7. The Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:42 pm on 3 June 2020.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 4:42, 3 June 2020

I'd like to thank Janet Finch-Saunders for those comments, and I'd just like to reiterate that these are temporary measures that are taken in an emergency situation. They will not be permanent measures, and the points that she made have all been carefully considered.

In terms of one of the last points she made, about whether it applies to private provision, I'd like to inform her that the provision around shared rooms applies to private, local authority and third sector adult care homes equally. So, they do apply to private provision. Also, the easements around holding evidence apply to the appointment of private, third sector and local authority domiciliary and residential care staff, and the only distinction is made in relation to emergency COVID-19 provision. Here, we considered it absolutely essential that there be statutory oversight of the provision. Private providers can deliver the commissioned provision. So, I hope that's cleared that up about the private provision.

I would like also to emphasise, in terms of the people who are being recruited, that they are still subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks. The responsibility is on the care home owner to ensure that suitable people are recruited. But I think the Member will accept that, in these extraordinary circumstances, there has to be a degree of flexibility to ensure that we are able to expand the provision if we have to in order to cope with this extraordinarily difficult time.