Adult Social Care Pay Uplift 2023-24
North Lanarkshire Council · 16 May 2023
Back to Adult Care and Social Work Committee — 16 May 2023 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Adult Care and Social Work Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref MD/MW Date 16/05/23 Adult Social Care Pay Uplift 2023-24 From Morag Dendy, Chief Officer, Planning, Performance & Quality Assurance E-mail DendyM@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 332001 Executive Summary Following agreement at COSLA Leaders on 27th January 2023, the Scottish Government have provided details of the distribution for the 2023-24 Adult Social Care pay uplift. There has been political agreement that the uplift to £10.90 per hour will be delivered in the same manner as the uplift to £10.50 per hour for these workers, which was delivered from April 2022. This will mean a 3.8% uplift will be applied to a set percentage (national weighting) of contract values, in line with the average full workforce costs for residential and non-residential services. There is expectation that the nature of this approach may result in some providers having funds remaining once the uplift has been fully delivered. However, in North Lanarkshire there is significant variance across providers, where many already have very low backroom costs and efficiencies have been achieved over several years. By applying the weighting, this might not allow them to meet the £10.90 SLW threshold. Similarly, this also might cause challenges with maintaining the differential between direct delivery staff and front- line supervisors and above. Recommendations It is recommended that the Adult Care and Social Work Committee: 1. Approve the Scottish Living Wage Uplift. 2. Acknowledge the outcome focused approach in NL, through our Self-Directed Support (SDS) model. 3. Feedback to Scottish Government the potential risk and challenges facing providers. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve economic opportunities and outcomes Ambition statement (23) Build a workforce for the future capable of delivering on our priorities and shared ambition
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1. Background 1.1 The Scottish Government have confirmed details of pay uplift for adult social care workers, within commissioned services for 2023/24. The funding has been allocated to deliver a minimum rate of £10.90 per hour for all adult social care staff delivering direct care in commissioned services. 1.2 North Lanarkshire’s allocation from the £100 million funding for the Adult Social Care pay uplift is £6,040,000, which is 6.04% of the funding to be passed to Integration Authorities for delegated services to cover the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. 1.3 Funding is being distributed to Local Authorities in the weekly General Revenue Grant payments and is based on GAE for ‘Carers Services and Respite Care’. This is consistent with the distribution of recurring funding for previous pay uplifts. Funding allocated to Integration Authorities is additional and not substitutional to each Local Authority’s 2022-23 recurring budgets for social care services. 2. Report 2.1 The pay uplift will apply to staff providing direct care within Adult Social Care in commissioned services in the third and independent sectors. This will include Supervisors, Practitioners, Support Workers, Personal Assistants and staff providing overnight support. This funding will apply to workers in care homes, care at home, day care, housing support, adult placement services, respite services and those delivering direct support through all SDS Options. 2.2 This funding will enable pay for these workers, in these services, to be uplifted from at least £10.50 per hour to at least £10.90 per hour. 2.3 This funding will take effect from 1 April 2023. Implementation 2.4 The uplift to £10.90 per hour will be distributed in the same manner as the previous uplift to £10.50 per hour for the workers in scope. 2.5 This will mean a 3.8% uplift will be applied to a set percentage (national weighting) of contract values, in line with the average full workforce costs for residential and non- residential services. A separate agreed weighted percentage has been set for Personal Assistants who are paid directly through SDS Option 1 budgets. National Weightings 2.6 The national weightings for the £10.90 uplift will be the same as those used for the uplift to £10.50. These percentages are below: • Residential care – uplift applied to 71.8% of full contract value • Non-residential – uplift applied to 86.9% of full contract value • Personal Assistants – uplift applied to 90% of SDS Option 1 budgets This equates to contract uplifts of 2.73%, 3.30% and 3.42% respectively.
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2.7 By applying the national weighting for Self-Directed Support - Individual Budgets, there is a risk that the allocation per provider may not fully cover the Scottish Living Wage increase for direct support staff. The weighting is based on direct provision and there is significant variance across providers e.g., there are some North Lanarkshire providers who have very low backroom costs and efficiencies have been achieved over several years. By applying the weighting might not allow them to meet the £10.90 SLW threshold. Similarly, this also does not allow them to keep the differential between direct delivery staff and front-line supervisors and above. Assurance process 2.8 For this uplift, and in line with previous practice relating to Self-Directed Support - Individual Budgets, providers will participate in an outcomes-based review and the financial schedule and individual terms of support document will be amended to reflect the uplift has been applied and only used for uplifting pay. As per usual process, funding will then be released to providers as projected in the revised outcomes focused care and support plan(s) and backdated to 1 April 23 where appropriate. 2.9 We anticipate making payments when providers submit their increased costed plan by the agreed amount at the weighted percentage, as per Scottish Government instructions. This will be at the point of a person’s annual review, which can take place at any point throughout the year. Where appropriate the uplift will be backdated to 1 April 2023This review will also considers any other changes with a person’s care plan, which ensures a person-centred approach that is not purely driven by finance. Reviews are scheduled annually from the date of commencement. North Lanarkshire do not operate a time & task model, to ensure that providers can operate robust financial planning as they are paid in 13 equal instalments. This approach also ensures continuity of care. 2.10 For all other provides who don’t operate individual budgets, we anticipate uplifts will be paid by 31 July 2023 and backdated to 1 April 2023. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Scottish Living Wage uplifts are applied for all staff providing direct care within Adult Social Care. 4. Supporting documentation n/a Morag Dendy Chief Officer (Performance, Planning & Quality Assurance)
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Uplift relates to the Scottish Living Wage. By applying the uplift, the council are meeting obligations to pay the new revised rate. If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes, agreement with finance colleagues re the application of the uplift. Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? North Lanarkshire’s allocation from the £100 million funding for the Adult Social Care pay uplift is £6,040,000, which is 6.04% of the funding. By applying the national weighting for Self-Directed Support - Individual Budgets, there is a risk that the allocation per provider may not fully cover the Scottish Living Wage increase for direct support staff as many providers operate low backroom costs and efficiencies have been realised over several years. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.