patient choice is at the forefront?

I thank Jayne Bryant for what she said about the palliative care quality statement, which my colleague Eluned Morgan publicised recently. It picks up many of the points that the Member has just made, Llywydd. We're not good at talking about these things in our culture. In many ways, those conversations need to start far earlier than when people are faced with those incredibly difficult end-of-life decisions.

I worked closely at one point with the Byw Nawr programme, led as it was by our former colleague Hywel Francis. That was all about encouraging people to have those conversations before you reach the point of needing to have them, to make advanced decisions, as you're able to make here in Wales, letting the system know how you would wish to be cared for should you find yourself in those circumstances. That sense of that being a genuine conversation between the individual, with rights, with ambitions for their own life, with decisions that they themselves can exercise, and the system that will help to care for them, was absolutely at the centre of that initiative. I'm sure that, as we move forward with that wider end-of-life development that I talked about, those qualities will be captured again in those conversations. 

Thank you, First Minister.