5. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Health and Social Services and further and higher education institutions about developing training for social care professionals? OQ58738

I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues about education, training and development and their portfolios.

Minister, we know that having the right number of qualified and well-supported professionals in the health and social care sector is vital for the delivery of high-quality services. Our higher and further education colleges are key to ensuring we can attract, inspire and train people in the range of health and care disciplines we need. They do a superb job. Looking specifically at further education, what more can we do to actually promote a career in care to those young people who are the workforce of the future?

That's a really important question—thank you to Altaf Hussain for raising it. There's a huge amount of work under way to ensure that social care workers across the sector in Wales can receive the training that they need to do their jobs well, and that that is promoted to people as a career path. Social Care Wales, as the regulator, the body with responsibility for workforce development, works with higher education institutions, FE institutions and others on a range of matters in relation to education and training, but qualifications obviously are key to the registration of the social care workforce, which is an important part of our professionalisation agenda for the sector. We continue to provide significant funds to the social care sector for training and development, through the social care workforce development programme with Social Care Wales. You will also know, I think, that Qualifications Wales has also recently established a sector qualification group to examine health, social care and childcare in particular, to seek and to receive feedback around any gaps in provision, resolving any issues relating to the post-16 qualification, so that we can make sure that that is an attractive and popular route for young people looking at a profession in the care sector as an option, so that it's popular for them to take up.