What steps is the Minister taking to promote the prevention of frailty in the older population?
As our population ages the number of people living with frailty will undoubtedly increase. Preventing frailty, expanding the number of years people live in good health, and maximising opportunities for improving the health and well-being of people in their later years is a priority, and reflected in the strategic and policy direction set by Welsh Government.
Our Statement of Intent (SOI), Building Capacity through Community Care (gov.wales), acknowledged the growing ageing population and set out our vision for outstanding whole-system place-based care that enables older people and people living with frailty to live their best life in their community, and committed to develop a frailty policy.
On 4th January, I issued a written statement announcing the publication of this policy, Older People and People Living with frailty: An Integrated Quality Statement (IQS). With a strong focus on prevention, the IQS acknowledges that frailty is not an inevitable consequence of ageing, and whilst it may not be wholly preventable, its onset can be delayed, and progression slowed down through preventative proactive care. The quality-of-life outcomes and quality standards in the IQS set the direction to underpin the planning and delivery of health and care services.
The IQS complements our Strategy for an Ageing Society which aims to support people of all ages to live healthy and active lives for as long as possible and we have invested £1.1million to take forward the Age Friendly Programme through our local authorities. We also continue to support Age Cymru with £228k per annum to deliver a Healthy Ageing Programme where the overall aim is to increase activity in older people, reverse physical decline and frailty and help people to live independently.
One of the keys to unlocking the many challenges we must overcome to enable us to realise our strategic and policy goals, is building resilience and capacity in our communities. I have made strengthening the capacity of health and social care services in the community a priority, both for the NHS and local government, to enable older people and those living with frailty to be supported and to maximise recovery of their independence. In addition to the significant core funding, the draft budget provides specific central funding for community services and includes:
- £146.7m through the Regional Integration Fund.
- £5m recurrently in to build the capacity of the allied health professional community workforce.
- £11.95m – Further Faster funding recurrent from 2024-25.
- £20m in 2024-25 to support our Strategic Programme for Primary Care to embed multi agency cluster working; enabling a range of different local delivery organisations to work together to meet the health and care needs of their local populations.
- £70m capital in 2024-25 through our Integration and Rebalancing Capital Fund to develop Integrated Health and Social Care hubs that play an important role in helping to build the community capacity.