Newham Council is increasing the hourly rate paid to its contracted home care providers, in order that they can pay their staff, the majority of whom are Newham residents, the London Living Wage.
The London Living Wage in 2019/20 is £10.55 per hour, compared to the National Minimum Wage of £8.21 per hour, a difference of 28.5 per cent.
Newham Council’s indirectly employed care staff will receive the London Living Wage from Monday 5 August.
Following Cabinet approval in May, the contract for this vital provision has been extended for one-year with a clause added guaranteeing the London Living Wage for more than 700 care staff – seeing Newham Council invest £2.1million this year.
Paying these staff the London Living Wage is part of the Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz’s, Community Wealth Building agenda by encouraging economic growth within the borough for local people.
The implementation of the London Living Wage, together with an expectation that providers offer an occupational sickness scheme to their workers, means Newham Council now complies with all the expectations of the Unison Ethical Care Charter – an industry gold standard in terms of staff treatment. The Sickness Scheme will ensure that staff are given sick pay and do not feel the need to work when they are ill, putting vulnerable customers at risk.
Newham Council provided a total of 1.2million hours of direct care during 2018/19, to around 2,500 customers.
Councillor Susan Masters, Cabinet member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “Our home care workers, who serve some of Newham’s most vulnerable residents, will now earn the wage they deserve for their hard work.
“As a council, we work closely with care providers to ensure the quality of service is always improving, and paying the London Living Wage is the latest of these measures.
“A lot of our care staff live within the borough and paying the London Living Wage will help to stimulate economic growth within Newham.”