A social care and early years workforce that is highly recognised and valued

Our social care workforce deserve fair reward that reflects the crucial part they play in the well-being of people and communities.

As members of the Social Care Work Forum, we continued to influence and commit to embedding fair work and improving terms and conditions for those working in social care. We Chaired and led the working group that developed the Pay and Progression Framework that went to consultation in 2023. This received broad support and will be further progressed in 2024/25.

We held our annual Accolades awards on 27 April 2023. It was an opportunity for us to recognise, celebrate and share excellent practice in social care and childcare, play and early years in Wales. The Accolades are open to care workers at all levels, as well as teams, projects and organisations from across the public, voluntary and independent sectors that have made a positive difference in people’s lives.

More than 40 projects and workers from across Wales entered or were nominated for the 2023 awards. The 15 finalists were chosen by a panel of judges made up of our Board members, representatives from partner organisations and people with experience of using care and support. 

We know from what people using the services of our winning projects and highly commended finalists say how much of a difference the care and support they receive makes to their lives.

Being able to receive care and support from someone who can speak your language is an important part of receiving dignified, high-quality care. The 2023 Caring in Welsh award ceremony, which was held at the Llŷn and Eifionydd National Eisteddfod on 10 August, was an opportunity to recognise, celebrate and share the work of those providing excellent care and support through the medium of Welsh.

This year, five people from across Wales were chosen as finalists for the award by an expert panel of judges. The winner, Cardiff play leader Ross Dingle, was chosen by a public vote in which more than 2,250 people voted.

More than 3,100 people who are registered with us completed our first workforce survey, which asked questionsabout things such as:

• well-being

• what it’s like to work in social care

• pay and conditions

• training and qualifications.

In October, we published the survey results. We’ll use the findings to inform the support and services we offer, as well as the work of our partner organisations. In future we’ll be able to see how we can improve and support on more areas for the workforce across all our work. We launched the 2024 survey in January so we can monitor what the workforce tells us over time. We’ll share the results of that survey in autumn 2024. 

We issued a new version of the care worker card in 2024, which social care and early years workers can use to get a cashback card and a range of retail offers from dedicated discounts provider Discounts for Carers.

At the end of March 2024, 45,232 social care and childcare, play and early years workers had the card. Of those:

• 8,705 are social care workers who aren’t registered with us

• 1,762 are early years and childcare workers.