AM welcomes consultation launch on ending physical punishment of children

AM welcomes consultation launch on ending physical punishment of children

Mike Hedges, the AM for Swansea East, has welcomed the launching of a Welsh Labour Government consultation on proposals to remove the defence of reasonable punishment in Wales.

The 12 week consultation was launched today - part of a much wider package of measures the Welsh Government is taking to support children to have the best start in life, and to support their parents to do the best job they can. 

The proposed legislation would not involve the creation of a new offence. It would instead remove a defence to the existing offences of assault and battery. It would mean any adult looking after a child would no longer be able to use physical or corporal punishment against them. 

Mike Hedges AM said

“These proposals are about giving parents the support to help them raise healthy and happy children.”

“Times have changed. Many fewer parents now use physical punishment and there is growing recognition that there are much more effective alternatives.”

“I am proud of the Welsh Labour Government’s record of working to ensure children have the best start in life and of promoting children’s rights.”

“There will be different views on this legislation but this is a great chance to take part in the consultation and for residents in Swansea East to have their say to help try to address concerns as the legislation develops.”

You can take part in the consultation here

The Welsh Government, have recently  invested significantly in parenting programmes across Wales and in information campaigns such as ‘Parenting: Give it Time’ to support parents to be the best they can be.

Mike Hedges AM welcomes Additional £10 million to help relieve winter pressures in the NHS announced

Mike Hedges AM welcomes Additional £10 million to help relieve winter pressures in the NHS announced

An additional £10 million to help relieve pressures on health and social care services in Wales during the busy winter period, has been announced today by Health Secretary Vaughan Gething.

Mike Hedges said…. I greatly welcome this news; we are all aware of the tremendous pressure on the NHS at the moment and this funding will be a welcome additional resource for the treatment of people at this difficult time. Can I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the tremendous work undertaken by Health Service and Ambulance Service staff at this difficult time? The work they do really does epitomise all that is good in our public services, dependent as they are on the dedication of members of staff.

The funding will be used to support health boards, the ambulance service and social care services across Wales treat and care for the increase in people using services at this time of year.

It will help relieve pressure across the whole system from primary care through to hospital care and social services in Wales, for example enabling older people to leave hospital more quickly through the use of support packages where appropriate

Mike Hedges AM welcomes the news that Cancer services in Wales continue to improve

Mike Hedges AM welcomes the news that Cancer services in Wales continue to improve

Welsh Labour’s Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has today welcomed the Welsh Government’s
Cancer Annual Statement which shows continuing improvements in cancer services in Wales.

Mike said… ‘this is very good news for cancer patients in Wales. This is a dreadful disease and this news of more people being treated with the target time is to be greatly welcomed, as is the news that 72% of people diagnosed between 2010 and 2014 survived for at least one year. The Welsh Government is committed to improving cancer services for people affected by the disease and I look forward to continued improvements in the years ahead.’

The NHS in Wales is diagnosing and treating more patients for cancer within target time than ever before. An additional 1,800 people were treated within target time compared to five years ago.
Despite demand for cancer services rising at around 1.5% a year, the Annual Statement shows performance has remained stable over the past few years and there have been improvements in some areas.

The statement shows in 2016/17:

• Of these, 15,912 (93%) were treated within target. This is 1,705 (12%) more than five years ago (2011-12)
• For the first time more than 72% of people diagnosed with cancer between 2010 and 2014 survived at least one year
• The Wales cancer patient experience survey showed 93% of respondents rated their care positively

Key workers were allocated in 86% of cases compared to 66% in 2013

Mike Hedges AM welcomes “great news” on GP training

Mike Hedges AM welcomes “great news” on GP training

Local Assembly Member Mike Hedges has welcomed news that all GP training places in Wales have been filled.

The Wales Deanery has confirmed the appointment of 144 GP training places, surpassing the 136 places available. This compares to 121 places that were filled in 2016 – an increase of 19%.

The excellent news follows the launch of an international and UK-wide Welsh Labour Government campaign to promote Wales as an excellent place for doctors - including GPs - to train, work and live.

The campaign includes two financial incentives schemes: a targeted scheme offering a £20,000 incentive to GP trainees taking up posts in specified areas with a trend of low fill rates, and a universal scheme offering a one off payment for all GP trainees to cover the cost of one sitting of their final examinations

The campaign was recently extended to encourage other healthcare professionals to come and train in Wales.

Mike Hedges AM said: “This is great news for Wales and the Welsh NHS.  It shows that the Train Work Live campaign has been a huge success.”

“Trainee doctors are seeing the benefits of training in Wales and voting with their feet.”

“The decision to extend the campaign is clearly the right one and I look forward to more positive results in the future.”

Mike Hedges AM welcomes new powers for dealing with fly tipping offenders

Councils in Wales are now able to issue fines for fly-tipping incidents.

Mike Hedges AM said… I greatly welcome these new powers for local authorities – people with waste to dispose of will now be under much greater pressure to comply with the law and dispose of their waste appropriately. I hope that Local authorities use these powers to make examples of people to show others that they face fines etc. if they do not dispose of their waste appropriately. If people have knowledge of people fly tipping I would urge them to report matters to the authorities so that action can be taken and fines imposed.

Last week, the National Assembly for Wales approved the Unauthorised Deposit of Waste (Fixed Penalties) (Wales) Regulations 2017 (external link). It followed a public consultation, earlier this year, which revealed overwhelming support in favour of the new powers.

Local Authorities are now able to set a fixed penalty amount between £150 and £400, with a default of £200 where no amount is specified. A reduction for early payment can be made available and Local Authorities can retain the receipts to help contribute to the costs of dealing with fly-tipping. The Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) can be applied on both publicly and privately owned land.

The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said:

“Fly-tipping blights our communities and it damages our environment.  

“These powers will provide Local Authorities with an additional enforcement tool for small-scale fly-tipping offences where a prosecution is considered disproportionate. 

“I am sure Local Authorities and communities will welcome these new powers.  However, I feel it is important Local Authorities accompany these new powers with the  appropriate level of public engagement, awareness raising and wider education programmes. I believe this is essential to ensure a positive response from the public and a sustainable reduction in offending behaviour”.

Mike Hedges AM welcomes New organ donation campaign which highlights a family’s role in the process

The Welsh Labour Government has launched a major new campaign focusing on the role of families in the organ donation process.

Mike Hedges AM said… I welcome this campaign which builds on the success of the policy of having to presumed not to have any objection to being involved in transplants. I have met many people who have benefited from this policy and it really is a life changing policy which has benefited so many people. I would urge families to discuss this issue so that loved ones are aware of people’s wishes in the event of their death. Hard though these conversations may be, they would have real life changing consequences for people on the transplant list.

The hard-hitting advertisement shows an individual’s choice to donate his organs being over-ridden by family members, because he didn’t talk to them about his decision or his registration on the organ donor register to become a donor.

In 2016-17 data published by NHS Blood and Transplant showed there were 21 cases in Wales where families either overrode their relatives’ decisions to donate organs, or didn’t support the deemed consent.

With an average of 3.1 organs retrieved per donor in Wales in 2016-17, this could have resulted in as many as 65 additional transplants.

On 1 December 2015, Wales was the first country in the UK to move to a soft opt-out system of consent to organ donation. This means that if a person has not registered a decision to become an organ donor (opted in) or a decision not to become an organ donor (opted out), they will be considered as having no objection to being an organ donor – this is known as deemed consent. However, if individuals don’t tell their family of their decision to donate, the family may not honour that decision and over-ride the organ donor registration or not support deemed consent.

You can see the campaign here

Press release on new powers for dealing with Fly tippers

Mike Hedges AM welcomes new powers for dealing with  fly tipping offenders

Councils in Wales are now able to issue fines for fly-tipping incidents.

Mike Hedges AM said… I greatly welcome these new powers for local authorities – people with waste to dispose of will now be under much greater pressure to comply with the law and dispose of their waste appropriately. I hope that Local authorities use these powers to make examples of people to show others that they face fines etc. if they do not dispose of their waste appropriately. If people have knowledge of people fly tipping I would urge them to report matters to the authorities so that action can be taken and fines imposed.

Last week, the National Assembly for Wales approved the Unauthorised Deposit of Waste (Fixed Penalties) (Wales) Regulations 2017 (external link). It followed a public consultation, earlier this year, which revealed overwhelming support in favour of the new powers.

Local Authorities are now able to set a fixed penalty amount between £150 and £400, with a default of £200 where no amount is specified. A reduction for early payment can be made available and Local Authorities can retain the receipts to help contribute to the costs of dealing with fly-tipping. The Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) can be applied on both publicly and privately owned land.

The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said:

“Fly-tipping blights our communities and it damages our environment.  

“These powers will provide Local Authorities with an additional enforcement tool for small-scale fly-tipping offences where a prosecution is considered disproportionate. 

“I am sure Local Authorities and communities will welcome these new powers.  However, I feel it is important Local Authorities accompany these new powers with the  appropriate level of public engagement, awareness raising and wider education programmes. I believe this is essential to ensure a positive response from the public and a sustainable reduction in offending behaviour”.

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