Quarriers is a leading Scottish health and social care charity dedicated to transforming the lives of people with support needs. In 2021, the organisation celebrated its 150th anniversary. In this blog, the Director of People and Technology, Alistair Dickson, explains why it is so important that social care providers continue to be funded to pay the real Living Wage.
When we think about the wonderful staff who work in social care in the third sector, the first thing that comes to mind is the dedication, commitment, and passion that colleagues show on a daily basis to ensure that the people they support receive the highest quality of care and achieve the best possible outcomes. During the COVID pandemic the continued commitment from social care workers was recognised by many by the ‘clap for carers’.
At Quarriers, our staff are at the centre of everything we do and contribute daily to the high-quality outcomes of all those we support and work with. By driving our values and breathing life into our vision, our staff are genuinely transforming the lives of the people we support.
We know from speaking to our staff that salaries will always be important, and all of the 1,600 people we employ are currently paid at a rate higher than the real Living Wage. In 2018, Quarriers was delighted to sign-up as an accredited Living Wage employer and was the first large social care provider in Scotland to do so. Each year since then, Quarriers has striven to ensure that our minimum hourly rate paid to all staff is above the national rate.
The reason the real Living Wage is such an important benchmark is that we know to pay below it means employees might not be able to afford the basket of goods required for a decent standard of living, including the cost of housing, childcare, transport and heating costs. Given the cost-of-living crisis people are currently experiencing, it has never been more important for organisations to pay the real Living Wage.
I was speaking recently to one of our support workers, Peter O’Neill, who confirmed this position. Peter told me that “As a support worker, I am really pleased that Quarriers support their employees, as well as the people we support, and I am delighted that Quarriers has signed up to the real Living Wage.”
As we move into 2023, in recognition of the increasing pressure on personal finances, the real Living Wage will rise to £10.90. This is fantastic news for workers across Scotland. This significant uplift, however, will bring challenges to employers in the third sector, who want to reach the £10.90 level, but in all honesty are unlikely to be able to do so without financial support from the Scottish Government.
In the last year, we have seen the Government fund an uplift for staff working in registered adult social care services to £10.02 and then £10.50. While welcome, this policy didn’t cover all staff working in social care. It also fell short of the levels paid for comparative work in local authorities and health boards. Quarriers therefore calls on the Government to be bold, as we move towards the implementation of the National Care Service and fund a further uplift to be paid to all staff working in social care to a minimum of £10.90, or higher.
I believe in our staff, I believe in the real Living Wage, but third sector providers like Quarriers need Government funding to ensure that we can continue to be a proud, accredited Living Wage employer. Without this financial support, we might find ourselves unable to pay our staff £10.90 next year and were this to happen, it would be a tragedy for the people who work in social care and a huge failing on all of us.