[Will the First Minister make a statement on the future of Welsh residential care homes previously under the control of the company Four Seasons]

The First Minister: We understand that Terra Firma has made a substantial investment in Four Seasons. However, Four Seasons will continue to operate and run seven care homes in Wales. The continuity of care for the residents that are affected remains our overwhelming priority. The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales will monitor the operation of each home during the re-financing process.

Mark Drakeford: Here is how the takeover of Four Seasons by Terra Firma was reported in the national financial press:

‘Guy Hands, the tax exile and private-equity baron best known for his disastrous debt-fuelled takeover of EMI, is poised to snap up Britain’s largest care home chain’.

First Minister, would you be willing to consider the calls that have come from right across the political spectrum for the law to be changed so that, in future, when any individual or company seeks to take responsibility for the residential care of vulnerable older people, they should be made subject to a fit-and-proper-person test?

The First Minister: The wording from the article that you described will not fill Members with the greatest of confidence in the future of Four Seasons. Current legislation applies a robust set of pre-registration requirements that allow CSSIW to ensure that anyone seeking to operate a care home is fit to do so, and it extends to their financial position. We are looking to use the social services (Wales) Bill to strengthen the current regulatory system, which will include ensuring that our approach to the assessment of the financial viability of providers is as robust as possible. We will take effective enforcement action where necessary.

May 10th, 2012

Last week’s county council elections were outstandingly successful for Welsh Labour, meeting and beating the Party’s own expectations. Not only did the party resume its dominant position in its traditional heartlands, it also exceeded the substantial success it had obtained in 2011, in the urban concentrations of Newport, Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham, as well as making emphatic gains in the Vales of Clwyd and Glamorgan. Moreover, for the first time since 2001, Labour advanced rather than retreated west of the Loughor and the Clwyd. Looking ahead to the General Election intended for 2015, and the Assembly elections of 2016, Labour’s revival in Carmarthenshire and Conwy may be the most significant result of all.

The timing of Labour’s revival prevents the long-term hollowing-out of the party, in a way which has inflicted such deep and long-term damage on the Conservatives in Wales, from the 1980s onwards. Amongst the best news for Labour is the diversity of its new councillors. For example, in Cardiff every constituency now has Labour representatives from minority ethnic communities, people in their twenties to their sixties, as well as an unprecedented number of women.

Full article here

Experts believe that half of all sight loss in Wales is preventable and Mr Drakeford says that a public health campaign to educate people on the need for regular eye tests could save thousands of people the misery of sight loss if eye disease is detected at an early stage.

In a Plenary debate today Mr Drakeford said that sight loss is always viewed as a clinical disease but there are many ways in which a public health approach could cut the incidence of sight loss in Wales.

Mr Drakeford said: “Fear of sight loss is something people put at the top of their list of health anxieties.  ‘Going blind’ is something we all dread.  And yet around 50% of sight loss is preventable particularly among older people.  But the number of people living with sight loss is expected to rise significantly over the next 25 years due to the aging population.

“I am optimistic that the Minister will agree that tackling avoidable sight loss will now become a public health priority for Wales.”

Regular screening is essential to detect conditions such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration at an early enough stage for effective treatment.  Everyone should have their eyes tested every two years but a study conducted by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) in 2011 found that many people were failing to have regular eye checks.  People aged over 60 are entitled to free eye checks and yet take-up represents fewer than half of those eligible.  The RNIB study found that many people are put off regular sight tests because they are concerned about the cost of spectacles or being pressured into having spectacles they may not need.
 
But there is much more people could do for themselves to help prevent eye disease.

Stop Smoking – Smoking can double the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration which is the UK’s leading cause of sight loss.  Stopping smoking can cut the risk significantly.

Healthy Diet -Eating a diet low in saturated fat and rich in green leafy vegetables  may help prevent cataracts and age-related macular degeneration while obesity can increase the risk of diabetes which in turn can lead to sight loss.

Protect the eyes from the sun – It is also important to protect the eyes against harmful UVA and UVB rays from the sun by wearing sunglasses, glasses and contact lenses with a built-in UV filter.

Wear safety goggles – DIY causes hundreds of eye-related injuries each year so wearing safety goggles protects eyes from flying debris and fine particles.

Rest your eyes regularly – It is also important for people to take regular breaks from their computer screens to prevent eye fatigue and reduce the likelihood of developing certain eye conditions.

Check family history – Finally, it is important to check family history as certain eye conditions are hereditary.  In families who do have a history of conditions such as cataracts, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy there is a higher risk of developing these so early detection through regular check-ups is essential.

There was cross-party support for Mr Drakeford’s motion which is also supported by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB Cymru).

Sarah Rochire, Director of RNIB Cymru said : “We’re delighted that Mark has used this opportunity to raise such an important issue.  The high cost and impact of sight loss to both individuals and wider society, and the fact that the number of people with sight loss is expected to double by 2050, makes treating this as a public health priority both morally right and financially prudent.  We do not believe that allowing people to lose their sight unnecessarily is acceptable, but that is precisely what happens every day in Wales.  We urge the Welsh Government to use this opportunity to take action and put measures in place to start reducing avoidable sight loss.”

Questions to the Minister for Education and Skills

Mark Drakeford: A wnaiff y Gweinidog ddatganiad am waith Grŵp Gorchwyl a Gorffen y Gweinidog ar gyfer Diwygio Lles

[Will the Minister make a statement on the work of the Ministerial Task and Finish Group for Welfare Reform]

Leighton Andrews: The ministerial task and finish group on welfare reform has been set up in response to our concerns over the UK Government’s planned welfare reforms. It is responsible for analysing and monitoring the cumulative impact of welfare reform on Wales, to ensure a co-ordinated and robust Welsh Government response.

Mark Drakeford: During the Easter recess, Cuts Watch Cymru published its latest research report, dealing this time with the cuts already made to crisis loans from the social fund. Do you share my concerns at the information in that report: Welsh families with children are being denied the help of crisis loans, are being left without food and heating, and have no recourse to anywhere else in the social security system? Will you make sure that that report is drawn to the attention of the ministerial task and finish group? Will it form part of the evidence on which the Welsh Government will draw when making its plans for any devolution of the social fund to Wales?

Leighton Andrews: I am certainly happy to do that. I say to the Member for Cardiff West that the Minister for Local Government and Communities is considering that evidence at present in respect of the social fund. The First Minister and I had a very useful meeting with representatives of Cuts Watch Cymru last week, when we were able to discuss a number of issues of mutual concern. He will also be aware that the ministerial task and finish group held a stakeholder event with representatives of a wide variety of third sector organisations and others who have concerns about a number of these issues. We will return to those stakeholders with a future meeting during June.

Mark Drakeford: “Pa asesiad y mae’r Gweinidog wedi’i wneud o’r cysylltiad rhwng cymhlethdod tariffau cwmnïau ynni a thlodi tanwydd yng Nghymru

[What assessment has the Minister made of the relationship between energy company tariff complexity and fuel poverty in Wales.]

John Griffiths: Reducing the cost of energy bills is a key factor in reducing the number of people in Wales living in fuel poverty. The complexity of the current tariff system makes it more difficult for consumers to compare different tariffs and find the cheapest tariff to meet their needs.

Mark Drakeford: Have you had a chance to look at recent research by the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets that suggests that tariff complexity is particularly off-putting for the least well-off customers and for pensioner households in particular? Do you agree that the persistence of tariff complexity is not best explained by market failure but by the deliberate actions of energy companies seeking to attract the customers that they like and put off those that they would rather not have? Finally, do you welcome the commitment made by Ed Miliband to guarantee that pensioner households with someone over the age of 75 would be charged the lowest energy prices, thus saving such households £200 a year on the costs that they currently incur?

John Griffiths: I very much agree that more needs to be done to identify vulnerable customers and to ensure that the vulnerable and the elderly get the cheapest tariffs available. It is incumbent upon the suppliers to ensure that that is the case. The onus should not be on the customers, but on the suppliers, to ensure that, where households contain the elderly and the vulnerable, they are automatically on the cheapest tariff. I was pleased to put that position forward in the Welsh Government’s response to Ofgem’s recent consultation, ‘The Retail Market Review: Domestic Proposals’.

Welsh Lib Dem Debate

Structural Funds

Mark Drakeford: I want to concentrate on the third part of the Liberal Democrat motion in front of the Assembly this afternoon, which urges

‘the Welsh government to publish an economic development strategy…as a matter of urgency’.

I want to do that by providing Members with a brief account of the latest meeting of the European programmes partnership forum, which took place on 2 March. Membership of the forum includes senior representation from all relevant walks of Welsh life. The largest group of all comes from the private sector and includes representatives from the Federation of Small Businesses, the CBI and the Institute of Directors, and senior individual businessmen and businesswomen from major Welsh companies and from international companies doing business in Wales. As you might expect, given the calibre of that list, the quality of discussion at the forum was both lively and closely argued.

In formulating advice to the Welsh Government on the shape of any future European programme, a set of parameters was already becoming clear. In the view of the forum, a further round would need to be flexible enough to respond to the most volatile European economic outlook of any programme period, to be willing to manage a higher level of risk than in any previous programme, to be open to learning from experience elsewhere in Europe and to be willing to grasp some thorny issues that will need to be negotiated in advance of the post-2014 period, whether that means having a relatively robust discussion with the Commission about its emerging thinking in relation to the place of infrastructure in the next round or some straight talking among ourselves about the part that city-region-thinking needs to play in planning for the future.

The forum has three further future meetings planned during the rest of this calendar year, at which its members want to flesh out its advice further and, in particular, in relation to the complex range of different funding streams that the Commission makes clear, as Nick Ramsay did earlier, that it expects a future round to deliver in a more integrated fashion, delivering both thematic concentration and taking account of conditionality.

Deputy Minister, you have a choice. You could follow the advice provided in the motion; you could shut the forum down and advise its members that there simply is no time to listen to their advice or to draw on the experience that they and their members have in such abundance, because, ‘as a matter of urgency’, as the motion says, a plan must be plucked out of the ether in the here and now. You could, as amendment 1 prefers, carry on preparing with our partners so that we have a set of proposals that meet the real needs of the future rather than the rhetorical demands of a sloppily drafted motion.

I will be listening carefully to what you have to say, of course, but so will members of the forum. They are busy people with working lives of their own to organise, and they will want to know whether they have a contribution to make that the Welsh Government at least values and wants to continue.

“On 1 April any couple currently working 16 hours will have to find work for 24 hours or lose the whole of their Working Tax Credit. Figures today show that 8 out of 10 families in that position are not able to obtain that extra work. They will each lose £3,870 a year.

“A family where the adult [s] working are on the minimum wage will be better off on benefit – £14 each week better off – than staying in work. But if they do leave work, they will cost the state £2,675 more each year.

“Despite attempts by Labour in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, families with disabled children and full-time carers will not be exempt from these changes. Families who manage now on as little as £17,000 a year will now have to manage on £14,000. In Cardiff 3230 children, in 1,475 families will be affected – 220 families in Cardiff North, 295 in Cardiff Central, 435 in Cardiff West and 525 in Cardiff South and Penarth.

“And all this on a day when those earning over £150,000 have had their taxes cut!”

In a question to Business Enterprise and Technology Minister Edwina Hart he said a huge number of visitors to Cardiff gain their first impression of the City, and of Wales, by arriving either at the Central Railway station or the central bus station. He condemned Cardiff Council for allowing the dereliction and decline of the area to continue .

Mr Drakeford said: “This weekend’s Grand Slam victory shows that Wales is world class on the rugby pitch but fans visiting us for the RBS 6-Nations tournament must have had a sorry first impression if they arrived here by train or bus arriving in our scruffy, run-down rail or bus station.  It is very worrying that the Council’s  scheme for improving the area has stalled as one of the developers appears to have backed out.

“A world Capital needs to create a vibrant, attractive and welcoming first impression for visitors instead of the scruffy,  run-down and forbidding image this area presents.  I hope that the new Council elected in May will have the competence and creativity to make the most of the opportunity the Welsh Government is providing  for the creation of a Central Business District for this strategically vital part of the City Centre.”

ends

Questions to the Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science

Mark Drakeford:” “A wnaiff y Gweinidog ddatganiad am ddyfodol Ardal Fusnes Canol Caerdydd. [“Will the Minister make a statement on the future of the Cardiff Central Business District]

Edwina Hart: We are working closely with Cardiff City Council to help to deliver a new central business district, recognised as one of Europe’s leading locations for business. At the centre of this vision will be the establishment of an internationally competitive destination for the financial and professional services sector.

Mark Drakeford: A figure of 70% of all train journeys within and to Wales end at Cardiff Central railway station. When visitors arrive, they emerge to a scene of dereliction, which is the legacy of eight years of Liberal Democrat control of Cardiff City Council. [ASSEMBLY MEMBERS: 'Oh.’] Do you agree that any chance of making the most of the opportunities that the Welsh Labour Government is providing, through the creation of a central business district, relies upon a far better first impression of our city and country than has been possible under its control?

Edwina Hart: Good transport links and the appearance of an area are important in relation to the enterprise zones. My colleague the Minister with responsibility for transport and I are always discussing issues regarding transport and links to the enterprise zones. I am considering publicity for the enterprise zones to try to attract people to Wales. A beautiful location that looked lovely would certainly induce more businesses to come.

Mark Drakeford: In a short debate a few weeks ago, Mike said that a land-value tax met the key criteria he outlined for a sensible taxation system for Wales. Since then, the proposal for land-value tax has been endorsed by newspapers as wide ranging as the “Daily Mail” on the one hand and the “Morning Star” on the other, and by commentators ranging from Samuel Brittan on one side of the spectrum to Will Hutton on the other. As well as clearly being a tribute to the persuasive power of the short debate, it suggests that there is a movement towards what Will Hutton calls a reform of, ‘one of the most irrational and unfit-for-purpose tax systems in the world.’

That is how he describes the cumulative impact of successive post-war Chancellors of the Exchequer tinkering at the margins of the British tax system. In answer to your question about how Wales should be funded, the answer is not to argue for new taxes—that is not the sensible way to think about this—but to argue in favour of a sane, sensible, and progressive tax system. That is what greater chances for the Assembly to be in charge of these things would necessarily bring about.