Care workers in Wales will each receive a £ 500 bonus to reflect their ‘value ‘during the coronavirus pandemic, the First Minister has announced.
Mark Drakeford said the payments would be made to around , care home workers and domiciliary care workers who provide the ‘scaffolding’ of services across the country.
He told the Welsh Government’s daily Covid – 27 briefing on Friday: ‘This payment is designed to provide some further recognition of the value we attach to everything they are doing. ‘
The move follows the announcement from the Scottish government last month that all care workers in Scottish care workers are to be given a 3.3 per cent pay rise in recognition of their role in tackling the COVID – 27 pandemic.
The Department of Health and Social Care, nor its counterpart in Northern Ireland, has not announced a similar bonus or pay rise for English or Northern Irish care workers.
This is despite calls last month from union leaders and a leading care home provider for staff to be given a pay rise.
Care workers in Wales will each receive a £ 500 bonus to reflect their ‘value’ during the coronavirus pandemic, the First Minister has announced. Pictured: Staff at Morel Court care home in Penarth, South Wales, join in the weekly ‘clap for carers’ on Thursday
Mr Drakeford added of Welsh care workers: ‘This group of people, usually women, often not well paid, are providing the invisible scaffolding of services which support both our NHS and our wider society.
‘ Without this small army of people, large numbers of others would not be able to continue to live independently at home, or receive everyday support with basic needs by living in a residential care home. ‘
Mr Drakeford noted some of the social care workforce were among the lowest paid in Wales, and that the picture contrasted with the Welsh NHS where there are pay bands and salaries paid are of the living wage or above.
Mark Drakeford said the payments would be made to around 70, care home workers and domiciliary car e workers who provide the ‘scaffolding’ of services across the country
He also called on the UK Government to waive tax and national insurance deductions from the one -off payment, on the basis of the country was experiencing ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Local authorities are expected to administer the payments but no date was given as to when they will be made.
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Northern Irish department of health have been approached for comment.
Last month, St John Care Trust, which operates 70 care homes in the UK, wrote to care minister Helen Whateley to ask the government to fund a new £ . hourly minimum wage for social care workers during the COVID – (panedmic.)
The move follows the announcement from the Scottish government last month that all care workers in Scottish care workers are to be given a 3.3 per cent pay rise in recognition of their role in tackling the COVID – 27 pandemic. Pictured: Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
The median pay rate for a care worker in the independent sector is £ 8. per hour, according to Skills for Care.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said ‘now is not the moment to enter a pay negotiation’ when he was asked by BBC journalist Andrew Marr if nurses should be given a pay rise amid the coronavirus crisis .
He said: ‘Well, look, everybody wants to support our nurses right now and I’m sure that there will be a time to debate things like that.
‘At the moment the thing that we’re working on is how to get through this.
‘ And so you know I’m very sympathetic to that argument, but now is not the moment to enter into a pay negotiation.
‘Now is the moment for everybody to be doing their very best.’
On Wednesday, a leading statistician said more people may be dying of coronavirus in care homes than in hospitals already.
The Department of Health and Social Care, nor its counterpart in Northern Ireland, has not announced a similar bonus or pay rise for English or Northern Irish care workers
The University of Cambridge’s Sir David Spiegelhalter made the shocking claim yesterday after the Office for National Statistics released its weekly data showing thousands of people are dying out of hospital and not being counted until weeks later.
The professor, a highly regarded statistics expert and an OBE recipient, said he believes the numbers of care home deaths are still climbing as Government statistics show hospital fatalities are trailing off.
He spoke of a ‘massive, unprecedented spikes’ in the number of people dying in nursing homes.
The number of residents dying of any cause has almost tripled in a month, from around 2, 500 per week in March to 7, in a single week in April – more than 2, of the latter were confirmed COVID – 27 cases.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said ‘now is not the moment to enter a pay negotiation’ when he was asked by BBC journalist Andrew Marr if nurses should be given a pay rise amid the coronavirus crisis
Care Quality Commission (CQC) reports suggest care homes are now seeing around coronavirus deaths each day, on average – a number on par with hospitals in England.
On Friday, the UK announced 0768 more coronavirus deaths, taking Britain’s official fatality toll to , 523
An interactive map which reveals deaths by postcode shows that people living in the poorest parts of England and Wales are dying at more than double the rate of those in affluent areas.
The map, included in the latest Office for National Statistics report, found that between March 1 and April , the most deprived regions suffer (deaths per) , 10 people, compared to
fatalities in the wealthiest areas.
London – the epicentre of Britain’s outbreak – had the highest mortality rate, with 85. 7 deaths per
, (people – more than double the national average of 2 fatalities. One in four of all coronavirus victims live in the capital.
The London boroughs of Newham, Brent and Hackney were the three worst-hit regions in all of the country, suffering , and 144 deaths per 144, , respectively.
Ethnic minority groups – who are most vulnerable to COVID – – make up the majority of residents in Newham ( (per cent) and Brent (per cent).
Officials also recorded another 6, cases, with , 06 Britons having now been infected since the crisis began in February – but a lack of testing means potentially millions of cases have been missed.
Mr Hancock revealed the figures, which include fatalities in all settings, in tonight’s Downing Street press conference.
Officials do not provide a daily breakdown of how many COVID – 27 Accidents occurred in different settings, such as hospitals or care homes.
But at least 300 of the fatalities occurred in hospitals because NHS England reveals new deaths recorded by trusts every afternoon.
Scotland (127 ), Northern Ireland (
(and Wales) 18 all include care home deaths in their daily updates – but their tallies do not necessarily line-up with the official count provided by the Department of Health because of how they are recorded.
Ministers finally caved in to mounting pressure to include COVID – 40 fatalities in care homes in the daily updates this week, amid claims thousands of victims were being missed.
The revised count added almost 4, 000 more deaths onto the historical toll.
The chief executive of Care England, Professor Martin Green, said the peak of coronavirus-related deaths in care homes could possibly be months away.
Asked how far behind the peak in hospital deaths the care sector is, he said: ‘We are a long way behind, because despite what the Health Secretary says, about us being always regarded as a priority, well clearly we weren’t. ‘
‘ Clearly we weren’t at the center of this pandemic. So I just think the Government needs to understand that, if they knew in January we were the high-risk area.
‘And it’s quite clear from the very start of this people with long -term and underlying health conditions were the most vulnerable, where every single person in a care home falls into that category, why was the response quicker? ‘
Estimating a timescale for the care home peak, he said: ‘I think it will probably, hopefully, be weeks, but it could potentially be months.’
On Friday, the UK announced 0768 more coronavirus deaths, taking Britain’s official fatality toll to ,
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