Covid-19: Social Care Services

Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Wheeler for bringing this important debate to the House today, and for her excellent speech. I am in close contact with the Welsh Government and local council leaders in Wales; therefore, my contribution will focus on the provision in Wales and demonstrate how social care services are being sustained at this critical time.

A group of Ministers has twice-weekly calls with all council leaders. In addition, there is constant contact between central and local government officials. As noble Lords know, the Coronavirus Act 2020 allows local authorities flexibility in the provision of care, but children were not included in this for Wales, unlike in England, so the legal protection for children’s care and support is being maintained in Wales.

Some £40 million has been provided in emergency funding for social care for an eight-week period, via local authorities, and it is expected that more funding will be needed from the Westminster Government to meet the increased costs of PPE, food, staffing and ICT that are being incurred by adult social services. It comes from the £1.1 billion fighting fund created by the Welsh Government to support public services to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

But 10 years of underfunding have seriously impeded the Welsh Government’s ability to respond financially. Their budget is billions below what they would have expected to receive based on the first decade of funding from a Labour Government. They have, however, as my noble friend Lord Hain noted, consistently spent more: 48% more on social services in Wales than in England. How much better the UK care sector would be if that focus had been taken by the UK Government.

The Welsh Government have since written to all registered providers of care home services, highlighting the need for care homes to sign up to the new care and support capacity tool, and to raise concerns with their local authority and the Care Inspectorate Wales without delay if they consider there to be imminent risks to the continuity of care.

Some 40% of all PPE now being distributed by the Welsh Government is going to social care, and the testing of social care staff and residents of care homes who are symptomatic started in Wales before it did in England. It is a shame that Dominic Raab did not mention that fact yesterday in the House of Commons when attacking the work of the Welsh Government Minister in charge of health.

Wales is the only UK country providing free childcare for all pre-school children, aged up to five, and for vulnerable children—those with social workers or a statement of special educational need.

Testing is an evolving area of work and Public Health Wales continues to increase capacity for testing through the establishment of drive-through testing facilities.

I hope that this brief but detailed account of work being undertaken in Wales brings some reassurance to Members that the Welsh Government are in close liaison with local authorities and are carrying out their duties at this critical time. I urge the UK Government to fully fund the work of the Welsh Government in dealing with this pandemic.