6. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services: The Rebalancing Care and Support White Paper

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:41 pm on 9 February 2021.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 5:41, 9 February 2021

Thank you very much, Rhun. Your last statement does not sound dissimilar to what we are proposing.

There are a lot of issues there. If I start off on the workforce, I am absolutely committed to recognising the value of the social care workforce. Certainly, this pandemic has absolutely highlighted the importance of the workforce. The public do, I think—maybe some for the first time—realise how crucial a job the social care workforce are carrying out. I was very pleased that we were able to recognise their work by acknowledging them with the £500 bonus, which was very well welcomed. But also, I think, it was an absolute recognition of the work that they're doing.

In the work of the inter-ministerial group, the pay of the social care workforce has been one of the dominant issues discussed. And, of course, as I've said, the Minister will come and speak to the Senedd about the range of options and their costs that have come up through the inter-ministerial group. A few Members said that we shouldn't let austerity determine it. We're not letting austerity determine what we're doing; we're just saying, really, that one of the results of austerity is that this situation is even more acute.

We are building the professionalism of the workforce already. As you will know, we have established a register of social care workers, which has been widely welcomed by the sector, and the social care worker card has also been very widely welcomed. We have tried, during the pandemic, to get as much parity as we possibly can between the health and social care workers. I think that there are huge challenges with social care, and I absolutely agree with you, Rhun, that it is crucial that health and social care work closely together.

I do feel very strongly that people who need social care help should be kept in the community as long as they possibly can, because that's where they want to be. But, of course, we do need the support for them to be there. I do think you're absolutely right in mentioning housing. Housing is one of the key issues that we have looked at in the inter-ministerial group, and things like extra housing and extra support in the community is one of the areas that I think that we definitely should be following and one of the things that the Government would support.