30 Jan 2025

Wales round up - January 2025

WeCare Wales are inviting expressions of interest from providers who would be willing to champion the sector and appear in recruitment material. 

On 5 March, Social Care Wales will be hosting a conference on working in Welsh in social care. It's called Language, Dignity and Care.

The Health and Care Bill - which covers eliminating profit in Children's Social Care and Direct Payments for Continuing Healthcare amongst other things - has been amended and reached stage 3 in the Senedd.

learnwelsh.cymru have developed a special resource to help palliative care workers to use Welsh at work

£10m additional funding has been made available to support community-based reablement services as part of a £120m package for local government this winter. £2.5m has also been made available following the Welsh Government's decision not to increase the weekly charge for people using homecare services. 

The Welsh Government ran a 50 day Integrated Care Winter Challenge for health and social care systems across Wales to respond to winter pressures. This has seen some success, including small reductions in delayed discharge and hospital admissions. 

Health and Care Research Wales have announced an additional £1.8 million for a new Centre for Social Care and Artificial Intelligence Learning.

Social Care Wales have developed a free digital potential tool this will help to give providers an understanding of their capabilities and will also help to inform national policy development. Providers are encouraged to use the tool by 21 February 2025.

The Welsh Government published a position statement outlining how the Housing with Care Fund, Integration and Rebalancing Capital Fund and Regional Integration Fund had been used. 

8 local authorities in Wales have so far joined the World Health Organisations Global Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities. 

The AI and Digital Regulations Service for health and social care have developed a resource to help people developing or adopting AI in health and social care settings to comply with regulations. You can find out more here.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has provided an update on Palliative and End of Life Care. Progress has been made on hospice funding and clinical nurse specialists. DNACPR resources have been strengthened. A national service specification for palliative and end of life care is being developed.

As part of Winter Planning, the Welsh Government have issued a circular on a Winter Respiratory Framework. Advice for social care in relation to acute respiratory infections is still as follows: Advice on respiratory viruses including COVID-19 for staff in health, social care and special schools | GOV.WALES

Alongside guidance in England, the Welsh Government have been developing contingency plans for Clade 1 mpox. Public health Wales have also developed advice for Health Professionals.

The Public Service Ombudsman found that only 2.8% of unpaid carers were having their needs assessed by local authorities in a study of 4 local authorities in Wales.

Care Inspectorate Wales are changing their registration system, which may mean that they ask for more information upfront. Find out more.

Care Inspectorate Wales have also updated their online care directory. This will now enable people to see service ratings (when published) and allow real time updates as well as better search functionality and ways for people to provide feedback on services. Have you seen our new care service directory yet? | Care Inspectorate Wales