What actions will the Welsh Government take to build the resilience of the social care sector to mitigate the impact on this service in the possible event of any future pandemic?
The Welsh Government is investing additional resources to strengthen the social care sector. The budget allocation for 2022-23 provides a major step up in resources for local authorities. The overall increase for social care, on a like for like basis, is £180.5m within the settlement.
This is enabling the core social care workforce to be paid as a minimum at the level of the Real Living Wage, thus delivering on a key Programme for Government commitment. A range of other actions to strengthen the workforce are set out in the workforce strategy jointly developed by Social Care Wales and Health Education and Improvement Wales.
Furthermore, through the new £45m Social Care Reform fund in 2022-23 we will support unpaid carers to access respite care, and fund support for child and family well-being to safely divert cases from child protection registration.
For the first time we have established a capital fund for social care allocating £50m in 2022-23, with that growing in the second and third years of the budget. The focus will be on rebalancing social care, and meeting our Programme for Government commitment to develop fifty integrated community hubs across the government term.
With the Regional Partnership Boards established under Part 9 of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, Local Authorities and Local Health Boards have developed much stronger working relationships and now actively collaborate to meet the care and support needs of individual across the whole region. The new Regional Integration Fund allocates over £140m in the current financial year to support the integration of planning and the delivery of more seamless health and social provision.
Our actions are being steered following the outcome of our Rebalancing Care and Support White Paper. In terms of the longer term vision, through the Cooperation Agreement, an Expert Group has been established to make practical recommendations about establishing a National Care Service.