6. How is the Cabinet Secretary working with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to ensure that dentistry training arrangements in Wales produce a workforce that meets the linguistic needs of children and adults in Arfon? OQ61015

The Deintyddion Yfory scheme has been launched between the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and Cardiff University to support Welsh speakers with their application to the school of dentistry. The coleg will also support the university to offer students Welsh-medium learning experiences. I will be working closely, therefore, with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on this issue.

Last week in the Senedd I mentioned the acute lack of dentists available for NHS care in Arfon. The skill of being able to provide a service in Welsh is an essential skill for the workforce in an area like Arfon, where Welsh is the main language for many of us. Data that the Cabinet Secretary for health has provided to me confirm that a minority of students currently studying at the only dental school in Wales at present, at Cardiff University, stay in Wales to continue their basic dental training after graduation. She has also confirmed to me that discussions are taking place to look at the options to increase dental training places in response to a recommendation by the Senedd’s health committee that the Government should explore options to establish a dental school in the north.

Do you agree that the limited opportunities to study dentistry in Wales at present, and the lack of efficacy of those opportunities, given that those individuals don't stay here in sufficient numbers, means that we are missing an opportunity to embed the Welsh language along the pathway that leads to qualifying as a dentist? Do you therefore agree that creating a dental school in Bangor would give us the opportunity, as in the case of the medical school, to embed the Welsh language and the needs of the local area as a natural part of the training? What discussions have you had with Eluned Morgan to push the linguistic case for establishing such a school in Bangor, thereby confirming Bangor's status as a center of excellence for health and care training?

In my most recent discussion with my colleague, the Minister mentioned that Cardiff University had made a commitment to increase, over the next three years, the numbers coming from Wales to around 40 per cent of the cohort. As I think she mentioned in the Chamber, this would be a substantial increase, because it's likely that people would then want to continue to practise here in Wales. The coleg Cymraeg is also working with Cardiff University to provide a grant particularly in the area of dentistry to provide Welsh-medium experiences for students. The school of dentistry there, in addition to that, will hold a series of events where prospective students will benefit from meeting staff and so on and will receive information about the application process. The plan also guarantees access for Welsh speakers to an interview for entry into the school of dentistry in September 2025, and we hope that that will address the issue.