Round in circles?

This Thursday morning in Committee Room 3 of the Senedd will mark the latest instalment in the long running story of wheelchair services in Wales. The Health and Social Care Committee are holding a one day inquiry on wheelchair services during which Assembly Members will be looking into progress made on the 23 recommendations of the previous Health committee back in May 2010. Amongst others Contact a Family Wales, the Wales Neurological Alliance and Scope Cymru will be giving evidence.

This issue has rightly gathered considerable media coverage over the past few years, reflecting the human interest angle of disabled children and adults waiting years for the appropriate wheelchair but also the political story behind plenary debates and committees as well as a two phase Ministerial review. The original committee’s report in May 2010 described a situation of unacceptable delays, under funding, poor communication and weak leadership. The story since then has been one of three steps forward two steps back, although it has often felt like the other way around.

It took a long time to get there but to a certain extent by this time last year the Welsh Government had got its house in order with a clear plan to improve wheelchair services from Phase Two of the Ministerial review, backed with an additional £2.2 million recurring funding to address staffing issues and waiting times. The big question on Thursday will be whether the Committee will be able to find evidence to show that things have eventually started to improve.

Feedback from families with disabled children across Wales paints a mixed picture over the past twelve months with some reporting positive progress on the key issues of waiting times for assessment and delivery, maintenance and review, choice and training, whilst others are still facing unacceptable delays. The two centres based in North and South Wales have obviously been working hard to try and address long standing systemic problems but at a strategic level there still appears to be a lack of transparency, ill defined leadership and poor communication.

The mantra for the current Welsh Government is “delivery” so this will be an important test of whether, given the way forward outlined by the previous Committee’s 23 recommendations, Phase Two of the wheelchair review and the £2.2 million of additional funding, there has been a focussed effort to make sure that Ministerial commitments have been translated into better services on the ground.

Keith Bowen is Manager at Contact a Family Wales

www.cafamily.org.uk/wales

[email protected]