Please can I ask for a statement, Minister, from the Minister for health, about the real living wage? Since Welsh Government announced its financial support to social care providers to ensure that all support workers will receive the real living wage, there have been complaints that providers are not receiving the funding that was supposed to be channelled to them through local authorities and health boards. There is considerable confusion about how the money should be passed on. Some local authorities and health boards refuse to provide funding if a commissioned service isn't located in their territory, while others take a completely different approach and refuse funding if they do not directly commission services with the local provider.

One Welsh care provider expects to occur additional costs of more than £250,000 per year for implementing the real living wage increase, yet, seven months after rising wages, it has only been offered an additional £23,000 annually to cover its costs. Welsh Government has admitted that they knew that—and I quote—implementation would be challenging for local authorities and health boards in the first year, and that they are aware that there may have been different approaches across local authorities and health boards. Providers have not been reassured by the Welsh Government's vague assertion that independent dynamic evaluation and their own monitoring processes on the effectiveness of the roll-out will be able to identify improvements and develop better processes for the future. And in this economically challenging time, providers are increasingly frustrated that the Welsh Government is not providing greater leadership in resolving this urgent problem, which is causing considerable financial hardship for Welsh social care employers. So, please, Minister, can the health Minister make a statement to provide social care providers with specific details around the process of dynamic evaluation monitoring—who is managing this, what are the timelines for reporting, and when can the planned process improvements be expected? Also, where providers have had to fund the real living wage increases on behalf of the Welsh Government, will the Welsh Government reimburse them for the interest on these moneys? Thank you.