00:00James Evans.
00:01James Evans AM.
00:02First Minister, the long-term future for social care requires a long-term workforce, and concerns
00:08have been raised regarding the Welsh Government's funding approach for the real living wage
00:12for social care workers, as funding is provided for the local government revenue support grant
00:18without specific ring-fenced funding.
00:22Organisations have expressed grave concerns about this method, noting significant funding
00:26shortfalls experienced by care providers across Wales in delivering the real living wage.
00:32They emphasise the necessity for clear, identifiable ring-fenced funding to ensure social care
00:38providers receive the necessary support that they need to deliver social care and pay the
00:42real living wage to their staff.
00:45So, given these concerns, First Minister, could you detail what work the Welsh Government
00:49is doing to ensure that the allocated funds for the real living wage are effectively reaching
00:54front-line social care providers, and they're not being reallocated across councils to deal
01:00with funding shortfalls that they're experiencing?
01:02Thanks very much, and I'm really pleased to hear that you are in support of paying the
01:07real living wage to our care workers in Wales, but you're quite right.
01:15What we do is we hand over money to local government through the RSG allocation, and
01:25it is not hypothecated, but we have made it clear to them that the moneyóthis is what,
01:31more or less, we expect for you to spendóso, that money has been effectively a soft hypothecation,
01:37and we would expect that to be spent in the areas where we have deemed that it should
01:43be spent.
01:44So, we are always having constructive discussions with our colleagues in local government, but
01:50that is a fundamental principle for us.
01:52If you don't pay the real living wage, then the difficulty of recruiting people in an
01:57area that is already stretched is going to simply cause you more problems in the long
02:01run.
02:02Paul Davies AM.
02:03What is the Welsh Government doing to support businesses in Preseli, Pembrokeshire?
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