Responding to a Welsh NHS Confederation survey that found all NHS Wales leaders surveyed agreed there is a crisis in the social care workforce, with a subsequent impact on patient care and safety, Welsh Conservative and Shadow Social Services Minister Gareth Davies MS said:
“For NHS leaders to come out like this and say social care is in crisis proves that the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay is not meeting its obligations to the people of Wales.
“People in social care are vulnerable and the workforce are hard-working, and if we are in a state of crisis, then the safety of both groups are at risk.
“The crisis in social is wide-ranging, with a huge impact on hospitals who can’t discharge healthy patients, leading to bed blocking, overcrowded A&Es, and slow ambulances.
“It is not a silver bullet, but the Welsh Conservatives have argued hard for better pay for carers – such as by linking them to NHS pay-scales at relatively little cost to the Labour Government – but ministers said no. This is the cost of Labour.”
Mr Davies raised the issue in the Senedd today asking Lesley Griffiths (standing in at FMQs): “We now have winter on the horizon, together with a cost-of-living crisis, and our social care workers are amongst some of the lowest-paid workers in the labour market, despite the dedication they give and the difference they make to people day in, day out. So, Trefnydd, with that in mind, are you willing to look at this again and commit your Government to spending an additional £9 million to align social care staff pay with NHS pay scales and provide them with assurances that the Welsh Government is on their side?”
Griffiths replied: “£43 million of funding was made available to deliver our commitment to introduce the real living wage to social care workers. I think that's been very welcomed by the sector. The additional payment scheme for core social care staff, which was aligned to the introduction of the real living wage, made payments of £1,498 to over 63,000 social care workers across Wales in June, and that scheme marked our commitment to make further improvements to the terms and conditions and career pathways of social care workers. I absolutely agree: where would we be without our social care workers? We've also got the social care fair work forum. That's a social partnership group in which trade unions, the employers and Welsh Government come together to look at how the working conditions of social care workers can be improved here in Wales. And in the short term the forum has focused its efforts on improvements to pay and has provided advice on how we could take forward the real living wage.”