Scottish Labour is today renewing calls to up care workers’ pay to £15 an hour as it is warned current government proposals ‘bake in’ wage inequalities across the sector.

After MSPs last week voted down the wage proposal, Labour Finance spokesperson Daniel Johnson said it would remain a “key demand” from the party at the next debate on the Scottish budget for the upcoming year.

“The social care workforce is predominately female and often subject to unscrupulous employment practices,” Mr Johnson said.

“By delivering a fair pay deal for social care workers we can send a message that the days of this vital workforce being neglected are over.”

The head of the organisation that represents third sector care providers in Scotland has told healthandcare.scot the budget proposals as they stand ‘bake in’ further wage inequality.

By offering council care workers a more generous and quicker pay rise than their independent and third sector council counterparts, the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) says wage inequalities will only get worse among staff that are do the same job.

The SNP does not have a majority so relies on the support of one other party to pass the budget, which will be debated next week in Holyrood.

Such a change would be a significant boost from the current rate of £9.30 an hour that many care workers receive.

Care provider representative bodies are strongly supportive of the move – but say the system used to get money to the frontline needs to be fixed first.

The Scottish government has committed funding so that all frontline care workers should receive the Real Living Wage, which is higher than the minimum wage and rose to £9.50 an hour in November.

The policy, first introduced in 2016, has been praised widely but there has been criticism of how long it takes the cash to get from government through 32 different councils to providers and then workers.

As a result of the pandemic the Scottish government bypassed the usual processes and brought forward a planned pay rise – an approach it plans to continue.

But even after this change care staff in one area were still waiting for the “immediate” wage boost four months after it was announced.

There is also criticism that the living wage – which is independently calculated to reflect the minimum amount needed for living – is still not high enough to attract and retain people into the sector.

Former NHS Scotland CEO Derek Feeley’s independent review of adult social care has added impetus to calls for change.

‘Throughout our review we have heard that the social care workforce feels undervalued and under-recognised,’ the final report said.

‘…At the root of the sense of value is pay. Social care staff do not feel valued in relation to the work they do. They pointed us to numerous comparisons in the retail sector where an entry level position paid more than an experienced care worker could secure.’

The review did not specify a particular pay level but said unions should be able to negotiate on behalf of all care staff and put in place new national minimum standards on pay and conditions.

The Scottish government has previously said it is aiming to draw these standards up by the end of May.

Scottish Care, which speaks for private care providers, and the CCPS, which represents non-profit care groups, told healthandcare.scot they strongly supported an increase in wages.

But both said the system used to distribute the funding needed to be fixed first, pointing to problems with the roll-out of the Real Living Wage.

Scottish Care said: “We support the calls for an increase in the hourly wages for social care staff. However, we need to recognise that extra funding is required for this to happen and there needs to be a transparent partnership between care providers, local commissioning authorities and the Scottish government to achieve this.

“Due to local governance and administrative procedures, our members have experienced significant delay in receiving the uplift for the Real Living Wage over the years. This in turn creates unnecessary delay in passing it on to those who need it most – our social care workforce.”

CCPS Chief Executive Annie Gunner Logan added: “We’d also need to identify a much more effective way of getting the money into pay packets than we do now.

“Our experience of implementing the Living Wage in social care tells us that doing it within our current system would be far from straightforward, firstly because there is no shared understanding of the total cost of care, so third sector organisations are often assumed to be able to absorb pay increases within unrealistic overall rates for a service; and secondly because the current mechanisms of procurement and contracting are, as the Independent Review of Adult Social Care has pointed out, entirely unfit for purpose and actually drive wages down, not up.”

The review’s proposals for a national care service, which would see local Integration Joint Boards answer to a single national body accountable to ministers, could be the way forward, both organisations believe.

MS Gunner Logan says she supports a national care service as a means of making wages fairer across Scotland as it would "present a much more streamlined - and accountable - process for implementing this, and other, progressive workforce policies."

 “In the meantime we are aware that the public sector pay policy outlined in the draft budget actually ‘bakes in’ further wage inequality in social care, by offering council care workers a much more generous, and speedier, uplift than their counterparts in the third sector, when they’re all doing the same job.

“We think a first priority, and a ‘quick win’, may be to equalise that offer for all care & support workers, not just those who are lucky enough to work for the council.”

Scottish Care said it too backed creating a national service as a mechanism to make sure wages are fair across the country.

“We believe that the exploration of a national model can help provide consistent oversight, terms and conditions for our workforce, including pay,” it said.

Read more: Covid care cash not reaching providers; Government urged to back £15 an hour care wage; Top down care review plans branded ‘huge mistake’

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