Award winning care home provider, Cornerstone Healthcare, has rewarded its staff with inflation beating pay rises for the fourth consecutive year.

Cornerstone’s latest increase will see healthcare assistants earn a minimum of £11.90 per hour with nurse’s hourly rates now starting from £23.25. The nurse increase is in addition to the care providers ‘Golden Career’ bonus scheme which sees their nurses able to earn an annual, uncapped performance bonus.

Cornerstone chief executive, Johann van Zyl, said: “We are seeing how the current labour dispute between the NHS and their nurses is affecting people on all levels of society. As a care provider we have a tremendous responsibility to our residents and their families. We cannot afford that those people responsible for their wellbeing are underpaid and living in poverty. Nurses and healthcare assistants are playing a pivotal role in the country’s heath care system and it will be fatal for a business like ours to lose them.”

Over the last four years Cornerstone frontline staff received a 40% salary uplift to ensure their remuneration is in line with the best in the counties they operate in, as well as above the independently-set real living wage.

Van Zyl added: “More than ever, we are fully aware that every penny counts as the cost-of-living difficulties show no signs of easing. As a responsible employer we have no other option but to assist our staff where possible. Not everything is about salary increases though. Something as little as a subsidised cooked meal over lunchtime, or food vouchers could go a long way to assist employees.

“The staffing crisis in healthcare shall continue to deepen and the unprecedented strike action our NHS colleagues were forced take to receive a fair pay reward will happen again and again. Our staff cannot function on ‘passion for the job’ anymore.”