4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: The Health and Social Care Winter Protection Plan 2021-22

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:05 pm on 19 October 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 4:05, 19 October 2021

Thanks very much, Joyce, and the one thing that I have learnt since being appointed to this role is the absolute interrelationship between health and care. And it is really important that we understand that part of the reason for the fact that we have ambulances lining up at our front door is because we can't get people out through the back door because of the fragility of our care system, which is why we've had a huge recruitment campaign to try and get more people interested in what is a very important role, a very responsible role and a very rewarding role. And we will be launching another recruitment campaign fairly shortly as well. 

In relation to the bridging scheme in Hywel Dda, I was very pleased to see that being developed, and Swansea also has a very innovative action plan in relation to that kind of bridging that needs to be done, and taking people from hospital to home. But I do think it's important that we underline the fact that the statutory responsibility in relation to care remains with the local authorities, and what's important is that we honour our commitment that we made in the manifesto and we pay the living wage to those workers in the care sector. We're working very hard with the trade unions at the moment to work out how exactly we can do that. So, that'll be part of the focus that we'll be really concentrating on, once we have a much better view of what the budget looks like from the UK Government as well.