LAST weekend, the First Minister Carwyn Jones AM, highlighted the importance of having ‘fairness’ at the heart of everything we do in government.

He referred to a dignified and tenacious campaign by Labour MP Carolyn Harris, about funeral costs for children and announced that the Welsh Government will step in and confirm its commitment to fairness by abolishing burial charges for children in Welsh communities.

The Welsh Government health secretary Vaughan Gething also announced that he wanted to consider a new, fairer approach to Individual Patient Requests.

That is to say, access to treatments that are not routinely available for individual patients. This follows the establishment earlier this year of the Welsh Government’s treatment fund where £80 million was made available to speed up access to the very latest medicines recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG).

These medicines are for treating a wide range of diseases including cancers.

As the first minister said last weekend, "people who need it most will now have better, fairer access to lifesaving drugs."

The cabinet secretary for finance and local government Mark Drakeford AM, has also announced extra funding for social care in Wales - recognising the strategic importance of the social care sector and the importance of fair funding for the vital provision of social support, personal care and protection.

It brings the additional investment for social care to £55 million in 2017-18, which is in line with the extra investment made in social care in England.

The cabinet secretary said: “Despite the cuts we have seen to our budget, we have continued to prioritise funding for social care and taken specific measures to support the sustainability of the social care sector, including investing £60 million through the Intermediate Care Fund to support the integration of health and social care.”

As well as fairness in health policy, the first minister also told conference that he wanted Wales to be, a "fair work nation."

And committing to this, he has announced that he will be bringing together social partners - the Wales TUC and businesses organisations - to discuss the establishment of a Fair Work Commission so that more people can have access to good work and a secure income.

As the first minister concluded: “Fairness is in everything we do. A Fair Deal for the people of Wales. They deserve nothing less than that.”