Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 8 November 2022.
Leader of the house, could I seek two statements? One on care workers, due to the Government's announcement back in the spring to make money available to pay the real living wage to care workers here in Wales—a welcome initiative, I might add. I've been approached by various care providers in my own region, but I understand it's similar across the rest of Wales, that this money was transferred to local authorities and there was an element of local authority discretion as to how much of the £40 million-plus budget was made available to the care providers to hit that target of paying the real living wage. In the COVID crisis, when the Welsh Government had a similar initiative to reward care workers by giving them a £1,500 uplift in their wages, that money was paid directly to the care providers so that the money could be transferred to the employees in their employment. It's my understanding that many care providers are struggling to meet this obligation now, because local authorities have taken discretionary decisions over the allocation of this money. I have written to the Deputy Minister, but could we have a statement to talk about the general implementation of this policy? And, is she conscious of these concerns that have been raised with me, as I understand Care Forum Wales have raised similar concerns with her directly, and what action is the Welsh Government taking to remediate these concerns?
And my second request for a statement is in relation to the cladding announcement that the Minister made, who I can see is in her place today, in relation to the obligations and the voluntary agreement that she reached with developers here in Wales at the start of October. It's my understanding that those developers were to come forward to the Welsh Government within one month of signing the agreement with how they propose to remediate the wrongs of the cladding on buildings in Wales, and those plans, as I understand it, should have arrived with the Welsh Government at the end of last week or beginning of this week. Could I have an indication as to whether the Welsh Government will be bringing forward a statement, so that we can understand how confident the Minister is that the developers are living up to the commitments that they've made in that voluntary agreement, and how the Government will be holding the developers to account to make sure that the remedial action is put in place as a matter of urgency?