Forget claps, council's low pay for Covid care heroes is a 'slap in the face'

A council has been accused of adding “insult to injury” by paying its own staff up to £2,200 more a year than care workers doing exactly the same job in privately-run care homes.

Care Forum Wales, which represents almost 500 independent care providers, has criticised Denbighshire County Council after they announced “derisory” care home fees for the coming year - causing care staff wage levels to be “unfairly suppressed”, while care workers at council-owned care homes “are paid considerably more”.

In Wales, pay rates for care workers are determined by councils who set the level of fees care homes and domiciliary care companies receive. Denbighshire and other councils use a formula which calculates how much they want to allocate towards all care home costs, including staff wages.

Mario Kreft, chair of Care Forum Wales has said Denbighshire County Council has ignored the Forum's requests to pay staff at least the real living wage.

’Dual standards’ are a slap in the face

Care Forum Wales says private care homes have only been given enough money to pay half their staff £8.72 an hour, going up to £8.91 next year, while the other half are on a higher rate of £10.21.

After the council posted job adverts for care workers, Care Forum Wales spotted the council’s care staff would receive between £1,476 and £2,288 a year more than those working in private sector care homes for a 40-hour week.

Mr Kreft called the the council’s new rates "a slap in the face" to care workers who had put their own lives on the line to protect care home residents during the pandemic.

“Instead of clapping for carers, Denbighshire County Council are slapping them in the face condemning them to live on low wages which is an absolute scandal.

“To add insult to injury they pay their own employees working in care homes at a much higher rate. They deserve so much more.

“We cannot just stand by and accept that a local authority with a budget of hundreds of millions of pounds and a statutory responsibility for social care can apply dual standards – for those who work for the council and those who don’t.

“Councils need to stop blaming providers for poor terms and conditions when they themselves set the financial rules. It’s sheer, unashamed hypocrisy.”

The care leader has said the care sector would be in dire trouble without the Welsh Government’s hardship fund, because the new rates in Denbighshire do not recognise the extra pandemic-related costs facing the care sector.

'Bitterly disappointing'

The Forum wants to see the council adjust their formula, so that care staff in the private sector can be paid at the same rate as the council’s own staff.

Denbighshire is being urged to follow the example of neighbouring Powys County Council whose Cabinet agreed that the fees paid to private care homes should increase by £110 to £120 per person a week, depending on the type of care residents receive.

Powys Council's decision was made in response to it being named and shamed last year as the worst paying council in Wales.

Denbighshire County Council was also named and shamed in 2020 by Care Forum Wales as one of the lowest paying local authorities in Wales when it comes to paying care home fees – having been rated in the bottom 10 of a league table of care fees. It sparked the launch a campaign calling for qualified staff in care homes and domiciliary care in Wales to be paid a minimum of £20,000 a year.

Mr Kreft has called it a “national disgrace” that the 2020 Fair Pay campaign was necessary and “bitterly disappointing” that Denbighshire County Council has not taken action to rectify the issue as a result.

Highlighting a north/south divide in Wales, Mr Kreft said: “Five of the bottom 10 payers in Wales are North Wales councils whilst the highest rates are to be found in South East Wales.”

“Care homes in somewhere like Dinas Powys receive £7,392 a year per resident than a home in Denbigh – for a home with 40 residents that’s a massive £295,000 a year. Why are residents in Llandaff worth more than people in Llangollen? It’s just not fair."

Denbighshire County Council has been approached for comment.