Welsh Government

The Welsh Community Care Information System (WCCIS) gives community nurses, mental health teams, social workers and therapists the digital tools they need to work better together, whilst providing the highest possible levels of care. It allows access to relevant information on the care provided to a range of health and social care professionals, to show where a patient is with their treatment.

When fully implemented across Wales, WCCIS will help break down barriers caused by different organisations using different IT systems, by securely storing important information covering a range of activities such as community nursing, health and social care visits, mental health, learning disabilities, substance misuse, complex care needs and social care therapy.

The Welsh Government provided £6.7m in capital funding for the initial set up costs for the WCCIS and has made a further £4m available to support its implementation via the Integrated Care Fund.  

The Minister saw the system in action during a visit to Llandrindod Wells.

Social Services Minister, Rebecca Evans said:

“I was really pleased to see the Welsh Community Care Information System in action here in Powys. By being the first area to “go live” with the new system in both the local authority and health board, Powys is truly pioneering this exciting new system. 

“The system represents genuine integration between our health and social care services. It is very important that we realise the potential benefits offered by this new system.  For front-line practitioners, it allows them to provide more consistent, co-ordinated care and support for individuals in their own communities, while for people receiving that care, it ensures they receive high quality care in or as close to their home as possible.” 

Carol Shillabeer, Chief Executive of Powys Teaching Health Board and Interim Strategic Director of People at Powys County Council said:

“I am very proud of the success of the team in Powys in delivering the first integrated “go live” of the Welsh Community Care Information System in Wales.

“For the first time, members of the integrated teams in our first phase implementers can access client records shared across Health and Care.

“For staff, this will increasingly offer a single point of access to information to support them to deliver joined up health and care. It will reduce duplication and save time that can be invested into frontline care. 

“For service users and carers this will reduce frustration & duplication, and improve consistency and continuity of care.”

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This year’s A-level results show:

• 75.3% gained A* to C, the highest since 2009, with 25% achieving A*-A. 
• In maths, Wales again outperformed England at A* and A* to C, with 19.4% gaining A*, and 80.4% gaining A* to C.
• There have been increases at A* in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
• At A* to C the results have gone up in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography.
• For All Subjects the performance of both male and females learners has improved across all of the grades.

The Welsh Baccalaureate results show:

• 94.1% of candidates achieved the Skills Challenge Certificate.
• 77.5% of candidates passed the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate.

Over the last year the Welsh Government has taken action to improve A-level results. This includes working with regional consortia, reviewing performance measures and ensuring professional learning support programmes are available for staff.

On a visit to John Frost School in Newport, Kirsty Williams said:

“I want to congratulate everyone receiving their results and thank pupils, teachers and staff for all their hard work.

“These set of results show an encouraging increase in the number achieving the top grades, with improvement in results across maths, biology, chemistry and physics.

“We have also seen the results go up across a range of subjects and I want us to continue to build on this.

“I am committed to making sure our education system provides pupils with the skills and knowledge they need for the modern world.

“Our ongoing reform of A-levels is an important part in our national mission to raise standards and extend opportunities for all our young people.”

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Wales has made significant progress in recent years in reducing the amount of food we unnecessarily throw away.  Recent figures, published by WRAP, show a reduction of household food waste in Wales of 12% between 2009 and 2015. Wales’ household waste is now lower than the rest of the UK by around 9%. 

The Cabinet Secretary today confirmed in order to build on this progress, she intends to launch a consultation on a non-statutory target for Wales to halve food waste by 2025, against a 2006-07 baseline.

Lesley Griffiths made the announcement as she welcomed the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, to Wales. Scotland was the first country in the UK to set a food waste reduction target.

Both Cabinet Secretaries will share views and information around  waste and resource management. Lesley Griffiths is keen to hear the Scottish Government’s experience of setting a food waste target and will discuss with Roseanna Cunningham how Wales has achieved its success in municipal waste recycling. The visit comes a week before the release of provisional annual waste statistics for 2016/17, where Wales expects to improve on last year’s rate of 60% – the third highest in the world. 

The Cabinet Secretaries will also discuss their commitment to developing a more circular economy, an approach where high-quality materials derived from waste products can be supplied back to manufacturers and productively used again and again.

Lesley Griffiths and Roseanna Cunningham will visit Newport WasteSavers, a social enterprise that promotes the importance of reuse and recycling, and Public Health Wales’ new office in Cardiff, which has been refurbished with the use of repaired and recycling furniture and tiles, an excellent example of the circular economy in action. PHW’s refit recently won the organisation an international award for Environmental Best Practice.

Ahead of the visits, Lesley Griffiths said:

“I am very much looking forward to welcoming my counterpart in the Scottish Government, Roseanna Cunningham to Wales to compare our approaches to waste management.

“In Wales we are well on our way to achieving our ambitious target to become a zero waste nation by 2050. Recycling is at an all time record high and our 60% recycling rate is bettered by just two other countries in the world.  

“We are keen to build on this success and one area where we believe improvements can be made is food waste. If just half of all the food and dry recyclables found in Wales’ bins were recycled, Wales would reach its 2025 recycling target of 70 per cent nine years early. The consultation I intend to launch will examine the potential to halve food waste by 2025. It is an ambitious target but I know, from our recycling performance in recent years, when we work closely with local authorities and householders we can achieve results that make the world stand up and take notice.”

Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Roseanna Cunningham said: 

“We welcome the Welsh Government’s steps to tackle food waste which will help save households money, reduce emissions and contribute to the circular economy. 

“In Scotland  we are committed to reducing food waste by 33% by 2025 which could lead to significant savings for everyone – avoidable food waste costs Scotland £1 billion per year or £460 per household. 

“Through our Love Food Hate Waste campaign to encourage people to reduce waste in their homes, the roll out of a doggy bag scheme in restaurants and the introduction of legislation which requires local authorities to provide food waste recycling points, we are working with households, retailers and the industry to help reach our target.”

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The pilot aimed to establish new routes into backstage training in theatres across Wales by delivering practical, work based skills.

Eight women and men took part in the Technical Theatre Apprenticeship Programme, which helped them to develop their skill-set and gain qualifications across lighting, sound and stagecraft to support the effective delivery of theatre performances.

The pilot was run by Wales Millennium Centre, with sponsorship from Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) and financial support from the Welsh Government. It also involved a number of other theatres across Wales which provided placements for the apprentices during their training and development; with the apprentices returning to the Centre every few weeks for in depth knowledge and Essential Skills Wales (ESW) sessions.

Alex Davies, 19, from Milford Haven is one of the apprentices who took part in the pilot. During his apprenticeship he was based at The Torch Theatre, Pembrokeshire, and since completing the programme has secured employment with that theatre under a full-time contract. 

Commenting on his experience, Alex said: 

“I was brought into Technical Theatre by my Grandfather, who has now sadly passed away, he had started his own theatre company and trained me to be their tech, although all work was voluntary. As I progressed I started doing some work for Torch Theatre, under casual hours. When the apprenticeship was introduced I was asked by the Torch if I was interested in partaking. The apprenticeship really allowed me to further the skills I had been learning and work on much bigger projects with much bigger teams I was able to work doing what I really enjoyed and earned money at the same time.

“The apprenticeship was beneficial to me and I would highly recommend the scheme to other people interested in working in technical theatre. It gives you the chance to learn on the job and if you show a good attitude towards the work you’ll do well. The apprenticeship lead to a job at the Torch for me as I had proven myself to them that I was an asset to the tech team, now I will be given more responsibilities for oncoming shows and continue to learn more and better myself to move to bigger and better things in the future.”

Since commencing their apprenticeships in July last year all of those involved with the pilot have now achieved their Level 3 Technical Theatre qualification, gained the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) Bronze Award in Theatre Practice, Flying & Electrics and gone on to secure employment – seven within theatres across Wales and one has set up their own sound-engineering business.

Welcoming the success of the pilot, Skills and Science Minister, Julie James, said: 

“Apprenticeships are the start of an exciting and rewarding career and can benefit anyone of any age; giving them an opportunity to gain practical, on the job experience while gaining all the skills and qualifications they need.

“Wales’ creative industries have gone from strength-to-strength over recent years, gaining global recognition. There are now 50,000 people working across the sector and it is worth over £825 million to the Welsh economy. 

“Ensuring we continue to nurture and develop skills talent, especially in highly specialist areas such as technical theatre support which has seen a decline in take-over recent years, is vitally important if we are to continue to support the future of this sector.

“I am delighted this new, innovative apprenticeship pilot between the Welsh Government and its partners has proved so successful and I look forward to seeing how it develops. It is a great opportunity for anyone considering a career within in the creative industries, especially if the higher education route is not for them, and I would encourage everyone to apply.” 

Mathew Milsom, Managing Director of Wales Millennium Centre said: 

“As a landmark arts venue and leading producer, we are seeking to raise the aspiration of young people across Wales. We are committed to the nurturing of new talent – both on and off the stage – and I believe that this apprenticeship scheme, along with The Centre’s creative learning programme, will help develop self-belief and creative skills in young people. 

“Through the technical theatre apprenticeship scheme we are discovering and developing the ‘behind the scenes’ theatre stars of the future and I’m immensely proud of our first group of trainees who have worked extremely hard and have, as a result, secured work in the industry.”

Andrew Whitcombe, Cardiff and Vale College’s Dean of Work Based Learning said: 

“This has been a unique experience for CAVC and our work based learning Consortium the Quality Skills Alliance. This shared apprenticeship is a real partnership with industry experts (WMC) delivering actual production experience and skills supported by the colleges expertise in academic provision. For the college this has been a substantive collaborative effort giving young people a gateway to an exciting career in a dynamic industry, with transferable skills as well.” 

More information about the Technical Theatre apprenticeship programme, including how to apply for the 2017/18 Theatre Technician vacancies which start in October 2017, is available via the Careers Wales Matching Service website.

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The funding will help improve the services available for young people and their families when they transfer from the care of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Services for treating eating disorders.

Currently, CAMHS services deliver a family-based treatment approach up to age of 18, whereas adults’ services deliver an individualised model of treatment from the 18th birthday, which may or may not include the involvement of family members in the treatment.

Funding will enable the recruitment of new specialist staff and for existing specialist staff to increase the time available to support young people with eating disorders.  

The overall vision is to create a transitional service which is embedded into the adult eating disorders service and actively reaches into and co-works with colleagues from CAMHS services. 

Funding will facilitate the blending of some services such as home/community support and family-based treatments to ensure a seamlessly managed transition. It will also support enhanced training for existing staff and assist in setting up joint treatment interventions, including Multi-Family Group Therapy Programmes, Cognitive Remediation Therapy, and Family Support.

The additional funding announced today is in addition to £1.25m per annum the Welsh Government invests in wider eating disorder treatment services for children and adults across Wales.

Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething said:

“We’re absolutely committed to supporting young people and adults in Wales with mental health issues, including eating disorders. 

“Eating disorders comprise a range of highly complex mental illnesses, as well as being physically debilitating conditions in themselves, which is why early diagnosis and intervention is vital.

“The additional funding I’m announcing today will help ensure the services and treatment approach young people and their families’ receive will not change when they transition from CAMHS into adult services. 

“This will help ensure young people receive the care and support they need during what is an extremely difficult time for them and their family. I hope the improvements this funding will support will make a real and positive difference to them.”

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