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 5:10 pm on 24 January 2023.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 5:10, 24 January 2023

(Translated)

Thank you, Rhun, and it's lovely to have a positive response when we do talk about health, so thank you for that. These are new people who we're welcoming into the system. When you talk about funding, we have to make choices, and we have chosen to bring more people into this role. And evidently, therefore, you have to make a choice when you're making that choice, and we could have provided that funding towards increasing their salaries, so these things are very difficult, but you can't have both. And that's difference between governing and not governing; we have to make those difficult choices.

In terms of training more workers, there is training, as you've heard, in terms of HEIW. That's already in the pipeline. And additional training, well, we're in discussions, as you know, with the unions at present, and one of the things that they are very keen to see is to create time so that they can continue with their studies, and evidently that will be part of those discussions. I think it's important as well that we do emphasise that we're not just talking about allied health professionals here; there are support workers who are just as important. So, you have to have professional people to ensure that the support workers work in the right way. So, to me, that's going to be a very important element of this.

I was interested in seeing your five-point plan, and I've just noted that this does overlap with a lot of those points, certainly in terms of prevention. That is a part, as you said, of preventing problems. Trying to see who is likely to need hospital care, putting that help in place before they go to hospital, to me, is going to be vital in terms of where we go in the future. So, prevention, and these people will be vital to that.

Interaction between health and social care, well, yes, this is the area we're talking about. Social care—. We obviously need to build teams within our communities, and they will have to collaborate. They're already collaborating. So, £144 million is already being spent jointly between health and care. And in respect of the need to have robust care that is fit for the future, well, if you look at the demographic profile of our country in the future, we are going to need a lot of support in this area and, for me, this is going to be a vital step to ensure that we do prepare for that future, which is going to be very challenging.

And one of the other things that I think is worth noting is, if people do receive reablement support, we know, from the evidence, that the requirement for long-term care does reduce 70 per cent and that the care package reduces. So, this is the golden ticket for me; this is the way out, and we have to do a lot more in this area. That is part of this plan.