6. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Increasing Allied Health Professionals in Primary and Community Care

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:16 pm on 24 January 2023.

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Photo of Jane Dodds Jane Dodds Liberal Democrat 5:16, 24 January 2023

Thank you very much for the statement, Minister. I think I join with the cross-party support for the announcements that you've made today.

Just two short points from me, if I may. It seems really important that this is both preventative and reactive so that we have the option of providing support to people before, and, indeed, hopefully avoiding, any hospital admissions. I'm sure that's the intention, as well as responding to helping them leaving hospital and being discharged. For that, it also seems important to work with local authority carers, because the team around the person includes medics but also the allied professionals and the carers as well. When I was in social work, we had a team around the family, the TAFs, and it seems important that there is that team. It sounds as if that's the direction, so it's really important to hear that. Thank you so much.

The question I do have is around pay and conditions, because we need to keep these people, they need to stay in their professions, hopefully here in Wales. So, I'd be interested to hear what thoughts you have around how we ensure that they get good pay, there's parity of pay, and that it equates to English pay as well, because we really want them to stay in Wales. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.