Can I thank the Minister for her statement today? I genuinely welcome the announcement today. I certainly support the increased funding for the number of allied health professionals within the primary and community care settings. I certainly think that’s the right move, particularly for the reasons you’ve outlined. I think it’ll free up resources and allow people to be treated much closer to home.

There are a number of questions I would ask following your statement today, Minister. Just to give us an understanding of how the funding’s going to be allocated across Wales, how it’s going to be allocated across the regions or the health boards. Just to give some assurance that the funding isn’t going to be earmarked for one part of Wales, and that it is fairly, appropriately dispersed across the country. Also to get a sense of how many allied health professionals this will fund, as well. I’m assuming that this is a fund that will be annual funding. Obviously, we’re creating these jobs, and it would have to be annual funding thereafter, I assume. So, just to get that confirmation.

And also to understand where new allied health professionals would be located. I know very much, as part of the Welsh Conservatives’ GP access plan, health and social care made some recommendations around allied health professionals being located in GP surgeries. So, just to get a sense of your understanding of where the allied health professionals would be located. Would they be in GP surgeries, community hospitals, a mixture? To get an understanding of that.

The biggest concern for me is that there is simply a lack of trained professionals working within the allied health professions in Wales, so already there are some reports around internal markets, where health boards are having to compete with one another to attract AHPs, as there are simply not enough to meet the complex physical and mental healthcare needs of the country. So, just to get your view on that, Minister. I do appreciate there’s a rise in funding for training placements, but that is quite small, so just to understand how you plan to fix the staffing gap within the workforce in order to reach the types of levels that Wales needs.

I’ve also raised—I think last week in the debate, actually, Minister—I’ve regularly raised the issues around modernising our NHS digital systems as well. So, that would be necessary, I think, in this regard, to make sure there are secure ways for health professionals to communicate with each other, especially if they’re moving home to home. I think what is needed is health professionals working on patients’ case studies, understanding the patients’ treatment plans for their outcomes. So, will there be any funding to upgrade these systems to create a more efficient service that will help allied health professionals?