Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:45 pm on 31 January 2023.
I thank the Member for that question. I'd like to emphasise how closely the Minister and I have been working to bring health and social care together. We have fortnightly meetings—the care action committee—where we drive developments that are jointly between health and social care, and that has resulted in 595 community beds, which are created by the local authorities, by the health boards, by them putting funding in—pooling funding. These 595 beds have had a really tremendous effect in enabling people to be discharged from hospital. In terms of where we go with social care, I think you know that we have a commitment to a national care service. We are taking the first steps in doing that in creating a national office, which we hope will be up now within the next year, and we're also having a national framework. Those are the first steps towards creating a national care service, which I agree is urgently needed.