Funding of £16m will be allocated to Local Health Boards to support delivery of actions featured in local integrated winter delivery plans alongside the ambulance service, Local Authority and third sector partners. 

This money will help people to access care closer to home, ensure there is sufficient available hospital capacity and to help people to leave hospital for home when they are ready.

The remaining £4m will fund nationally agreed priorities for the winter period. This funding will be targeted at:

• Extending GP access into evenings and weekends, as well as bank holidays in some areas, to help people access care closer to home
• Supporting older people who have fallen and are not injured to remain in their homes or care homes
• Increasing the number of paramedics and nurses in the ambulance clinical contact centres to provide advice over the phone and help prevent unnecessary journeys to hospital
• Increasing capacity in Emergency Departments to support patient flow and to help resettle older, frail people at home following assessment in the department
• Spreading good practice across Wales from an award winning Welsh Ambulance Service pilot to use highly skilled paramedics to help keep people at home
• Supporting the ‘My Winter Health Plan’ initiative to help  clinicians who visit people at home understand more about their long term conditions and prevent admission to hospital where alternative care would better meet their needs.

The funding announced today is on top of the £5 million announced last week to help relieve pressure on critical care units and the £10 million announced for delivering sustainable social services. 

Vaughan Gething said:

“Last winter was one of the most difficult the NHS has faced in several years.

“Blizzard and freezing conditions, more people using GP and emergency care services, increased admissions to hospitals for older people with complex conditions together with the largest number of flu cases since the pandemic in 2009 meant our NHS was under unprecedented pressure.

“It’s testament to our excellent staff across the NHS, social services and third sector at every level, that the vast majority of patients received timely and high quality care. There’s always more that can be done to ensure that the Welsh NHS and local authorities are ready for whatever winter brings. Considering staff well-being is a part of that.

“We have learned from our experiences of previous winters and the £20million I’ve announced today will support NHS Wales and its partners to enhance delivery of the whole health and care system in the coming months.

“I have made the decision to allocate this funding earlier than in previous years to ensure local health and care teams are as prepared as they can be for the winter to come.”

Welsh Government funding will pay for new MRI scanners at Singleton Hospital, Swansea; Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan; and Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth. 

Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil will also receive funding for Fluoroscopy Equipment.

It is expected that three of the four schemes will be complete in 2019, however the MRI at Bronglais is not expected to complete until 2020.

The Welsh Government has made a commitment to invest in improved screening equipment through the National Imaging Programme. The benefits of the scheme are as follows:

• Improved reliability – reducing numbers of cancelled operations as a result
• Reduced revenue costs of running and maintaining aged equipment; and
• Better quality imaging resulting in earlier and more accurate diagnosis.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said:

“The new scanning equipment announced today will improve reliability, leading to better patient satisfaction and fewer cancellations. Improved technology is also much quicker which means health boards can increase the numbers of patients scanned.

“All of this is good news for patients and I’m pleased the significant funding I’ve announced today will make a real difference for health services across Wales.”

At the start of last year the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, set out an ambition for Wales to become a ‘Fair Work Nation’ and a Commission was established in July to make recommendations on how this could be achieved.

A Fair Work Nation is a country where everyone can:

• Access better jobs closer to home
• Develop their skills and careers
• Have decent, life enhancing work without experiencing exploitation or poverty
• Build prosperity and share in that prosperity.

Fair employment for all is central to the Commission’s work and this call for evidence is aiming to tap into a wide range of experiences, views and research relevant to promoting and encouraging fair work in Wales. 

The Commission will develop indicators and consider whether the measures needed to promote fair work currently available to the Welsh Government need to be taken further. It will recommend new or additional steps, including new legislation.

Julie James, Leader of the House for the Welsh Assembly, is overseeing the Commission. She said:

“The call for evidence today will shape Wales’ future world of work for tomorrow, making it fair and equal for all. A Fair Work Nation is a great place in which to live, work and invest.

“As the Welsh Government has recognised, fair work can help achieve a stronger, modernised, inclusive economy as well as addressing inequality by promoting wellbeing and community cohesion. 

“People’s views and experiences give an effective voice for workers, enhancing their ability to contribute to the success of Wales’ economy. I would encourage everyone, whether individually or as an organisation, to submit their evidence and help shape a better working future pan Wales.”

The Commission, a Welsh Government Ministerial body, is chaired by Professor Linda Dickens MBE, Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Warwick. She said: 

“I am pleased to have been appointed to chair this important independent Commission. 

“Our recommendations to Ministers next March will be based on evidence and analysis. Through this call for evidence and the engagement meetings we are holding across Wales, we want to learn about the fair work aspirations, priorities and concerns of individuals and organisations. The information, experience and perspectives they provide will help shape our recommendations so I would urge everyone to get involved”.

Evidence submissions are welcome until Monday 19th November 2019. 

The ‘Parenting. Give it time’ campaign promotes the benefits of positive parenting approaches to help parents manage challenging periods in a child’s development.

It provides a dedicated website, Facebook page and printed resources offering tips and information for parents. 

From birth, these include:

• take time to model the behaviour you want to see
• make time for praise
• take time for love and affection
• make time to listen, talk and play
• between the ages of 2 to 7, make time to set boundaries and routines to your day.

The campaign is part of the wider support for parents and is being launched ahead of the Welsh Government introducing legislation to ban the physical punishment of children in Wales.

Launching the campaign, Minister for Children, Huw Irranca-Davies said:

“As a father myself, I know parenting is not easy. You’re not handed an instruction manual when your child is born. That’s why our ‘Parenting. Give It Time’ campaign aims to help parents to do the best job they can. 

“It will help parents better understand the benefits of positive parenting techniques as a way to help their children develop and become confident and happy.  If a child understands that there are boundaries and if they are given time to settle into a routine it will improve their behaviour and help them feel safer and more confident. 

“Promoting positive techniques such as ‘taking a few moments to breathe before reacting to a tantrum’ and the ‘importance of routines and boundaries’ in place of shouting or losing your temper is the best way to help our children. This reinforces our long-standing commitment to children’s rights and ensuring every child in Wales grows up in an environment that allows them to have the very best start in life. 

“That’s why, next year, we will introduce legislation to remove the defence of reasonable punishment, which will prohibit the physical punishment of children by parents and those acting in loco parentis.”

Find out more by visiting gov.wales/giveittime

The funding comes from the £100m Transformation Fund to support key actions from the Welsh Government’s long term plan for health and social care, A Healthier Wales.

The Cwmtawe Cluster project, developed by the West Wales Regional Partnership Board, will receive £1.731m over two years to develop new ways of working, better integrating health and social care. The best ideas can then be scaled up and rolled-out across Wales.

The project has three overall aims: 

• Improve wellbeing across the age spectrum, with a particular focus on ensuring children have the best start in life to be the healthiest that they can be.
• Co-ordinate services to maximise wellbeing, independence and care closer to home. With a particular focus on older people to develop new models of care closer to home and reducing unscheduled admissions. 
• Test and evaluate the models of care that could be rolled out across Wales.

Some of the new ways of working, which have already started include:

• Clydach Community Hub, to enable people to access all Swansea Council services from October 2018 through a digital gateway. With access other partner organisations’ services too, either digitally, or via volunteers. 
• An integrated health and social care team serving the Cwmtawe cluster is based in Gorseinon Hospital and Clydach Primary Care Centre.
• New workers to link up health and social care.
• Same day GP appointments and a new IT system to allow access to patient records away from the GP practice. 

Mr Gething said: 

“Our long term plan for health and social care, sets out how we will transform the way we deliver care to ensure it is sustainable in the future. 

“This will require better integration of health and social services to reduce reliance on hospitals and deliver care closer to home. The Transformation Fund will be used to fund a small number of projects which have the most impact in developing and delivering new models of care, and which have potential to scale up so they can be used across Wales. 

“The Cwmtawe Cluster already has a strong background in collaborative working and innovative thinking. I look forward to seeing the results from these new ways of working.”

Dr Iestyn Davies, Cwmtawe Cluster lead said:

“We at Cwmtawe are thrilled with this very exciting announcement. The investment will really help us restructure and modernise the way we offer care to patients.  

“We are delighted that Welsh Government recognises our vision for patient-focused primary care, which has a strong emphasis on supporting our communities and working with them to help keep people well – not only treating them when they are sick. 

“This investment will allow us to expand our multi-disciplinary teams, giving patients better access to a wide range of healthcare professionals in their community, and bring some services traditionally accessed in hospitals closer to home.”