Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care – in the Senedd at 3:11 pm on 25 March 2026.
Jeremy Miles
Labour
3:11,
25 March 2026
Members have been very generous in their compliments today. I'm grateful for that.
The Member makes a very important point about the work that Gemma and Joanne and others do, and just how important it is that we acknowledge how vital the work of health visitors is, and that's exactly why I've been very clear the dispute needs to be resolved. Although it's not a national dispute, I spoke with both the health board and Unite at the start of last week; I urged both to work together in social partnership to resolve the dispute. I asked the health board to bring forward the next ACAS meeting, which they have now done, and I've set out my clear expectation that the job evaluation process needs to be honoured. There is a separate national process that NHS Wales Employers is co-ordinating across a range of job descriptions, in order that we can avoid this kind of situation arising in future, and I asked Unite to engage with that as well. It will benefit their members in the future in other parts of Wales, in other parts of the health service. So, I'm happy to repeat that position today in the Chamber. This dispute needs to be resolved, and I hope both parties will take all the steps open to them to do that quickly.
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.