- 09/01/2017
- Posted by: Mike Hedges MS
- Category: Press Releases
Mike Hedges AM welcomes £10 mILLION a year more for social care
An extra £10 million a year of new funding will help ensure the social care sector is strong and sustainable for the future, Welsh Labour’s Minister for Social Services and Public Health Rebecca Evans has said.
Mike said… ‘This is great news! Social Care is a major issue families, the Health Service and local government; this new investment will help ease a growing area of concern. I also support the payment of the Living Wage and welcome that Care providers will be expected to pay this.’
The new investment will form part of a three-way agreement to be established between the Welsh Labour Government, local government and social care employers to work together to create a more stable social care workforce.
The Welsh Labour Government funding will help meet the extra costs associated with the introduction of the national living wage and will also support work to create a fully registered workforce by 2022. It is in addition to the extra £25 million for social care, which was announced in the Welsh Labour Government’s draft 2017-18 Budget in October.
Further funding to support social care in 2017-18 will be available as the maximum weekly charge for homecare and other non-residential care rises from £60 to £70 from April 2017. The uplift will complement the extra £10 million a year investment, ensuring that care across Wales continues to be of good quality. The rise reflects the need to invest in domiciliary care and takes account of inflation over the two-year period that the current £60 maximum charge has been in place. It will raise more than £4m a year in additional income for local authorities to use to tackle pressures in the social care sector, including financial pressures caused by the introduction of the national living wage.
The Welsh Labour Government has prioritised social care as a sector of national strategic importance and is supporting the integration of health and social care through the £60 million Intermediate Care Fund.
