10. Will the First Minister provide an update on the recruitment and retention of staff in the social care sector? OAQ51387

The social care workforce delivers a vital public service, and to ensure the sector is sustainable, we’re taking forward actions including tackling zero-hours contracts and low pay, registering workers and developing career pathways, and that will help to raise the status and profile of workers so that social care becomes a positive career choice.

Thank you, First Minister. Social care workers do an outstanding job. With an ageing population living longer, many with complex needs, we know that it’s crucial to ensure that we have a workforce ready for now and in the future. Recently, one of my constituents who has worked in care homes for many years has decided to take a job in a fast-food chain. The long hours, poor pay and difficult working conditions have left her with no choice but to leave the career that she loves. While I’m pleased at the Government’s commitment to implement an accredited qualification for carers, making this a reality is key to stopping people like my constituent, a dedicated and skilled social care worker, leaving the profession. Could the First Minister provide an update on how far these plans have been developed?

Yes. First of all, we provided £19 million of recurrent funding for local authorities to work with their service providers to help manage the impact of implementing the national living wage, which we wanted to see. What have we done? Well, we’ve brought forward regulations to improve the terms and conditions of the workforce, requiring providers to provide more transparency in their use of zero-hours contracts, to offer workers a choice of fixed-hours contracts after a three-month period of employment, and to clearly delineate between travel and care time. We’ve extended the register to domiciliary care workers on a voluntary basis from 2018, ahead of the mandatory registration from 2020, and that’s an essential aspect of ensuring the professionalisation of the workforce so we can have social care workers who are appropriately qualified to deliver quality care to the vulnerable in our society.

Thank you, First Minister.