3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:25 pm on 29 April 2020.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:25, 29 April 2020

Again, I think it's a really important point that Huw Irranca-Davies makes about people who've been isolated in life and death; that it's very, very hard, both for people who know they're nearing the end of their life, but also their families who may not be able to see them and derive a sort of comfort and closure that those of us who have suffered loss within our own family and friends would understand makes a really big difference to being able to move on.

In terms of the future for social care staff, whether in residential care or otherwise, I certainly haven't forgotten my commitment and a place where I want us to get as a nation. I hope that the current crisis, the extraordinary time we're living through, means that people won't just wander out every Thursday to applaud key workers, not just in our national health service but in social care and wider, and then forget about the conditions that they work under and the pay that they receive the month after the COVID-19 crisis is over. Because it does ask questions that we all need to ask about the sort of country we live in and how we value each other, because we've really seen the enormous value that a number of people, who are poorly paid, provide to the way that we all expect to be able to live our lives and, frankly, the way we expect our relatives to be cared for in a way that other countries, for example, have much greater familial care and provision. That's what we don't have here. So, I certainly want to see continued moves made forward on pay, on career progression, on terms and conditions. So, the work that was paused on the ministerial group on paying for social care that, at one point, you were the chair of during your time in Government, that has continued. It's been paused because we were about to publish a series of reports to start a national debate just before coronavirus became a much bigger issue. I don't want to let that work go, but I certainly hope that's not just a commitment from the parties in Government, but much broader afield across each and every party about how we properly reward people and recognise them. And that recognition is in our integrated system; we're in a better place because we've made steps along the path of integration here in Wales. I think far from undermining the plan in 'A Healthier Wales' for health and social care, it reinforces the need to make steps on that journey and to make them more quickly, because they provide a better benefit, not only for our staff, but for the public that we serve.