5 September 2023

4 Steps Comment: Today, the First Minister has the chance to introduce a step change in social care. Will he take it?

The Programme for Government could answer our campaign calls and make a real difference in people’s daily lives, writes Rachel Cackett

It’s been a long year already.

It’s only just turned to autumn, but today is the announcement of the Programme for Government. And for many people in Scotland, the things that really matter in life will turn on announcements made by the First Minister this afternoon – announcements that will show whether the FM’s priorities of “community, equality and opportunity” mean something tangible for the one in 25 people who will access social care this year and all who are employed to provide that support in not-for-profit providers.

For many it’s been a very long year.

If you are someone in need of care and support to stay in your own home or community, to live your life on your own terms, to thrive in your neighbourhood, work or school, you’ve long felt the crisis in social care. You may well have found it difficult to get your needs assessed, or keep the amount of support you need, or to hold on to the valued and trusted relationships as staff are forced to leave our sector.

If you are the loved one of someone who needs care and support, you may well have wondered how on earth you get your mum, dad, child, partner or friend the support they need – and how you get the help to make possible your crucial role as a carer. You’ve watched life become harder for those who need support most. You may be tired, and we know it can begin to feel hopeless.  

If you are a third sector social care and support worker, you’ve seen your real terms income decrease and the gulf between the value given to the work you do and that given to those in the public sector stretched to the limit. Your role in being a part of the very community you serve is lost in the national conversation. In fact, you may have left the social care workforce already, like over 50% of those who moved jobs in our sector at the last count – making the tough choice between a job you love and the need to pay bills for your own family.

If you are a third sector employer, you have probably spent sleepless nights wondering how you are going to keep the show on the road with far less money coming in. You know you need more to keep your staff and pay going, all while trying to meet the increasing needs of your communities through a cost-of-living crisis.

Today, the First Minister could make the beginnings of a step change to all of that.

We know that the historic underinvestment in social care isn’t going to be solved overnight. But it’s 136 days since our new FM promised a starting salary of £12 per hour.  None of those who need a functioning, thriving social care system to live can wait a minute longer for action.

That is why CCPS has been building support for its #4StepsToFairWork campaign over the summer.  We’ve had support from providers, social care staff, carer organisations and, at the end of August, the support of Scotland’s faith leaders. I would like to thank each and every person who has made their voice heard in this.

And let’s be clear. We have heard many imperatives – economic, equality, social justice, human rights, moral imperatives – to delivering Fair Work for those who provide care and support.

Our calls our simple.  And they will be our measure of any announcement today on the move towards parity for those who provide care and support in our sector, and recognition of the importance of upholding the rights of people who need that support.

The calls are:

  • Deal with pay inequality: As a first step, implement the promise of a minimum of £12 per hour for social care staff, starting from 1 April 2023.
  • Ensure equal pay for equal work: Apply pay uplifts to staff in all services, not just those in registered adult social care.
  • Value all staff who play their part: Deliver funding packages that value the crucial role of support staff and managers, alongside frontline workers.
  • Give us hope of equality: Publish a timetable by this September to deliver fully on Fair Work in Social Care by 2025.

So as a final message this morning to our First Minister: please don’t tell us there is no money. We know how tight things are. Instead, tell us how you are choosing to allocate a fair proportion of the money you do have to our sector. Show us how you will ensure your priorities mean something real in people’s daily lives. Tell us that you recognise the true value of social care.

Read more about our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign

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1 September 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “In a just Scotland, everyone must have sufficient income to live a dignified, healthy and financially secure life”

Lack of fair work and low income can lead to problem debt, including for staff in social care. As part of our 4 Steps campaign series focusing on Faith Leaders, Christians Against Poverty’s Emma Jackson explains the scale of the problem – and how to fight back

I don’t know if you have ever had to carry a secret, something you felt too ashamed to tell anyone. If you’ve ever experienced the overwhelming fear and dread it forces you to carry and how it consumes every aspect of your life. Holding you hostage and whispering the lie ‘there’s no way out’. This is exactly what problem debt feels like for tens of thousands of people all across Scotland.

Problem debt is deeply isolating, dominated by fear and pressure and a unique stigma that forces people to hide their financial difficulties. At Christians Against Poverty (CAP) our Taking on UK Poverty report revealed that one in two of our clients wait for at least a year, almost a quarter (23%) waiting more than three years, before seeking help. People like Alan*. Too ashamed to reveal the depth of their financial struggles.

The reality is, debt is overwhelming due to circumstances beyond an individual’s control. A change in circumstances, something unexpected or outwith your control. Our most recent client survey revealed that the three most common reasons people had ended up in unmanageable debt were mental ill-health, relationship breakdown and low income.

Insufficient income is a growing issue that is significantly affecting not just the people accessing our services at CAP, but hundreds of thousands of households right across Scotland. This includes households in receipt of social security and households where there is paid employment.

For an increasing number of people, they do not have enough money to pay for the everyday essentials that we all need; food, fuel, housing. Forcing people down one of two impossible paths – destitution and going without or deepening debt. People like Ron, who has gone without heating on a regular basis for over four years. Or Laura who walked hours to find yellow sticker food items as a means to survive.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reported in its most recent Financial Lives Survey that 1.1 million people in Scotland (24%) are heavily burdened by domestic bills or credit commitments. This is 3% higher than the UK average. When people have no financial safety net small, unexpected expenses can prove disastrous and your budget is on a knife edge daily. For Helen*, who works as a care assistant, it was moving house and the need to buy furniture, a bed, that triggered problem debt for her: for the second time. Quickly her physical and mental health deteriorated as her budget just wouldn’t balance.

At CAP, approximately 50% of the households we are working with have an unsustainable budget. This means that after working through a debt solution, there is not enough income, either via paid work or social security, to cover basic essentials. Households are being pushed to either go without or begin to accrue debts again. A totally unwinnable game. Hopeless is the word used far too often by people in these circumstances.

The insidious nature of debt means that it permeates every aspect of someone’s life and pushes many to very dark places. It is devastating for us to report that 50% of our clients have seriously considered or attempted suicide because of problem debt. That’s one in two people believing suicide to be their only option when they first contact us. This is utterly heartbreaking and completely unacceptable.

We have the opportunity to change this, to prevent tens of thousands of people from being pushed into debt and poverty and being battered by the pain and trauma that it forces people to endure by providing liveable incomes. We need bold, targeted and urgent action from Government at all levels to deliver on the policy proposals already laid out to make this happen.

In a just and compassionate Scotland, everyone must have sufficient income to live a decent, dignified, healthy and financially secure life. Our collective aspiration must be for all of us to have the opportunity to flourish. Where we recognise and value the contributions that we all have to make to civic society and everyone can have the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

(If you or someone you know is experiencing problem debt free, professional debt help is available from Christians Against Poverty today. You can also find out more information on money advice from the Scottish Government).

*names changed to protect anonymity.

Emma Jackson is National Director Scotland, Christians Against Poverty

 

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21 August 2023

News: Insights Podcasts give voice to discussion of ethical commissioning principles

We’ve launched a brand series of podcasts on the vital issue of ethical commissioning, with experts from across the sector sharing their views.

The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) today launches a new series of podcasts focusing on discussion of ethical commissioning principles in social care.

The podcasts feature a range of experts sharing their views on the implications and application of ethical commissioning principles developed by the Scottish Government.

The principles were introduced to promote the move to more collaborative, outcomes-based commissioning and procurement practices that support high quality, person-centred care, fair work, sustainability for providers and real choice and control for individuals under Self Directed Support (SDS).

Introducing the new podcasts, Catherine Garrod, CCPS’s Programme Manager (Commissioning and Procurement), said:

“If fully implemented, CCPS believes that the ethical commissioning principles could make a real difference to the way that social care support is commissioned (planned), procured (purchased) and delivered.

“A move away from traditional price-based competition to greater collaboration and outcomes-focussed commissioning and contracting will lead to better outcomes for individuals, support that meets people’s needs, greater sustainability for third sector support providers and a workforce that is fully valued and rewarded for the work that they do.”

“Our new podcasts feature provocative and thoughtful discussion of these issues from a variety of expert voices. We hope they’ll be of interest to CCPS members and everyone in our sector committed to delivering on our shared vision for ethical commissioning in social care.”

Produced by Spreng Thomson and hosted by Dylan Macdonald, the first three podcasts in a series of five are launched today. They are:

1. Overview of ethical commissioning principles and why they matter

In this first episode, we hear contributions from Dr Catherine Needham, Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the University of Birmingham, Rachel Cackett CEO of CCPS, and Andrea Wood, Convener of CCPS and CEO of the social care provider Key.

Introducing the topic, Catherine and Rachel share their views, experiences and learning regarding ethical commissioning and the impact it has for the sector, as well as everyone involved in social care. Later in the episode Andrea Wood discusses the importance of procurement principles, touching on many of the aspects explored by Catherine and Rachel.

2. Person Centred Care, SDS, supporting a diverse market of support

The second podcast features contributions from Pauline Lunn, CEO of In Control Scotland, Linda Tuthill, CEO of The Action Group, and Des McCart, Senior Programme Manager Improvement Hub (ihub) at Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The group look at the importance of having a diverse market of support for individuals to choose from and why it is vital people are involved in the decision-making behind their support provider and support needs.

3. Fair Work in practice and financial transparency

On this podcast we hear from Anna Fowlie, CEO of SCVO and Viv Dickenson, Chief Executive of CrossReach.

Episode three focusses on how changes to the way support is commissioned, procured and contracted can help deliver fair work. The contributors also discuss the positive impact that can come from embedding fair work in contracts and sustainable rates, and the value of effective training and workforce development.

The podcasts were commissioned by the CCPS Commissioning and Procurement Programme, which is funded by Scottish Government

Over the course of the series, contributors will examine other key themes, including the importance of person-centred care in light of the pandemic; the relevance of appropriate language and how terms such as ‘bed blocking’ undermine empathy and understanding; and the need for those in receipt of care and support to experience genuine autonomy.

Listen to the podcasts on Spotify 

Find out more about CCPS’s Commissioning and Procurement Programme

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15 August 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “Which part of the elephant do we start with?”

For things to improve for supported people and carers, they first need to improve for the workforce, says Claire Cairns, Director of the Coalition of Carers in Scotland

As Desmond Tutu once wisely said “there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.”

I have recently been reminded of this when considering the seemingly enormous task of how to reform and improve social care. It’s certainly stumped a lot of governments, which is why when I talk to my colleagues in other parts of the UK and Europe, they seem equally overwhelmed by the task.

And the social care system is undeniably complicated. There are so many competing demands, so many inter-connected issues, not to mention deeply embedded cultures, processes and structures that we know don’t work, but we can’t work out how to dismantle them. Where do you start? The legs, the trunk?

The Feeley report has given us a great map, or perhaps more of a hopeful brochure of our final destination, if we can ever get the plane off the runway.

So what is the word from unpaid carers on all this? And specifically what is their view on Fair Work?

When it comes to Feeley and the subsequent National Care Service Bill, the development carers are most invested in is the right to breaks from caring. This is something carers have been campaigning about for well over a decade. At the moment, as well as being unpaid, carers don’t have the right to time off from their caring role.

Let that sink in for a minute. Having to care for someone, 24 hours a day, often with a lack of sleep – yet no guarantee that you will be able to get a regular break. Even those carers who do have a decent support package are just coming out of the last two plus years of the pandemic with their batteries, all but depleted and many of the services they used to rely on, seemingly dismantled.

So you might think that the spotlight on Fair Work and improving the terms and conditions of the paid workforce would have carers saying ‘Hang on a minute’. But I think you would be wrong.

Carers know that very little can be achieved to improve social care without first addressing the existing workforce crisis. The right to breaks from caring is completely unworkable unless there are social care staff and services to meet the increased demand. Not to mention to ensure there is a broad range of services available to ensure the very diverse needs of the carer population can be met.

But more than that, carers see the unfairness of how the social care workforce is treated – overworked, underpaid and often unappreciated. Support workers and personal assistants come into peoples’ homes and are trusted with their loved ones. They build relationships with people and at times become like family members. Sometimes and especially over the last few years, they are the only people the family regularly sees, providing a bit of comfort and chat, as well as support.

Carers are often devastated when support staff move on, particularly when it’s because they need to earn more money elsewhere, but they don’t want to move on to a job they will find less rewarding. Then for the family there is the hard task of recruiting, or securing, alternative support from their local authority – yet another stressful thing to add to the list.

The truth is both unpaid carers and social care support staff are the frontline, often working together, both under-appreciated. Both at times hailed as ‘heroes’, when they would rather be recognised and properly recompensed for their essential and highly skilled labour.

Feeley and the National Care Service is rightly focussed on improving outcomes for people who use services and their carers. But for things to improve for supported people and carers, they first need to improve for the workforce.

I suggest that’s the bit of the elephant we need to start with.

The Coalition of Carers in Scotland exists to advance the voice of carers by facilitating carer engagement and bringing carers and local carer organisations together with decision makers at a national and local level.

Since its inception in 1998 the Coalition has played a fundamental role in advancing carer recognition and support and in establishing a Carers Rights agenda in Scotland.

Find out more here. 

Find out more about the 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign here.

 

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25 July 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “What is the ethical defence of unequal pay?”

Old concepts of moral principle, politics and logic help explain the absence of fair work in social care, says Ron Culley

Ethos, demos and logos were concepts used by the ancient Greeks to make sense of the world around them: ethos referred to the development of a moral principle or argument, rooted in human values; demos referred to the body politic, to the rules of self-government; and logos referred to reason and rationality, the logical flow of an argument.

Two-and-a-half-thousand years later, and it seems to me these concepts are still useful in making sense of the world around us. The principle of fair work in social care, and the limited political progress that we have made towards it, can be helpfully understood by applying these concepts.

Ethos

The ethical argument for fair work in social care is plainly put. If social care workers across different sectors are delivering similar taxpayer-funded public services, why should the level of pay be different? Given that care workers are providing work of equal value, is the Scottish Government justified in mandating that a Healthcare Assistant in the NHS be paid £14 per hour, a homecare worker in a council £16 per hour, a support worker in a not-for-profit social care provider £10.90 per hour, and a care worker in a private sector care home £10.90 per hour? All of these jobs are comparable in terms of skill and responsibility.

So is it fair that the Scottish Government and Local Authorities have decided in favour of unequal pay? And let’s consider the fact that most people working in the care sector are women and that, on average, women continue to receive lower pay than men. Is it right that the Scottish Government and Local Authorities have not gone further to correct this injustice? Were there to be a reprioritisation of political choices, tens of thousands of women could be taken out of a low wage job. In short, the ethical defence of unequal pay is very difficult to present.

Demos

To explain why this situation nonetheless persists, we need to understand Scottish politics. The reality – however much we might want to pretend otherwise – is that the NHS is politically more important to the Scottish Government than the social care sector. It’s why many arguments about investing more in social care are actually framed around alleviating pressure on the NHS, and not about supporting people to realise their rights as citizens or to give expression to their personal agency. By this argument, social care is only important because to get it wrong damages the NHS, and a struggling NHS is a vote loser.

The other way democratic politics plays into this is in the stewardship of the public finances. There simply isn’t a strong enough tax intake to fund the health and social care system that many people would like, so we have developed a system that supports the cheap outsourcing of public services to the third and independent sector (euphemistically referred to as ‘best value’). That would be fine if it were a level playing field and all providers (including monopolistic providers like NHS Boards and Councils) had to compete for business on the same terms. But that would risk violating one of the golden rules of Scottish politics, that public sector delivery is best (despite evidence that the third sector consistently delivers higher quality care and support).

Logos

The problem with all of this is that it contains flawed logic and makes for poor strategy. What happens if we pay public sector care workers significantly more than third or independent sector workers? The answer is there is a migration of talent and experience from one to the other. As a result, the third and independent sector is weakened, especially given that the labour market has been structurally imbalanced by Brexit and Covid.

How will providers in the third and independent sector respond? I doubt there will be a dramatic implosion – there’s too much market diversity for that to happen. Rather, what we’ll see is a gradual reduction in service delivery across the sector – less care delivered by less people. That in turn will generate more unmet need. And where will those people go? I would imagine social work, GPs and Emergency Departments. Only this time, there’ll be no-one else to turn to.

Ron Culley is CEO of Quarriers, a member of CCPS’s Board and Chair of our Committee on the National Care Service

Find out more about our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign

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18 July 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “It lacks both logic and fairness that social care staff are being paid a base rate of £10.90”

Ian Cumming, CEO of Erskine Veterans Care, urges you to unite and support the 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign

Erskine extends a warm welcome and our full support to the 4 Steps to Fair Work Campaign.

We are members of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland, who all operate within the social care sector as not-for-profit entities. We are all facing challenges of an unprecedented nature. Each day, our member organisations bear witness to the far-reaching consequences of the Scottish Government-funded base rate of pay set at a mere £10.90 per hour, impacting both staff and services alike. 

It lacks logic and fairness that social care staff, who do the same work – delivering the same care and support to the same people, as hospital nursing and care staff – are somehow paid less than their NHS counterparts.  

Regrettably, many dedicated employees are departing their positions to seek better remuneration elsewhere, outside the care sector, while the recruitment of new personnel remains stagnant and a real challenge, against a backdrop of better pay within NHS Scotland for the same roles. The outcome is a loss of invaluable expertise, untapped potential, and the eventual risk of a severe compromise of essential services.

This precarious situation threatens the provision of crucial support to those who require it most. You can be assured that without sufficient social care to support independent living, dignity and wellness in their own community, many of our older, frail and potentially vulnerable citizens will decline in health and subsequently overwhelm the existing NHS provision.     

CCPS’s Fair Work campaign endeavours to rectify this disparity by advocating for the fair recognition and just compensation of social care and support workers. By doing so, we aim to create an environment where the individuals they assist can flourish, receiving the necessary support at the appropriate moments and in suitable locations, particularly as Erskine explores ‘care at home’. 

We implore all who share our vision of equitable treatment for social care staff in Scotland to unite and promote the 4 Steps to Fair Work. Together, let us clearly communicate to the Scottish Government the need for swift and meaningful action in support of the social care sector, which helps keep our older or more vulnerable citizens, living well with dignity and away from hospital, whenever possible. 

Find out more at our Four Steps to Fair Work campaign and get involved. 

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11 July 2023

Media Release: Report reveals reality of staffing crisis in social care, with more than half of those moving jobs last year leaving the sector

Scale of challenges facing providers uncovered in new study of workforce benchmarking

Social care and support providers in Scotland are struggling with a loss of staff, with an average of 52% of those moving jobs last year leaving the social care sector altogether, according to a new report.

In the study of workforce benchmarking in the sector, almost three quarters of surveyed organisations reported a significant rise in staff turnover in 2021-22.

Seventy-three per cent of organisations delivering social care said their staff turnover rate had increased since 2020-21 – a jump of 14% in a single year and an indication of year-on-year rises in social care staff moving jobs.

Responses captured in the 2022 Social Care Benchmarking Report demonstrate the scale of sector-wide recruitment, retention and staffing challenges organisations are experiencing now.

The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) and the HR Voluntary Sector Forum (HRVSF) commissioned the University of Strathclyde to conduct the benchmarking survey and analysis for member organisations.

The Executive Summary of the report is published today and is available to download here.

The study also found:

  • Average turnover across respondents was 25%, an increase of 5.5% from the figure reported in 2020-2021.
  • Fifty-nine percent of respondents noted an increase in their use of agency staff (the most expensive staffing option) – building on the 45% who had noted an increase in agency use the previous year.
  • Eighty-one percent of respondents reported that their recruitment needs were higher than in the previous year, an increase of 6% from the 2020-2021 Benchmarking Report figure of 75%.
  • On anticipated future recruitment needs, 46% of respondents reported that they expect hiring staff will involve more difficulty and 54% projected the same difficulty.

Rachel Cackett, Chief Executive of CCPS, said: 

“The headline results of this benchmarking survey are stark and confirm what our provider organisations have been telling us over the past year: retention and recruitment of staff is the dominant issue in a sector that is under intense pressure.

“It’s a situation that has only worsened since this data for 2022 was captured, as differences in pay between not-for-profit social care providers and the public sector have widened yet further.

“This report points to an exit of staff across organisations, resulting in a loss of current expertise; a loss of potential talent; and a massive undermining of key services.

“It’s a loss that has an impact on achieving what we all want to see: people thriving by getting the support they need at the right times and in the right places, with consistent relationships at the heart of that support.

“This is the reason we’ve launched our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign, which calls on the Scottish Government to take the measures long needed to deliver on investment and reform and set the sector on the route to Fair Work.

“We want to see social care organisations hold on to their workforce, to have the resources to develop their people – and for their staff to finally be fairly recognised and rewarded for their public service.”

Kevin Staunton, Chair of the HR Voluntary Sector Forum, said: 

“As Chair of the Forum, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our members who were able to participate in the survey this year.

“For years our sector has heard many warm words about parity of esteem and being seen as an equal and key partner in the delivery of social care in Scotland. This report, building on previous years’ results, provides a strong and indisputable evidence base that the reality our people experience on a day-to-day basis is very much different and the sector cannot continue to operate on the goodwill and unfulfilled aspirations of our workforce indefinitely.

“I hope that in a year’s time positive progress has been made to make the investment and reform which has often been spoken about become a reality. Our Forum members welcome the opportunity to work positively with others to make this happen. The people we support and the people our organisations employ deserve better.”

(ends)

Media contact:
Chris Small: chris.small@ccpscotland.org.uk

Notes for editors

  • The HR Voluntary Sector Forum (HRVSF) and Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) commissioned the University of Strathclyde to conduct the benchmarking survey and analysis for member organisations.
  • With thanks to the team at the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Work, Employment & Organisation and their colleagues at the universities of St Andrews and Middlesex.
  • The study involved 26 participant organisations, 73% of which provided social care primarily to adults. Housing support for adults formed the largest proportion of services (40%), followed by support services for adults (34%).
  • 4 Steps to Fair Work: find out more about the CCPS campaign
  • Attached 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign image by Ross Richardson – please credit the illustrator if used in print or online.
  • CCPS is the voice of the not-for-profit social care providers in Scotland. More information here.
  • The HR Voluntary Sector Forum (HRVSF) is a CIPD special interest group of third sector organisations and individuals. The Forum supports practice and information sharing alongside commissioning research relevant to the third sector workforce to inform and influence national decision-making.

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7 July 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “It’s too easy to think that social care is about someone else. It’s about all of us”

Providers must have better resourcing to reflect the societal importance of our work in communities across Scotland, says Andrew Thomson, Deputy CEO of Carr Gomm

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others“.

George Orwell’s fusion of political and artistic purpose was always intended to have a wider application than simple political satire. Social care in Scotland can often feel ripe for satire, although there is nothing funny about systematic underappreciation and underfunding.

Inelegant tension exists throughout, and remains inexplicably embedded in, our system. The maxim from improvement science states that “every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets”, and we have a system that Derek Feeley describes as containing “unwarranted local variation, crisis intervention, a focus on inputs, a reliance on the market, and an undervalued workforce”.

Scottish Government policy sets the minimum adult social care wage. The Scottish Government and CoSLA decide the financial uplifts to cover the costs of the policy. Social care providers implement the policy and volubly articulate again the wider implications, failings, and consequences of the policy. We’ll do it all again next time too. Our system is designed to aggregate the underfunding and to ignore the cost-of-living crisis; we get poorer each time we go around. There is no sign of the powerful recognising that the social care system is increasingly unsustainable.

The Scottish Government has set the wage at £10.90/hr, or 104% of the statutory minimum wage. The Scottish Government sets the value of working in our sector. Practitioners working for local authorities or the NHS are excluded from the Government’s policy and are paid more than 20% more for undertaking equal work. All practitioners are equal, but…

It feels like a lifetime ago that we clapped our hands on a Thursday night in acknowledgement of the essential work undertaken by key workers as Covid ravaged our lives and freedoms. We recognised the importance in society of those that care for others. It is too easy to think that social care is about someone else, but social care is relevant to our colleagues, our friends and families, our neighbours. Ourselves.

Every one of us has the right to live a full life. And every one of us should have the right to be supported by a practitioner that has been comprehensively inducted, continually developed, registered with a professional body, professionally qualified, scrutinised by an external regulator, and appropriately remunerated. We have all of the former, we simply need to recognise – as Feeley already has – the latter: that our workforce is undervalued.

As a first step, the First Minister has committed to raising the wages of frontline adult social care professionals to £12/hr. It’s a small step on the road towards appropriate remuneration, although thus far, the Scottish Government has not published a timeline and so we wait. I call on the First Minister to implement this improvement from 1 April 2023.

The oft-quoted, lazy narrative about social care is that it is broken. But Carr Gomm is not broken. The people we support are not broken. We simply need better resourcing to adequately reflect the societal importance of our essential work in communities throughout Scotland.

Andrew Thomson is Deputy Chief Executive of Carr Gomm, a leading social care and community development that supports over 3000 people a week across Scotland.

Find out more about our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign and get involved.

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29 June 2023

News: 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign launched to bring step change in social care

New CCPS campaign amplifies voices of sector and civic society, urging the Scottish Government to pledge to invest and give hope of equality

The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland today launches a national campaign calling on the Scottish Government to deliver Fair Work for Scotland’s not-for-profit social care staff.

The campaign draws on evidence from CCPS’s membership organisations about the acute pressures currently being faced by their services as a result of the Scottish Government’s base pay rate for staff of £10.90, which is leading to staff leaving the workforce and many services being jeopardised.

The initiative aims to influence Scottish Government to take 4 Steps to Fair Work for social care staff and announce a timetable for investment. The 4 Steps are:

1. Deal with pay inequality: As a first step, implement the promise of a minimum of £12 per hour for social care staff, starting from 1 April 2023.

2. Ensure equal pay for equal work: Apply pay uplifts to staff in all services, not just those in registered adult social care.

3. Value all staff who play their part: Deliver funding packages that value the crucial role of support staff and managers, alongside frontline workers.

4. Give us hope of equality: Publish a timetable by this September to deliver fully on Fair Work in Social Care by 2025.

Launching the campaign, CCPS’s Chief Executive Rachel Cackett said:

“We may not always ‘see’ it, but social care and support is a fundamental; it touches all of us at points through our lives. But it mostly happens behind closed doors and is often obscured behind the big headlines about the crisis in the NHS.

“Social care needs to be championed in public for its crucial role in supporting people to realise their right to independence, their connections with the people and places that matter to them, their wellbeing, and their ability to participate in work, school and community.

“The Scottish Government needs to start talking about why social care matters – not just to keep the NHS on its feet, but to keep people on theirs. And it needs to articulate a plan for how it will invest in, and finally deliver, Fair Work.”

“This campaign is a first step on that journey and we hope everyone who cares about Fair Work will give it their support.”

Through the campaign CCPS’s members and wider civic society will alert the Scottish Government to why delivering on Fair Work is fundamental for the future of Scotland’s social care workforce.

Over the next three months, in the run-up to the Programme for Government and spending review, CCPS will be sharing voices, views and calls to action through the campaign.

Find out more about the campaign and take part.

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24 May 2023

Comment: Why care homes are not alone in a sector facing intense pressure

Our Chief Executive Rachel Cackett responds to news about the status of care home funding

Rachel Cackett

Responding to news about the status of care home funding across Scotland today, Rachel Cackett, CEO of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers, said:

“The situation for care homes is clearly very serious just now – and care homes are not alone in contending with sustainability issues fuelled by insufficient funding increases and too few staff. Not-for-profit social care is facing these issues in all services right now.

Our member organisations report intense pressure across the breadth of their provision, in community- and residential-based services for older people, in services for people with disabilities, and in services supporting children and families.

Why is this happening? In a large part because, despite a commitment to Fair Work in Social Care dating back to 2019, the Scottish Government has chosen to raise the minimum wage in our sector by just 3.8% to £10.90 this year.

That is an uplift only applied to staff providing registered services to adults. There is no commitment to other social care staff, for example those working in children’s services. The result is more and more of the workforce leaving social care for better terms and conditions elsewhere, jeopardising many key services.

We need to see immediate action on a pay uplift to £12 for all social care staff and across all services.

Amidst this crisis, it’s also vital we remember that there are real people at the heart of all these services. People who need support to thrive and take charge of their lives, and to play an active part in their families, communities, school and work.

We need to see a fair social care system in which workers and people who use services are truly valued. That is central to the First Minister’s vison of delivering on equality, opportunity and community in Scotland.

Unless the pay inequality being experienced by social care staff is addressed it will be impossible to fulfil that pledge.”

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