UNISON warmly welcomes the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s latest report checking what councils have been doing to rectify human rights breaches in homecare.
Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said: “Local councils are suffering from dreadful cuts but this can never be an excuse for the kind of reckless commissioning that we continue to see in homecare. We know that more than 150,000 homecare workers are regularly paid below the National Minimum Wage and the EHRC has clearly demonstrated to councils that exploitative employment conditions for workers contribute to unsafe and humiliating care for clients. So it is a dereliction of duty for councils to commission homecare and pay no regard to whether providers are paying at least the legal minimum.
“The EHRC recommendations must be put into action by all councils. The public should have the right to see whether the rate their council pays providers covers all the essential elements, such as travel time and training, that are needed to provide safe and reliable care. Call cramming and rushed visits must not continue to blight the lives of our older people. To safeguard dignity and quality of life, councils need to rapidly move to commission from Living Wage providers who provide good training and stable contracts. This EHRC report and UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter provide practical tools to help them do this.”
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