​Written Assembly Questions tabled on 7 April 2017 for answer on 18 April 2017

R - Signifies the Member has declared an interest.
W - Signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

(Self-identifying question no. shown in brackets)

Written Questions must be tabled at least five working days before they are to be answered. In practice, Ministers aim to answer within seven/eight days but are not bound to do so. Answers are published in the language in which they are provided, with a translation into English of responses provided in Welsh.

To ask the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport

Dai Lloyd (South Wales West): How many babies have been treated at English hospitals due to a lack of Neonatal Intensive Care, High Dependency and Special Care cot capacity within Wales for each of the past 4 years? (WAQ73357)
 
Answer recieved on 18 April 2017

Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-Being and Sport (Vaughan Gething): The All Wales Neonatal Network collects data on the number of babies that receive care outside Wales. This includes activity commissioned from England for:

 
The table below provides the figures for babies that were delivered and received Neonatal Intensive Care, High Dependency and Special Care days outside Wales, for the last 4 years. 
 

 
2015 figures include babies transferred to outside Wales for care due to the temporary closure of the neonatal intensive care unit at University Hospital of Wales following an infection incident.

 
Dai Lloyd (South Wales West): Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership modelling and analysis regarding the pay gap affecting Welsh trainee doctors within the specialty of histopathology? (WAQ73358)

Answer received on 24 April 2017

Vaughan Gething: I will write to you and a copy of the letter will be placed on the internet.

Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Since 2013-14, what proportion of junior doctors who have completed training in Wales have gone on to work in Wales for the whole 3 year period? (WAQ73359)

Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): How many junior doctors who commenced working in Wales, post-training, in each of the following years - 2012, 2013, 2014 - remained working in their contracts for a) 1 year, b) 1-3 years, c) over 3 years? (WAQ73360)

Answer received on 24 April 2017

Vaughan Gething: The information you have requested relies on bringing together data from systems within a range of organisations and as a result is not routinely held centrally.
Work is underway within the Wales Deanery and other organisations to collect this information in the future. While this work has commenced, career destination data post Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) is not available for individuals who completed their training in Wales before 2015/16.
 
Mark Isherwood (North Wales): What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the required steps towards achieving the elimination of hepatitis C in Wales? (WAQ73361)
 
Answer recieved on 18 April 2017

Minister for Social Services and Public Health (Rebecca Evans): The Welsh Government is committed to the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat in Wales and to the wider World Health Organization (WHO) global strategy for viral hepatitis.  Building on the significant successes of previous plans, our Liver Disease Delivery Plan prioritises the diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis. The Viral Hepatitis Subgroup of the Liver Disease Implementation Group will be taking forward our commitment to deliver against the WHO agenda for viral hepatitis. 

The Hepatology Network in Wales has, over the last two years, significantly increased the number of patients treated and cured of hepatitis C. We have no waiting lists for hepatitis C treatment in clinical services in Wales. Our challenge is to diagnose patients with hepatitis C who remain undiagnosed and to ensure that they are able to access and complete treatment. Targeted strategies are in place to improve diagnosis in population groups where prevalence is known to be high such as intravenous drug users, prison population, asylum seekers and individuals from countries where prevalence of hepatitis C is high. In addition, we are developing capacity in our laboratory testing services to support a rapid scale up in the number of tests being carried out. 

Mark Isherwood (North Wales): What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the effectiveness of community-based treatment for hepatitis C? (WAQ73362)
 
Answer recieved on 18 April 2017

Rebecca Evans: The Liver Disease Implementation Group has prioritised equitable access to hepatitis treatments and, in collaboration with health boards, has developed and implemented a national access protocol. This ensures that all who require treatment receive it, irrespective of where they are in Wales.

The considerable improvement in the drugs available has meant that compliance with treatment for hepatitis C is now very good. However, we continue to develop services so that treatment opportunities in the community are maximised for all patients. For example, treatment for offenders diagnosed with hepatitis C is now delivered in the prison setting. The Viral Hepatitis Sub Group of the Liver Disease Implementation Group is currently exploring other community access points. There are a number of pilot projects in place and evaluation of the success of these will be available later this year. 
 
Mark Isherwood (North Wales): What testing and treatment for hepatitis C is available to inmates in HMP Berwyn? (WAQ73363)
 
Answer recieved on 18 April 2017

Rebecca Evans: All prisons in Wales introduced an opt-out system for the testing of blood borne viruses from 30 November 2016.This system has now been extended to include HMP Berwyn which opened in February. All inmates have dry blood spot tests on entry to the establishment unless they opt-out. All men who test positive for hepatitis C will be eligible for treatment via the specialist hepatology team within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board which will be providing clinics at the prison.  

 
Mark Isherwood (North Wales): What is the estimated prevalence of hepatitis C in the prison population? (WAQ73364)
 
Answer recieved on 18 April 2017

Rebecca Evans:  Prevalence of blood borne viruses is significantly higher in the prison population than the general population.  Public Health Wales is currently collecting data for the Welsh prison population which will be available shortly. However, according to the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer for England published in 2012, anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies were discovered in 14% of prisoners compared to 3% of the general population. We expect that the data for Wales will show a similar prevalence.

To ask the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children

Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): Following the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in June 2016, will the Cabinet Secretary set out the timetable for the full implementation of the UNCRC in Wales via the implementation of a programme for children and young people? (WAQ73365)
 
Answer to follow.
 
Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): Following the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, how will the Welsh Government ensure that the programme for children and young people meets the needs of children and young people belonging to the most vulnerable groups in Wales? (WAQ73366)
 
Answer to follow.
 
Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with the UK Government to ensure coordination with regards to recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child being implemented in non-devolved areas, such as welfare reform, asylum seeking children and administration of juvenile justice? (WAQ73367)
 
Answer to follow.
 
Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): Following the Cabinet Secretary's answers to WAQ72996 and WAQ72997, will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on when he expects the child and adult protection procedures to be published? (WAQ73369)

Answer to follow.
 
Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): Following the Cabinet Secretary's answers to WAQ72996 and WAQ72997 and his confirmation that child and adult protection procedures will be taken forward in one document, how will he ensure that the particular needs of children are fully taken account of and addressed in this document? (WAQ73370)
 
Answer to follow. 
 
Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what role the National Independent Safeguarding Board has in producing the All Wales Protection Procedures for adults and children in Wales?  (WAQ73371)
 
Answer to follow.
 
To ask the Cabinet Secretary for Education

Lynne Neagle (Torfaen): Following the Cabinet Secretary's recent written statement on changes to the Pupil Deprivation Grant, including the removal of the word deprivation from the title, how will she ensure that head teachers do not use the PDG as a general development fund rather than as a fund directly targeted at our most deprived pupils? (WAQ73368)
 
Answer recieved on 18 April 2017

Cabinet Secretary for Education (Kirsty Williams): The Pupil Development Grant (PDG) must continue to be used to provide additional support to specified learners eligible for free school meals and those in local authority care. As previously, the grant does not have to be tracked individually to those learners, but only specified learners are able to receive PDG-funded support from individualised programmes. The grant may continue to be used for whole-school strategies that disproportionately benefit learners who are looked after or who are eligible for free school meals.

In line with the previous arrangements for the Pupil Deprivation Grant, regional education consortia must still consider how they: 

• ensure that schools set challenging targets for learners eligible for free school meals
• support schools to plan effectively, making use of school development plans for the use of the PDG
• ensure schools monitor and evaluate the impact of their strategies
• utilise Challenge Advisers to provide appropriate challenge and support to schools to improve outcomes for disadvantaged learners, and
• ensure that all PDG statements are published on the website of the school or setting to ensure transparency on the purpose to which the additional grant funding is committed. 

Schools are also well aware that Estyn always evaluate the progress of pupils eligible for free school meals and the standards that they achieve in learning and aspects of their well-being.  Inspectors evaluate how well school leaders use the PDG to provide learning and other experiences to meet the needs of disadvantaged learners of all abilities. Where schools clearly do not comply with the terms and conditions of the grant, or where they do not use it well enough to improve outcomes for pupils, inspectors make suitable recommendations to ensure schools improve this aspect of their work. Estyn is currently working on new supplementary guidance for inspecting poverty and social disadvantage to support the new inspection arrangements from September 2017. Estyn is also working with the Welsh Government to ensure that this supplementary guidance delivers fair and consistent messages to schools.

To support practice we have also encouraged – and will continue to do so - schools to adopt the Sutton Trust – EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit as an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how their resources can be used to improve the attainment of disadvantaged learners.