Engage: Essential information on pay for social care employers in Scotland

On 1st October 2016, all adult social care workers in Scotland are to be paid at least £8.25 per hour. Here, HR and Employment Law director of Peninsula, Alan Price, speaks on how employers can get the wage right and why it is imperative for them to implement the wage in their businesses…

The Scottish Government previously made a Living Wage commitment where, as part of the 2016/17 Local Government settlement, all adult social care workers in Scotland will receive the current Living Wage rate from 1st October 2016.

The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently by the Living Wage Foundation and is calculated according to the cost of living in the UK. The current UK Living Wage is £8.25 an hour and is updated annually in November. The Living Wage is not a statutory rate of pay and employers can voluntarily choose to pay this rate and pass on the yearly increases to staff, meaning it is different to the legally required National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage set by the government.

Although the Living Wage is not a legal requirement, the Scottish Government has agreed with Local Governments that all adult social workers will receive £8.25 per hour from October, regardless of the workers’ age at this date. Importantly, this agreement does not require wages to be further increased when the new Living Wage rate is announced in November and workers will still receive £8.25 an hour until further spending review negotiations take place in 2017/18 and beyond.

This commitment applies specifically to care workers in Scotland who provide direct care and support to adults in care homes, care at home and housing support settings, as provided by the Scottish Social Service Sector report on Workforce Data. This will cover all purchased services, including specialist support services for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, mental health difficulties and substance misuse issues.

The new Living Wage rate will apply for all hours worked. In the care sector there are common areas which could cause the worker to be paid less than this rate, such as sleeping time and travel time, so social care employers should ensure that they are correctly recording working time so the correct hourly rate is paid. Employers should also be aware of the risk of not paying the committed rate when tendering for work from Local Governments. It is not possible for tendering scoring exercises to specifically include payment of wages above legal minimums but tendering authorities can take account of fair work practices when awarding tenders. As the Living Wage commitment of paying social care workers £8.25 per hour will constitute fair work practices, any failure to pay this amount could affect the award of tenders for future work.

Personal assistants are not explicitly covered by the commitment but guidance released in partnership with the Scottish Government suggests that it may be possible for workers to complain of unequal treatment or discrimination if they do not receive £8.25 per hour. Employers of personal assistants should take in to account this risk when deciding whether to increase the amount they pay or maintain the current rates of pay.

About the Author

Alan Price is Group Operations and HR Director, Peninsula Business Services Group. He also holds a judicial appointment to the Employment Tribunals and was appointed to the CIPD board in 2014 as a Non-Executive Director.