Minister for Children and Social Care
The Minister for Children and Social Care is a minister of the Welsh Government, accountable to the cabinet secretary for health and social care. The current officeholder is Dawn Bowden since March 2024.
Responsibilities
The post's responsibilities are:- Some public health responsibilities, specifically;
- * The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales, screening and vaccination.
- * Services for Health improvement and wellbeing
- Delivery and performance of NHS Wales
- Escalation procedures
- Responsibility in managing reports from Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, such as keeping a receipt of, responding to, and managing the direction of their reports.
- Overseeing the Welsh Government's relationship with Audit Wales in matters relating to the NHS.
- The training and development of the medical workforce, excluding the higher education years 1-5 of Doctors
- Health and social care research and development
- Digital health and health innovation
- Mental health services
- Suicide prevention
- Dementia
- Autism
- Gambling problem-related health impacts
- Substance misuse
- Health of the armed forces and veterans
- Strategy for Obesity
- Food Standards Agency in Wales, including food safety
- Genetically modified food
- Experience of patients, their involvement, and the citizens' voices
- Safeguarding
- Services for Adoption and Foster care
- Advocacy services for children and young people's, such as managing complains, representations, as well as advocacy, under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014
- Sharing information under the Children Act 2004
- Cafcass Cymru
- Overseeing and deciding policy regarding social service provision of activities by the local authorities in Wales, including issuing statutory guidance
- Overseeing Social Care Wales
- Regulating domiciliary, residential, adult placements, foster care, under 8's care provision and private healthcare
- Inspecting and reporting the provision of social services by the local authorities in Wales, through the Care Inspectorate Wales, including jointly reviewing social services and responding to any reports
- The rights and entitlements of children and young people, including utilising the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Early years, childcare and play, including the "childcare offer" and its workforce
- Early childhood education and care
- Flying Start for children aged 0–3 years
- Policies for Families First and play