Penrose Care pays new London Living Wage to its home care workers

Home care provider Penrose Care Ltd has implemented the London Living Wage rate to all of its home care workers, following an announcement by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson on Monday 2 November.

Penrose Care implemented the new London Living Wage from Monday 2 November and workers will see wages rise to £9.40 per hour, an increase from the previous Living Wage rate of £9.15 per hour. While employees at Penrose Care who are already on a higher wage rate than the London Living Wage will have their pay reviewed this month.

Managing director of Penrose Care, Robert Stephenson-Padron commented: “The Living Wage Foundation’s guidance is to phase in increases in the London Living Wage over six months, but keeping with past practice at the firm – Penrose Care has implemented the increase starting Monday morning. Our hard working care workers deserve no less.”

In October 2012, Penrose Care became one of the first of four home care providers in the UK to become an accredited Living Wage employer, of nearly 6,000 care providers.

Penrose Care adheres to a wider ethical scheme, called the Social Care Charter of Citizens UK, this includes the Living Wage. In addition, the group pays for worker travel time between visits and operates an occupational sick pay scheme.

In March 2014, the National Audit Office released a report that revealed between 160,000 to 220,000 care workers in the UK are paid below the National Minimum Wage. The reason for this was found to be due to deductions for uniforms or due to travel time between visits. The current National Minimum Wage for persons over 21 is £6.70 per hour.

Mr Stephenson-Padron added: “Penrose Care continues to be an ethically and responsibly managed organisation, which during these turbulent times in the social care sector, allows us to continue leading the way on home care worker terms in conditions. This ensures we attract top calibre workers and keep them. “Penrose Care has found that when we look after our social care workers well, they more than pay us back in the excellent care they provide the vulnerable persons we support every day.”

Employers can chose whether or not to pay the Living Wage. The Living Wage is supported by a number of political parties and has public backing from the Prime Minister David Cameron and the leader of the opposition.

Statistic from 2014 reveal that there are around 2,000 accredited Living Wage employers in the UK, up from just 100 when Penrose Care became an accredited Living Wage employer in 2012.

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