Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 29 March 2017.
Thank you, Minister. I am happy to acknowledge the additional moneys that you’ve committed to social care. Even so, by my calculation, I don’t think the full Barnett consequential of the Chancellor’s £2 billion for social care has found its way into your budget, but I’ll leave that for another day. Because, despite those considerable additional funds made available for social care in Wales, local authorities in my region have cut next year’s social care budget by £2.2 million, raised it by just 0.3 per cent, or have predicted an underspend on last year by nearly £0.5 million. If you’ve found extra money for social care because social care needed that money, how are you making sure that local authorities are spending it on social care? I’m sure you can give me a far more informed answer than the default answer that I got from the First Minister yesterday. I think we all have far more confidence in you than in Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you.