7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Habilitation training for sight-impaired children

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:45 pm on 15 February 2023.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of James Evans James Evans Conservative 5:45, 15 February 2023

That's very true. Actually, one person at that event that my colleague Sam Kurtz talked to—I'm sure other Members did—had a visual impairment. I took the time to talk to that person myself, and they actually said that they'd had habilitation training, and they found it very useful, but the dog that was with them was also that lifeline to them. So, you're totally right.

Natasha Asghar picked up this point as well, that you cannot put a price on somebody's independence. Most of us probably in this Chamber take for granted our independence, and I think sometimes we don't recognise that there are some people who really are suffering at home who live very isolated lives because they do not have access to the services that they need to help them to live that independent life. I do not think, as Natasha Asghar said, that we can put a price on the independence of that person, because I think a lot of people take it for granted. It's very important that issues like that are raised in this Chamber so we all understand and recognise those people.

Then we moved on to the Minister. I agreed with some of the things that the Minister said. You'll be very surprised, Minister, to hear that, I'm sure. But I'm disappointed that the Government has amended this motion. I don't think our motion was overly political. We actually put the motion down—and Guide Dogs Cymru helped us informally with this motion—because this is what organisations are telling us that they want to see. I think it's very, very important that, when organisations come forward, we are the democratically elected Parliament here and we represent those organisations in this Chamber to get those issues raised. When the Government amended it and basically passed the buck on to local authorities, who I think have failed sometimes in their duties here—as Altaf said before, there are vast swathes of Wales where there is no service at all—I think it's incumbent on the Government to step up here to make sure that we have that service right across Wales and the workforce in place right across Wales so that people who are visually impaired and those young children who need that habilitation training are not left at home and they're not forgotten, because it is very important to their future development, their education and their future life that they have the opportunity to live that full life, as we all live in this Chamber.

I hope we can all agree that it simply is not good enough that 2,000 children in Wales who are visually impaired are in need of support. The support they're getting is dire, and I think it's about time that we did our jobs in this Senedd and make sure that we represent the views of those disabled people across Wales, and especially those vulnerable children who are in desperate need of this vital support. Diolch, Llywydd.