Home care chief calls for more funding so care workers can be paid minimum of £11.14 an hour

The Homecare Association is calling for councils to be given more funding from the government so home care workers are able to have a minimum wage of £11.14 an hour.

Research by the Homecare Association has revealed at least 70 per cent of home care is purchased by councils, with central government funding for councils for social care having a direct impact on what councils can pay home care providers.

This in turn determines the pay and conditions of employment of care workers.

The Homecare Association found only one in eight (13 per cent) of councils that provided figures were paying an average price at, or above, the Homecare Association’s Minimum Price for Homecare of £21.43 per hour, which is the absolute minimum to ensure compliance with the minimum wage of £8.91 per hour, care regulations, and to enable sustainability of services. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, this percentage drops to 3 per cent and 0 per cent respectively.

Dr Jane Townson, chief executive of Homecare Association said: “Once again, the continued deficit in funding for home care services for older people across the United Kingdom is exposed.

“Scandalously low fee rates for home care are paid by some public organisations, particularly in areas of highest deprivation, which do not enable compliance with employment or care regulations, never mind allow fair reward for the skills and experience of careworkers.

“Zero-hour commissioning of home care at low fee rates leads to zero-hour employment of care workers at low wage rates.”

She believes “greater investment is needed in home care and community support to grow and develop the workforce and innovate, so we can enable people to live well at home, extend healthy life expectancy, reduce inequalities, take pressure off the NHS and reduce costs for the health and care system”.

The research also showed that since 2020, the number of hours of home care purchased by public sector organisations has risen by 11 per cent in the United Kingdom overall – 16 per cent in Wales, 12 per cent in Scotland, 11 per cent in Northern Ireland and 10 per cent in England.

Average hourly fee rates for home care, weighted for the volume of hours purchased, by both councils and health organisations combined, were: £18.66 (England, £18.54 – councils; £19.54 – CCGs)); £19.30 (Wales, £19.33 – councils; £19.06 – health boards)); £18.62 (Scotland); and £15.76 (Northern Ireland).

Five public organisations reported paying average fee rates below £15.19 per hour, which is the direct cost of a care worker on the national legal minimum wage of £8.91 per hour, plus average employment on-costs (pension, NI, holiday and sick pay, travel and mileage).

The problem with this is that it leaves nothing to cover the other operating costs, and thus risks non-compliance with employment and care regulations, poor experience for those receiving and giving care, and provider insolvency, according to the Homecare Association.

Areas with the highest levels of deprivation recorded the lowest average fee rates for home care.

The association would like to see all home care workers being paid a minimum of £11.14 a hour. It has worked out that to do this and cover the other operating costs, such as management, supervisions, training, recruitment, etc, local authorities should be paying at least £26.31 an hour.

This wage of £11.14 an hour would put care workers on a salary of £21,777 a year which is equivalent to Band 3 healthcare assistants in the NHS with two years and more experience.

To date, government has announced funding of £500m over three years from 2023 for training and well-being of the workforce of 1.5m. This is £111 per person per year. A workforce capacity grant of a further £162.5 million was announced on 21 October 2021, which equates to £100 per member of the care workforce.

The Homecare Association said 'whilst this is helpful in the short-term, it is hard to see how this amount will enable professionalisation of the care workforce, as claimed by the government, nor address long-standing issues with poor pay, terms and conditions of employment.'

The Homecare Association approached 340 public organisations which purchase homecare across the United Kingdom. These consisted of local authorities, Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts in Northern Ireland, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, Local Health Boards in Wales and regional NHS Boards in Scotland. Of the public organisations contacted, 312 confirmed that they purchased homecare services from the independent and voluntary sector and provided data.