Support for Self-isolating Families

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 8 December 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:21, 8 December 2020

Llywydd, I thank David Rees for those important points. We discussed these matters at the last meeting of the social partnership council with representatives of employers in the private and public sectors, as well as the trade unions that were present. I'm very glad that the campaign that we have launched and are running at the moment is one supported by the Confederation of British Industry and the Federation of Small Businesses, as well as the Wales TUC. It's there to make sure that employers, as well as workers, know and then live up to their responsibilities.

The reason why we've extended self-isolation payments to parents and carers of children has been rehearsed on the floor, here, of the Senedd; I think Helen Mary Jones raised it with me last week. But, also, the more coronavirus is in circulation, the more people will be asked to self-isolate. In South Wales Police alone, 350 staff and police officers have been asked to self-isolate in the last seven days. That is the impact of coronavirus in our communities and on our key public services. It is why it is absolutely essential and unambiguous that we have to take the actions that we are taking. Where people try to chip away at it, looking for restrictions to be lifted and acting as though restrictions are not necessary for the health of the public, that sort of figure simply tells you that unless we get this under control and act together to do it, the impact is absolutely real, not just in the health service but in other public services as well.

David Rees asked how many times it's possible to claim the payment. I think we allow it at the moment on three different occasions. If a setting has needed to ask people to self-isolate for three times in a row, then we think it is right to pause and find out what is going on in that setting, because, in the way that David Rees said, sometimes we need to put the cause of the problem right in a workplace, rather than always just dealing with the consequences.