It sets out the Welsh Government’s vision for respiratory services in Wales and identifies the actions the NHS in Wales will take in response. The plan will focus on delivering care that best impacts on patient experience and outcome and tackling variation in the quality of care.

The plan outlines work to improve smoking cessation services, better diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and reduce variation in prescribing.Health boards have all committed to:

• appointing a flu jab champion
• ensuring carbon monoxide monitoring and referral is routine smokers attending a respiratory outpatient appointment
• offering patients and parents asthma action plans for better self care
• improve access to exercise-based programmes for people with chronic respiratory conditions.

In 2015, around 15% of adults in Wales were being treated for a respiratory condition and respiratory diseases caused more than 16% of all deaths in Wales. Asthma UK estimates there are around 59,000 children with asthma in Wales, 9.5% of the total. 

The Health Secretary has published the plan following a visit to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil to meet the winner of the prestigious Royal College of Nursing Nurse of the Year award 2017, Louise Walby.

Louise has worked as a Respiratory Nurse Facilitator in a part of the Welsh valleys with one of the worst mortality figures in Britain for chronic lung disease. She was recognised for her work in improving the patient experience and management of COPD, and her work is now being used as an example of best practice across Wales.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said;

“I was delighted to speak to Louise again, following her great achievement at the RCN Awards last year. I am in no doubt that the people of Merthyr Tydfil will benefit from such a dedicated health professional for years to come. 

“Improving the respiratory health of the people of Wales is a major challenge for healthcare services. With this plan, we hope to improve the quality of life for many patients with acute or chronic respiratory diseases.

“This plan will support health boards to provide more consistent services across Wales and to deliver services reaching national standards of care for respiratory disease.”

Head of Wales, British Lung Foundation Joseph Carter said; 

“We now need health boards to respond positively and deliver the plan locally to improve the lives of their citizens. 

“We are delighted that the Welsh Government is continuing to provide leadership with a new extended Respiratory Health Delivery Plan. 

“The plan recognises the need to invest in pulmonary rehabilitation, NERS and self-management in order to keep people with lung conditions active, informed and out of hospital.

“Our ambition is for our nation to be a world leader in pioneering low carbon energy. This is a cutting-edge model of generating a clean source of renewable energy, drawing on the legacy of our coal mining heritage. It will not only attract further investment to the area, but also addresse fuel poverty by cutting energy bills and has the potential to be rolled out to Wales and beyond. 

“This EU-funded scheme will also create jobs both within the initial construction period and the ongoing supply chain, as well as offering training and educational opportunities in a very innovative area.”

“The volume of water and its temperature makes the scheme possible and now we have been awarded £6.5m of EU funds from the Welsh Government, the next phase is to work through the full scope of the scheme and put everything in place to deliver a trailblazing project for the Llynfi Valley. It will also act as a catalyst for other energy project investments, possibly through the City Deal and other investment.”

A new campaign encouraging parents, carers and guardians to take time to talk, listen and play to help their child’s language development and communication skills has been launched by the Welsh Government today (18th January).

The  ’Take time’ campaign is part of a wider Welsh Government approach to oracy which includes £700,000 of extra funding and support to schools in 2018-19 through regional consortia to help improve the language skills of learners. Funding of £700,000 is already in place for 2017-18.

The campaign will provide practical tips to parents/carers  to help children aged 3 to 7 improve their language skills and prepare for school.

Research shows that children who receive this attention have a greater capacity for language, and later literacy, boosting their communication skills and chances of success in later life.

Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams, launched the ‘Take time’  campaign at Llangattock Church in Wales School, Crickhowell, earlier today where the reception class took part in an workshop to mark National Storytelling Week.

Kirsty Williams said: 

“We are prioritising children’s speech, language and communication skills because they are the building blocks for success, not only in school but later on in life as well.

“Oracy is essential for developing life skills and we are keen to support parents, carers and guardians as they pass these valuable skills on to their children.

“We know there are many different pressures when you’re raising children, sometimes just finding the time can be a challenge, but the message of this campaign is that every effort you make at this early stage will help and the benefits will last a lifetime. 

“It’s important that we make this as fun and as rewarding a process as possible so the new campaign provides some helpful hints, tips and practical advice for parents, carers and guardians to support the development of their child’s bilingual speaking, listening and discussion skills.”

Alison Stroud, Head of Wales Office for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists said:

“The ability to communicate effectively is an essential life skill for all children because it underpins a child’s social and emotional development. In particular, the first three years of a child’s life are crucial in developing all of a young child’s growing need to communicate. Poor speech, language and communication skills can impact their behaviour, mental health, ‘school readiness’ and even their employability as adults.

“Children should be exposed to as many words as possible in everyday experiences to help them develop their language and promote their communication.  There are lots of different ways that parents, carers or guardians can support them, but the simplest way is to keep creating opportunities to listen and talk together with the telly, smart phones and other mobile devices turned off.”

From today, advertisements featuring writer and presenter Anni Llyn will run for two weeks on television, local radio stations and online, encouraging parents, carers and guardians of 3 to 7 year olds to take time to talk, listen and play.

The short animations will include top tips for them to help develop their child’s language and communication skills.

Booktrust Cymru’s Pori Drwy Stori programme supports key Foundation Phase areas of learning, including literacy and numeracy, as children start the reception class at school.

The Welsh Government funded programme provides bilingual learning materials for use in the classroom, and at home, which will be an important resource for the oracy campaign.

Booktrust Cymru’s Pori Drwy Stori programme materials are given to every child in the reception year of school. The termly resources supports parents and carers to engage in their child’s learning when they start school and focus on the key Foundation Phase areas of learning, including literacy and numeracy.

Helen Wales from Booktrust Cymru added,

“Pori Drwy Stori allows your child to gain confidence with words in a fun way. Our challenges help children learn and recite rhymes or poetry in a fun way, whilst the magazine we produce encourages children to speak, listen and make decisions. We will be launching new materials and a pilot scheme for schools in Wales to help youngsters improve their oracy skills, and hope that parents and teachers will find these tools useful for promoting language development.”

“Pori Drwy Stori aims to make learning fun and to give parents and carers ideas about ways they can support their children to talk and learn. The resources help children and families to have fun learning rhymes, to enjoy sharing books and stories and to play number games. The resources encourage children to speak, listen and make decisions building on our long-established Bookstart programme which encourages families to start talking and sharing books, stories and rhymes from a very young age.”

Now in its fourth year, ‘Education Begins at Home’ aims to encourage parents, carers and guardians to do more of the little things at home that will make a big difference to their child’s development and education.

For further information about the ‘Education Begins at Home’ campaign and the online resources available for parents, please visit www.facebook.com/beginsathome (facebook.com/dechraucartref) and folllow us on Twitter @edubeginsathome (@dechraucartref)

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething, said: 

“Despite the busiest December on record for our A&E Departments and the busiest ever month for the Welsh Ambulance Service, our NHS has continued to perform under exceptional pressure in delivering emergency and scheduled care. The ambulance target was comfortably achieved in December. Although there was a slight drop in the proportion of patients admitted or discharged within four hours of arrival at A&E, A&E performance for the whole year has improved with 82.5% of patients seen in under four hours up from 81.2% last year. 

I want to once again thank our NHS and social care staff for their commitment and hard work in delivering care during this extremely busy period.

“We have worked closely with health boards and partners since last winter to plan for this winter period and invested an additional £60m to help them deliver urgent and emergency care, and ensure planned care activity can continue during this time. During November, the number of patients waiting over 36 weeks stabilised, and while sadly some activity has to be postponed our investment has ensured operations and other procedures have continued through winter.  We expect to see reductions in waiting times up to the end of March 2018.  

Delayed transfers of care in December were lower than they were the same time last year and for the whole of 2017 the lowest they’ve been since records began. Therapy waiting times have again improved over the month and more people were treated within target times for cancer than in any previous November. Over 90% of urgent cancer patients were seen within the target times, the best performance since February 2014 and the target for non-urgent cancer patients was met.

“We still need to drive up performance in a number of areas but under severe pressure and record levels of demand our NHS has held up and continues to deliver high quality healthcare to patients.”