Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 1 March 2023.
I welcome the Member's interest in this area and very much share what he said in terms of the—whilst one-off payments are welcome, it is about the implementation of the real living wage, but actually the real living wage is just one part of an element of a fair work package and what we're seeking to do through the social care fair work forum to sustain the sector well into the future, as well as, what we discussed, as you said, in the statement around fair work today—yesterday, sorry; I'm losing track of days.
I'm working very closely with my colleague Julie Morgan to make sure that actually, clearly, we have the access more directly through local authorities, but also working through those commissioning services and the infrastructure that's in place to ensure that those payments are made promptly. And the Deputy Minister for Social Care and I did attend, just prior to the recess, an event not far from here in Cardiff, to celebrate the payment of the real living wage and the new uplift for social care workers. But, quite rightly, community groups there and care workers were holding our feet to the fire to go further and to actually support the real living wage right across Wales, but also across the sector as a whole, and it's very much something we're committed to in a sustainable way.