3. Will the First Minister provide an update on the use of personal protective equipment in care homes in Arfon? OQ56933

Thank you very much to Siân Gwenllian for that question. Care home staff will still need to wear personal protective equipment to protect residents and themselves from the risk of COVID‑19. This includes staff in Arfon care homes. We continue to provide free PPE to care homes, for as long as is needed, to deal with the pandemic. 

It's still not clear what the situation is in terms of those providing care in the community and the use of one part of PPE, namely the gowns. Many have been in touch with me given their concerns that they are being treated as second class in relation to their colleagues in clinical settings, because they don't have to wear gowns. This is one message that I received: 

'When we try to keep positive clients out of hospital and protect others in the community, we are refused a vital piece of PPE'. 

Can you confirm what the situation is exactly as to why workers are being treated differently, and will you reconsider this? In the words of my constituent once again, this is what she said: 

'Social care is already at crisis point. The recruitment and retention of care staff is at an all-time low, and this will only compound the situation further as staff will feel they're not being protected, and will seek alternative employment'. 

Well, Llywydd, I thank Siân Gwenllian very much for those supplementary points. They're important, and I've heard myself that people working in the field feel the same way. But throughout the pandemic, the nature of the PPE that has been provided to social care has been led by the specialist expert committee that provides advice to this Government here in Wales and to every other Government in the United Kingdom. They look at everything that emanates from the field, every report available, and their advice then goes to the four chief medical officers and the four chief nursing officers, and they then reflect that advice to us and tell us, 'That is the PPE that is appropriate for people working in context A, context B and so on and so forth'. Everything they tell us we then ensure that we actually give that equipment—we fund it and we issue it. If the advice changes—and they monitor and look at this advice regularly—then this Government's standpoint here in Wales will also change. But it's not down to me to go against the advice that we receive from people who are much more familiar with the field than myself. When they say, 'That is what is appropriate in that context,' then that's what we do.

Thank you, First Minister, for your response to Siân Gwenllian there. I certainly sympathise with the comments made via Siân Gwenllian with the words from care home owners and care home workers. It's difficult, I think, for many of us to understand that significant difference in protection for roles and tasks that seem quite similar, between a health worker and a care support worker, but clearly you've answered the question to you in regard to that.

On a slightly wider point, in regard to PPE and its supply, you mentioned there the free supply into care homes, which of course is welcome. But of course throughout the pandemic it's been the role of local authorities and county councils to ensure the supply does end up at the doorstep of care homes and domiciliary care workers as well, and I'm sure you'll agree they've done an amazing job through that time in terms of logistics and getting that equipment to the places that need it. In light of that, what plans do you have to ensure that this supply is able to continue and that there aren't any surprises, especially over the winter months, in demand for this supply, so that social care workers are properly protected? Thanks.

Llywydd, I thank the Member for that. I entirely agree with what he said about the amazing job that local authorities in all parts of Wales have done, suddenly having to gear themselves up to provide a service that they had never hitherto had to provide. I think sometimes members of the public don't quite realise that, until the pandemic, the responsibility for sourcing and paying for PPE in a care home was entirely the responsibility of the care home owner or manager themselves. Between us, between the Welsh Government, between the shared services department, and between local authorities, we managed to put into place a very complex supply chain. There are hundreds and hundreds of care homes in Wales, let alone the domiciliary care settings that Siân Gwenllian referred to, so I entirely share the Member's views of the amazing job that was done to put that in place. We have guaranteed until the end of this financial year, Llywydd, that we will continue to fund PPE through local authorities to care homes; 450 million items have already been supplied to the care sector here in Wales, and we currently have a 24-week supply of PPE, across all the different ranges, in all warehouses, as we go into this winter. The Member will know, in the very early days of the pandemic, there were some supply chain vulnerabilities in Wales and across the United Kingdom. Those have been very carefully addressed, and with 24 weeks already in the warehouse I think we can be confident through the winter.

What happens beyond the end of March this year will depend a great deal on what we learn from the comprehensive spending review at the end of October, and whether there are to be continued funds across the United Kingdom to go on providing the supplies that we are currently able to provide.