Will the Minister outline action the Welsh Government is taking to assist private care homes affected by low staffing levels, and will she confirm whether there are any plans for NHS or local authority resources to be made available to private providers to ensure they can maintain services?
We recognise the pressure on care home providers and staff at this time. Long standing challenges with recruitment and retention in the sector have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Staff have worked tirelessly though the pandemic and we are all indebted to them for the care they have provided for our most vulnerable citizens.
In the last few weeks, we have undertaken a national recruitment campaign which has increased job applications and we will be completing further media activity to promote work in social care over the coming weeks. We have added additional resource to Social Care Wales for them to increase targeted recruitment work – identifying groups of people who may not have previously considered a career in social care.
We are urgently considering other action to support the workforce and will deliver on our commitment to the Real Living Wage for social care workers early in this term.
We know local authorities and health boards have made their own arrangements to provide staff to assist in care homes in the private sector where this has been required. Principles of good working practices for this ‘mutual aid’ were agreed during the first wave of the pandemic and are published on the Social Care Wales website[1]
[1] Advice for emergency staffing situations – mutual aid | Social Care Wales