Councillor calls on Health Minister to resign in school nurse row
Martin Shipton
A Labour town councillor has called on Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor to resign because he has failed to ensure that a full-time nurse is appointed to a school that caters for children with special educational needs.
Parents of children attending Ysgol Heol Goffa in Llanelli have run a vigorous campaign aimed at persuading Hywel Dda University Health Board to make such an appointment. They argue that children at the school are potentially dangerously vulnerable, and need the care of a dedicated specialist nurse.
But despite enlisting the support of some local councillors, the health board has resisted the pressure.
Llanelli Labour town councillor Shaun Greaney therefore decided to ask Mr ap Gwynfor to intervene.
Support
Responding to Cllr Greaney’s letter, Mr ap Gwynfor said: “I understand the strength of feeling surrounding this matter and the concerns that have been expressed regarding the support available to children and young people with complex healthcare needs attending the school.
“My officials have worked with Hywel Dda University Health Board, the school and Carmarthenshire County Council to take immediate action to provide additional support to ensure that learners attending the school can continue to have their healthcare needs met safely. I can confirm that staff at Ysgol Heol Goffa who are required to support learners with healthcare needs have received appropriate training and have been assessed as competent to undertake the healthcare procedures they carry out to support well-being and keep learners safe.
“A multi-agency approach to supporting the healthcare needs of children and young people is essential. Education settings, local authorities and local health boards all have responsibilities to support children and young people’s health and well-being and ensure children with complex healthcare needs can attend school and participate fully in a positive, enriching and fulfilling educational experience alongside their peers. The specific arrangements for meeting healthcare needs locally remain a matter for the relevant local authority and health board, working together to ensure appropriate support is in place, in line with current guidance.
“I recognise the need to strengthen how health and education services work together so that oversight, training and responsibilities for supporting the growing number of children and young people with complex healthcare needs are clearly defined and understood. Work is underway to develop new, integrated guidance for education and health partners to support a consistent, safe and equitable approach to meeting the healthcare needs of learners across all settings.
“Our intention is for the new guidance to provide a unified framework that strengthens collaboration, clarifies roles and responsibilities, and supports high-quality provision. It will also set out clear processes for assessing and responding to the healthcare needs of children and young people in schools, outline appropriate escalation pathways, and describe how partners will work together to strengthen governance, improve the handling of concerns, and ensure the workforce has access to required training and support. This guidance will be developed with input from all relevant stakeholders, including children and their families and will be published in 2027.
“I appreciate the concerns you have raised and want to assure you that the safety and well-being of all children and young people will remain paramount as we take this work forward.”
Statement
Cllr Greaney has now issued a statement calling for Mr ap Gwynfor to resign. In it he states: “It is deplorable that the Welsh Health Minister is not acting to ensure children who are so extremely vulnerable are safe.
“Children in similar situations and schools in England do have nursing provision in place, I’m told, so why are Welsh children being treated as second class citizens?
“You would expect Plaid, who make a song and dance of stating they are the party of Wales, not to jeopardise Llanelli children.
“The Minister should reverse his decision or consider resigning. If a child dies at the school it will be on his head, in my view.”
A Plaid Cymru source responded: “Calling for the Minister’s resignation is totally over the top. The campaign for a dedicated nurse at the school has been going on for quite some time. There is, however, no record of Mr Greaney calling for Labour Health Ministers – who were in power for 27 years until just three months ago – to resign.”
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A touch of the Sun from Welsh Labour with severe memory loss coupled with acute hypocrisy…
Has Mr Ap Gwynfor’s response been written by A.I. on the motherhood and apple pie setting? It is entirely full of platitudes and statements of the obvious without any substance.
You have a point…
As anyone who has written to sell will know, if you can’t say it in a sentence they won’t buy it…
Provisions are provided under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 passed by the previous Labour administration and section 77 gives us the responsibilities of services provided by the NHS. Rather than appoint a ‘school nurse’ it specifies an “Individual Development Plan” for each ALN pupil which can include attendance outside the school setting. This applies regardless of which school you attend on any given day. Putting a nurse inside the classroom is no substitute for this provision and this latest broadside by Cllr Shaun Greaney is more about himself and another desperate attempt to shore up… Read more »
This councillor should be demanding the Welsh secretary kinnock to resign for not devolving crown estates to wales and for not pushing for a better funding scheme for Wales other than the Barnet formula.
Devolving the crown estate will not give extra money it will come of the block grant. The Holtham commission said for devolved area Wales needed 15% more, we currently get 20% more.
Profits from Wales to the crown estates is around 210 million pounds. Why can’t we have all that pumped back into WG budget?
Nice bit of bobbing, ducking and weaving. Proves you are awake if nothing else.
But developing the crown estate assets and resources to increase their revenue above their current level results in extra cash.
How can he have failed, he hasn’t done anything yet!
Is this what Labour have resorted to?
Embarrassing
Plaid Cymru have only been in power for around three months, and this hypocritical Labour councillor is already calling for Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor to resign over a health system his party controlled for 27 years. Any finger‑pointing should be directed at Jane Hutt, Brian Gibbons, Edwina Hart, Lesley Griffiths, Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething, Eluned Morgan, and Jeremy Miles, all former Labour Health Ministers in the Senedd. The man’s a bloody fool!
You have brought such a smile to my face, you and Hd, it has been a few years now…
This obnoxious pipsqueak never demanded that any Labour Minister should resign because of this during the 27 years they were in charge. All of a sudden, now that Plaid Cymru are in charge of the Welsh Government, he starts to demand that the Health Minister resigns. What an absolute hypocrite!!
Perhaps he could have a word with his Labour colleagues in the Senedd who recently blocked £145m for health and £40m for ALN.