The One Wales Government continued to follow its unusual course today with open dissatisfaction being voiced by a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member at the performance of her Labour opposite number.
Helen Mary Jones, who speaks for Plaid Cymru on health and social services felt it was necessary to go public on her concern that a key One Wales commitment could fall victim to spending cuts after virtually no progress being made in implementing it in the last two and a half years.
She pointed out that the pledge to provide at least one family nurse per secondary school has still not been put in place despite the money being available in the budget and hinted that unless the money is spent soon then it may be lost altogether:
Ms Jones said: “We’ve got the strategy. We’ve got the money in the budget – now is the time to start spending it.”
The idea is that teams of nurses will build relationships and work with pupils in both primary schools and the secondary schools which they will go on to attend.
She said: “Once we have got the nurses in place and the schools and communities are valuing them, they are a lot more difficult to get rid of. At a time when we are supposed to be valuing money, this type of proactive work is very important.”
She argues school nurses could help to identify problems before they develop into more serious issues.
Nursing teams, she said, could include members who specialise in subjects such as sexual health who could be called on when expert advice was needed. Nurses would also have an important role to play, she added, in fighting childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating.
Ms. Jones is to raise the issue with the Health Minster when the Assembly reconvenes, which is right and proper. However, when in government it is normal practice to bring up these matters behind the scenes.
The fact that Helen Mary Jones has decided to go public indicates that either she was making no progress by using the proper channels or she genuinely thinks that the commitment is going to be dropped and wants to try and force the Minister’s hand.
Is this another instance of a One Wales promise being abandoned?
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