The Council’s Social Work Services Committee (27 October 2015) agreed to support the roll out of the Living Wage to Care at Home providers and pledged to lobby the Scottish Government to secure the funding.
In the interim the Committee agreed to principle to support Care at Home providers to meet the National Living Wage from April 2016 and the Council will now seek to identify the necessary funds. The committee will receive a further report at its next meeting (15 December 2015), giving details of resource options to achieve this.
The Council is an accredited Living Wage employer. This means all council staff are paid a minimum of the UK Living Wage (currently £7.85 an hour) and the council is committed to working towards the payment of the UK Living Wage all those that provide services on behalf of the Council, in keeping with the Council’s Anti-Poverty Strategy.
There is growing urgency to ensure that care providers are able to comply with requirements to pay the new National Living Wage (£7.20 an hour) from April 2016 to stabilise current capacity within the sector.
80% of current Care at Home is provided by the independent sector, which is finding it difficult to recruit and retain sufficient staff. Providers report that the Council’s payments (currently averaging £13 an hour) are insufficient, with the hourly rate to workers being around £6.85 an hour and mileage rates of 25p to 30p a mile, with no payment currently made for travel time. Providers state that it will be impossible for them to accommodate the National Living Wage and from April 2016 and potential travel time payments with the funding that they currently receive from the Council.
Councillor Jim Dempster, chairman of the Social Work Services committee, said, “Building the local economy and protecting our most vulnerable people are priorities for our Council. As a council we are committed to not only paying the Living Wage to our own staff but are putting in place a clear plan to roll this out to those who provide services on behalf of our Council. As a first step we will seek to identify the resources needed for all local Care at Home providers to meet their obligations under the rise in what is effectively the minimum wage in April. We will also be lobbying the Scottish Government to provide the funding to ensure this is increased to the Living Wage , which is currently £7.85 per hour. We are determined to play our part in tackling the scourge of low pay that has plagued our region for far too long”
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