Social care workers should be paid what they deserve, says chairman of Care Forum Wales
Moves to top up the pay of self-isolating social care staff in Powys should be part of a complete overhaul of the way the sector is funded, the chairman of Care Forum Wales has said.
Care Forum Wales, says chronic underfunding for a quarter of a century has seen care homes facing the prospect of financial ruin while having to deal with the enormous challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Chairman, Mario Kreft MBE, spoke out after Wales Health Minister Vaughan Gething announced he is planning to top up the wages of social-care workers forced to self-isolate because of coronavirus.
At the moment they are only eligible for statutory sick pay - currently £95.85 per week - if they have to self-isolate or take sick leave due to the virus.
Mr Kreft said: “We welcome anything that is going to improve the terms and conditions of care workers. Providers did have concerns that there were incentives for people not to self-isolate when perhaps they ought to.
“The funding care homes receive from local authorities and health boards enables providers to do no more than pay statutory sick pay and nothing over and above that.
“We have had 25 years of failure and inadequate resources. This is a golden opportunity to right some fundamental flaws that have pushed the social care sector to the brink of financial ruin.
“Even before Covid, we have suffered regular care home closures across Wales because of the postcode lottery of fees.
"A care home in Cardiff receives £12,000 a year more for providing the same level of service for an individual resident in a care home in Powys.
“Working in social care is already a career to be proud of but we now need to make sure that it also a career in which our wonderful staff are also properly paid, one that they can afford to go into.
"We need a totally new approach, fit for the 21st century to enable us to pay social care workers what they deserve.”
