9. Will the First Minister provide an update on social care staff pay? OQ58428

Thank you. The real living wage for social care workers remains a priority for the Welsh Government. The sector urgently needed support with recruitment and retention issues, exacerbated by challenges presented during the COVID-19 pandemic. We made £43 million available to local authorities and health boards for 2022-23 to deliver this support.

Thank you for that answer, Trefnydd. The reason I ask this question today is for the reason that we now have winter on the horizon, together with a cost-of-living crisis, and our social care workers are amongst some of the lowest-paid workers in the labour market, despite the dedication they give and the difference they make to people day in, day out. So, Trefnydd, with that in mind, are you willing to look at this again and commit your Government to spending an additional £9 million to align social care staff pay with NHS pay scales and provide them with assurances that the Welsh Government is on their side?

Thank you. As I said, £43 million of funding was made available to deliver our commitment to introduce the real living wage to social care workers. I think that's been very welcomed by the sector. The additional payment scheme for core social care staff, which was aligned to the introduction of the real living wage, made payments of £1,498 to over 63,000 social care workers across Wales in June, and that scheme marked our commitment to make further improvements to the terms and conditions and career pathways of social care workers. I absolutely agree: where would we be without our social care workers?

We've also got the social care fair work forum. That's a social partnership group in which trade unions, the employers and Welsh Government come together to look at how the working conditions of social care workers can be improved here in Wales. And in the short term the forum has focused its efforts on improvements to pay and has provided advice on how we could take forward the real living wage.