THE SENEDD supported plans to introduce inspection ratings for care homes, with service providers set to be required to publish “scores on the doors”.

Care homes and domiciliary services, which support people in their homes, will receive one of four ratings: excellent; good; requires improvement; or requires significant improvement.

Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) has been laying the groundwork for the reforms since 2019, including a pilot of “silent” unpublished ratings over the past two years.

The regulations, which apply to adult and children’s services, come into force on March 31, mandating the publication of inspection ratings within premises and on a provider’s website.

Under the reforms, inspection ratings must be displayed conspicuously in a location accessible to service users and visitors  “without delay” following an inspection report.

The ratings will apply to about 690 care homes and 450 domiciliary support providers in Wales, with the sector facing total one-off costs of £700,000 plus an extra £60,000 a year.

Also according to an impact assessment, Care Inspectorate Wales, which has been given almost £3.4m to date, will face recurring costs of £615,000 a year for additional staff.

Care homes will be able to appeal against a rating in an inspection report and an offence of failure to display an inspection rating will be created, with a £2,500 fixed penalty.

A 12-week consultation on the proposals ended in October and Senedd Members unanimously backed the regulations on March 25.

Social care minister Dawn Bowden told the Senedd: “Inspection ratings matter because people matter and their care and support services matter.”

She added: “Ratings will encourage a culture of continuous improvement in which service providers are encouraged to look beyond compliance and ensure positive outcomes.”

Ms Bowden said ratings will showcase excellence as well as provide clarity for families seeking care and support, enabling them to compare quality and safety at a glance.

CANCER charities joined forces to call for a longer-term national strategy to improve services after 9,000 people waited too long for treatment last year.

Mark Isherwood raised an Audit Wales report which found cancer services have consistently failed to hit a 75% target for patients to start treatment within 62 days.

Mr Isherwood, who chairs the Senedd’s public accounts committee, asked witnesses for their reflections on the issues identified by the auditor general for Wales.

Lowri Griffiths, chair of the Wales Cancer Alliance, a coalition of charities established nearly 20 years ago, said she was saddened and disappointed by the findings.

The director of policy at Tenovus told the committee: “We’ve long held the view that some of the governance arrangements around cancer services, especially since the development of the quality statement, have not been fit for purpose.”

Hannah Buckingham, of Macmillan Cancer Support, a vice-chair of the alliance, said performance against the 62-day target shows the system cannot keep up with demand.

“It isn’t working for far too many people across Wales,” she told the committee, describing the impact of delays in diagnosis as devastating for cancer patients and their families. “Not just on their physical health but their mental and emotional health as well.”

Ms Buckingham said: “In 2024, we saw, for example, 9,000 people across Wales wait too long to start treatment on that 62-day pathway which is just not good enough quite frankly.”

She added that it is distressing for staff not being able to deliver timely care for patients, calling for a strategic approach to tackling workforce shortages.

Ms Buckingham warned of a lack of robust governance mechanisms to enforce, track and evaluate actions in the three-year NHS cancer improvement plan.

Simon Scheeres, a fellow vice-chair of the alliance representing Cancer Research UK, said the report underlined the need for a longer-term, more cohesive strategy, raising concerns about a confusing plethora of quality statements, improvement plans and other initiatives.

Mr Scheeres pointed to Denmark as an example of best practice, with evidence showing countries with long-term cancer plans have seen greater improvements in outcomes.

Warning deprivation has a profound impact in Wales, he told Senedd members that death rates are 50% higher in the most deprived groups compared with the least.

Mr Scheeres said lung cancer is by far the biggest cancer killer in Wales as he raised a life-saving pilot of targeted lung health checks in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.

Ms Griffiths voiced concerns about the Welsh Government’s response to the Audit Wales recommendation of a national lung screening programme which took “an age”.

She said: “It talks about a decision to deliver – so [the] Welsh Government is not committing to deliver, it’s committed to making a decision to whether or not to deliver.”

Lauren Marks, of Young Lives vs Cancer, described the cancer improvement plan as lacking detail on the specific needs of children and young people.

“Systematically, children and young people are being overlooked in the detail,” she said.

Ms Marks warned the 62-day target, which measures the time between first being suspected of having cancer and starting treatment, does not capture young people’s experiences.

She said the delay that young people experience is between thinking something is wrong and getting their diagnosis, with most attending their GP more times than adults do.

Ms Marks added that children and young people get different types of cancer to adults that are not routinely addressed by screening programmes.

She highlighted travelling to treatment as a big issue for children and young people in Wales who travel longer distances than anywhere else in the UK to access care and support.

Ms Marks put the average cost of travel at £280 a month, with one in ten reporting missing or delaying treatment due to unaffordable transport.

Mr Isherwood, the committee chair who has long campaigned on disability rights, put on record his thanks for the work the charities do during the meeting on March 26.

“Two of my children when they were younger received diagnoses,” he said. “The first one, there wasn’t a referral to yourselves, now you’re in most hospitals…. with the second, it was Young Lives vs Cancer or CLIC Sargent that got my other daughter through, so thank you.”

THE CONSERVATIVES quit a Senedd committee charged with addressing gaps in the UK Covid-19 inquiry after Labour blocked calls for witnesses to swear an oath.

Senedd Members voted 24-23 against a cross-party motion, which was tabled by the Tories with the backing of Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats.

The motion proposed amending rules to give the Senedd’s Covid committee a discretionary power to require witnesses to take an oath or make an affirmation

Set up by the Welsh Government, which rejected calls for a Wales-specific public inquiry, the committee published a report this week on gaps in the UK-wide inquiry for further scrutiny.

A Labour majority on the business committee, which organises proceedings in the Senedd, previously blocked calls for powers to require witnesses to tell the truth.

Tom Giffard, who was thought to be at loggerheads with Labour co-chair Joyce Watson on the issue, quit as co-chair immediately after the debate on March 26.

Mr Giffard said: “Without the safeguard of requiring witnesses to speak under oath, this committee has become a pointless talking shop. I refuse to be part of a process that fails to give the public the answers they deserve.”

He told the Senedd: “Covid bereaved families feared that this committee would become a whitewash of politicians marking their own homework.

“I initially resisted that suggestion, defending the committee as best I could. I’m afraid I can no longer do that. I do not have the confidence that this committee will be able to get the answers that the families who have lost loved ones deserve.”

He added: “I will not allow my name and reputation to be tarnished by the perception that this is a committee more interested in protecting the reputation of the government than getting to the bottom of the truth…. I’m unwilling to associate myself with a committee seemingly designed to protect those it is supposed to hold to account.”

Speaking following the debate, Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, lead for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru campaign group, said: “Wales has just hit its lowest point in democracy and governance.

“Our Labour Welsh Government isn’t even pretending to be transparent and accountable any more – they have just shouted it out in Cardiff Bay.  We’re not sure where this leaves us, devolution or Wales. A very sad day.”

Describing the outcome of the vote as a farce, she said: “This isn’t just another Senedd committee, it is one that has been set up because thousands of lives were lost due to Welsh Government decisions, established so that this never happens again.

“Yet today, Welsh Labour used their whip to block this basic requirement. The message is clear: they do not want their actions during the pandemic scrutinised at any level.”

The campaigner stressed: “We don’t want hollow condolences. The voices of our lost loved ones must be heard and their deaths must be properly examined. Enough is enough. Justice for Wales. Accountability for Wales. The fight is not over.”

Leading the debate, James Evans said the Conservatives entered the Covid committee process in good faith, committed to working constructively cross-party.

But he told the Senedd: “We believe it is only right that the Senedd’s standing orders be amended to provide the committee with the vital discretionary powers….

“This is not a dramatic proposal, nor is it without precedent, the Scottish statutory inquiry already has the power to compel evidence under oath.

“It is a basic mechanism that helps reinforce public trust in the process and it ensures the seriousness of the testimony, particularly when addressing issues of such weight.”

The Tory rejected concerns requiring evidence under oath could deter witnesses, saying the power was only intended to be used for public officials, ministers and ex-ministers.

“Without it, we risk undermining the credibility of the committee’s findings and confidence of those people seeking the truth,” he said.

Mr Evans accused Labour of political interference and failing to equip the committee with the necessary tools, asking: “Why deny the committee the tools? What is there to hide?”

He promised the Conservatives would establish a “truly independent” Wales-specific public inquiry if the party was to form the next Welsh Government following the May 2026 election.

Similarly, backing a Wales-specific inquiry, Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor said Senedd Members have a moral duty to learn the lessons from the pandemic to save lives in future.

Mr ap Gwynfor told the Senedd: “Without accurate, factual evidence –  it’s impossible to learn the right lessons and, more importantly, there is a risk of learning the wrong lessons.”

He insisted: “Witnesses must swear an oath … to ensure we stick to our moral agreement with the people of Wales: to find the truth … the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

He suggested the members of the Covid committee voted four-two in favour of requiring oaths before the request was blocked by the business committee.

Sam Rowlands, a former Tory member of the Covid committee, said: “It’s clear that Labour politicians … are stopping the proper work of scrutiny that the people of Wales expect.”

Mr Rowlands emphasised that Wales had the highest Covid-19 death rate in the UK, so families deserve a full and thorough investigation into decisions taken in Cardiff Bay.

Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan questioned why the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru campaign group has had to fight so hard for answers.

The Conservatives’ Altaf Hussain, a former surgeon, described the Covid committee, of which he was a former member, as akin to using a sticking plaster to treat a bullet wound.

Jane Hutt, who used her weighted majority to block the request in the business committee, claimed the Welsh Government remains committed to learning lessons from the pandemic.

She reiterated that the judge-led UK inquiry is the “only way” to answer questions about the interconnected nature of the complex response to the pandemic.

Ms Hutt argued requiring witnesses to give evidence under formal oath or affirmation was “clearly unacceptable and inappropriate”.

Senedd Members will debate a motion on the Covid committee’s report on gaps in the UK inquiry on April 2 before beginning to take evidence following the Easter recess.