Important Step Forward in Supporting Vital Services
Staff in children’s social care services will see their pay increase to at least £12 an hour thanks to new Scottish Government funding.
Backed by over £19 million this year, it will ensure more than 6,000 people working in a direct care role in the voluntary, private and independent sector services receive the pay increase, which could be worth more than £2,000 a year for some staff.
It will help people providing direct care to vulnerable children and young people under the age of 18, including Personal Assistants, and all payments will be backdated and provided for all hours worked from April 2024.
Increasing pay for children’s social care workers was a commitment set out in the 2023 Programme for Government.
Background
The pay uplift will apply to all workers who provide direct care within commissioned Children’s Social Care services in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sectors, namely Secure Accommodation Services, Care Home Services for Children and Young People, School Care Accommodation: Residential Special School services, Housing Support Services, Care at Home services, and Services classed as Other than Care at Home, as well as to Personal Assistants employed through Self Directed Support (SDS) Option 1, who provide Care at Home to under 18-year-olds.
I’m Graeme’s Parliamentary Assistant based at Holyrood, but I support his constituency work as well. Having been Caseworker to an Aberdeenshire MP some years prior, joining Graeme's team in 2019 was a return to this line of work from a role in fundraising.