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11
Jan 2022
Council social care staff in Harrogate district to get £320 thank-you bonus
North Yorkshire County Council is set to distribute up to £9.2m between care firms and their staff in a bid to ease the staffing crisis.
The local authority has had to ask staff in non-critical services such as highways to help keep vulnerable people safe due to a severe shortage of care workers.
So the council's executive will tomorrow consider match funding a £3m NHS grant to give the county’s 16,000 care sector worker a “thank-you bonus” of about £320 to recognise their efforts this winter.
The payment will effectively bring forward the national living wage increase by four months.
A meeting of the authority’s leading members will also examine a proposal to offer care firms grants of up to £40,000 to support initiatives to increase or retaining their workforces.
1,000 jobs available
The proposed moves come at a time of continuing fierce competition for the care sector in the labour market. On any given day there are at least 1,000 care sector jobs available across the county.
In the autumn, the council launched its biggest ever recruitment drive in response to declining numbers applying for social care jobs, while care providers in the county have been offering extra financial incentives to staff to take on the roles, from £1,500 golden handshakes to carers being offered £2,000 for referring three friends.
An officers’ report to the executive states:
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'Won't fix long-term problems'
Councillor Michael Harrison, a Conservative who represents Lower Nidderdale and Bishop Monkton who is also the authority’s adult services and health executive member, said there were a host of good career opportunities in the care sector but earning the minimum wage in the care sector required a relatively high commitment from workers compared to other minimum wage jobs.
He said:
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