Cwestiwn ysgrifenedig WQ93314

The publication of the joint Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) and Social Care Wales (SCW) 10-year A Healthier Wales: Our Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care Workforce in 2020 set out how we intend to provide a high-quality and skilled, flexible and responsive workforce to meet the demands placed on it. This included investing in the education and learning for health and social care professionals that will deliver the skills and capabilities needed to meet the future needs of people in Wales.

While we have seen some positive movements, aligned with policy changes and funding streams, we know these do not fully meet the scale of the challenge to attract people into the sector, recruit enough staff or retain the existing workforce. That is why we were pleased to recently publish the Social Care Workforce Delivery Plan 2024-27, which sets out a number of actions to address the issues facing our social care workforce and builds upon the momentum that has already been started.

Registration of the workforce reinforces our commitment to professionalising the social care workforce, while reassuring the public that social care workers are skilled, qualified and have the right attributes to deliver quality care and that they follow a code of professional practice. It also provides workers with access to more training and support to help with their continued professional development, which is a requirement of registration that ensures workers are always building upon their skills; and provides a means for workers to evidence their skills and qualifications to employers.

In respect of the nursing workforce in health and social care, there is parity in terms of education, training and professional registration.