Julie Morgan: The Welsh Government has provided significant additional funding to support improved patient flow and discharge processes, including in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg region. We are also working to address current capacity and workforce issues in social care to support quicker discharges, including through the real living wage for care workers.
Julie Morgan: I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that very important question. I think we all know what a difficult time this is for health and social care, and how damaging it is for people to stay in hospital longer than is necessary. So, we are continuing to work very closely with health and social care partners to support effective discharge processes and we have provided significant additional funding....
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much, and thank you for the offer to discuss it further; I'd be very happy to do so. I just want to make the point, basically, that this problem that we have in Wales about delayed discharges and problems with the social care system is a problem that is there throughout the UK. I heard on Radio 4 this morning about the major problems that are being experienced in England, so...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much; diolch yn fawr iawn for the information about this report. It sounds an extremely interesting report and I think we would all be very interested in reading it and seeing if we could follow up any of the suggestions. I absolutely agree that people with dementia, when they are leaving hospital or at any point really, need to have the space and the time and the integrated...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much for the question. We accept that there are real problems in social care and it is very difficult to recruit at the moment. The reason it is so difficult to recruit is because, for some care workers, there are more attractive jobs in the retail sector or in the hospitality sector, which have recently opened up. It is very difficult to attract people into the social care...
Julie Morgan: This is obviously a danger that can happen. As you know, we've set up the social care fair work forum, which has recently produced their report about how we will deliver the real living wage and that is being considered by officials at the moment. I hope we'll be able to announce something on that soon. So, that is imminent. But of course, it's not just the pay, it's the terms and the...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much. I think, so far, it's been very successful. Mr Heaney has been doing a listening exercise. He's been around many different aspects of the social care system, he's listened to what people feel about their working conditions, about what they want to do, about integration with health, how the two can work together. And I think, by having him in this position, people do feel...
Julie Morgan: We have asked the social care fair work forum for its advice in delivering our commitment to introduce the real living wage to social care workers. I received the forum's advice last week and will consider this advice carefully before I provide a further update.
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much for that question, and I'd like to congratulate RCT on the steps they're taking, and the other local authorities who are taking similar steps. But, progress across Wales is patchy, which is why we are taking a national line. We are working very closely with local government about delivering the real living wage. The Minister for Health and Social Services and I meet every...
Julie Morgan: Thank you for that question. We are committed in our programme of government to ensuring that every social care worker has the real living wage, and that will be an expensive exercise. If the money is needed for it to be achieved, the Welsh Government will provide that money, but we don't yet have an estimate about how much that will be, because we are studying what the social care work forum...
Julie Morgan: The most recent update to Welsh Government’s care home visiting guidance, published on 8 October, was shared electronically with all registered care home providers by Care Inspectorate Wales. This was accompanied by a joint letter from the chief medical officer and the chief social care officer summarising the key changes.
Julie Morgan: This additional funding of £42 million has been made available to provide targeted services delivered locally across Wales, including Clwyd South. This funding will ease the pressure on social care settings through integrated winter planning, support for unpaid carers and funding for third sector early intervention and prevention.
Julie Morgan: Diolch. 'Age Friendly Wales: Our Strategy for an Ageing Society' was published on 7 October. following an extensive programme of engagement with older people and their representatives. The strategy sets out our vision for an age-friendly Wales, which supports people of all ages to live and age well. The strategy challenges ageist stereotypes of older people as passive recipients of health and...
Julie Morgan: I thank you for those comments. Just to deal with what I can of all of those points: aspiration and little detail, I think we have specified specifically the money that we are allocating in order to bring about age-friendly communities. We've done this in conjunction with the older person's commission, and each local authority is taking forward plans to bring forward more age-friendly...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much. Thank you for your welcome to the plan, and for your very positive words. I think it’s absolutely right, as you say, that we do what we can for the most vulnerable in society, but I also think it’s important to remember the contribution that older people make, because I think there are many positive things that we can draw attention to, such as the volunteering that...
Julie Morgan: Thanks very much to Jenny Rathbone for that interesting commentary and question. I totally agree with her that we want to see healthy ageing. I think it's really important that we encourage older people to be active. I declare an interest as well, being an older person. Actually, under our healthy ageing strategy, we are funding Nordic walking, tai chi—under the healthy ageing programme. I...
Julie Morgan: Thank you very much for those questions. I'm pleased to say that the ministerial advisory group and the sub-groups that he mentioned are filled with older people who are advising our strategy, and everything we're doing is done in co-production with older people. The question he asked me was how important it is to campaign for elder abuse, for example. That is one of the strands of our...
Julie Morgan: [Inaudible.]—funding a national advertising and social media campaign. We are supporting a range of targeted initiatives to encourage the take-up of employment in social care. We fund regional staff to support campaigns led by local authorities and by health boards.
Julie Morgan: I thank Ken Skates for that question, and also thank him for his recognition of the tremendous work that has been done in the care sector during the pandemic. We were very pleased to allocate the additional £42 million allocation, and that was announced through the health and social care winter plan. And the winter plan sets out how this investment will provide community-based integrated...
Julie Morgan: Diolch. A couple of weeks ago it was United Nations Universal Children's Day, and I had the great pleasure of attending the Young Wales conference, which brought together young people from across Wales for a conversation with Government Ministers. It was a privilege to be part of this event. It provided me, together with the First Minister and other Cabinet Ministers, including the Minister...
