Politics

It shouldn’t happen to a Health Minister

Published

8 years ago

January 30, 2018

Angela Burns: Slated 'supercilious' and 'arrogant' First Minister

IT’S NOT easy being a Welsh Government Minister.

There are so many new words to learn when you get into office and so many old ones to forget.

For example, take the word ‘cut’. It’s a very simple three letter word. But once you become a Welsh Government Minister, you are not allowed to use it.

Instead, at least as far as Welsh Government policies go, the word ‘cut’ has to be replaced with the far more unwieldy ‘transformation’ or the two-word mouthful ‘transformational change’.

ANGRY ANGELA ATTACKS

As you will see elsewhere in this newspaper, Hywel Dda UHB – to nobody’s surprise – has been caught on the hop by people discovering that when it talks about ‘transforming clinical services’ it means ‘cuts and closures’. You could argue that cuts are in themselves transformational, at least in the same way that being guillotined was transformational for the French aristocracy.

On Wednesday (Jan 24), Vaughan Gething was faced with a barrage of topical questions, which he confronted with the enthusiasm and delight of Louis XVI on his final journey to Place de la Révolution.

You wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Angela Burns, the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire AM who speaks for her party on Health in the Senedd.

Crikey Moses! After a brief initial question, she tore into the Health Board, the Welsh Government, the First Minister, Labour backbenchers, Mr Gething and almost managed to get to Uncle Tom Cobley and all in a positively breathless display of genuine outrage.

Picking up a copy of the Parliamentary Review of Welsh Health Services, unanimously backed by Senedd members the previous week, she handled it between two fingers as though it was a particularly badly soiled nappy.

It was quite bad enough, Mrs Burns said, for the First Minister and his backbenchers to behave in a supercilious and arrogant fashion towards members raising their constituents’ concerns, it was quite another to obtain cross party agreement on the strategic direction of Welsh health services and then ignore the very principles that underpin it.

Mr Gething got to his feet and momentarily looked shell-shocked. Unlike the First Minister, there were almost no Labour members present to prop him up, bray, and snipe at the opposition with sarcastic remarks. However, the Cabinet Secretary is nothing if not smooth and polished. More than capable of bandying around banal generalities, Mr Gething soon adjusted himself into his usual smooth delivery of assurances about ‘meaningful consultations’.

Demonstrating the same sort of faulty memory that could yet come to unglue his leader, Vaughan Gething continued by saying that his boss had not been in any way supercilious.

Mr Jones’ stock in trade is supercilious.

Perhaps Mr Gething had not been paying attention; because having watched the previous day’s First Minister’s Questions and the business statement which preceded Mrs Burns’ questions, you would have to say that Mrs Burns had it pretty much nailed on.

ASK ME NO QUESTIONS

It didn’t get much better for Mr Gething, despite his stream of soothing words and assurances of good intentions. There used to be a saying that you couldn’t knit fog. Well, you certainly couldn’t weave whole fabric out of Mr Gething’s non-answers.

Mr Gething was very clear that he couldn’t answer direct questions because of protocol and the risk that he might have to make final decisions on a consultation which had not yet started. Which was very odd, because the previous day Carwyn Jones had decided he wouldn’t comment because the consultation was ‘open’. Open or closed, Mr Gething was prepared to fall back on the ‘all changes are difficult’ line. As an alternative tack, he attempted a switch to ‘difficult choices have to be made’.

So often did he repeat these lines, or variations on them, that it appeared as though poor Mr Gething had got stuck in one of those time loops beloved of science fiction programmes that need to create a cheap episode to make up for blowing the make-up budget on Slurb the Invincible or some such in a preceding one.

WHERE’S HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT?

Paul Davies had a go after Mrs Burns. Mr Davies doesn’t really do splenetic outrage, but he was clearly peeved – testy even. In a calm and measured way, he berated the Health Board for even proposing, never mind contemplating the closure of Withybush Hospital.

In response, Mr Gething tried a different tactic. While he appreciated that local sentiment was strong, it would be the same across Wales as tough decisions – hard choices – had to be made everywhere across the nation. This was, Mr Gething suggested, a national issue.

Mr Gething’s words would have had more weight on that score had he been accompanied by members of the Welsh Assembly from his own party. Apart from Mark Drakeford seated to his right, Mr Gething appeared terribly alone. The rest of the chamber was devoid of a Labour presence, demonstrating just how seriously west Wales’ concerns were being taken by all those south Wales AMs upon which the party depends for its majority.

Simon Thomas, incongruously seated next to Neil Hamilton, was next to tackle Mr Gething’s dead bat defence.

Pointing out the way in which the First Minister had sought to use the Parliamentary Review in an effort to deflect either criticism or inquiry, Mr Thomas told the Cabinet Secretary that the review was published too late to influence any proposals advanced by Hywel Dda.

After ungallantly pointing out that Labour’s candidate in the 2015 General Election, Paul Miller, had stood on a platform of restoring the paediatric services to Withybush – which had been removed temporarily without consultation – and had still not returned, he suggested this was the opportunity to test the strength of the Parliamentary Review’s framework.

NO STOPPING A CONSULTATION

Mr Gething lost his way a little as he said it wouldn’t be right for him ‘to attempt to instruct’ the health board to stop its consultation now. That would be the consultation that has not started, as the Cabinet Secretary had previously made clear just minutes before.

Difficult conversations needed to be had, tough choices had to be made, and the public would be properly engaged in the process of helping to make those tough choices after taking part in those difficult conversations.

You could see the cogs clicking away as Mr Gething spun new golden platitudes out of old strawmen.

Joyce Watson, whose support for retaining services in the past was less than fulsome, said it was very important that the public was told Withybush was not closing immediately. As this had never been suggested anywhere, it was hard to see what point Joyce Watson was trying to make; but having been thrown a life preserver, Mr Gething clung to it. He agreed that there was no plan to close Withybush in the immediate future. A relief for those attending outpatients next week to have their bunions filed.

Mr Gething then proceeded to point out that other hospitals were also mentioned in the options that had been leaked and that there could be those hard conversations and tough choices to be made in respect of them. But never mind, there would be a genuine and meaningful consultation and, if not, there would be a meaningful and genuine one. That’s what he expected the Board to do. Although, of course, he couldn’t tell them that was what was needed, because he might end up having to make one of those difficult choices after hard and tough conversations.

HAMILTON’S FORK

Neil Hamilton was next. Reaching for his pantomime pitchfork, he rather nastily skewered the Cabinet Secretary on its tines.

Remarking on Mr Gething’s status as the government’s fire blanket for successive health board failings everywhere, he posed the rather more difficult question of whether the threat to Withybush could be boiled down to death by a thousand cuts?

Tellingly, he suggested: “It must be regarded as a ridiculous proposal to close Withybush—even in contemplation in the medium term, let alone the short term. The health board should, when it produces the list of options for people to discuss, avoid causing unnecessary alarm and consternation by producing extreme proposals that are not going to be followed through.”

He then rather neatly suggested the real problem was a complete lack of accountability in the health service. Community Health Councils, Health Boards, were not elected bodies and the truth was that everything ended up on the Health Secretary’s desk. ‘People on the ground feel they have no voice at all,” Mr Hamilton said.

Vaughan Gething could see the home stretch coming.

There would be a meaningful conversation about tough choices in a difficult consultation, in which the views of clinicians would be heard as well as those of the public. It would be rather mean to point out that there is a difference between hearing and listening.

Particularly as those conversations will be tough, difficult, hard, meaningful, and genuine.

Then Mr Gething concluded on a point that he must now be grateful he did not open with.

Concluding he volunteered, he didn’t want to be in the position in the future where the Government will be asked: ‘Why didn’t you do something about a part of the service that really has gone wrong?’

That remark rather fortunately leaves the question unasked as to what all the previous tough choices after hard conversations and meaningful consultations over the last twelve years were actually for.

That would be a difficult – if not unanswerable – question.

Business

Pembroke Dock restaurant to close on Christmas Day after £23,000 rates rise

Published

18 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A PEMBROKE DOCK restaurant owner has said she is “devastated” after being forced to close her business on Christmas Day following a projected business rates increase of more than £23,000.

Randalls Restaurant, which operates from The Dolphin Hotel in Pembroke Dock, has been run by Natalie Newton and her family since 1999. Ms Newton took over the business in 2018 after her parents retired, overseeing a major transformation from a traditional pub and bed and breakfast into a hotel and restaurant.

***Chef Ben Randal and fiancée, Natalie Newton who owns the hotel (Image: Dolphin Hotel)***

For the past seven years, she and her fiancée, chef Ben Randall, have worked to build the restaurant’s reputation, offering breakfasts, lunches and evening meals using locally sourced produce where possible, as well as hosting special events including Christmas parties, buffets, afternoon teas and themed dining nights.

However, Ms Newton said she was left with no option but to close the restaurant after discovering that its business rates are expected to rise from around £10,000 to £33,000 from next year.

She said: “It’s a great shame. My father is absolutely devastated – this was his legacy. I took it over and built a really successful restaurant, and now it feels like it’s been taken away.”

Ms Newton said she checked her projected rates bill using the Government’s online calculator and was shocked to see that it had more than trebled. With quieter trading months expected early in the year, she said the increase was simply not sustainable.

“January, February and March are quieter months,” she said. “From April I’d need to find an extra £2,750 every month. Even if I managed it, I’d be working for nothing, and I’m worried I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills and would end up in the red.”

She added: “I’ve made the decision to close straight after Christmas Day. It’s drastic, but I have to keep my head above water and protect everything my parents worked for.”

Ms Newton said the decision had not only affected her family but also the restaurant’s eleven members of staff.

“I’ve invested everything back into this business,” she said. “Every penny the restaurant has made has gone straight back into it. I’ve worked every day, nights and weekends, and I haven’t had Christmas at home for seven years.

“For the last six months I’d look around the restaurant when it was busy and think how lucky we were. People were happy, good food was going out. Now it feels like it’s all been snatched away.”

The Herald has reported extensively on growing concern among Pembrokeshire businesses over sharp increases in business rates following updated valuations, with several town centre traders warning that rising fixed costs are pushing otherwise viable businesses to the brink.

Ms Newton said she intends to focus on running the hotel after Christmas but will miss the restaurant and its customers.

“I’m going to miss everyone,” she said. “I’ve loved building relationships with customers over the years. I just want to thank everyone who believed in Ben and me and supported us.”

Business rates in Wales are due to be updated from April 1, 2026, to reflect current property values. The Welsh Government has said that while many businesses will see their bills fall, others will face increases.

It has announced that any business facing an increase of more than £300 will have the rise phased in over two years rather than being applied in full immediately.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language Mark Drakeford said previously: “We know businesses have faced significant economic challenges in recent years. This support package will help them manage the transition to updated rates bills while we deliver on our commitment to a fairer rates system.”

Community

Cilgerran school could be discontinued as consultation launched

Published

1 day ago

December 20, 2025

Bruce Sinclair - Local Democracy Reporter

A CONSULTATION on proposed changes for a north Pembrokeshire school, which attracted a near-400-strong petition in opposition to the council, has been launched.

At its May meeting, Pembrokeshire County Council considered a report of the School Modernisation Working Group which outlined the findings of a review of education provision in the Preseli area.

“In particular, the review considered the extent of surplus school places in the area, set against a significant decline in the pupil population,” the council in its consultation on proposals for discontinuation of Cilgerran Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School has said.

A later July meeting of the council, following May’s agreed consultation with St David’s Diocese, backed a general consultation to discontinue Cilgerran Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School, and to establish it as a 3-11 community school.

The consultation was launched on December 16 and runs to January 30.

Hundreds have opposed the proposed changes, with a petition, on the council’s own website opposing the changes recently closed after gaining 391 signatures.

Any petition of between 100 and 499 signatures triggers a debate at one of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and any over 500 a debate at full council, meaning this petition will be heard by committee members at a later date.

The proposals for Cilgerran are part of a wide range of potential education changes in the county.

Two petitions, opposing the potential closures of Manorbier and Ysgol Clydau schools, were recently heard at full council and a further petition opposing the potential closure of Stepaside School has recently been launched.

The Cilgerran e-petition, created by Louise Williams, raised concerns including the school could become part of a federation, a loss of permanent head teacher on site, a shared head teacher would have to oversee several schools, loss of funding control and the ability to maintain the school’s current healthy and stable funding, and a loss of commitment to the church, in turn could impact on the school’s and pupils values, beliefs and cultural beliefs.

It said: “Ysgol Cilgerran VC school has strong links with the Church community in Cilgerran and we believe this will have a negative impact on the children who attend the school, the community of Cilgerran and the links between the two.

“We are proud of our school ethos and values which are strengthened by our links with the church. The school has close and strong relationships with our Church in Wales federation governors one of which is also our safeguarding governor.

“Our Church Federation governors work closely with the school and are regular visitors to the school and the children. They provide vital support and guidance to the school and have a positive impact on the Children’s education. We believe these links will be weakened by this proposal to remove our VC status and we believe this is an un-necessary action.”

Community

‘Harrowing’ distress now the norm for unpaid carers in Wales

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

“HARROWING” levels of distress have become the norm for unpaid carers in Wales, a committee has heard, with charities warning of a support system “set up to fail”.

Kate Cubbage, director of Carers Trust Wales, told the Senedd’s health scrutiny committee: “There are too many carers who are reaching crisis point without any support.”

Ms Cubbage explained that most councils are supporting fewer than 500 carers, warning: “There are really, really high levels of unmet need within our communities.”

She told Senedd Members that staff are receiving trauma training to support their mental health due to the levels of distress they are seeing among carers.

Ms Cubbage pointed to a University of Birmingham study which found an increased suicide risk among unpaid carers akin to that of veterans who have seen active service.

“One in eight carers has made a plan to end their own life,” she said, calling for carers to be specifically considered in the Welsh Government’s suicide prevention strategy.

“One in ten has made an attempt… at a time when the average local authority has support plans for less than 0.5% of the caring population.”

Warning of deepening poverty in Wales, the witness expressed concerns about a 31% poverty rate among carers – “far higher” than the 22% in the wider population.

Ms Cubbage added that young carers miss more than six full school weeks each year, compared with pupils without caring responsibilities who miss nearer two weeks.

Kate Cubbage, director of Carers Trust Wales

She told the health committee: “It’s no wonder young carers are achieving less at school. They are less likely to go on into further and higher education.

“And if they do make it to university, they’re less likely than their peers to actually graduate.”

Reflecting on a personal note, Ms Cubbage, a parent carer, said her autistic son has accessed services from ophthalmology to audiology over the past 16 years.

“I have never once been signposted to anything that would suggest that I am an unpaid carer or that I can access support… That kind of lived experience is really important.”

Rob Simkins, head of policy at Carers Wales, added: “Things are getting worse: anecdotally, we see that through our services but also that’s what the research tells us.”

He pointed to a Carers Wales survey which has shown a “shocking” 53% increase in the number of carers cutting back on food and heating.

Giving evidence on Wednesday December 17, Mr Simkins warned of a 39% increase in the number of carers reporting “bad” or “very bad” mental health since 2023.

“All the evidence that we’re collecting shows that this is going in one direction,” he told the committee, adding: “And that’s the wrong direction. It’s a bleak context.”

Mr Simkins said census data shows about 310,000 unpaid carers in Wales but research indicates the number could be nearer 500,000 – roughly 15% of the population.

He cautioned that charities across the country, including Carers Wales, are seeing real-terms cuts in funding from the Welsh Government every single year.

Mr Simkins warned of a “shocking” lack of data and a system “set up to fail” more than a decade on from the then-Assembly passing the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act.

Warning some councils cannot quantify how many carers’ assessments they could carry out over 12 months, he asked: “How on earth are you meant to collect data from unpaid carers and plan services if you can’t even figure out how many you can assess?”

Asked about carers’ assessments, he highlighted a lack of capacity within councils as he warned a “pitifully low number of carers go on to get any support at all”.

Greg Thomas, chief executive of Neath Port Talbot Carers Centre, told Senedd Members the voluntary sector is being increasingly asked to plug gaps without necessary funding.

He warned the jam is having to be spread “ever-more thinly”, creating a tension between reaching as many people as possible and not wanting to compromise quality of support.

“We’re not quite saying ‘no’ to people,” he said. “But we’re having to say a qualified ‘yes’ about what we’re able to offer… We’re massively overstretched, massively oversubscribed.”

Mr Thomas told the committee the carers’ centre has the required reach and expertise, concluding: “It’s almost give us the tools and we can do the job.”

If you have been affected by anything in this story, the Samaritans can be contacted for free, 24/7, on 116 123, or by email at [email protected].