:00:32. > :00:36.We look at plans to change the law Welcome to the The Wales Report.
:00:36. > :00:45.Good evening and welcome to the programme that looks at the issues
:00:45. > :00:55.that matter. There are currently more than 200 people waiting for an
:00:55. > :00:59.
:00:59. > :01:06.organ transplant. Only 30% of us are registered as organ donors. The
:01:06. > :01:13.Welsh Government says it has the answer by creating the first opt-
:01:13. > :01:17.out system in the UK. If it is approved it means everyone will be
:01:17. > :01:27.seen as a willing donor when they die unless they have stated
:01:27. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :01:48.Medicine has at man dramatically. Auden donations made headlines
:01:48. > :01:53.India's previous. Since those days, surgery has been increasingly
:01:53. > :01:58.sophisticated and successful, yet today in Wales patients are dying
:01:58. > :02:03.at the rate of one a week at because there are not enough organs
:02:03. > :02:09.for operations. It was six years before Melanie was able to have her
:02:09. > :02:12.kidney transplant. She considers herself lucky and is convinced
:02:12. > :02:22.changing the law will increase donor numbers and stop others
:02:22. > :02:25.
:02:25. > :02:32.having to go through the agony of The opt-out system will raise
:02:32. > :02:34.numbers on the organ Donor Register. The a at the moment, we have to opt
:02:34. > :02:38.into the system to become organ donors.
:02:38. > :02:41.We have to make our wishes clear by signing up to the organ Donor
:02:41. > :02:46.Register, carrying a card or telling family and friends about
:02:46. > :02:50.our wishes. Under the new law, they will be a presumption we all want
:02:50. > :02:55.to be organ donors unless we opt out of the system.
:02:55. > :03:00.The if the plans are approved this year, the law will come into effect
:03:00. > :03:04.in 2015. The moral debate is already under way, and aside from
:03:04. > :03:09.the ethical discussion, some in the medical profession have deep
:03:09. > :03:12.concerns about how it will work in practice. They say the plans have
:03:12. > :03:16.not been thought through and insufficient funding need lead to
:03:16. > :03:20.chaos. One academic says the whole policy is based on misleading
:03:20. > :03:25.information. In explaining the new plans, the
:03:25. > :03:29.Welsh Government has stated that Spain's use of the soft opt-out
:03:29. > :03:35.system has driven up organ donor levels, but some claim that
:03:35. > :03:40.presumed consent is not the reason for Spain's success.
:03:40. > :03:50.To pass a bill with such a misleading statement is an
:03:50. > :04:05.
:04:05. > :04:11.incredible thing to do. Do To do what the Spanish are doing
:04:11. > :04:18.with public relations and so on. There are extra organs available
:04:18. > :04:25.for transplant. But there will be more strain on facilities. Some are
:04:25. > :04:29.worried we will not have enough intensive care beds to cope. There
:04:29. > :04:36.has not been any increased capacity to take into account the
:04:36. > :04:46.legislation. We feel if we could increase capacity we could
:04:46. > :04:46.
:04:47. > :04:53.potentially increase the use of. would have profound implications
:04:53. > :05:01.for our nurses. At the moment there are only 15 specialist donor nurses
:05:01. > :05:06.in Wales. They are trained to have that delicate conversation.
:05:06. > :05:15.requires a specialist skill said. Of course we will meet nursing and
:05:15. > :05:20.medical staff. We do have bona specialists but only a small number.
:05:20. > :05:25.Implementing the changes will cause -- cost an estimated �5 million
:05:25. > :05:31.over the next five years. There will need to be extra intensive
:05:31. > :05:36.care facilities as well as extra training for staff and setting up a
:05:36. > :05:41.register. As well as that there will be a comprehensive public
:05:41. > :05:47.awareness campaign. The Welsh Government told us they are
:05:47. > :05:51.confident with the planned changes. They are already looking at
:05:51. > :06:01.training resources. They are not seeking to copy any particular
:06:01. > :06:06.
:06:06. > :06:11.country but will put in place a system that is right for Wales.
:06:11. > :06:21.changes your life completely. It has given my husband back his wife,
:06:21. > :06:31.my parents back their daughter. I am now a wife, sister, and tea,
:06:31. > :06:32.
:06:32. > :06:36.daughter, not a patient. -- and. Joining me now is the cheer of the
:06:36. > :06:46.assembly's health committee. He is this really going to make a
:06:46. > :06:51.difference? Every single witness who comes in front of us says we
:06:51. > :06:57.want to make sure the system increases the number of donors, the
:06:57. > :07:04.number of organs available for donation. What you will also here
:07:04. > :07:10.is a lot of concern from clinicians at the sharp end who say we do not
:07:10. > :07:17.have the capacity for this. That would be true whatever course you
:07:17. > :07:25.took to increased ownership. It is equally possible to argue that the
:07:25. > :07:30.issue is not intrinsic to the bill. If you raised the number of donors
:07:31. > :07:36.in any other way you would still have the same issue. You cannot do
:07:36. > :07:43.this unless you increase resources. Everybody knows that up and down
:07:43. > :07:52.the land it is difficult to find a bed under the existing system.
:07:52. > :08:01.ambition for the Bill is that it would lead to 15 new donors have
:08:01. > :08:09.been Wales in every calendar year. That has won every six months. Is
:08:09. > :08:14.it likely to tip the system into a manageability? We are very generous
:08:14. > :08:20.people on the hall. Voluntary donations and Wales at the second
:08:20. > :08:26.highest in Europe, that begs the question why do we need to do this?
:08:26. > :08:36.That is a debate that has been raised with us, would there be an
:08:36. > :08:38.
:08:38. > :08:44.easier way to lead to more organ donors? You will also know that
:08:44. > :08:49.because of a lot of these specialist procedures they will
:08:50. > :08:54.have to happen over the border. Heart transplants take place in
:08:54. > :09:00.Birmingham and so on. The whole thing needs to be joined up. There
:09:00. > :09:05.is not a simple geographic border with something as specialist as
:09:05. > :09:11.organ donation. Some of the practical issues about when they
:09:11. > :09:20.are debated and Wendy are used are important. There are financial
:09:20. > :09:25.implications in that. -- when they are used. The questions that are
:09:25. > :09:30.being booked and challenged in that report, insufficient funding, has
:09:30. > :09:36.not been clearly thought through, we are ploughing our own furrow
:09:36. > :09:42.when we should not be, we have to be joined up. We do have to be
:09:42. > :09:48.joined up. I do not think we have heard evidence that suggests the
:09:48. > :09:53.financial implications have not been thought through. It has been
:09:53. > :09:59.confirmed what the Government said to us that if we invest more in
:09:59. > :10:06.organ donation we will save money we are currently spending on a very
:10:06. > :10:11.unsatisfactory quality of life for people, kidney dialysis for example.
:10:11. > :10:14.That money will be released back into the donor service. There are
:10:15. > :10:19.people out with placards campaigning every week to keep
:10:19. > :10:25.their health services opened yet you want to introduce a whole new
:10:25. > :10:30.service on top of that. The flaw in the question is that it assumes the
:10:30. > :10:35.money that is being spent on donation is not being spent already.
:10:35. > :10:43.People who will be fitter from the extra donations are people who are
:10:43. > :10:47.being treated now in the NHS. you very much indeed. Most of us at
:10:47. > :10:55.the moment are looking very suspiciously at what is on our
:10:55. > :11:01.plate. The horsemeat scandal has been dogging us for weeks and there
:11:01. > :11:05.are still products disappearing from our shelves over this weekend.
:11:05. > :11:10.Now worries about the meat that is supplied to schools across the
:11:10. > :11:15.country. What can be done to restore faith in the food we eat
:11:15. > :11:25.and what can be done with one of her most important industries,
:11:25. > :11:29.
:11:29. > :11:33.farming. I am joined by an The AM who is also a farmer. It was
:11:33. > :11:40.suggested that ministers were warned about this scandal with
:11:40. > :11:46.course make being in the food chain 18 months ago. Consumer confidence
:11:46. > :11:52.is so important. There are stories coming out from all sorts of angles.
:11:52. > :11:58.It is important that ministers focus on the job in hand, making
:11:58. > :12:02.sure confidence is restored in the processing sector. What is
:12:02. > :12:07.important is that ministers do the job properly. If it is true they
:12:07. > :12:12.were warned 18 months ago that there was horsemeat in the food
:12:12. > :12:18.chain why on Earth did they not take action then? The key point is,
:12:18. > :12:23.if it were true. What I am interested in and concerned about
:12:23. > :12:27.is that we focus all our energies on cleaning up the act of the
:12:27. > :12:33.processors. This is not about journalism or the media but about
:12:33. > :12:39.public confidence in the food chain. That has been very badly shaken.
:12:39. > :12:46.The Government has a role to play, has it not? We need to restore
:12:46. > :12:51.confidence. From the primary sector of the farming side, we are
:12:51. > :12:56.regulated, we have the checks in place. People can have complete
:12:56. > :13:01.confidence. What we have found is because of the difference in the
:13:01. > :13:06.price of meat and horsemeat people have been fraudulently adding
:13:06. > :13:16.horsemeat to beef. People have to be brought to book on this and I
:13:16. > :13:26.
:13:26. > :13:31.hope they are charged with the full Fraudulent activity has happened,
:13:31. > :13:35.we have to make sure that is pushed out of the sector. We have good
:13:35. > :13:40.bring back the confidence the consumer has in the food industry.
:13:40. > :13:43.What is the Welsh Government doing? The Welsh Government needs to work
:13:43. > :13:46.collaboratively with Whitehall, because there are two spheres of
:13:46. > :13:50.influence, animal welfare legislation and consumer of
:13:50. > :13:55.legislation. But the consumer does not want to hear bickering, they
:13:55. > :14:00.want to hear it has been cleaned up and they can produce a product with
:14:00. > :14:05.complete confidence. Can you honestly say at the moment that
:14:05. > :14:10.they can do that? Yes, if they are just a product that has been
:14:10. > :14:17.produced at home, has the former steward label on it, they can put
:14:17. > :14:21.us that with confidence. -- has the a steward label on it.
:14:21. > :14:25.Thank you very much indeed. G and on next week's programme, we
:14:25. > :14:32.will have a special investigation into our food, tracking it from the
:14:32. > :14:38.farm to your plate. Poverty in Wales and the gap
:14:38. > :14:42.between the haves and there have nots in society is widening. Is it
:14:42. > :14:49.really a fact of life that can never be changed gimlet after
:14:49. > :14:55.benefiting from countless European and Government schemes, some parts
:14:55. > :14:59.of Wales still seemed to be pop -- stat in a poverty trap. Our
:14:59. > :15:03.correspondent is investigating the many local schemes to combat
:15:03. > :15:08.deprivation. Several years since his last visit and millions of
:15:08. > :15:11.pounds of investment later, David has returned to one area to find
:15:11. > :15:21.that while initiatives have changed the level of poverty seemingly has
:15:21. > :15:23.
:15:23. > :15:29.An invisible pall of poverty hangs over places like this estate. Set
:15:29. > :15:33.in beautiful countryside just outside Merthyr Tydfil, it remains
:15:33. > :15:37.socially isolated and invariably singled out as the epicentre of
:15:37. > :15:42.multiple deprivation in Wales and all that goes with it.
:15:42. > :15:47.Statistically, this is a pretty ugly place, relegated to the wrong
:15:47. > :15:57.end of every table used to measure everything from unemployment to
:15:57. > :15:57.
:15:57. > :16:01.education, to health, to crime, and It fills me with sadness to have
:16:01. > :16:09.become back to this place and say the same things over, and over
:16:09. > :16:12.again. But, despite the efforts of remarkable individuals, despite the
:16:12. > :16:20.investment of millions of Pounds in worthwhile projects, and despite
:16:20. > :16:26.the promise of politicians of all colours, the same stench of poverty
:16:26. > :16:29.purveyed this place. -- pervades this place.
:16:29. > :16:39.It is a malignancy that threatens to side and we consume its host.
:16:39. > :16:43.Some have even suggested we should give up on this estate.
:16:43. > :16:47.-- threatened to silently consumed. More Martin O'Neill, who was
:16:47. > :16:51.brought up you, does not think so. He is the chair of a community
:16:51. > :16:55.project, a beacon of hope in an island of despair.
:16:55. > :16:59.The problems people face here are sometimes too subtle to quantify,
:16:59. > :17:05.but those who live here at know what is missing, including
:17:05. > :17:11.essentials like a health centre. They had won, but then they took it
:17:11. > :17:14.away. -- they had a health centre. He the building was quite old and
:17:14. > :17:19.money needed to be spent on upgrading the infrastructure to
:17:19. > :17:23.make it fit for purpose. There is no health centre now?
:17:23. > :17:29.Not on the estate, no. In one of the sickest communities
:17:29. > :17:36.in the UK? Are on top of that there has been a
:17:36. > :17:43.planned new health centre of built in the centre of Merthyr Tydfil,
:17:43. > :17:48.but the problem is getting there. The Community Group has helped to
:17:48. > :17:53.transform this place and transformed the heart of the
:17:53. > :17:58.community. It was once known as a route. Now the graffiti spells out
:17:58. > :18:02.something different, a belief in some kind of future. For many, it
:18:02. > :18:08.is a future dependent on benefits. If you have to move into employment,
:18:08. > :18:16.if you have to move to to education, sometimes you need some support. If
:18:16. > :18:20.you were sick, you need support. Benefits have been a way of life
:18:20. > :18:26.here for as long as I can remember. Benefits - what does that would
:18:26. > :18:30.mean? Who has benefited from living in a place like this? -- what does
:18:30. > :18:35.that would mean. Every time I have come here over the last 30 years,
:18:35. > :18:38.it is to report people suffering, people struggling and people trying
:18:38. > :18:45.definitely -- desperately to overcome problems that threaten to
:18:45. > :18:49.overwhelm them. The lucky ones escape, most don't. Instead they
:18:49. > :18:56.struggle with the consequences. Statistics are an impersonal
:18:56. > :18:59.measure of what is happening here, that they are stuck. One in
:18:59. > :19:03.particular hit me forcibly - in the last ten years, the number of
:19:03. > :19:09.people who have never worked on this estate has almost doubled to
:19:09. > :19:15.over 500 people. The you are familiar with these,
:19:15. > :19:19.employment rates in Merthyr Tydfil below 60%. This is the second
:19:19. > :19:23.lowest are amongst 12 -- 22 Welsh local authorities. Then on it goes
:19:23. > :19:29.- health, crime, the same old stories. Nothing much has moved,
:19:29. > :19:33.has it? No, it is not moving, but those numbers have to be
:19:33. > :19:38.appreciated in the face of a global economic recession. Without that
:19:38. > :19:42.investment, where would the fakers be? Back in the 1920s, they talked
:19:42. > :19:45.about abandoning the police. Is that really an option, or should we
:19:45. > :19:49.think about how to address the issues we are facing and not
:19:49. > :19:54.abandoned the community? There have been schemes which have tried to
:19:54. > :19:59.introduce some practical solutions come and give some hope to this
:19:59. > :20:09.place. Schemes like a cooking project,
:20:09. > :20:14.
:20:14. > :20:18.I remember this. This was a busy place.
:20:18. > :20:23.Diane succeeded in injecting more than just cooking skills into this
:20:23. > :20:29.project. The ones we had done a week or two
:20:29. > :20:33.of Coke -- of cooking, we thought, why don't we do IT next? Why don't
:20:33. > :20:37.we do English? Somebody wants to do child development. The cooking
:20:37. > :20:43.classes opened up a new way of life for many single young mothers, who
:20:43. > :20:49.freely admitted that they had never learned to cook and usually fed
:20:49. > :20:56.their children with takeaways and chips. Lots of chips.
:20:56. > :21:02.Chips, chips, chips. It is much easier doing a healthy salad than
:21:02. > :21:07.ordering out takeaways continuously. The cooking project, which I filmed
:21:07. > :21:13.six years ago, has long gone. Its effectiveness in transforming the
:21:13. > :21:17.lives of a handful of individuals, however, has not been forgotten.
:21:17. > :21:21.But the transient nature of such schemes, vital in areas of
:21:21. > :21:25.deprivation, is both regrettable and hurtful.
:21:25. > :21:29.It is no good stopping projects and letting people down, because we are
:21:29. > :21:34.probably doing more damage than good. If somebody is engaging with
:21:34. > :21:44.you and trusting in you, to then send them away and saying we cannot
:21:44. > :21:44.
:21:44. > :21:49.do anything more with you, I think There is still investment going on
:21:49. > :21:54.in this place, including extensive refurbishment work on the
:21:54. > :21:58.infrastructure of the social housing. Long overdue. There is the
:21:58. > :22:02.prospect of another �1.5 million worth of investment in community
:22:02. > :22:07.schemes over the next two years. But it was hoped there would be
:22:07. > :22:13.more than double that amount available. And, to compound the
:22:13. > :22:15.financial problems, many areas here have found they no longer Pok --
:22:15. > :22:19.qualified for communities first funding, provided by the Welsh
:22:19. > :22:22.Government. Just when there appeared to be a
:22:22. > :22:28.glimmer of hope and the estate was looking a lot better, at least
:22:28. > :22:33.cosmetically, it was dealt another blow. Well, in fact, a double
:22:33. > :22:37.whammy in the shape of the global financial crisis and the
:22:37. > :22:41.Westminster Government's welfare reforms. A combination which
:22:41. > :22:45.threatens to combine, to destabilise the social structure of
:22:45. > :22:50.this place and undo so much of the good that has been done to try and
:22:50. > :22:54.improve the lives of the people here.
:22:54. > :22:58.David Williams there. Training now is the Children's Commissioner for
:22:58. > :23:02.Wales, who is particularly concerned about how we are tackling
:23:02. > :23:08.child poverty. It is a depressing story that,
:23:08. > :23:12.isn't it? Do we just have to accept that children born into that kind
:23:12. > :23:18.of poverty are going to have to look forward to a life of poverty
:23:18. > :23:22.GMac I do not think we should accept it at all, some of the
:23:22. > :23:26.things that came through it in the film is that people are working
:23:26. > :23:29.really hard to mitigate the effects of poverty on children living in
:23:29. > :23:33.disadvantaged families. The Welsh Government has signed up
:23:33. > :23:37.to the UN Convention on the rights of the child. The only Government
:23:37. > :23:43.across the UK, or the world, do have legislated in favour of the
:23:43. > :23:47.Convention. That places a responsibility on Welsh Government
:23:47. > :23:51.to think about the ways we can ensure all young people, regardless
:23:51. > :23:55.of their circumstances, can get access to education and decent food.
:23:55. > :24:00.A but we keep setting targets. The Welsh Government has set the target
:24:00. > :24:06.of eradicating child poverty by 2020, is and that on realistic?
:24:06. > :24:11.It is completely unrealistic now to think we will never hold on to the
:24:11. > :24:15.target for 2020. Children's lives are at risk because of this, I
:24:15. > :24:20.spend a lot of time talking to children talking to them about what
:24:20. > :24:25.is important to them, and things like a decent education and good
:24:25. > :24:30.food to eat or important to them. Are we also guilty of giving people
:24:30. > :24:38.hope, an idea, an ambition? Absolutely, I think education is
:24:38. > :24:43.all about making sure every child can fulfil their individual
:24:43. > :24:46.potential. One of the most depressing lines about that film
:24:46. > :24:50.was that back in the 1920s people were talking about giving up on
:24:50. > :24:56.Merthyr Tydfil, and some people are talking about that today.
:24:56. > :25:01.Some people are, but I would say, come with me there, some of the
:25:01. > :25:06.best time of my life has been on the estate.
:25:06. > :25:10.Of course, the effects of poverty are not only measured by levels of
:25:10. > :25:14.employment and the food we feed our children. Hard times call for belt-
:25:15. > :25:18.tightening across all aspects of life, including leisure time. With
:25:18. > :25:24.less money available for cinema trips and local libraries are under
:25:24. > :25:28.threat, Welsh Opera John Gower has been on a trip to the riverfront
:25:28. > :25:35.theatre of and arts centre in Newport to voice his concerns that
:25:35. > :25:45.will children are falling into cultural poverty. -- Welsh author
:25:45. > :25:48.
:25:48. > :25:54.You can get a pretty good sense of how old a person is by asking them
:25:54. > :25:58.which was the first James Bond movie they ever saw. In my case, it
:25:58. > :26:02.was Dr no, which I saw in the classic fleapit cinema of the
:26:02. > :26:07.Palace Theatre in Llanelli. Since then, there have been periods in my
:26:07. > :26:15.life when you could describe be as a semi-professional movie Gore,
:26:15. > :26:20.racking up to four or five films a day. Some children in Wales have
:26:20. > :26:24.never been to the cinema because of poverty. No blockbusters, no All
:26:24. > :26:30.Disney, no popcorn, sometimes because there is no cinema nearby,
:26:30. > :26:35.or simply because ticket prices are prohibitive. Because in Wales up to
:26:35. > :26:39.a quarter of children live within child poverty.
:26:39. > :26:42.When we are talking about child poverty, we're not just talking
:26:42. > :26:47.about education and nutrition, although cultural experience can be
:26:47. > :26:57.a sort of nutrition. I would go as far as to see it is food for the
:26:57. > :27:02.soul, but it is also educational, Imagination and creativity have
:27:02. > :27:09.enormous value in the real world. The Confederation of British
:27:09. > :27:12.Industry reckons that in 2013 there will be no fewer than 1.3 million
:27:12. > :27:16.jobs in the creative industries. But you are not going to get on in
:27:16. > :27:22.pretty much any industry if you cannot read and write, and
:27:22. > :27:27.illiteracy, which shut people out of learning, is a new plate on our
:27:27. > :27:33.communities. It is like locking the door on the world of books and
:27:33. > :27:37.throwing away the key. -- is a new light. I am not sure where things
:27:37. > :27:42.started to go wrong. When I grew up, learning was held
:27:42. > :27:49.in very high regard in Wales and we were exporting teachers as much as
:27:49. > :27:52.coal and steel. Now, Ilott to wreak -- illiteracy is a new scourge, and
:27:52. > :27:57.stories from Hans Christian Andersen to Charles Dickens are
:27:57. > :28:04.being locked away from our children. Horizon's contract and there as a
:28:04. > :28:08.poverty of ambition, too. -- horizons contract.
:28:08. > :28:11.It could not be impossible to show some of the world's great films or
:28:11. > :28:15.include some of the finest stories between the covers of a book in the
:28:15. > :28:22.classroom, should it? I try and imagine my own life without such
:28:22. > :28:25.things, and it is a poverty beyond imagining.
:28:25. > :28:30.Well, the Children's Commissioner for Wales is still with me. Is he
:28:30. > :28:33.right? For I think he is absolutely right about cultural poverty, and
:28:33. > :28:36.he is absolutely right about children and young people not
:28:37. > :28:40.getting access to those things. I did a fantastic piece of work
:28:40. > :28:45.this year with kids in museums, where museums were looking at
:28:45. > :28:49.developing a new relationship between themselves and children.
:28:49. > :28:52.What we saw from that was the rich breadth of experience that children
:28:52. > :28:59.and families got from it, and understanding of their cultural
:28:59. > :29:02.history and their contribution as artists, creators and writers.
:29:02. > :29:08.But we have to get them literate, first of all, and there are
:29:08. > :29:12.worrying reports. In Merthyr Tydfil, they are expecting a report to, it
:29:12. > :29:18.with 40% illiteracy by the age of 11. That is not good, is it?
:29:18. > :29:22.Yes, and there was an interested -- interesting piece of work in 2011
:29:22. > :29:26.looking at a disadvantage areas, and they welcomed those schools
:29:26. > :29:34.making that extra mile making sure children were exposed to trips to
:29:34. > :29:38.art galleries, theatres, cinemas, making sure children are exposed to
:29:38. > :29:44.the arts. Because if we can inspire young minds it gives us hope for
:29:44. > :29:48.the future? Absolutely. If the arts is the thing that locks the key --
:29:48. > :29:51.unlocked sticky, fantastic. That is it for this programme, I
:29:51. > :29:56.will be back on Wednesday night investigating how a con man
:29:56. > :29:59.claiming to help war veterans was able to get his hands on a large