£1.5m boost gives 17pc pay rise to home carers

HUNDREDS of Manchester’s lowest paid workers will get pay rises of up to 17 per cent.

Home care staff - who help some of the city’s most vulnerable people with essential daily tasks – are set to receive the increase next month.

Home care assistants are among the lowest paid workers in the city. But a £1.5m cash boost from Manchester council budgets will see their wages rise from as low as £7.50 per hour - the national living wage - to the new Manchester living wage of £8.75.

That represents a rise of nearly 17 per cent for the lowest paid.

Council bosses say the pay rise will help tackle ‘shameful in-work poverty’ and strengthen the homecare market by making it more attractive to work in.

Coun Bev Craig, pictured, is the council’s executive member for adult services, health and wellbeing. She said: “This money is a way of recognising the hard work of those workers who give the sort of daily care that’s not only practical, but is a lifeline in providing the dignity that we all need.

“We all know that some things like dignity and wellbeing can’t have a price put on them.

“But, in reality, when you consider how this sector keeps people living longer and better at home, you can see not only the moral, but economic reasons, too.

“This is the right thing to do and by investing in our people and services we will also help with tackling shameful in-work poverty in Manchester.”

The council funds home care provided by trusted private agencies.

Currently, Manchester pays those home care businesses an average of £13.50 per hour for help in people’s homes.

This will rise to £15.20 per hour from April 1 - and the businesses must pass on the extra cash to workers.

The council has been working with NHS partners to look at how services are commissioned and how to attract more people to caring roles.

They say they are working alongside partners to recognise home care working as a profession that is properly and fairly rewarded. The initiative also ties in with the key aims of Unison’s Ethical Care Charter, announced in October last year, to ensure adequate staffing levels and sufficient time for workers to look after vulnerable people.

Manchester Health and Care Commissioning and the council is working to develop an exemplary model of working for the care sector.

The Manchester living wage promises to make a big difference to the life of Lisa Walden, a 48-yearold carer and mum-of-one, from Middleton.

“To me this pay increase means that our work has been acknowledged”, she said. “The extra money per week will probably pay for half my petrol, which will help me to save for things at home like a family holiday.”