CCPS reacts to the announcement of a 10% increase in the Real Living Wage

Rachel Cackett, CEO of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland said: “CCPS recognises the importance of an immediate increase to the Real Living Wage, which addresses the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the lowest paid. It comes not a moment too soon.

“But this announcement will mean that the lowest paid Scottish social care staff – who provide essential care and support in our families and local communities – will now be earning less than the Living Wage Foundation calculates is needed to make ends meet.  These are staff working with older people, disabled people, children, families and others who need support.

“Local government social care contracts for third sector providers of adult social are currently based on the lowest paid frontline staff taking home 10.50ph – 40p per hour less than the new Real Living Wage minimum that comes into place today.  That’s not far off an £800 hole in a full-time worker’s pocket each year.  Providers offering services to children, for example, don’t even have that guarantee.

“The Scottish Government’s recent increase to a minimum hourly rate of £10.50 for social care staff kept key workers’ pay just above the previous living wage baseline – and rightly so.  Keeping the same difference between the new Real Living Wage of £10.90 and the basic pay of a frontline care and support worker would mean increasing their hourly rate to £11.55 – with a knock-on effect on pay increases for all social care staff.

“Put today’s announcement alongside recent pay and benefits offers for health and social care staff in councils and the NHS, which outstrip anything on offer to people working in the third sector, and the situation is deeply concerning. Without the resources to match these sorts of increases, third sector organisations will seriously struggle to meet the needs of those who will be impacted the most by the current cost-of-living crisis.

“As the financial pressures really start to mount over the winter, and people need the care and support of our third sector even more, we simply can’t afford to see our brightest and best staff vote with their feet.  They have families to feed and houses to heat too.

“Today, CCPS calls on the Scottish Government to hold to its commitments to Fair Work and a sustainable social care sector by, as a first step, committing to funding that will allow service contracts to reflect equity in uplifts this year for all staff working in third sector social care organisations.”