Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 5 June 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:36, 5 June 2019

Because we still have a system where social care, as you know, has a means element within it. And we're actually looking at the future funding of social care, as you know as well. I'm the chair of a cross-ministerial group looking at social care funding options for now and the future, and you'll know from previous, very public comments that I'm interested in how we use the new powers of this place, as available to us, to have a new funding stream for social care purposes. And you can't get away there from your first point, which was about the budget allocations. You know, as I do, that we are on the back of the tenth year of austerity. It means there is no consequence-free choice. If we chose to put more money—significantly more money—into the local government settlement, then that would mean less money going into the health service. There's no way of avoiding that. That's why I think, for the future, we need to not hold back in our campaign against austerity, but also to think about how we use our new powers to have a new funding stream for social care in particular.