Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 12 October 2021.
I certainly agree that people who work in the sector will feel the impact of the failures of the UK Government to contain the rises in energy prices, in food prices, and to have had a workable plan for the way in which the United Kingdom has withdrawn from the European Union. The Welsh Government led a successful recruitment campaign for social care workers in August and September, and I've seen the encouraging results of that campaign, encouraging enough for us to want to use the campaign again at the end of this month and into the autumn and winter to try to do everything we can to bring the many benefits that people who work in the sector feel from the important work that they do. We want to roll out a real living wage, but we will wait for the advice of the social care fair work forum in doing that, because we need to be confident that the money that the public purse will provide will make its way directly into the pay packets of those who it is intended to advantage.