Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 15 March 2017.
Well, Llywydd, it’s because of the priority that we have always attached to social services that social services in Wales have not suffered from the cuts that have been experienced across our border. Our social services do face very considerable pressures from demography and other factors—I absolutely acknowledge that—but they are in a better place to face those pressures than other services are elsewhere. The Member will have seen the report published only last week by Wales Public Services 2025 that confirms that, again, in this financial year, spending on health and social services in Wales is 106 per cent of spending in England, and it’s why, in the budget that was put in front of this Assembly for next year, in agreement with Plaid Cymru, £25 million extra was identified in the RSG for social services, and then a further £10 million recurrent funding was identified between the final and draft budget, to help social services departments come to a tripartite solution to the pressures of the so-called living wage in social care. In the run-up to the budget, I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, urging him to find additional funding for social care, and that matter will certainly be on the table when colleagues in the Cabinet meet on Tuesday of next week to discuss the consequentials. How that money is used, if any of it can be made available for social services, will of course be a matter for the Minister concerned, but she will certainly be aware of the Member’s views and will have heard what she has said this afternoon.