Will the Cabinet Secretary indicate what plans are in place for retaining and recruiting nurses to the care sector workforce, particularly in light of the potential expansion of the Nurse Staffing Levels Act to other sectors?
Nurses form a vital and valued part of the social care workforce, supporting social care clients who often require highly skilled nursing care.
Employers are responsible for recruiting and retaining nurses through workforce planning, designing fulfilling jobs, offering attractive terms and conditions of employment, and providing good support to their staff.
In support of this, the Welsh Government increased the volume of nurse training places for the 2016/17 intake. This was the highest level of nurse training places commissioned in Wales since devolution. This equated to a 10% increase in the number of nursing training places commissioned compared to the previous intake, which is in addition to the 22% increase for the 2015/16 intake. Commissioning numbers for the academic year 2017/18 will be announced in early February.
In response to concerns about the fragility of the care home sector, the Welsh Government established a Care Homes Steering Group engaging stakeholders to explore how care home services, including the care home workforce could be better supported. This has included examining the scope of the nursing role to consider how some nursing activities can be appropriately delegated to other care staff to maximise the skill mix within care homes, so that nurses can more effectively focus the use of their time, for example, by specialising on more technical and complex care activities.
The Welsh Government also invests financial resources in the social care workforce. It provides an annual £10m grant, including a match funded element from local authorities, to improve the quality of social care provision through a planned approach to training. The funding increases the proportion of staff across the whole social care sector with the qualifications, skills and knowledge they need for the work they do.
Looking forwards, Social Care Wales is being formed from the Care Council for Wales. It will begin operating in April using a powerful combination of functions to strengthen services and the workforce that provides them. Extending workforce registration across the social care workforce and workforce planning will be amongst its core activities to enable a sustainable social care workforce.
The Welsh Government is currently consulting on the statutory guidance required by the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016. The consultation asks for views on work force planning guidance. Response from the consultation will be used to consider any further guidance required.