29 May 2024

“Our new priorities will define how we tune our collective voice for the next 18 months”

Rachel Cackett marks 25 years since CCPS became a registered charity – and says that continuing to be a successful membership body means being creative, focused and holding on to hope

We are the organisation we are today because for over a quarter of a century we have built on the strength and passion of our membership and our staff. I’d like to thank all those who have made CCPS – past and present – and a particular shout-out to the legendary CCPS powerhouse and rockstar, our former CEO Annie-Gunner Logan.

But in the here and now, times are tough for our members, for the people they support, for CCPS. Already in the last 18 months we have had to pivot this organisation from Covid crisis response to a sustainability crisis response to address the reality our members face. It’s not always been a comfortable ride.

Lurching from crisis to crisis without seeing the hope is not a place for any of us to effect good change. It’s been time to take stock.

For the last year we have been working with our members, our stakeholders, and our staff to hear how CCPS can best support our membership and change social care and support for the better. What you want of us, where we can have biggest impact, how we can rekindle hope.

Given that we are small team and we are not rich I need us to be incredibly focused and creative. That’s how we will continue to be a successful membership body.

CCPS priorities reflect what we have heard and define how we will tune our collective voice for the next 18 months – a deliberately short time for a song in a tumultuous world.

We will take stock again and refresh our priorities with you before the Holyrood elections where we hope that all parties will present manifestos that demonstrate their commitment to the true value of social care.

Read our Priorities for 2024-25

Back

20 February 2024

“Some days, it feels like we literally hold people’s lives in our hands”

As part of our Rethink To 13 series, a support practitioner in Sense Scotland’s short breaks service tells us about the impact a pay increase to £13 would have on her, the workforce – and the people they support

“As a support practitioner in a respite unit for young people and adults with complex needs, I wear many hats, and perform so many roles in a day. I am carer, friend, cook, nurse, driver, emotional/physical outlet, entertainer, advocate, teacher, family, to name a few.

Some days, it feels like we literally hold people’s lives in our hands. I am paid the Living Wage for only one of these roles. Raising the wage to at least £13 an hour would not only allow us to feel more appreciated and valued within these roles, it would encourage experienced staff to stay within the care sector.

We do this job to the best of our ability and because we care. But in turn, we also need to feel that we are cared for. My role requires me to be registered with the SSSC, a professional body. However, we still are classed as unskilled workers. The roles we perform are anything but unskilled.

I have stayed with people in their hour of need, providing end of life care, ensuring they are not alone and feel safe and loved. Not because my role required this, but because this is what everyone deserves.

Raising the hourly rate of pay would lead to a happier, less stressed workforce, allowing us to focus on the care that the people receiving support deserve. This would enable them to have more confidence in the people caring for them and offer a happier, more positive experience of care.

It would also encourage others to look into a career in care, offering more diversity, skills and experience, which would enhance the level of service we can provide for the people we support.”

Find out more about Sense Scotland

Read more about our Rethink To 13 campaign

 

 

 

Back

12 October 2023

4 Steps Comment: “The door is open. Now we need to push it a bit further”

Our CEO Rachel Cackett reflects on the disappointments and successes of our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign – and what our emerging movement can do next in its fight for social justice

“You can survive, but you can’t really live.”

Those words from Derek, a frontline social care worker, have echoed around my head during our #4StepsToFairWork campaign. They describe what it feels like to live on the amount the Scottish Government makes available to our members to pay staff who provide support to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.  People we all clapped through COVID. The people who might work to support my family or yours.

It’s the quietest national scandal that, behind doors in streets and villages across Scotland, are people who need support to live, to thrive, to be well, to stay independent, who can’t get it because there simply aren’t the staff.

It’s the quietest national scandal that social care and support staff working in our sector – the vast majority of them women – are paid 20% less to deliver public services, from our taxes, than people doing equivalent work in the NHS.

So, at the start of 2023 we decided it was time to stop being quiet and call for better, loudly.

Our demands weren’t huge.  Simply, we wanted all staff to get at least £12 per hour from April 2023 as the first step of a public plan to pay people fairly. A plan to give staff, and the people they support, hope.

And our #4StepsToFairWork campaign began to snowball.

Frontline staff and CEOs from our member organisations stood up and spoke up. And then others joined.  Carer Organisations, Scotland’s Faith Leaders, partner organisations, people with experience of care and support all spoke up through blogs, emails to MSPs, social media posts. I would like to personally thank every one of you who did so.  In a sector, based on the rights of people to exercise choice and control about their own care and support, our diversity and our voice are our strengths.

Then, early in our campaign, our new First Minister stood up to give his first speech to the Scottish Parliament.

We waited.

“Equality, Opportunity, Community” he said. Those are the government’s new priorities.  “That’s social care!”, we thought.

We waited…

A commitment to £12 an hour, he said.  “At last!”, we thought. The voices had been loud enough for him to hear.

But then he gave no date.

A crisis heard, but half a promise made. And a crashing disappointment for the thousands of committed staff in our sector, and to the leaders trying to keep their organisations open.

140 days later the date came in the Programme for Government – £12ph from April 2024. We hoped for a mistake in the speech, but no. A year late and by then, again too little.

And no plan.

Of course I am disappointed that the voices of so many have not resulted in our asks being met in full. That the national scandal of the Scottish Government baking in inequity to social care, and leaving people without the support they need, remains. But is it over? Absolutely not.

The door is open. We just need to push it a bit further.

Your voices were so loud, your arguments so clear, that our new FM knew he had to make a commitment to our sector in his first speech. We shouldn’t ignore this; we should build on it.

For the first time, the pay award has been extended to those working in children’s services: A first inequity addressed through our campaign.

The collective, public, voice of our sector and our allies is building to bring social justice to social care and support. Nurturing that emerging movement in the run-up to elections, as parties set their new priorities, is crucial.

And finally – and importantly – let’s remember that the £12 announcement might be made, but the Scottish Budget is not yet passed.  Every MSP has an opportunity to speak up to call for more, for better.  All of us can still call on politicians, whose core job is to allocate tax payers’ money to fund priorities for our nation, to make a better decision.

So, our #4StepsToFairWork campaign concludes today; but our campaign for better for our sector does not.

Watch this space….

Blogs, video contributions and resources from our 4 Steps campaign (June – October 2023) are available to read here

Back

11 October 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “Ending the difference in funding levels between services would be a step towards the fairness we need”

A hierarchy in adults and children’s services or between regulated v unregulated services simply means more inequalities, says Fiona Steel, Action for Children’s Acting National Director for Scotland

In the recent Programme for Government the First Minister announced a commitment to ‘provide the necessary funding in the next Budget to increase the pay of social care workers in a direct care role, to deliver funded early learning and childcare, to at least £12 per hour’. As ever, we await the fine print on how this commitment will operate in practice.

While this is a move in the right direction and may go some way to ‘dealing with pay inequality’ – the first step of the 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign – there is still unfortunately a long journey to go before social care and support workers are properly rewarded and recognised. We can’t forget that The Promise stated, ‘the purpose of the workforce must be to be caring above anything else. That starts with recruiting people with the right ethos and qualities rather than qualifications’.

But how do we get these people into social care?

Action for Children knows that there is a current struggle to attract and retain people into the social care workforce. We also know that social care staff are experts in the people they care for. To provide that vital care requires staff to use multiple skills ranging across the clinical, emotional and academic, while also collaborating closely with a myriad of other professionals.

People who choose to work in the care sector display astonishing levels of compassion, empathy, commitment, and kindness to ensure people they care for are made to feel they belong, are safe, loved and valued.

For too often the perception of social care work as being low skill prevailed. This needs to be challenged and changed.

During Covid we did see the beginning of a shift in people’s attitudes towards the sector: our frontline workers were seen as key workers who added social value. Our staff were the people who society relied on in times of crisis but also in times of normality. It’s disappointing that this view change hasn’t been built upon.

We need renewed government support and help to attract and retain staff in the sector.

As an organisation we are focused on investing in our staff. We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We pay the real living wage; we embrace the Government’s Fair Work agenda. We offer excellent training and developments opportunities; we help staff gain professional qualifications and offer flexible working hours. We encourage young people into our workforce, highlighted by the fact we recently gained a Platinum Award from Investors in Young People (IIYP).

However we are still facing recruitment challenges, especially when it comes to the complexity of commissioning of services.

We as a sector need parity. We shouldn’t have a hierarchy between adult and children services or between regulated vs unregulated services. The difference in the levels of funding between each of these areas can create inequalities.

That’s why Action for Children fully supports CCPS’s campaign calls to ensure equal pay for equal work and value all staff who play their part by delivering funding packages that value the crucial role of the different staff who make up the social care workforce.

The third sector delivers many local authority services, but councils are competing with these providers for staff. They are offering more in wages to attract staff than they give in rates in the contracts for providers, ironically making it harder to staff these local services.

Something fundamental needs to change to make sure Scotland has a talent pool for social care that is deeper not shallower. Action for Children believes the 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign can be the catalyst for change needed. That is why we offer it our full support.

Find out more about Action for Children’s work

Read more about the 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign

Back

18 August 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “The staff who work for my son will tell you it’s not only good fun, but they have grown so much from supporting him”

As part of 4 Steps To Fair Work, we’re sharing views from beyond our membership. Here the Coalition of Carers in Scotland’s Jaynie Mitchell discusses how a new approach to recruitment could reap rewards

There is no doubt it is difficult to recruit support staff roles currently. There are many reasons for this, poor wages being one of the main ones, but I also believe that the pandemic and how care is now perceived by wider society is also having a huge impact.

Throughout the pandemic care was primarily reduced to a shrinking number of care workers providing short visits to multiple people at a time. Mainly providing personal care to those who were elderly, unwell, or requiring end of life care. While this type of support is incredibly important it is only part of the social care picture. Many of us have loved ones who are children, teenagers, and young adults, or grown-up children, brothers and sisters who have support needs because of disability.

I would argue that this group of people is often overlooked by the mainstream press whenever there is a news piece on social care. There may be many reasons for this, amongst them how complicated it would be to describe their support needs briefly in an article.

While personal care is an essential element of social care, in reality it’s a very small part of what people need to live the life they want. We need to also focus on how social care should help people to live a rich and full life and not just an existence of being clean, fed and often lonely and bored.

Using the passions and interests of our loved ones to find support is one solution to the workforce crisis. It is also a great model for more personalised care.

Our son is an adventurer who loves to explore new places, going for a run in the car for a hot chocolate. He loves fish and chips followed by an ice-cream. He’s a collector of rare books, so likes to visit charity shops to add to his collection. He is an artist and photographer. He is a whizz when it comes to technology has a wicked sense of humour, and the most infectious laugh. He loves to eat out and enjoys home cooked food too.

When we have advertised for staff in the past and listed his diagnosis, and that sometimes he requires 2:1 support, lovely people apply, but they share none of his interests, they are usually older, very experienced, and come with a notion of what support should look like for someone with complex needs, and that notion doesn’t align with ours.

When we advertise for people that love to drive, are artists and up for a laugh, have a passion for books, are into technology, and enjoying eating out and cooking, we get a completely different kind of applicant. Once we think they are a good fit we then teach them the technical stuff about how to support him.

If your child wants to go to ballet lessons, ask some of the teenagers who attend if they want a part-time job. If they want to go to Beavers, try a Venture Scout. If your husband always enjoyed bowls, ask at their club who could support them. If they want to go to the gym, ask for a gym buddy. If they want to learn to cook, find someone who also wants to learn to support them. If they enjoy live music find someone who likes the same type of gigs. Not only will it be a better experience for your loved one, but a relationship may also grow from it which is and bonus for everyone involved.

We have been conditioned by the system and society that only a particular type of person can support disabled people. It is simply not true. Instead of paying staff a fair wage, staff are called ‘brave’ or ‘kind-hearted’, leading those that don’t see themselves as altruistic to think they need not apply.

Alongside improving the pay and conditions for the health and social care workforce, we also need to change the narrative. The staff who work for my son will tell you that it’s not only rewarding and good fun – but they have learned and grown so much themselves from supporting him.

Jaynie Mitchell is Rural and Island Engagement Worker for the Coalition of Carers in Scotland

Find out more about our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign

 

 

Back

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.

 

Back

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

Back

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. 

Back

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.

Back

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.

Back