- Conference
- 2021 Virtual Special Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2021
- Decision
- Carried
Conference acknowledges the importance of responding to the devastating impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the social care sector and welcomes wholeheartedly the campaign to deliver a national care service.
Conference notes that the coronavirus pandemic has had tragic consequences for thousands of people in the UK and particularly in adult social care. The virus has taken a heavy toll on many of those needing the most support, and also underpaid and undervalued social care staff.
Conference notes with concern that cuts to local authority budgets are impacting on the salaries of our members in the social care sector. Many private and independent employers are engaging in a race to the bottom on terms and conditions of employment. Some employers are even claiming that the annual rise in the National Minimum Wage is a �pay offer� to care staff rather than a legal requirement for all employers to increase salaries for the lowest paid.
This is a highly skilled but low paid sector. Perpetuating low pay has a disproportionate impact on women, Black workers and their families that may also be suffering socioeconomic deprivation.
There is evidence that, in some cases, the terms offered by commissioners are so low that responsible employers will no longer tender for contracts as they cannot provide a service for the price offered. Those employers who do tender for these contracts cannot possibly reward staff fairly for their complex range of skills, dedication and compassion. This entrenches inequality and means our fantastic care workers are receiving less than the real living wage.
For far too long our social care workforce has been grossly underpaid and all too often subjected to zero hours contracts and derisory conditions of employment. Training and development opportunities are often no more than is required to meet minimum statutory requirements and personal development and career progression routes are limited. Conference notes the Supreme Court sleep-in appeal decision is a further blow for social care staff and signifies a desperate need for reform.
Conference believes the pandemic further exposed the serious problems with the existing system � including substantial underfunding, the predominance of the profit before people motive, poor employment practices and disjointed service delivery. In particular, lack of full sick pay meant that some staff had to attend work rather than self-isolate as they couldn�t afford to live on a Statutory Sick Pay rate that is almost the worst in Europe.
The pandemic has also exposed the difficulties local authorities have to address service delivery issues in previously privatised areas. Councils have been actively involved in assisting private care providers with infection and staffing issues to the extent of preparing to deploy their own staff to cover high sickness levels.
Whether care is directly provided by local authorities or commissioned by them, Conference recognises that local government as a whole and individual councils have a key role to play in achieving the interim and long term aims as set out in the Care after Covid: A UNISON vision for social care document.
Conference believes that immediate actions are required to support the sector and social care staff including:
1) A real living wage, as an absolute minimum;
2) A standard employment contract for care work � including sick pay, contracted hours and pay for all hours on duty, including �sleep ins� and travel time;
3) Significant, emergency government funding;
4) Upgrading of the Care Certificate with professional registration standardised across the UK.
Conference is encouraged by growing consensus that substantial reform is needed for the sector and welcomes UNISON�s Care after Covid: A UNISON vision for social care and the actions highlighted to secure a national care service.
Conference understands that this will be achieved through efforts at all levels and sectors within the union, but that local government branches will play a significant part in this. Conference therefore calls on the Service Group Executive to:
a) Continue to campaign and lobby for adequate funding for the social care sector, to ensure that care services are commissioned fairly and efficiently, and for employers to sign up to the UNISON Ethical Care Charter and to pay at least the real living wage to their staff.
b) Continue to campaign strongly in support of the campaign to deliver a National Care Service;
c) Produce and promote branch guidance for local government branches to use to maximise their efforts to campaign and organise around and ultimately deliver on the campaign;
d) Establish a working group to determine what training, resources and campaign materials branch activists might require, to enable them to implement the strategy with full member engagement.
e) Continue to campaign for a real living wage, a standard employment contract and registration with professional development opportunities for our under-valued care workforce;
f) Campaign and lobby for jobs and services in the social care sector to come back in-house where they have been privatised as this will be the best way to guarantee an improvement in pay and conditions for workers.�
g) Lobby the Government to take the immediate actions above and those outlined in UNISON�s Care after Covid vision;
h) Through Labour Link, work with Labour MP�s and Labour policy making structures to embed UNISON�s Care after Covid vision within Labour Party policy.