, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
I thank Mark Isherwood for that question. I refer you back to the answer I gave to Llyr Gruffydd, which was relating to the overall process for the setting of care home fees. You've come—. Sorry, Llyr, I didn't address the point you raised about continuing…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Diolch, Llyr, for that supplementary question. There are two things that you referred to there: there are the care home fees and there are the charges for continuing healthcare, and they are different things, and, actually, they sit in different ministerial…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Diolch. The local authorities have statutory responsibility for planning and putting in place care for their local citizens, which would include the provision of care homes. On an annual basis, local authorities set and agree their own commissioning fee rates…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Yes, can I thank Mike Hedges for that supplementary? I would absolutely agree with him in terms of the importance of social care, particularly in the two examples that you've just talked about—the delayed transfers of care. I'm working very closely with the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Social care services are vital to the people of Wales. Annual data demonstrates that, at any one time, local government provides over 70,000 citizens with care and support. We continue to work across the health and social care system to ensure that people can…
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
The RIA, yes.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Indeed, yes.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
It's a big area, yes—it is.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes, absolutely. And we know that a lot of these are informal, unofficial arrangements. The ones that we deal with are those kinship carers that go through the system and are registered as kinship carers, and they have the same registration process that they…
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
It's certainly our ambition, Mike, to ensure that kinship carers are treated the same as registered foster carers. They still have to go through the process in the same way that foster carers do, but they're not currently in receipt of those payments. So…
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay. So, it's anticipated that the hub to support administering the direct payments is going to be set up during the financial year of 2025-26 and that the first direct payments for CHC will probably begin in the following year. The cost estimates have been…
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay, Anthony.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay, Alistair.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes, I understand.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Sorry, can I just say, yes, I've got a few more minutes, and then I will have to go, unfortunately, but if there's anything that we don't cover today, I'm clearly happy to get you a written response.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Does it marry up?
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, I understand what you're saying.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, the wider—sorry, Peter—scrutiny of policy is more directed at the outcomes rather than the finances of it.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Sure.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes. So, I guess the point of this is there's always budget scrutiny, isn't there, at the beginning of the year.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Of course.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Well, I am scrutinised as the Minister on the delivery of policy areas in my portfolio. I had a session with the committee just last week or the week before last where I was called in to talk about areas right the way across my portfolio and the…
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Of course.
, Finance Committee
Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes, well, because we don't know—we don't know the impact of this. What I said right at the outset is we have a programme of transformation policies for children's services that we hope will aim to deliver fewer children into care. So, we haven't modelled it…
