Plaid Cymru begin to set out election stall with promise to tackle poverty and improve social care

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price has begun to set out the party’s election stall today with a promise to deliver ‘an equal nation and a nation of equals’ in they win power next year.

He vowed that a Plaid Cymru administration would be “a government for all generations”, giving people opportunity in youth and dignity in old age.

The next Senedd election is due to be held on Thursday 6 May 2021.

Adam Price said that a Plaid Cymru government would make ending poverty its priority with “an ambitious vision for childcare and social care in Wales”.

At its heart, he said, would be a commitment to look after everyone at the dawn and twilight of their lives.

Intergenerational poverty was a ‘blight’ on communities throughout Wales, he said, and that the looming post-Covid economic crisis would compound this without radical change.

The promises include:

• Taking immediate action to help thousands of children living in poverty by providing targeted payments of £35 a week to families living below the poverty line – around two thirds of which have one or both parents in work, they said.
• Putting tackling poverty and children’s rights, through free, universal access to early education and care, at the heart of Plaid Cymru’s programme for government.
• Creating a National Health and Care Service to provide health and social care services free at the point of delivery. The service would give full recognition to the essential role of social care and its workforce, and move care workers onto NHS pay scales, they said.

‘Time for change’

“If the Covid crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of a caring society,” Adam Price said. “Becoming an equal nation and a nation of equals will be the guiding mission of a Plaid Cymru Government.

“After twenty years of a Labour-led government, there are still 200,000 children living in poverty in Wales. That is a blight on our communities and something I am determined to change with £35 a week child payment targeted at families who have to decide between heating the home and feeding the children.

“These ambitious policies are designed to offer opportunity in youth and dignity in old age.

“Plaid Cymru’s childcare offer would boost the incomes of thousands of households, allowing non-working parents back into the workplace and creating up to 3,000 new jobs.

“Similarly, the National Care Service will make Wales the “caring nation” – valuing our care staff with salaries comparable with the NHS and making social care, free at the point of delivery.

“I want to lead a government for all generations – a government delivering radical change, not for change’s sake but for the sake of the thousands of families whose futures rest on it.

“I want my son to grow up in a country where poverty is a distant memory thanks to a belief that there is no challenge too big to overcome.

“The 2021 Senedd Election is the time for change, and it will only come about by putting into action what the current Government has talked about but failed to deliver for so long.”