A relay device for supporting communications between a terminal device and a base station in a wireless communications system is described. The relay device comprises a transceiver arranged to at least receive an access request message from the terminal device; and a control processor operably coupled to the transceiver and arranged to process the access request message, extract information and determine therefrom a power delta value that is not based on a determination of pathloss between the relay device and the terminal device, generate a control element comprising the power delta value; and for relaying at least the control element to the base station. The control processor is further arranged to receive subsequently at least one physical uplink channel message from the terminal device wherein a transmit power level of the at least one physical uplink channel message is based at least on the power delta value.