Pay increase for frontline care staff from charity

A SOCIAL care charity has announced a pay increase for its frontline staff.

Community Integrated Care – based in Widnes – will pay its frontline support workers in England £10 per hour from Friday, April 1.

This will see the charity pay more than the national living wage, which will be increasing to £9.50.

It will be the second pay increase in six months for the charity’s workforce.

It is hoped that this pay increase will alleviate some of the worries faced by staff, following sharp increases in the cost of living.

Mark Adams, chief executive officer at Community Integrated Care, said: “Our charity is proud to be in a position where we can go some way in fulfilling our commitment to valuing and rewarding our colleagues fairly for the outstanding work they do.

“But we know that for many providers, this is an impossibility, tightly bound by the Government’s funding constraints and a recruitment crisis that is buckling our sector.

“Latest figures show that vacancies rose from 9.4% to 9.5% between December 2021 and January 2022 – highlighting that this crisis is neither slowing, or going.

“We urgently need action from central government, including sustainable funding and an effective workforce strategy, to address the significant challenges social care is facing.

“In the meantime, our charity will continue to campaign for real change, so that these rates become the norm and not the exception in our sector.”

The increase in pay means that a support worker for the charity who works 40 hours per week will receive an extra £625 per year. The move represents a £3million investment from the organisation to improve employee pay and wellbeing.

Teresa Exelby, chief people officer at Community Integrated Care, said: “Throughout the most testing two years in recent history, our caring and committed colleagues have continued to provide life-enhancing support to thousands of people.

“The world has changed immeasurably within this period and even now, as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, our colleagues are grappling with steep increases to the costs of living, leaving many people understandably anxious about what lies ahead.

“Whilst we know there’s no quick fix to these issues, we hope that this £3million investment goes some small way in making daily life easier for our teams.”