Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) is officially launched today, and brings together the Wales Deanery, the Wales Centre for Pharmacy Professional Education and NHS Wales’ Workforce, Education and Development Services to provide a single approach to commissioning, planning and developing the education and training of the NHS workforce. 

HEIW will provide continual learning opportunities, which will be critical to responding to technological advances in the health sector. It will also be responsible for workforce planning and promoting NHS careers. 

Approximately £10million will be invested in the NHS Wales e-library over three years, which provides learning materials for all NHS Wales staff, including access to e-journals, research papers and other cutting edge information.

The Health Secretary said:

“We’ve set out our long-term plan to transform the health service, bringing services closer to home and moving from a reliance on hospitals. Having a strong and sustainable workforce is vital to driving this transformation, and is one of the key reasons we are launching HEIW today.

“HEIW will help nurture and grow the people and organisations that will deliver the next stage of development of our NHS and in turn will deliver better services for the people of Wales.”

The Health Secretary added:

“We are committed to attracting more GPs, nurses and other health professionals to work in Wales. The launch of HEIW shows the continued commitment in Wales to strengthening and supporting our workforce and sends a clear message that Wales is a great place for health professionals to train and work.”

The Chair of HEIW, Dr Chris Jones, said:

“Supporting NHS Wales, and working closely with Social Care Wales, HEIW will bring a focus and energy to developing the health care workforce of the future. It gives us an exciting opportunity to build our reputation in Wales for healthcare education, training, recruitment and retention. 

“As the 11th health body, we look forward to working with our NHS partners, the wider health organisations, and our education partners to improve care through service transformation; building a well trained workforce enabled to adapt to emerging technologies and excellence in care.”

At the end of July, Welsh Government published an interim supplemental plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations alongside the UK Government’s plan 2017 – Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations in Wales.

This supplemental plan contained potential measures to achieve compliance in the shortest possible time with limit values for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at five locations on the motorway and trunk road network in Wales.

Where sections of the motorway and trunk road network currently exceed Ambient Air Quality Directive and Welsh Regulation limit values for NO2 concentrations, we acted to safeguard public health by the immediate implementation of temporary 50mph speed limits. This speed limit was shown to improve the limit values based on the work that had taken place.

The consultation on the final package of measures for improvements to air quality at these five sites, known as WelTAG Stage Three, is further to the consultation exercise that took place back in April 2018 on the Stage One and Stage Two findings. It will also look for opinions on the 50mph speed limits.

Transport Secretary Ken Skates said:

“The contribution made by the environment to good health cannot be overstated. Tackling poor air quality is a priority for the Welsh Government, reflected in our national strategy ‘Prosperity for All’. We will reduce emissions and deliver vital improvements in air quality through planning, infrastructure and regulation measures.

Alongside the other devolved administrations, we’re working actively to meet our joint objective with the UK Government to transform the UK’s most polluted towns and cities into clean and healthy urban spaces, supporting those most directly affected.

We now need your views on the proposed final measures to achieve compliance within the shortest possible time with the limit values laid down by the Directive and Regulations at each of these five locations.”

Minister for Environment, Hannah Blythyn, said:

“I welcome people’s views on these proposed measures, which aim to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels to within legal limits in the shortest possible time. It’s important to remember the main reason for taking this action, which is to improve air quality and reduce the harmful effect vehicle emissions can have on people’s health and well-being.”

We would like to hear your views on how you think we could do this: https://beta.gov.wales/tackling-roadside-nitrogen-dioxide-concentrations-wales-weltag-stage-3.

Flying from Cardiff Airport with Qatar Airways, the trade mission will visit Kuala Lumpur before moving on to Singapore.

The trade mission includes sixteen companies from across Wales from the technology, oil and gas, construction, food and drink, creative and manufacturing sectors.

All are looking to strengthen existing ties and build new relationships in the South East Asian region in order to grow their businesses, with help and support from the Welsh Government’s export team.

Economy Secretary Ken Skates said:

“The Welsh Government is working proactively with companies across Wales to help them drive up the export arm of their business and I am delighted that we are supporting 16 companies.

This is a challenging and uncertain time for business as the UK prepares to leave the EU and it is more important than ever that Welsh companies work to build their trading relationships with businesses from across the world.

Of course this particular trade mission will also help our companies to capitalise on the global trade opportunities presented by the new daily flights between Cardiff and Doha.

Increased exports really can turn the fortunes of a business around I would urge any company looking to drive up this element of their business to contact the Welsh Government and find out more about the help on offer.”

The companies attending the trade mission to Malaysia and Singapore are:

• Al-Met
• AMPLYFI
• Atticus Digital
• BCB International
• Concrete Canvas
• CSCM Group
• Elmac Technologies
• Ecoprocess Engineering
• Flamgard Engineering
• Geo Smart Decisions
• Hijinx
• Manutech Europe
• Rachel’s Dairy
• Safehouse Technology
• Unimaq
• Vortex IoT

Economy Secretary, Ken Skates has pledged that the Welsh Government will invest £100m over ten years to make Blaenau Gwent and the wider South Wales Valleys a globally recognised centre for the development and delivery of emerging technologies.

It is anticipated that the programme known as Tech Valleys will create around 1500 sustainable jobs over the decade.

To progress this work, the Welsh Government has now established the Tech Valleys Strategic Advisory Group.

The Group will provide advice to the First Minister, the Economy Secretary and the Welsh Government on Tech Valleys’  strategic objectives and priorities to help ensure that the impact of the investment is maximised.

It is made up of partners from industry, public sector and academia and will advise on best practice and learning identified in other regions of the UK and internationally.

The Group replaces the Ebbw Vale Enterprise Zone that was wound up in July.

Economy Secretary, Ken Skates said:

“The £100m that we are investing in Tech Valleys will drive high value jobs predominantly within new technologies and advanced manufacturing sector and help to make Blaenau Gwent and the wider South Wales Valleys a globally recognised centre for the development and delivery of emerging technologies.

The investment will also be used to drive and support entrepreneurial activity and to provide high quality employment opportunities and skills development for people living locally.

Tech Valleys really does have the potential to transform lives.   It is a hugely important initiative and I am delighted  that the Tech Valleys Strategic Advisory Group, with its high calibre of membership  has now met and can begin its important role.

I look forward to working closely with the Group and partners from across public sector, industry and academia to ensure our investment in Tech Valleys works to leverage in significant private and public sector funding and delivers against our objectives of better jobs closer to home.”

The summit brought together leaders from government, business and civil society from around the World to “Take Ambition to the Next Level”. 

At the summit, Wales signed up to the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which grew to 74 members. The Alliance is made up of Governments, cities and organisations committed to moving from coal to cleaner power sources. 

The Cabinet Secretary met leaders from states and regions, including British Columbia, Baden-Württemberg, the Basque Country and Quebec, sharing ideas around improving energy efficiency, enabling renewable energy generation, further improving recycling levels, decarbonising transport and expanding our woodlands. 

Wales was again confirmed as a Steering Group Member of the Under2 Coalition for Europe, the coalition of sub-national governments which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The coalition has representation from 43 countries with a collective GDP of nearly $30 trillion. 

Following the Summit, Lesley Griffiths said: 

“Climate change is a global challenge which requires global solutions, so it’s vital we engage with our international partners. 

“We have legally binding targets to reduce emissions in Wales by at least 80% by 2050. The summit has been an excellent opportunity to share knowledge with other nations about moving to a low carbon economy.  

“We have a strong track record in Wales on developing progressive low carbon policies. We were the first Fair Trade nation in the world, the first nation in the UK to introduce a charge on carrier bags and have an enviable record on household recycling, where we are ranked third in the World. 

“However, we can’t work in isolation to achieve our climate change targets. The summit has been a great opportunity to build links with other Governments so we can work together towards our common goal of tackling climate change.” 

The Welsh Government’s consultation, ‘Achieving our low Carbon Pathway to 2030’, is open until 4th October.