Ethical home care firm hailed champion of living wage movement

Home care provider Penrose Care has been hailed as a leader in the care industry for its contribution to the living wage movement and ethical working practices.

Penrose Care has been awarded the Living Wage Champion Award for Industry Leadership by judges including Observer journalist Yvonne Roberts and Tess Lanning, the director of the Living Wage Foundation.

The UK Living Wage is £8.75 per hour calculated according to what workers need to make ends meet but it is employers who can choose to take a stand by ensuring their staff get it. Penrose Care has offered its staff the living wage for the past six years.

Tess Lanning, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said: “Employers like Penrose Care are leading the way in placing dignity and respect at the heart of their organisation. Over 4,200 employers have now signed up to the movement. Penrose Care’s work in celebrating and championing the Living Wage has been vital to its success.”

Real living wage Vs Government’s

The Government introduced a minimum wage rate in 2016 for staff aged over 25 called the ‘National Living Wage’. But the Living Wage Foundation encourages bosses pay more to ensure their workers earn a wage that meets the real costs of living.

Back in 2012, Penrose Care (based in Hampstead, London) became one of only four real living wage accredited home care providers in the capital (out of 1,000 home care agencies).

Penrose Care has also put in place what the Living Wage Foundation has rated “outstanding labour standards”. These include guaranteed weekly hours (20 hours per week), payment for travel time, private medical insurance and an occupational sick pay scheme.

Not 'like machines in a warehouse'

‘These standards have set Penrose apart from its peers and highlighted the possibility of decent pay and conditions within the care sector’, the Foundation stated.

Robert Stephenson-Padron, Penrose Care's managing director has said in a blog how years of councils tendering out home care services to the lowest bidders without reference to legal labour standards, resulted in a sector of contract winners that pay workers below the minimum wage - with them carrying out 15-minute home visits “like machines in a warehouse”.

He said local councils and providers “turn a blind eye to years of labour exploitation”.

‘Outsourcing criminality’

Mr Stephenson Padron told homecare.co.uk:

“Local authorities have not been funding care in a way that covers the minimum wage at least so they are outsourcing criminality. But it’s everybody’s responsibility. Providers too. It has to be difficult for some providers to stay within the law and to be economical. They must look at their business model and rearrange it. Most providers should look at complying with the law. Accepting a local authority contract that is too low and does not even take into account the minimum wage is very irresponsible. It is not acceptable to say because local authorities don’t pay enough, we can’t pay our staff more. We won’t take dirty contracts.”