Diolch, Llywydd. I'm pleased to be able to outline today our approach to ensuring that the real living wage is the minimum rate paid to care workers in Wales. We've long expressed our support for the Living Wage Foundation's real living wage, and this is something we would like to see implemented across all sectors of the economy. But we recognise that additional action is needed to ensure that it is implemented in social care. That is why it is a key element of our programme for government and a key priority for this Senedd term.

During the pandemic, social care workers began to receive wider recognition for the important role that they have in providing care and support to those that need it most. However, there is no greater recognition than fair reward. We are committed to creating a stronger, better paid workforce in social care. Improving pay for care workers supports our commitment to a fairer Wales, and underpins good-quality social care services that many people rely on.

Last year, we convened the social care fair work forum. The forum is a social partnership group in which our partners have come together to look at how the working conditions of social care workers can be improved in Wales. Social partnership brings together trade unions, employers and Government to identify and implement solutions that bring about better outcomes. It's a well-established way of working in Wales. So, I will be looking to the social care fair work forum to help us take forward the real living wage commitment. This is a long-term commitment, and we must work collectively with it to ensure that it brings about long-term sustainable change.

We intend to embark early in the Senedd term; I will be asking the social care work forum for their advice on how best to take this commitment forward and how we can ensure that, in doing it, we do not destabilise this fragile and complex sector. I also want to work jointly with the forum to understand how we might maximise the impact of this funding.

Fair work is about more than pay. The definition of fair work that we have adopted in Wales covers six characteristics, with equality and inclusion as a common thread throughout all of these. The characteristics include, for example, employee voice and collective representation, security and flexibility, growth and progression, and safe, healthy and inclusive working environments. We need to be confident that public funds will mean workers are better off and the sector stronger, and that public funds will be a catalyst and a lever for employers introducing a wider range of benefits and fair work practices for workers.

Social care workers deserve fair reward, and there is a sense of urgency in ensuring that happens, and I want to see a first group of workers receiving the payment early in this term of Government.