1. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government about plans to introduce a health and social care levy for Wales from April 2023? OQ57187

The UK Government didn't engage with the Welsh Government ahead of the announcement. At a finance Ministers quadrilateral ahead of the spending review, I pressed the Chief Secretary to the Treasury for more details. Subsequently, my officials have met with HM Treasury officials to understand the technicalities of how the funding will flow.

Diolch yn fawr. Much of the conversation about the health and social care levy in England has focused on older adults. NSPCC Cymru is concerned that children could be overlooked if we don't ensure that their needs are part of the conversation here in Wales. Data has shown that, on the UK level, the number of looked-after children is growing faster than the child population. At the same time, there continues to be a year-on-year increase in the number of children entering care in Wales, which is placing an increased demand on already stretched services. To combat this, Welsh Government will need to focus on additional investment in early help for families, including parental support for new and expectant parents. Does the Minister agree that there should be parity of funding between children and adults needing social care when the new levy comes into force?

Thank you very much for raising that issue. I've been having some discussion with colleagues in terms of the budget for next year, but, within this year, we've already recognised that we have a real need to further invest in children's services and particularly so because we're concerned about the number of children who are being taken into care. So, that's why, on 14 September, I allocated £40 million to aid the implementation of the social care recovery framework, and that will obviously support children's services.

But we've also provided £20 million this financial year to manage the demand for placements and to secure better placements for those children and young people who need them, whilst activity is taking place to increase the range of accommodation and in-patient options that will meet the needs of those who have the highest need. We do have a very ambitious programme of reform for the development of children's services. That’s in both the short and medium terms in order to help relieve the pressures on children’s services by taking action to develop what we started in the previous Senedd term to prevent families from being broken up, to reduce the number of children being taken into care and to provide care for children who are in care much closer to home where appropriate.

We’ve committed to delivering on our priorities for children’s services, awarding £3.5 million to regional partnership boards to pump prime the delivery of regional residential accommodation for care-experienced children with complex needs. But, as I say, we're looking forward in terms of additional funding for health and social care and currently having those discussions with colleagues, but I want to provide reassurance that we do recognise the importance of children’s social services and also children’s mental health as well.

Good afternoon, Minister. Minister, I'm sure you will agree that social care is in crisis—a crisis that has spread beyond the care sector and is having a very real impact on our NHS and services. However, we won’t solve the issues in healthcare by diverting more money to the NHS. The health and social care levy will bring in the much-needed funds to ensure that our social care staff earn a decent wage—a wage that’ll make social care a desirable profession and help to address the recruitment problems facing the sector. Minister, will you ensure that funding from the social care levy is provided to local government so that we can ensure that the care sector is properly funded? Thank you.

That is an interesting and important question, because we absolutely recognise that pressures in social care have a direct impact on NHS services and we're seeing some of that happening at the moment. It's interesting as well because, in terms of the national insurance contributions, the UK Government has suggested it will be putting the vast majority of that into health services rather than social services in the first instance. However, as I say, I'm having discussions with colleagues about the budget that we'll be publishing on 20 December, and I just want to reassure colleagues of the importance that we place on social services. We've already stated that we would look to give local government the best possible settlement because, of course, those services are mostly delivered through local government, although there is usually a contribution made from the health main expenditure group as well.