THE private care sector in Wales was heavily criticised by workers in the sector today after it issued its manifesto.

Care Forum Wales (CFW) issued its manifesto for the sector for the Senedd election in May.

The forum represents more than 400 care homes and home-care companies and calls for the next government to end the postcode lottery for care.

The CFW manifesto says social care in Wales forces families to pay twice for essential support.

The organisation is urging the next Welsh government to hold councils and health boards to account for creating what it alleges is a postcode lottery that can see funding for identical needs differ by as much as £20,000 a year. Some providers are left unable to cover basic needs and rely on third-party “top up fees” from families.

The CFW also demanded that the next Welsh government properly fund the commitment to deliver the real living wage to care staff.

But Unison Cymru’s Mark Turner, while agreeing that social care is in a prolonged crisis, disagreed on the solution.

He said: “While for-profit providers say they cannot afford to offer decent pay and conditions, private equity, hedge funds and large corporations see care in Wales as a cash cow, squeezing millions of pounds from public finances, much of which is spirited away into tax havens.

“That’s why unions in Wales are calling for a mainly publicly delivered National Care Service for Wales, so that every penny of public money goes into driving up quality of care, treating workers with dignity and not wasted in profit or yields for investors.

“For a quarter of a century, since care was outsourced from direct local authority delivery, the private sector has actively worked against union recognition and engaged in a race to the bottom on pay and conditions.

“We also want to see a decent wage for care workers and the reform of the visa for migrant care workers.

“However, the fundamental problem with the visa is that employers have been handed unqualified power over individual migrant workers’ lives.

“This has led to the proliferation of modern slavery and labour exploitation not seen in our lifetimes in the delivery of public services.”

The CFW manifesto is calling on the Welsh government to take over direct sponsorship of visas for social care workers, but it is unclear how this will work as this is not a devolved issue.