Care Workers

Debate between Andrew Smith and Joan Walley

Wednesday 5th November 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Smith]

Most certainly they are, and I will say more about that later. I support, and the House ought to support, the key action that Unison and others are calling for. First, the Government should make ending illegally low pay for care workers a key priority. Secondly, HMRC should be instructed and resourced to do a proper job in ending the widespread breaches of the national minimum wage. Thirdly, care providers and the councils that commission them should be named and shamed when they do not pay the minimum wage.

It is not just trade unionists, local councillors and those whose loved ones use care services who are concerned about all this. In preparation for the debate, I spoke to local private care providers, and I will share with Members some of the points they made. They told me that care workers’ salaries do not reflect the responsibility they have; that luck and money are all too likely to decide people’s quality of care; that too many staff are on poor contracts, but that often reflects poor profit margins; that zero-hours contracts can be a barrier to recruitment, but that some employees want them; that staff turnover is high because of the high cost of living and shortage of affordable housing, which is an issue in my constituency; and that pressure on council budgets—the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris)—means that restricted funding is available for front-line care.

Local providers also drew my attention to the fact that in six out of 14 areas in Oxfordshire, the county council is offering rates of funding for front-line care that are below the living wage, even though it has rightly pledged to pay its own staff above the living wage. Providers also told me that upper-tier councils such as Oxfordshire, which are responsible for home care, have their hands tied by the local government squeeze. Members should remember that all these points have been put to me by providers.

[Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

May I, too, declare an interest, as a Unison member, and say how important it is that this issue has been flagged up in the debate? Given the concerns about this issue, should home care not be part and parcel of the discussions about the future of the NHS? We need to keep people out of accident and emergency and out of hospitals. If there is no care in the community, we will put more expense on the NHS and provide worse care. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, in discussions about the future of the NHS, we should make absolutely sure that these workers are paid a proper rate for the job and that travelling time is included? The Care Quality Commission has a vital role in this.

[John Robertson (in the Chair)]

Order. I ask hon. Members to keep interventions a bit shorter.