Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 3 November 2021.
This is obviously a danger that can happen. As you know, we've set up the social care fair work forum, which has recently produced their report about how we will deliver the real living wage and that is being considered by officials at the moment. I hope we'll be able to announce something on that soon. So, that is imminent. But of course, it's not just the pay, it's the terms and the conditions and all the other things. As you say, the NHS staff have much improved conditions compared to social care staff. So, I think we have to make every effort to boost the social care profession. At least through all this pandemic, I think people are now aware of what social care is, and I think there is an appreciation of what social care workers do, and we are determined to uphold the standing of the profession. One of the things we have done is registration of the profession; all domiciliary care workers are now registered, which increases the standing of the profession, and we are moving on to residential care workers now, to do the same there. I think that what we've got to do is increase the standing of the profession, show that we value the work of the social care workers. We did make two payments to them during the period of the pandemic, and I know that they were very grateful in terms of the recognition of what they contribute. I think that's what we've got to do.