Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 27 April 2022.
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.