, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Thank you very much, Chair. Diolch yn fawr.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
You can. So, the point that you've just been making to me about variation—we have different approaches in different health boards, different approaches, if I may say, in different local authorities. We have a quite complex system for quite a small nation…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
So, in this sense, it obviously isn't sufficient, but it's not the only thing that's happening. I am absolutely clear that all health boards are compliant with their statutory duties, because they all have a DECLO in place. I don't, myself, share—. I'm not…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I don't think I'd want to specifically draw attention to one health board, Chair. We all recognise that there's variation in this area, as in, I think, almost all areas of healthcare provision. Our task as a system, and my challenge to the system, is to make…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
—presumably on many occasions previously. So, she and I meet biannually, I think it is. We most recently met to agree a set of actions to try and provide clearer guidance in this space. So, what we wanted to do, firstly, is to clarify some of the complexity…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Yes. So, Chair, it's a complex area, as the committee, I know, is very well aware, and I'm assuming that you'll have discussed this with the education Minister—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Okay. I don't have the numbers in front of me, Chair, but the maternity and neonatal assurance assessment that we published last week has some very interesting things to say, specifically on recruitment and retention of midwives and assistants in that context…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
No, I agree with that, and that isn't always delivered in that linear way, either; there's a wider range of support available. The clinical network is helping us with understanding how we can make sure that that works in that more holistic way. There have…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Well, I think I do understand why royal colleges ask for further recruitment in the area that they are closest to, because that is the lever most immediately at hand, from their perspective, and that's a perfectly legitimate challenge to Governments…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
My personal view is—. The context of this, I suppose, when I became the Minister—. There are hundreds of targets. Everywhere you look in the health service, there's a target. There's a serious challenge, I think, in focusing the efforts of the system on…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
We don't have specific waiting times for community paediatrics. We don't have specific targets for those. I think the key issue has been the quite significant increase in demand over the last two or three years in particular in the demand for services…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I think we are transparent with it. I've mentioned to you some areas where I think there are problems with inconsistency and what we're doing about that. We've published more and more data over the course of the last two years in particular around all…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
It is, and the clinical network has been looking at what more we can do in order to make sure services are provided firstly in the community, which, for children, is particularly important for obvious reasons, but also to look at how pathways can be…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Some of the points I mentioned in my earlier question. So, we're doing the review of the HCWP. There are some elements that I touched on in my previous answer, which I won't repeat, Chair. I suppose the one big change in the landscape coming up shortly is the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Chair, I don't have the data in front of me, but, in some areas, we are now back to a place where—and some of these are in out-patients—we are now outperforming the performance at which we went into the pandemic. So, we've been able to recover and, in fact…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Give me a second. So, there are five specialties that represent 95 per cent of the longest waits. These are the bulk of them. ENT waits are the highest, and then the four other areas where there are waits of under 50 individuals are in ophthalmology, oral…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Well, I certainly won't be the health Minister in the new Senedd, for reasons which you'll be aware. But I would say that, in this area, as in a number of other areas, whoever is fortunate to be in that position will be inheriting a system that is getting…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I don't have that data, but I'm happy to share that with the committee if we have it, certainly.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
On the number of pathways, I don't have the number of individuals here, but we can provide that to the committee Chair. The number of pathways is at 54,400 and something, so that's an 8 per cent reduction, I think it is, roughly from the highest point at…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
So, you mean not just over two years; you mean the entire size of the list for children.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Certainly. There's been a significant reduction, is the summary, I suppose. So, if you look at the figures at the point where we started our planned care recovery programme, which was in April 2022, so a year into the Senedd term, we had, my note here is…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Well, we were hoping to have issued it, as you will be aware, by now. I'm very much hoping that we will—. Well, we're certainly working hard to get it issued before the end of this Senedd term, but there's a real possibility that won't be manageable, which is…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Yes.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
In each of those—in each of the three areas that I've touched on broadly in answer to your first question—there is a significant level of data gathering, as the committee, I know, is aware. I think we would say that, from an overall point of view, we have a…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to give evidence this morning. I think it varies between elements of children's health. So, for example, I think the area where we've seen strongest progress, probably, is in relation to oral health. It's an…
