Devon County Council has announced it will be rewarding social care employees working under its jurisdiction, a 12.8% pay rise due to the increasing demands of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
The social care workers, who are currently on the national minimum wage of £8.72, will receive a pay rise of a minimum of £1.28 per hour, increasing their hourly rate to at least £10.
Devon County Council’s pandemic response management team announced that it was essential to initiate the pay rise with immediate effect, not only to provide more financial support for the current employees, but to also make the role more financially attractive to potential employees.
Andrew Leadbetter, council cabinet member for adult social care and health at Devon County Council said: “Right now, it’s vital that we do everything we can to support the care sector. This is not just about rewarding care staff for the tremendous work that they are doing, under enormously challenging circumstances.
“It’s to boost recruitment to the sector to help care providers to be resilient to staff pressures while they continue to meet the growing demand for care, and retain recruits currently entering the social care workforce once this national emergency has passed.
“This urgent decision to increase rates to care providers comes into immediate effect, with the condition that they pass on the pay rise to their care employees as quickly as possible, and backdate the pay rise to now.”