Firstly, can I join others in thanking the older person’s commissioner for Wales and her staff for presenting us with such a comprehensive report? The report rightly identifies that older people are, to many of us, our everyday heroes, but are sometimes made to feel that they’re excluded from society and the victims of false assumptions around frailty, decline and dependence. What is undeniable is the reality that there are far too many pensioners living in poverty in Wales. The commissioner has estimated that there are over 100,000, with approximately 20 per cent of older people living below the poverty line.

A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report in 2011 did identify a drop in pensioner poverty in Wales over the last decade, but this drop was half the rate of the drop in Scotland. Whilst poverty is unwelcome whatever your age, for older people it restricts their ability to do so many things, and this often leads to them becoming isolated and lonely.

The detailed report from the commissioner covers many areas, far too many to cover in the time available. So, I’d like to focus on one particular area, and that is the social care workforce. The recruitment and retention of a well-trained and committed workforce will be vital to efforts to provide the highest possible standards of care for our older people. Whilst this workforce clearly delivers care across a whole range of needs, a large section of its work relates directly to the care of older people in both residential and domiciliary care settings.

I’ll talk about residential care in a moment, but firstly I want to commend the statement from the Minister for Social Services and Public Health yesterday, following the recent consultation on the domiciliary care workforce. The responses to the consultation covered a variety of issues impacting on the recruitment and retention of domiciliary care workers, including zero-hours contracts, qualifications and registration of the workforce, pay for travel and core time, and career pathways. I welcome the commitment from the Welsh Government to provide for greater transparency over the use of zero-hours contracts.

I’m also pleased that the statement sets out a clear intention to extend the workforce registration regime to domiciliary care workers by 2020. Even at an early stage, I think in Wales we are seeing the benefits of the Welsh Government’s decision to introduce registration across the education workforce, and I’ve no doubt that similar benefits will accrue from the registration of domiciliary care staff.

In relation to residential care, I’m pleased to note that the commissioner has received the appropriate assurances that the Welsh Government and Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales will carry out action identified in the commissioner’s report, ‘A Place to Call Home?’, and that the progress is being regularly monitored. When visiting residential care homes in my constituency, I’m struck by the extent of great care and good practice being delivered. However, I sometimes wonder whether we do enough to promote that good practice, and I therefore welcome the commissioner’s undertaking to hold further seminars in 2016-17, at which care home providers can come together and share good practice.

Earlier, I touched on the loneliness and isolation felt by many older people, and in concluding I therefore thank the Conservatives for their constructive amendments recognising the need to tackle this, and for their support for the consideration of an older people’s rights Bill. I also welcome and support the amendment from Plaid Cymru recognising the key role of our public services, and the challenges they face after years of the Westminster Government’s failed austerity policies.