Warning social care in Scotland is 'at risk of collapse'

The union has now written to ministers ahead of the Scottish budget for 2024/25 being unveiled on December 19 to insist that workers - mostly low-paid women - deserve more than “talking shops and false promises.”

Earlier this year, a survey of the union’s members in social care revealed four in five had considered quitting in the last 12 months while 80% fear the stress of their job is damaging their health.

The Scottish Government is set to increase the minimum hourly pay for care workers from £10.90 to £12 from April 2024, but GMB warned that this has already been eroded by soaring inflation. 

It said £15-per-hour is needed to retain staff.  

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Meanwhile, pledges to introduce minimum levels of sick pay and maternity pay across the private sector are also now in doubt.

Most care workers employed by private care homes and home care providers are only entitled to statutory sick pay of £109 per week for 28 weeks, and statutory maternity pay at 90% for six weeks and 33 weeks at £172. 

Conditions tend to be much more generous for those in the public sector, where six months' full pay and six months' half pay tends to be the norm. 

Efforts to "close the gap" between the private and public sector had been a major part of ongoing talks between trade unions and the Scottish Government ahead of the creation of the National Care Service, which promised greater parity in terms and conditions across the workforce.

But GMB Scotland said a series of working groups "have achieved next to nothing" despite years of talks.

A key objective of the new National Care Service had been to introduce consistency in pay and conditions for staff, whether working for private or council providers (Image: PA)

It has now written to deputy first minister Shona Robison, the Finance Secretary, after being told that financial pressures mean the possibility of securing improved sick pay and maternity leave for private care staff is in jeopardy.

The Scottish Government said it is facing its "most challenging budget" since devolution, with a £1 billion black hole. 

Cara Stevenson, organiser for the GMB Scotland women’s campaign unit, said: “If pay and conditions of care workers, particularly in the private sector, improved every time there was a meeting to discuss their pay and conditions then there would be no crisis.

“Instead, years and years of talking have done little to improve conditions for staff in a sector that could not be more important or demand more urgent intervention.

“Without decent pay and better conditions or any real progress in securing them, the exodus of experienced and committed care workers will continue and social care in Scotland will continue to inch closer to catastrophe.”

On Monday, Karen Hedge - deputy CEO of Scottish Care, the umbrella body for private care providers - said the home care sector had "fallen into disrepair" in many parts of Scotland. 

Speaking during an online Scotland Policy Conference on the future of social care, Ms Hedge noted that a decline in district nurse numbers in the NHS means that home carers are now responsible for tasks such as administering medication in addition to feeding, dressing, and toileting clients in the space of a 15 minute visit. 

One provider had lost three quarters of its staff since the pandemic and remaining carers were "completely exhausted and depleted", she said. 

"By the time you and I need care, there will be no one left to look after us," she added.

The Bill to create the National Care Service - tabled in summer 2022 - was paused by the Scottish Government pending revisions, but those working in the care sector told the conference that the legislation is becoming overcomplicated and could "fall apart" before it is implemented.

Alex Stobart, director Scotland at Mydex - a social enterprise -said that not enough people with "lived experience" of using or providing care were feeding into National Care Service Bill, which he said was becoming "a muddle".

Social Care Minister, Maree Todd, said: “One of the key principals of the National Care Service is to give the entire workforce consistency with improved pay and conditions, access to training and development, and making social care an attractive and rewarding career.

"Our £800 million funding increase since 2021-22 saw pay for adult social care workers rise by more than 14% in two years – meaning Scottish workers are paid more than their English counterparts – and will go up again in April.

"The minimum wage for full-time adult social care staff in Scotland is around £900 per year higher than it is for their counterparts in England.

“Scotland is facing the most challenging budget settlement since devolution as a result of sustained high inflation and a UK Government autumn statement that failed to deliver the investment needed in Scotland's public services.

“Councils and Health and Social Care Partnerships are responsible for providing or commissioning services and ensuring they have safe and sustainable numbers of staff.

"We continue to work closely with local authorities, HSCPs, trades unions and social care providers to progress work now on fair work, including sectoral bargaining, in adult social care and make sure staff are benefitting.”