6. What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care about funding an appropriate level of pay in the health and care services? OQ60914

I regularly engage in bilateral meetings with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. We face the most severe financial situation in the devolution era, which makes our task far harder. Despite this, we have identified a way forward that we hope will lead to a resolution of the dispute.

Thank you for that. Further doctor strikes have for now been averted, as the Welsh Government has finally shown that willingness to have meaningful negotiations with doctors on their pay, and I do welcome that. But when it comes to general practitioner surgeries and primary care, more and more local surgeries are closing, and so the heightened pressures on general practice are having direct consequences for people who are finding it more difficult to see a doctor. Now, the Government has shown that willingness to get around the table with doctors in secondary care, so could you tell me whether the same willingness will be shown to address the underfunding of general practice, because I don't think our Valleys can cope with yet more surgeries closing?

I think the overall question in relation to funding of primary care might be better directed to my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for health, who is responsible for these areas. But just to remind colleagues that we have prioritised the NHS throughout our budget preparations for this financial year. The NHS will see that increase of more than 4 per cent here in Wales, compared to less than 1 per cent across the border in England. Public services have always been our priority, and they will absolutely continue to be our priority, especially in this very difficult period.

Cabinet Secretary, over Easter recess I attended a meeting with ALN Reform Wales, where we discussed the need for education and health departments to work more closely with supporting children with ALN. Stats have shown that there has been more than a 40 per cent reduction in children receiving support, despite a significant increase in inquiries for it. Whilst I recognise that this is an issue across both health and education sectors, financial support, I'm sure you can agree, is imperative and will restore faith in so many families across Wales that it is in fact a priority and is going to be for this Government, hopefully. So, Cabinet Secretary, what commitments can you reassure us with today that you are going to look into additional resources for training across various professions to support children with ALN in Wales? Thank you.

Well, again, these would be questions that would be better directed to my colleagues, because as we set out in our budget preparations, we are not holding huge amounts of funding back to be able to respond to questions from colleagues for areas where they would like to see additional funding. That's just simply not the situation that we're in at the moment. You've seen the difficult work that we've undertaken to reprioritise across Government to provide health with the additional funding, and to ensure local government was able to receive the funding that we'd anticipated for it, and that has meant really tough choices for colleagues across Government. So, I'm not in a position today to be able to talk about the additional allocation of resources, much as I would like to.