I think this is a very important debate and, hopefully, the first of many, because it's a very complex subject. Before Christmas, I visited all the care homes for the elderly in my constituency, and by and large I was very impressed with the quality of the care that these homes provide and the dedication of their staff. My particular interest was prompted by the fact that one of the homes in my constituency had to close its nursing beds last month because the quality of the nursing provision was simply not good enough. I have to say that it is a good example of how Care Inspectorate Wales does work as a system to ensure that poor care is rooted out, and of the consistency with which the district nurses followed up the concerns that had been raised and flagged up the failure to improve. So, the leadership of this home took the right decision in closing these nursing beds, but, obviously, the lack of leadership that had initially led to the poor care is something we should all be concerned about. In this case, all of the residents were able to find suitable alternatives, but as the care system becomes more and more constrained, that could prove much more difficult in the future.

Talking to the staff, it's perfectly clear to me that wages for social care are simply quite inadequate. This is a really complex job, which requires huge dedication. It's completely unacceptable that people are doing this important job, looking after frail elderly people, and they're being paid less than the living wage. I mean, it's—.

The bidding system that operates in Cardiff guarantees that wages stay low, because for each individual who they want to place in a residential place, they will invite all tenders. The citizen may have chosen a particular home, but if it's not the cheapest then they have to find the money, either from their own resources or somebody else amongst their loved ones, to pay for the top-up between the lowest and the cost of the home that they wish to go to. So, those who don't have those sorts of resources don't have any choice at all. I think that's not a very comfortable way to ensure good care is rewarded and poor care is driven out.

One of the matrons I met said that she felt so underpaid that she was thinking of resigning in order to campaign for decent wages for social carers, and I think she's absolutely right. She says, 'It's okay at the moment. The group of elderly mentally infirm people I am looking after at the moment are fine and jolly—easy to control. In the past, I have gone home black and blue from people who violently assault me.' It's obviously not the fault of the patients, but it's a good example of how you really do need very, very skilled care when it comes to people who have completely lost sight of what are normal social norms. 

So, I think we could, and we should, put pressure on our local authorities to only commission services from providers who recognise trade unions, because this situation is never going to change if individuals simply say, 'I'd like to be better paid for the job I'm doing.' They'll simply not be called back—there will be other people who they will replace them with.

We talk of procurement to achieve these objectives in other areas of responsibility, and we should be doing that in the case of social care as well. But, I fully recognise that local authorities are operating with a finite pot. If we increase wages to a decent wage for people in social care, it will lead to local authorities having to raise the bar of the criteria for people to get residential care. That, in turn, will then put even more pressure on the health services. Hospital beds will fill up with people who can't any longer live at home but aren't able to find anywhere that's able to provide them with decent care in the community.

I'd like to see a complete sea change in the way we look at this. I'd like to see much more imagination, creativity and community involvement in the way we deliver social care. I'm disappointed that we haven't been able to make progress on the Buurtzorg pilots, which I've heard very disappointing reports about. I'd be very interested to hear what the Minister has to say on how he thinks that is going, because that is one of the ways in which we can ensure that the community at large—that the citizen can be involved in their own care, as well as their carers and the community at large. At the moment, we have a completely top-down system that doesn't allow for that.