Former MP warns social care faces pressure without Welsh Government support

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

“Banging the drum” on the need for the Welsh Government to provide more funding for social care is essential, according to a former MP.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Adults, Communities and Wellbeing scrutiny committee on Thursday, September 11, councillors received the 2024/2025 annual report on Social Services performance.

Independent Cllr Dai (David) Davies for Ebbw Vale North said: “There are parts of the report that worry me.”

These concerns were around social care capacity and the need for more forward planning, including the possibility of building more care homes.

Debate

Cllr Davies, who was Blaenau Gwent’s MP from 2006 to 2010, continued: “As the population gets older, the need will be that much greater.

“It seems as if the debate around health and social care has gone off the radar.

“Compared to health, I believe social care is a second-class citizen.

“If we don’t bang the drum and take it up at a political level, it just won’t be heard.”

He was concerned that the funding gap would only “get greater’ no matter how well and efficiently the council works.

Cllr Davies “wondered” whether Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen councils should work together to “raise that concern” and re-open the debate.

Fears

Committee Chairman Haydn Trollope (Labour – Tredegar) said that the council had been at the “forefront” of bringing up grant funding problems with the Welsh Government.

There had been fears last year that several council Social Service posts could be lost if or when grants dry up.

Cllr Trollope said:  “We’re pushing on a regional basis, and we have a friend in Torfaen to help bang that drum.”

Head of Adult Social Services, Alyson Hoskins said: “The current supply we have is sufficient to meet demand in terms of care home capacity. It is something we carefully monitor.”

She explained that many of the issues that Cllr Davies had concerns about are dealt with at a Gwent-wide level.

These include ensuring that “market-based analysis” is conducted to ensure the right amount of care home provision is available in Gwent.

Also the capital investment “strategy” to build more care homes if needed is also looked at a regional level.

If funding from the Welsh Government was forthcoming, Ms Hoskins told the committee that a number of projects are ready to go and can be taken off “the shelf” to develop straight away.

Pressures

Ms Hoskins suggested that the committee should have a presentation from the Gwent Regional Partnership Board to explain their work.

The committee agreed to this.

Ms Hoskyns also assured councillors that Social Services chiefs in both Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen are “banging the drum” in a “lot of meetings” with Health and Welsh Government colleagues in relation to the pressures on social care.

The report is due to be ratified at a full council meeting next month.

This is the last time the report will be published in its current form.

In a year’s time councillors will have two annual reports to scrutinise instead of one.

Separate reports on Children’s Social Services and Adult Social Services will both be presented to councillors.