Written question WQ86629
- Asked by
- Gareth DaviesConservative
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 6 days
Question
Will the Minister provide an update on the 10-year plan to recruit 20,000 more social care workers, alongside a breakdown of the numbers of new social workers recruited so far?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services
The joint HEIW and SCW Social Care Workforce Strategy (‘A Healthier Wales: Our Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care’, published in October 2020), is the ten-year strategy which sets out the actions that will be taken to support the social care workforce. The strategy is underpinned by annual delivery plans, which are available on the Social Care Wales website.
Social Care Wales gathers data on the number of workers in the sector through an annual survey. This includes the number of social workers, and is available here: Social care workforce report
Aligned with the ambitions in the strategy, we are taking forward a number of actions to support recruitment and retention in social care. This year, £43m of funding was provided for salary uplifts in 2022-23. This is on top of the additional payment schemes we have implemented during the pandemic. Enhanced financial support was made available for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in Wales via the Social Work Bursary which equates to a funding pot of almost £10 million over the next three years to assist with the training of future social workers. We have also provided an additional £45m for local authorities through the workforce grant and continue to support targeted promotional campaigns using the WeCareWales brand.