Care Workers

Grahame Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Smith]

Yes, indeed. The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, and I will say more about that later. Of course, there will be massive increased need for these workers in the future. One reason recruitment and retention are so difficult is that terms and conditions are often so poor.

Let me develop my argument further. Only 21% of councils have ever asked to see documentary evidence relating to the pay of care workers employed by their contractors. In the face of that and the other evidence I have cited, it is appalling that the Government are doing so little to uphold the legal rights of home care workers. It is indefensible that HMRC has stopped carrying out proactive investigations of national minimum wage compliance in home care, despite having revealed the extent of the breaches itself.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on bringing this debate to the Commons at such an important time. In my area, Durham county council has had to implement £135 million of cuts over three years, with another £44 million in the pipeline. It is commissioning home care at £11 an hour, whereas the commissioning rate in some more affluent areas is £15 an hour. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Government’s cuts in support for local government are compounding the problem?

[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.