9. What impact has the pathways of care reporting framework had in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area? OQ59150

The pathways of care reporting pilot has been successfully rolled out across all health boards. Whilst the full impact is not yet known, it's intended to provide a single data source to better understand the reasons for delays at the point of discharge and help partners identify solutions together.

Thank you, Minister. Nurses in Rhondda are contacting me almost daily at the end of their tether. Demand over the winter months for ambulances and accident and emergency has been nothing like they've experienced before. They know that, in order to get sick patients through the door, patients ready to leave the hospital need to do so as soon and as safely as possible. Their colleagues in social care play a vital role in ensuring this, but we simply need more of them. Building on the commitment to provide social care workers the real living wage, what work is Welsh Government doing to encourage young people and to retrain older people into social care roles? And what discussion has the Welsh Government had with colleges like Coleg y Cymoedd in my constituency regarding enrolment numbers and the appeal of care courses?

I think the real living wage was a vital first step, really, and it provided a very important starting point for improved working conditions for our social care staff. I know that the Deputy Minister continues to work very closely with the social care fair work forum to look at more ways of how we can further improve the terms and conditions of all of our social care workers across Wales. We continue to work with our key partners to examine all avenues to help people back into work and encourage people, particularly young people, to consider social care as a career. I think that's a really important piece of work that the Deputy Minister is doing. The Social Care Wales-led WeCare.Wales campaign provides some inspirational video case studies about why individuals took up care and support roles within social care, and, of course, we've run several high-profile campaigns to promote the sector. Both Welsh Government apprenticeship and further education officials have regular discussions with colleges as well as with our independent training providers to make sure that courses—and that's for all sectors, and that obviously includes social care—provide effective training for our learners.

Minister, the pathways for care reporting framework is a welcome addition. We're all too aware of the impact that delayed transfers of care have across the NHS. The framework aims to promote closer working between health and care, and we will only be able to assess its full impact when we see a more integrated discharge regime. Minister, has the introduction of the framework led to the creation of multidisciplinary teams that include not only health and social care staff, but also housing officials and officers from Care and Repair so that we can ensure that all the patient's needs are safely met upon discharge?

Thank you. You raise a very important point: it is about making sure that they have that multi-agency approach, as you say, so if there are specific barriers to someone being able to leave hospital, all the partners are working very closely together. The pathways of care reporting framework has been developed jointly by an expert group, and that comprised of partners from across a range of services. What that framework has done is really revise the process to make system improvements and to bring it in line with contemporary patient pathway processes such as discharge to recover then assess. They weren't previously included in the delayed transfers of care. The pilot's now being rolled out to an all-Wales phase from November last year to January of this year, and that system and that new pathway have really been fully tested, going forward.

I think it's fair to say, during the phases, as always, there are lessons to be learned, and we were able to identify improvements and efficiencies. They're now being implemented as we prepare to fully embed the final reporting framework.

Question 10 [Q59116] is withdrawn. Question 11, finally—Rhun ap Iorwerth.