Public Affairs Update - January/February 2024

News

A new mental health strategy for Wales

The Welsh government has launched a draft mental health strategy for Wales along with a draft Suicide and self-harm strategy.

The new mental health strategy has four overarching visions:

1. People have the knowledge, confidence and opportunities to protect and improve mental health and wellbeing
2. There is cross-Government action to protect good mental health and wellbeing
3. There is a connected system where all people will receive the appropriate level of support wherever they reach out for help
4. There are seamless mental health services – person-centred, needs-led, and guided to the right support first time, without delay.

In her speech in plenary on 20 February, the Deputy Minister for Mental Health said that the strategy focuses on mental Health inequalities by highlighting those at greatest risk.

The strategy focuses on non-medical ways to live with mental health conditions, although specialised secondary mental health services will be strengthened further. There is a greater emphasis on the language that we use around mental health.

Finally, she will be creating joint ministerial board to oversee the strategy and the Deputy Minister of Social Services will be vice chair.

For more information, go to Consultations below.

Investment in Education & Training of Healthcare Professionals 2024/25

The Health Minister announced a that they will maintain the same level of funding as 2023/24, with a £283.126 million investment in the training of healthcare professionals in Wales. She said that "this will result in an increase the number of places available for healthcare professional education and training compared to the number of places that were filled in 2023/24." 

HEIW has had to revise their Education and Training Plan for 2024-2025 to mitigate the impact of the level of investment. It's meant that commissioned numbers in the following areas have stayed the same: Dental, GP training, Pharmacy and GP nursing.

In terms of the annual workforce development budget, there is an increase of £0.5m enabling more people to be educated and trained in the following programmes: Healthcare Support Worker; Post Registration Health Professional Education; Prescribing and Independent Authorisation of Blood Transfusion (IABT); and Genomics.

The numbers for Doctorate in Clinical Psychology are 44 and CAAPs are 20.

Find out more about the Education and- Training Plan 2024-2025.

HEIW seeks an Associate Director, Workforce Transformation (Psychological Therapies) – Band 8c

HIEW has advertised for a new post to help provide strategic leadership, advice and guidance for the commissioning and transformation of education and training for the current and future psychological therapies workforce.

The main duties will be:

• providing strategic leadership
• advice and guidance on the Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care
• raising awareness of the specific workforce challenges within the psychological therapy workforce
• supporting workforce development and transformation through policy development
• engaging with key stakeholders and building relationships with professional bodies

Find out more about working for the HEIW.

The deadline for applications is 06 March.

Consultations

Welsh Parliament inquiry into children and young people on the margins

The Senedd's Children, Young People and Education Committee are holding an inquiry into children and young people on the margins who are likely to go missing or become victims of criminal exploitation.

The inquiry focuses on the nature and scale of the problem, specific concerns about at-risk groups, data collection and information sharing, the effectiveness of policy, and how well devolved and non-devolved services (such as criminal and youth justice) are working together.

Read the inquiry Terms of Reference.

Deadline: 13 March 2024

Welsh Parliament consultation on the Development of the Mental Health Standards of Care (Wales) Bill

The purpose of the Mental Health Standards of Care (Wales) Bill is to:

• replace outdated mental health legislation
• improve the delivery of mental health plans for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and adult services in Wales
• improve the accountability of Welsh public sector organisations
• help establish parity between the treatment of physical and mental health
• help reduce mental health stigma in Wales

Find out more about this consultation.

Deadline: 22 March 2024

Welsh Government: children missing education database

The Welsh government are consulting on draft regulations that will place a requirement on local authorities to develop a database of children in their areas who are potentially missing education (CME) and place a requirement on local health boards to share basic information about children with the relevant local authority, so that they can establish the database.

Find out more about this consultation.

Deadline: 10 April 2024

Welsh Government Draft mental health and wellbeing strategy and suicide strategy

The Welsh government is seeking views on a new mental health strategy for Wales and a revised draft Suicide and self-harm strategy.

The mental health strategy has four overarching visions:

• People have the knowledge, confidence and opportunities to protect and improve mental health and wellbeing
• There is cross-Government action to protect good mental health and wellbeing
• There is a connected system where all people will receive the appropriate level of support wherever they reach out for help
• There are seamless mental health services – person-centred, needs-led, and guided to the right support first time, without delay.

Read the draft strategies here.

Deadline 29 May

Please email [email protected] before the above deadlines.

Your feedback is important to us.