Community leaders have demanded the real living wage for care workers during a protest outside a Barchester Healthcare care home in North London.

The protest, which was organised by Citizens UK, took place outside Barchester’s Southgate Beaumont care home in Haringey yesterday.

Barbara, an enablement worker in London and Citizens UK leader, said: “I work closely with care workers in my role and see their dedication to caring for others. So many people think care work is low-skill, but I know first-hand it’s not. The job requires a lot of specialised training, yet many care workers are hardly being paid enough to live. More and more are having to choose between necessities like paying their energy bills or doing a food shop. It’s simply not right, which is why we’re continuing to urge Barchester Healthcare to pay their workers a real living wage.” 

New analysis of ASHE data by the Living Wage Foundation shows Haringey is the worst local authority in London for low paid jobs, with 34.2% paying less than the real living wage – that’s 44,000 roles.  

Citizens UK staged a demonstration outside Barchester’s headquarters in London earlier this year.

The organisation said sample data showed some Barchester workers were not receiving paid sick leave or breaks.

Over 230 care providers have become accredited Living Wage Employers in the last two years to better reward the workforce and boost recruitment and retention.

A Barchester spokesperson told us: “We take the wellbeing of our employees very seriously and offer the most comprehensive remuneration package in the care sector. We actively benchmark ourselves against other providers to ensure we are in the upper quartile on remuneration for care home staff. We already pay above the UK Living Wage (UK LW) to all staff at Southgate Beaumont home. All staff at the home are paid at least £9.90 per hour, which is above the UK LW.  It is wholly incorrect to state that staff employed by the home do not receive paid sick leave or breaks. We have sector-leading staff benefits and rewards. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we paid three additional bonuses to our front-line staff in order to thank them for their tireless work in maintaining extremely high standards of care.

“As voted by our own employees, last year we were awarded a Two Star Outstanding ‘Best Companies to Work For’ accreditation (being the only large healthcare provider to have received such accreditation), in recognition of our standing as an employer of choice in the sector. As part of our ongoing commitment to continually invest in the quality of care for residents and patients by recruiting and retaining the very best staff, we are adding to our sector-leading staff benefits and rewards with an additional £8.1 million being invested in our pay and bonus structure in 2022 meaning that all of our staff based in homes and hospitals will be paid at least 40p above the national living wage and received a special bonus in July 2022 on average a further £700 for those that qualified.”