Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 13 July 2016.
Well, thank you for that answer as well. If I am hearing you correctly, there will be a sort of cross-over between the dementia strategy and the carers strategy, in terms of the input that goes into both from the Carers Alliance, for example. I know that what I’m going to ask you next is something that is of great importance to everybody here in the Assembly, and that’s the fact that, in recent years, we’ve seen the amount that local authorities are willing or able to pay for the cost of care services and care providers. I hope that we would all agree that the very least that care worker could expect is a living wage; payment for travel between visits, if they are working in people’s homes; reasonable hours for work; and time to care properly for the people that they are looking after. I know that the social services Act envisages different models for delivering social care, but costs are still going to rise, regardless of the model, as the needs of the population grow, not least, of course, through us all living longer. What work are you doing now to plan for the medium- and long-term financial sustainability of paying for social care, regardless of which model is adopted in any given part of Wales?