Care home chief urges Welsh government not to exclude caterers and cleaners from £1,000 bonus

The chief of Care Forum Wales is calling for the Welsh government not to “overlook” caterers, support workers and cleaning staff when a bonus payment of £1,000 is paid out to the social care sector from April.

Earlier this week, Deputy Minister Julie Morgan announced that the £96m incentive will be for the 53,000 people working in the sector. This comes on top of the £43.2 million announced last December to ensure social care workers receive the real living wage in 2022-23.

The government said the additional payment, which is aligned to the introduction of the real living wage, will be £1,498 before deductions for tax and national insurance. Care workers on a basic rate of income tax can expect to receive £1,000 after deductions.

While Care Forum Wales said they “welcome” the £1,000 bonus, they are concerned there could be a “question mark” over “infection control, catering and cleaning staff” who may not be eligible.

Mr Kreft said: “The key thing is that nobody gets overlooked because in Wales social care staff have made an astonishing contribution to the safety of vulnerable people.

"We really need to have clarity that these people are not going to be overlooked because there has been an astonishing commitment by the social care sector and social care workers in different settings come in all shapes and sizes."

'We don’t want to see a repeat of the shambles last autumn'

Care Forum Wales is also concerned this money might not reach the frontline because it is being channelled via local authorities and health boards.

Last year, Mr Kreft criticised the way councils distributed social care funding to care homes and domiciliary care companies when he described it as “putting a fox in charge of the henhouse”.

“We don’t want to see a repeat of the shambles last autumn when £41 million in recovery funding was given to local authorities because we know that has been less than consistently allocated to the sector, as we warned would be the case at the time,” says Mr Kreft.

“We still have some local authorities in Wales that have not ensured that desperately needed money has got to the frontline as the Welsh Government intended.

“Some providers have still got the begging bowl out at a time when care homes are closing because of financial difficulties.

“It’s therefore vital we learn the lessons and we approach this issue in partnership so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.”

The Welsh government expect the £1,000 bonus and the real living wage will be processed in people’s pay from April to June. The additional payment will be available as a single payment or monthly instalments.