Questions to Minister for Health and Social Services
The Nutritional Needs of Older People

Janet Finch-Saunders
It is really good to hear about the mandatory process to be, but it is a matter of how that message is going to get through, because the older people’s commissioner’s review into care homes exposed blatant inconsistencies in residential and care homes in terms of nutritional support. She highlighted poor meal choice, the limited availability of food outside of formal regime, and the lack of support to help residents with their meals, which, of course, can then result in them losing the physical ability to feed themselves. In fact, one in three residents are already suffering from malnutrition upon entry to a care or residential home setting. As regards this evidential report on this particular aspect on nutrition, how will this now actually influence your future direction and actions?

Mark Drakeford
Thank you for that question. In some ways, Llywydd, it is the other side of the coin to the question that Darren Millar raised earlier, because our proposals for mandatory nutritional standards are both about addressing obesity, where that is to be found, but also about addressing malnutrition where we see that in care home settings. Janet Finch-Saunders is absolutely right to draw attention to what the older person’s commissioner said. The commissioner will be launching tomorrow a piece of work to celebrate the Torfaen scheme that Lynne Neagle has mentioned. Our mandatory nutritional standards would mean that care homes would have to abide by those standards. They will be statutory in nature, and therefore they would meet some of the concerns that the older person’s commissioner identifies in her report.