Community Integrated Care has announced that it will pay frontline workers more than both the government’s National Living Wage and the voluntary real Living Wage as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation.

The uplift, which is the second in six months for the charity’s 5,000 strong workforce, will see it pay support workers £10 per hour in England and £11 per hour in Scotland from 1 April.

The move represents a further £3 million investment from the organisation, in addition to £5 million already spent improving employee pay, reward and wellbeing in 2021, reflecting the charity’s commitment to frontline recognition as part of our new Best Lives Possible five-year strategy.

It is hoped this rise will help alleviate some of the worry facing the frontline workforce as the UK faces the cost-of-living crisis with the price of goods, energy and household bills continuing to climb and inflation at a 30-year high.

The increase means that a support worker in England working 40 hours per week will now receive an annual salary of £20,857 – an additional £625 (gross) per year – with equivalent uplifts for Advanced support worker roles and nurses.

“As the social care sector continues its battle with low pay and skills shortages, our charity is proud to be in a position where we can go some way in fulfilling our commitment to valuing and rewarding our colleagues fairly for the outstanding work they do,” said Community Integrated Care chief executive Mark Adams.

“We know that for many providers, this is an impossibility, tightly bound by the government’s funding constraints and a recruitment crisis that is buckling our sector. Whilst short-term tweaks such as scrapping mandatory vaccination and easing immigration, may make headlines, the latest figures show that vacancies rose from 9.4% to 9.5% between December 2021 and January 2022 – highlighting that this crisis is neither slowing nor going.

“We urgently need action from central government, including sustainable funding and an effective workforce strategy, to address the significant challenges social care is facing. In the meantime, our charity will continue to campaign for real change, so that these rates become the norm and not the exception in our sector.”

“Throughout the most testing two years in recent history, our caring and committed colleagues have continued to provide life-enhancing support to thousands of people in our local communities. The world has changed immeasurably within this period and even now, as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, our colleagues are grappling with steep increases to the costs of living, leaving many people understandably anxious about what lies ahead,” added chief people officer Teresa Exelby.

“Whilst we know there’s no quick fix to these issues, we hope that this £3 million investment goes some small way in making daily life easier for our teams, demonstrating our commitment to making our Best Lives Possible strategy a reality for not only the people we support but our colleagues too.”

To find out more about vacancies, and what it’s like to work for Community Integrated Care, visit www.workincare.co.uk.