Diolch, Llywydd. And I thank you for accepting this important topical question this afternoon.

1. Will the Minister make a statement on the exclusion of auxiliary care home staff from the care home and home care workers' bonus payments? TQ620

Thank you. The additional payment scheme is aligned to our introduction of the real living wage. It demonstrates our commitment to further improving terms and conditions and career structures for registered care workers. Ancillary staff deliver highly valuable roles, but are not registered care workers, and therefore are not in scope for this scheme.

Thank you for that answer, Deputy Minister. I'm pleased to see that the BBC today is reporting your rejection to pass on the £1,000 bonus for care workers onto all care home staff, including those who work as cleaners and in the kitchens. Top-quality care doesn't just depend on our excellent carers. Without a whole host of supporting roles, care will suffer. And it's a team effort—a team that have been through hell and back during this pandemic, and who suffered the strains of the pandemic and staff shortages. Your decision to exclude that bonus from care home kitchen staff, cleaners and caretakers is discriminatory, as if they didn't also go the extra mile during the pandemic. Were there no strict cleaning and hygiene procedures to follow? Did residents suddenly not need to be fed? Did these auxiliary staff just lay down tools and go home? No, they didn't. The staff believe it's unfair. I believe it's unfair, as do all of us on the Welsh Conservative benches. So, Deputy Minister, with that in mind, will you now agree to reconsider and pay all staff working in our care sector this bonus?

Thank you. I thank Gareth Davies for that question, that supplementary question. Schemes in 2020 and 2021 provided payments of £500 and £735 to a wider of range of workers in the social care sector, including those valuable workers that he's mentioned: the cleaners, the cooks, the gardeners—everybody in the care system. These payments were to recognise the extraordinary commitment of staff during the worst periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's absolutely right that the ancillary staff in the care homes rightly received both these payments. And that was in recognition of the danger that they were in and that they did go the extra mile, and I'm really glad we were able to pay them that. 

This is completely different, this new additional payment. It's specifically aligned, as I said, to our introduction of the real living wage for social care workers from this month—the real living wage is being introduced this month—and it's to demonstrate our commitment to make further improvements in the terms and conditions of professional social care jobs and to develop an improved career structure, and we continue to work with the social care fair work forum to these ends. We know that the kitchen staff, cleaners, activity co-ordinators, reception staff, they do a hugely valuable job and they ensure the highest quality of care provision. But they do not require the delivery of personal care that requires registration with Social Care Wales. We are trying to build up social care as a profession, and this is linked to the registration.

Thank you to the Deputy Minister for coming before us to give her response. But the truth is that there are several people who've contacted me and others here over the past few weeks to complain and express their concerns that they have been exempted from this bonus. Indeed, they say now that there are two tiers in the workforce in the care homes and that they, as auxiliary workers, feel that they're on the second tier. Now, the truth is—. To provide effective care services, this is the result of a whole-team effort, as we've heard, from the managers, to the care providers, to the care workers, to the cleaners, to the cooks and everyone else who is part of that process of ensuring that our loved ones are cared for. So, it's entirely incorrect that this Government has differentiated between the workforce and demonstrates a lack of respect and appreciation for this cohort who work so hard. I understand your argument that the intention is to ensure that these care workers are recognised and that it becomes a recognised profession so that people want to enter the profession, and that you want to increase the wage level, but that is also true about the auxiliary workforce. They deserve a better wage, they too deserve better working conditions. So, can I urge you once again to reconsider this decision and ensure that everyone who works in the sector receives this bonus payment to show that everyone is valued? 

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.

Thank you for that contribution. I want to absolutely assure you that there is no lack of respect for all those ancillary workers in the care homes; we absolutely respect what they do and have acknowledged that by the two previous payments that we have made. But, as I said in response to the previous question, this is aimed specifically at registered social care workers, and those groups of workers don't fit into that category. We are trying to build up social care as a profession; we want to have social care recognised in a way that recognises the hugely important job that they do. And, of course, the other ancillary workers, they do an enormously important job, but they're not required to be registered social care workers. So, this is aimed specifically at them. And I'm glad that the Member understands the logic of what we're trying to say, but I would hate anyone to think that we didn't appreciate the huge contribution made by all the other ancillary workers.

I thank the Deputy Minister.