One of the committee's key conclusions was that more should be done to ensure parity of terms and conditions and pay with NHS staff, with the intention of retaining staff and being competitive with other industries or sectors, such as the hospitality industry. The committee welcomes the Welsh Government's acceptance of this recommendation and introduction of the real living wage for social care workers. However, we'd be grateful if the Welsh Government could advise when the increase in the real living wage, announced by the Living Wage Foundation on 22 September, will be made available to providers via local authorities, where it's understood that, currently, recipients are still only receiving £9.90 per hour.

The committee also acknowledges the work of the social care fair work forum, which is looking at working conditions for social care workers. The committee urges the Welsh Government to go further in its proposals to ensure parity with NHS staff and to be competitive with other sectors. We welcome the Welsh Government's stated commitment to evaluating the work of the WeCare.Wales recruitment campaign. The committee also welcomes the work of Social Care Wales in learning about how social care providers recruit care workers and the challenges they face in so doing. We look forward to hearing more about their work, once it's completed next April.

On the subject of care home inspections, the committee is encouraged to hear about the efforts to reflect the opinions of service users during their inspections, but believes that more should be done to expand this part of the inspection process. Whilst the committee is encouraged to note Care Inspectorate Wales or CIW's intention to inspect all registered adult care homes in the period between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2023, it is concerning to note that this aim may not be achieved. We, therefore, encourage the Welsh Government to update the committee on CIW's progress once this period concludes, and on how it complies with the measures introduced by the Welsh Government some years ago following a very worrying report by the then older people's commissioner.

The committee is disappointed that the Welsh Government has chosen to reject three recommendations, and particularly on top-up fees. We were deeply concerned about the nature of these fees and the way they are communicated to service users. The committee heard evidence about how top-up fees were being misapplied to service users, meaning that some of our most vulnerable citizens were faced with costs for basic services. The Older People's Commissioner for Wales told the committee that service users were unclear about what services would incur top-up fees, going on to state that families had approached her office because of, quote,

'unexpected, sudden bills for top-up fees, quite often for things that you would expect should be in the standard fee'.

The commissioner told us that service users had been charged for accessing the garden, for example. So, we strongly disagree with applying top-up fees for accessing basic services and rights, and concluded that more should be done to tighten the rules around these top-up fees, along with a new independent redress system to allow decisions to be challenged. Unfortunately, the Welsh Government chose to reject these recommendations, stating that clear guidelines are in place as part of the continuing healthcare framework, prohibiting top-up fees for basic services. However, the committee has been told by sector experts that these damaging practices continue to occur.

The Welsh Government's guidance on this matter is not working and is unclear for service users and providers. We question what is being done to monitor and evaluate the impact of this framework, when it's clear from the Welsh Government response they seem unaware that this guidance is not being followed, despite the evidence to the contrary in our report. The committee urges the Welsh Government in the strongest terms to urgently review this matter, and, as part of that review, to work with users and the organisations who represent them, such as Care Forum Wales, Age Cymru and the older people's commissioner, amongst others, to develop a new approach to top-up fees that works for the social care sector, and more importantly, its users.

The Welsh Government also rejected the committee's proposal about mandatory information sharing across the care home sector, with a particular focus on service user experience and satisfaction. The committee had concluded that this information should be shared at a national level, to ensure all parties have access to consistent and relevant information, linked with the seven well-being goals for Wales. In their response, the Welsh Government told the committee they were not seeking to mandate information sharing as they did not view the 'high cost' of implementing these provisions as resulting in

'a proportionate benefit in terms of data development over and above the measures we have already taken and have in hand.'

The committee would like to know, therefore, how the Welsh Government calculated this 'high cost', and what the calculation showed. It is regrettable that the Welsh Government sees implementing such a provision as a cost, as opposed to an investment in the social care sector, which should lead to cost benefits and a better body of information, including the voice of lived experience, to influence and shape future policy making in this area.

The committee heard from the chief executive of Care Forum Wales about the challenges associated with collecting information across local authority and health board boundaries, with different information requested in different formats. A national system would streamline this process and provide a comprehensive body of information on which to base future cost-saving decisions in the sector. It is therefore regrettable that the Welsh Government has disregarded the committee's conclusions in this area. The committee will continue to pursue these issues with the Welsh Government, and we otherwise look forward to further dialogue with them on this topic, and will be closely monitoring the implementation of our recommendations.