Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 1 May 2024.
Dawn Bowden
Labour
2:41,
1 May 2024
Well, can I thank Sioned Williams for that question? And I very much look forward to working with you in your portfolio. I think I'm covering some aspects of it with Mabon as well, so I look forward very much to working with Mabon, because, I think, across my portfolio there are issues that are of common concern to all of us, and I hope we can work collaboratively together, not just with Plaid Cymru, but also with the Conservatives. We have many programme for government commitments and co-operation agreement commitments across the portfolio, particularly in relation to improved outcomes for children, which I know is a particular interest of yours, so I'm very much looking forward to that.
But the points that you make are obviously very important. The operation of day centres, of course, is a matter for local authorities, and we know, absolutely, that local authorities' finances have been under tremendous pressure, despite the fact that we have tried to prioritise their funding, along with funding for the NHS, within the budget constraints that we have. All of local authorities' budgets, as you know, are within the rates support grant, so they're not ring-fenced for any particular service. So, it is a matter for the local authority themselves—they're unhypothecated—whether they choose to prioritise social care and so on.
But I can be very clear that both the Cabinet Secretary for health and I have an absolute priority around the issue of delayed transfers of care, and I think that ties in very much with your question. You will have seen, for instance, over the weekend, last week, in the area that I represent—the Cwm Taf health area—Cwm Taf health board made it very clear to Rhondda Cynon Taf local authority that there were some 300 people in hospitals in the Cwm Taf area—that's the equivalent of a single general hospital—occupying beds who shouldn't have been there. And we know that that is an issue that has been going on for far too long. I met with the Welsh Local Government Association well-being and social care leads just last week, and talked about the need for us to press forward on this agenda of reducing the waits for people that are no longer required to be in hospital to come out. And day-care centres and social care provision are absolutely key to that.
So, all I can say to you is that I am having those conversations with local authorities. It is very much a priority that both the Cabinet Secretary for health and I have in terms of moving forward on the pathways for care, and we are continuing to have as constructive a dialogue as we can with local authorities about how, within the constraints of their budgets, and the constraints of our budget, we can both meet those joint objectives.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.