I joined Wrexham County Councillors Andrew Atkinson and Russell Gilmartin in Gresford for discussions about the threatened transfer of Alyn Family Doctors’ GP services from Gresford Health Centre to Llay or Rossett. Constituents in Rossett tell me that they are already experiencing difficulty in getting appointments. Despite years of warnings by BMA Cymru, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the North Wales Medical Local Committee, the Labour Welsh Government failed to take action to address the GP crisis.
Questioning the First Minister, I challenged his Government’s decision to cut the school uniform grant which helps thousands of poorer families in Wales.
I hosted the Bevan Foundation and Big Issue Cymru ‘Prevention and Inclusion’ Assembly event, with Lord John Bird, founder of The Big Issue. As I said, “Sticking plasters are just not enough – we need to find the underlying causes and do something to address them”.
I also hosted and spoke at an autistic-led Assembly event, ‘Going Gold for Autistic Acceptance’, which joined together the Autistic Women's Empowerment Project and Autistic UK with other user-led organisations to strengthen the Autistic Voice.
Questioning the Leader of the House after this event, I asked how she will address the growing concerns identified by the autism community and respond to their proposals for working “together co-productively, to ensure that we begin to tackle the discrimination faced by autistic people’. She agreed to meet with me.
I also attended The Pop In Centre Autism and Additional Learning Needs Group launch in Prestatyn of their Short Film, ‘The Girl On Top Of The Wardrobe’, an insight into the lives of families with autistic and additional learning needs children.
Ahead of World Curlew Day on 21 April and Curlew Crisis Month throughout May, and with country-level extinction expected by 2030, I called for a Welsh Government Statement on the Curlew crisis in Wales.
I also called for a Welsh Government Statement after the contract for its Fuel Poverty Scheme ‘ARBED 3’ was awarded to a Scottish company, part of a bigger group facing serious allegations, putting jobs at risk in Wales. An alternative bid by South Wales-based Melin Homes, working with North Wales Housing Association Grŵp Cynefin, was unsuccessful.
As a member of the Assembly External Affairs Committee, I spoke in the Debate on our Report ‘How is the Welsh Government preparing for Brexit?’, quoting evidence which challenged the Welsh Government’s claim that it ‘mobilised quickly following the result of the Referendum’.
If you need my help, please email mark.isherwood@assembly.wales or ring 0300 200 7217.