Draft Letter for Uplift of Payment for Care Staff on Personal Budgets
Dear Social Care and CCG ,
As you are aware there is a huge lack of availability of care for our members at the moment. Many of us have been trying fulfil gaps in our care packages for months. We believe this has been compounded by a lack of investment in personal budgets as a way to receive care over the years.
We are well aware that care companies in this area get a much higher rate, the argument has always been they have more costs. We agree that there are obviously some costs but the majority of this is extra rate is profit, with staff getting to receive little more than basic pay. This has recently been highlighted by this poster from the care association (see attached), showing what the costs are. Despite this our members have the same cost yet get less pay for our staff and none of it goes to profit. It is my concern that this may lead to disability discrimination under the Equality Act, as those that choose Direct Payments are treated less favourably in pay and suppprt.
Furthermore, Brexit and the pandemic has increased living costs. In other jobs, such as a supermarket worker, their pay reflects this increased living cost with many earning towards £14an hour.
We've also noted the huge drop in people now taking on Personal Budgets as an option to Health and Care (source NHS Digital see attached). In the long run, this can only have a detrimental effect on the system in costing more for your organisations to run services (based on data from the universal personalisation process).
Therefore, as the financial year is coming to an end, we ask for an uplift in the new financial year for our employees, in the region of £14 an hour. This will help to ensure the personalisation process that has been given much promise over the years is maintained for the benefit of your organisations and for our employees, without which our care would fall on your own stretched services.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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