Specialist neurological care home increases staff pay to more than National Living Wage

Specialist neurological care provider, PJ Care Ltd has increased the hourly rate for its staff to more than the National Living Wage - which comes into effect from April 2016.

From next April, all employers will be expected to pay their employees at least the national living wage which will be £7.20 an hour for workers aged 25 and older. The minimum wage will still apply for workers aged 24 and under.

PJ Care, which has three centres, Mallard House and Bluebirds in Milton Keynes and Eagle Wood in Peterborough, caring for over 180 people and employing nearly 500 staff, has upped its pay rates to between £7.30 and £8.30 per hour. This will then rise again by at least a further 20p an hour in February 2016.

PJ Care’s HR manager, Liz Morgan said: “We are delighted to be able to offer our care staff this increase in their hourly rate. We wanted to show them that they are integral to the service we provide, they are the ones who provide the compassionate care to our residents that has become synonymous with PJ Care.”

PJ Care’s chief executive, Johann van Zyl added: “At a time when Local Authority and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) fees have gone down in real terms we have had to work hard to manage the company more effectively to allow us to increase pay for our care staff.

“We are a family business so there are no investors demanding profit which means we can invest back into the company for the benefit of our residents and our staff.

“We are proud of the high quality of care that we provide, all our carers go through a rigorous recruitment and induction process, we expect them to undergo intensive training and all this has to be reflected in their wages.”

PJ Care is a leading provider of specialist neurological care and neuro-rehabilitation for people with progressive or acquired neurological conditions.

Ms Morgan added “We are recruiting carers at the moment and we hope that we can encourage people to think about care as a rewarding long term career.”