Home care staff get pay rise with new full-time care workers getting average salary of £20,280

Home care workers in the West Midlands are to get a pay rise to show appreciation for what they have been through during the pandemic.

Fairway Homecare has pledged to increase its care workers’ pay so the average starting salary of a care worker will be £20,280 based on a 40 hour week.

The company already pays three per cent more than the national minimum wage but it is now boosting pay for the national living wage by 7.5 per cent, an increase from £9.05 to £9.75 an hour. Pay for 18-20 year olds has also gone up 18 per cent from £6.56 to £7.75 and for 21-22 year olds to £9.35 instead of the £8.36 an hour, an 11 per cent growth.

Operations director, Alex O’Neill, said: “We’re thrilled that we can announce this new pay rise for our staff, they’ve been absolutely incredible during the Covid pandemic by looking after people’s loved ones when others couldn’t, and we hope that this will just go a small way to help them and show our gratitude.

“We’ve recently launched our #notjustacarer campaign, where we’re highlighting all of the extra things that carers do, they’re not ‘just’ a carer, they’re companionship for your loved ones, they’re the ones that people depend on and they truly make a difference in someone’s life.”

Fairway Homecare employs nearly 300 care workers and currently covers 5,500 hours a week in the West Midlands.

However it needs to cover an extra 1,000 hours per week, which will require at least 40 new care workers. Fairway Homecare has partnered with Embark Learning Care Academy to train new care workers for their qualifications. The training is completely free and allows them to get all of their qualifications and into a job in just four weeks.

Mr O’Neill said: “In the last quarter, 73 members of staff joined Fairway, of which 80 per cent successfully came through the Embark Learning Care Academy, adding 59 fully care certificated, qualified health and social care professionals to our team and we’ll have another 120 by the end of the month, so we’re very excited with the rate of growth we’re experiencing.”

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