I questioned the Education Minister, Kirsty Williams AM, over post-16 placements at Specialist Colleges for additional learning needs students in Wales. A Flintshire constituent had learned that students with learning difficulties and disabilities who live in England are able to attend a Specialist Residential College for three years, whereas students who live in Wales can only attend for two years because these Colleges have been instructed by the Welsh Government to plan the programme of education for Welsh students for two years only. As she stated, ‘I can't help thinking this is very discriminatory’.
In her reply, the Minister said “We would expect the majority of placements to last for two years, however, all these placements come to me, as Minister, for sign-off”.
The number of people with sight loss in Wales is expected to double to 222,000 by 2050 and, speaking in the Welsh Conservative Debate on Sight Loss, I said that it is imperative that the Welsh Government and Local Health Boards are robustly held to account over failure to meet eyecare waiting time targets and implementation of eyecare measures. I added that there is currently no measuring or regulation of the ‘All Wales Standards for Accessible Communication and Information for People with Sensory Loss’ in the NHS, and that quality improvement should include patient experience.
I asked the First Minister to respond to the statement in the ‘Results from the Child and Family Survey 2018' that the Welsh Government should ‘Invest in local communities - engage with local people and work with bottom up approaches to regeneration programmes' to reduce child and family poverty. As I stated, even before the 2008 financial crash, Wales had the highest child poverty levels in the UK, and the End Child Poverty Network reported that Wales was the only UK nation to see child poverty rise last year.
I Chaired the First Oral Evidence Session for the Cross Party Group on Neurological Conditions ‘Inquiry into the delivery of the Welsh Government’s Neurological Conditions Delivery Plan’. Written evidence has identified both areas of progress and that progress has not made sufficient impact.
Other Assembly engagements included centenary of Save the Children, Cross Party Group on Muscular Dystrophy and Neuromuscular Conditions, launch of the Companion Animal Welfare Group Wales, Youth Voice exhibition and Cross-Party Group on STEMM.
North Wales meetings included the Plas Kynaston Canal Group, Wrexham Glyndŵr University’s Vice Chancellor, and the Chair of Flintshire County Council’s Civic Service.
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