Written question WQ84653

We are pleased to have announced that we are making an additional payment of £1498, before deductions for tax and national insurance, to social care workers.

This is different to the payment schemes we established in 2020 and 2021. These previous schemes provided payments of £500 and £735 to a wide range of workers across the social care sector and recognised the extraordinary commitment of staff during the worst periods of the pandemic. Ancillary staff in care homes were included in these payments.

The new additional payment is different. It is specifically aligned to the introduction of the Real Living Wage for social care, which starts in April. Those eligible for the payment will be care workers and managers in care homes and domiciliary support services, and Personal Assistants.

The additional payment demonstrates our commitment to make further improvements to the terms and conditions of professional social care jobs and to develop an improved career structure. We want more people to have long and rewarding careers as professionally registered social care workers.

Ancillary staff in care homes make a valuable and important contribution to residents’ wellbeing but they have different responsibilities. They are not delivering personal care services, which requires registration with Social Care Wales. For this reason, ancillary staff are not in scope for this additional payment.