Zoomchat with Eluned Morgan MS, First Minister of Wales - Wednesday 30th April, 2.30pm

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi all,

We’re pleased to announce a Mumsnet Asks Zoomchat with First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan MS on Wednesday 30th April at 2.30pm. Please post your questions below, and we’ll put a selection to the First Minister via Zoom.

You’ll be able to watch live by registering here but we’ll also be recording so you can catch up if you can’t make it. We won’t be able to take questions during the chat so please do make sure you post on the thread if there’s something you’d like to ask. We’ll be closing the thread to questions on Tuesday.

If you join the Zoomchat, your camera will be turned off by default. Your screen name might be visible, so consider whether you’re happy to use your real name or want to use your MN posting name - or something else entirely.

Please stick to the usual guidelines - one question per user, keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating, please don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point (we'll be deleting questions that are repeated multiple times). We'll be limited for time so do keep questions as short as possible so that we’re able to ask more of them - as always, we'll try to make sure we cover the topics that we know are important to Mumsnet users.

Thanks,
MNHQ

Hi Eluned, nursery costs for under 2s in Wales are the highest in Great Britain - in England for example you can get 15 hours free a week from nine months old, recognising the fact that most women’s maternity leave will end after nine months or so, and that if childcare isn’t affordable and available at that point then they can’t go back to work. Why doesn’t the welsh government invest more in childcare to ensure women aren’t forced out of work after having children?

The old age bus pass in Wales, are there any plans to expand this to other forms of public transport eg the metro around Cardiff?

Given that the Senedd has concluded that phones should not be banned in Welsh secondary schools, what restrictions do you think should be brought in to ensure they are not causing issues?

.

Hi Eluned. Thanks for the zoomchat. I'm curious to find out more about your relationship with the PM. It's always been important for first ministers to have a regular check in with the UK gov. So how often to you speak to Keir? Is there a regular call and what would you say the relationship is like? Generally are you confident that Welsh perspectives are heard at the highest level?

Maybe she should be asked how the Welsh government will be implementing the Supreme Court ruling on the Equality Act?

Similar to the last question, but we're still waiting to hear how Welsh Government are planning to implement findings from the Cass Review, as well as the recent Supreme Court ruling on the EA2010. Given how baked in gender ideology has been to the output from WG over recent years (RSE guidelines for example, building mixed sex toilets in schools as another), what are their plans? And are there regrets about relying so heavily on external lobby groups, who we now know misrepresented the law?

I'm a party member and I'm so pleased that we finally have a female Welsh Labour leader - but it's taken until 2024 and there has still never been a permanent female UK Labour Leader, which I think is frankly shocking. Why do you think this is the case? Is there a problem with misogyny in the Party? How can we change things?

This was literally what I was going to ask - particularly when the Senedd (then the NA) started out so well as the first legislature in the world to achieve a completely equal gender balance in 2003.

Even Reform had a female leader for a few months!

So instead I'll ask something a bit lighter
If you could immediately and absolutely (i.e. no debate or consensus needed) implement one law to improve Wales, what would it be?

(happy to have a vaguely plausible answer and a completely out-there 'if only' answer if easier!)

Hi Eluned
Grants and funding for youth charities and provisions seem to be harder to secure in the last two years. Does the Senedd have any plans for keeping these vital services running. They are so important to keep young people engaged.

Hi Eluned
I would also love to know what plans you have to solve the renters crisis currently happening across Wales. As a two income family we still cannot afford to purchase a property whilst renting. A simple property in the vale of Glamorgan is now quarter of a million and that would cost £1700 monthly!

Saving for a deposit is so far out of our reach yet we have spent £165,000 in rent over the last 22 years.

I do not know what the answer is, but rental properties are so hard to come by now that we are in constant fear that our home is not secure.

Hi, beyond the increase for the 2025/26 what is your party going to do to address the cut in real terms since 2010 of 40% to the budget for the Arts Council of Wales especially as the findings of a report in January 2025 found that spending on cultural services in Wales is the second lowest in Europe.

I’d like to ask why there is an apparently uncontested move towards phasing rugby out in Welsh schools in favour of the ubiquity that is football. It’s causing a knock on effect on the national side as there is a shortage of quality talent in the pipeline. Wales should be a rugby nation, not a sheep (ha) nation of football lovers like every other country on Earth!

Hi Eluned

Do you think the changes to benefits and winter fuel payments are the right decision?

Hello
I would like to ask what will be done to address the shocking lack of social care, both in care homes and in people's own homes in North Wales. I am aware of a hospital on the border with England has a whole ward dedicated to Welsh patients who could go home but there is no care, so basically they are bed blocking. (Bearing in mind that England and Wales are different countries when it comes to Health Care with the Welsh Assemby in Wales and the NHS in England.) Meanwhile while these poor people lie in hospital beds desperate to go home that same hospital is nursing patients on the corridors. North Wales opened a makeshift hospital during covid. Is it something that may be appropriate in this crisis. Wales is not meeting the wishes of a section of their patients and will not until further services are available.

Do you now accept that for single sex spaces, all women short lists, rape crisis centres that women means those recognised to be female at birth?

Hello,

I would also like to ask about the Welsh Government’s plans to implement the Supreme Court ruling - will they be instructing public services to follow the EHCR guidelines?

Thank you

What are the success stories of the devolved government in Wales?
Was it worth the money?

The changes to the constituencies and the increase in proportional representation - what’s the evidence based reasoning behind it?

Hi Eluned and thanks for the time.

Given that it now clearly legally incorrect to assert trans women are women for the purposes of the Equality Act, and the LGBtQ+ Action Plan relies on that statement - will you now withdraw the Plan, consult properly with groups in Wales and rethink your approach to equality on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment?

Breastfeeding has been described as ‘virtually extinct’ in Wales - this has a profound impact on our public health as a nation. Welsh Government has had an ‘Action Plan’ for 6 years but with no front line funding there has been no change in the support & services that mothers receive. What will the FM do to invest in breastfeeding as a national public health priority?

What are the plans for the future of the NHS in Wales. Standards are lower than those in England. I have seen some shocking footage of the state of UHW Cardiff, the roof is falling in and the building should have been demolished. The Grange hospital isn’t fit for purpose in Gwent. Midwifery is in crisis. It is impossible to get a GP appointment.How will
welsh govt overcome this ?

Hi Eluned. You've been clear about focusing on a smaller number of priorities. Do you think previous governments tried to take on too much at once, and that's part of why core services like the NHS are struggling now?

Thanks for doing this chat. The Ministerial Advisory report out today points to record waiting lists, poor cancer outcomes, pressure on emergency care, and confusion over who’s actually in charge. Labour’s been running the NHS in Wales for 25 years so how did things actually get to this point? I genuinely feel I can no longer rely on the health service.

Hi Eluned,
Thank you for joining the chat.

The Welsh Government promised in 2023 to issue guidance to schools on how to support children who identify as trans. Two years later schools are still left adrift, or worse misled about the law. eg in the Vale of Glamorgan the Council's 'trans inclusion toolkit' instructs schools that they should allow children access to opposite sex spaces on a case by case basis .

Will the Welsh Government issue clear guidance to schools that they need to follow the law and prioritise safeguarding? ie supporting gender-questioning children while respecting the boundaries of sex when it matters: single sex sports, toilets, changing rooms and sleeping accommodation on trips

Hi Eluned,

Due to the appalling state of mental health care in Wales, I recently went private to seek an ADHD assement for myself, in which I was diagnosed. In total, for the assessment, follow up appointments and then private prescriptions, I spent over £1000. Once ready to transfer to shared care, my GP surgery refused. Their reason is that I have to be diagnosed on the NHS to recieve NHS care. This means I am taking up space on a wait list which is already said to be up to seven years long, and my quality of life isn't as it should be as I cannot afford to keep up the private prescriptions. Do you have any comments on this, and are there any plans to improve the support for people with mental health conditions and neurodiversity?