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 5:34 pm on 9 February 2021.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 5:34, 9 February 2021

Thank you very much, Janet, for all those points. First of all, I want to emphasise that this is only one bit of a jigsaw, and I explained at the beginning of the statement that the Minister for Health and Social Services will be coming to the Senedd to discuss the results of the inter-ministerial group. A lot of work has been done on that group to establish what the cost would be of taking forward certain priorities, and I think that he is in the best position to go through those issues with you. What I presented to you today is only part of the solution that we're proposing. The issue that Janet raised about a social care tax, all those have been considered by the inter-ministerial group and the Senedd will hear about that in due course.

The RPBs are still relatively new, but I think that we have seen signs of health and social services and local government working together better in those forums. What we've had said back to us is that they do not have enough tools to do what they want to do. We think that it's crucial that health and social services do work more closely together, but also to involve the third sector. As the Member will know, on RPBs, the third sector has a place. There's a place for the citizen's voice and a place for carers, and we want to strengthen those voices on RPBs. So, we think that RPBs are good bodies to build upon.

In terms of the national office, the national office could be part of the Government or it could be an arm's-length body. That is something that is in the consultation paper, and I hope that people will respond to the consultation paper to say what they think about that. Yes, we will need a lot of extra social care workers, because we know that we have an ageing population. But, one thing that we do want is that we want people to remain in their own homes as long as they possibly can, because that's what people want. We therefore want to see that we can give as much support for people to stay at home as we can. That is why we also feel that local government is the best place to deliver social care, because local government is close to the community.

We would like to see residential homes, for example, being much more a part of local communities. Many of them are already, but that, I think, is the way that we would like to see things develop. But, because of the fragility of the sector, and because of the huge range that there is within the sector, in terms of the fees that are charged and the fragility of the workforce, we think that by having a central, small body to try and determine how things are done within a national framework—that's what we think will help to address those issues. So, I thank the Member for her comments.