Social Care Staff Pay

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 27 September 2022.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:11, 27 September 2022

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.