Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 25 February 2021
There is no need for a cut. If John Mason listens to his finance secretary, he will hear that there is now a lot more money than ever going into health. It is the highest budget ever, so there is an opportunity to invest some of that new money in mental health. That is an objective that we should all share.
I turn to the people who are being most let down by the budget and who are the subject of Labour’s amendment—social care workers. Those workers have looked after some of our most vulnerable people during the pandemic and we clapped for them every week during the first lockdown. They deserve more than our praise, however. They deserve a raise.
As it stands, the budget has no provision for a pay increase beyond the living wage for social care workers. Social care workers are mostly women and are low paid, and many of them have to work more than one job to make ends meet. During the pandemic, they put themselves at risk and dealt with death on a daily basis. The truth is that they were badly let down by the Government in terms of provision of personal protective equipment, lack of guidance and routine discharge of patients with Covid from hospitals to care homes, which was a decision that created a wave of deaths that many of them had to face every day they went to work. It is unacceptable that we should be asking people to do those jobs for poverty pay.
That is why we have lodged a reasoned amendment that backs the GMB’s call for £15 an hour for social care workers. That is not just about fair pay for a day’s work; it is, fundamentally, about decency and dignity. We cannot and should not expect people to do some of the most demanding jobs in our society for poverty pay. The coronavirus crisis has opened the public’s eyes to the work that social care workers do. It is not just the workers, their unions and Labour members who are demanding action; the public also wants to see those workers being rewarded.
I thank Kate Forbes, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, for her positive engagement on that issue. Labour’s reasoned amendment reflects those discussions and provides for a staged approach of an immediate rise to £12 per hour, followed by a review in order to reach £15 per hour. I am happy to agree to continuing discussions with the cabinet secretary in order that we can get to that point.
Let me be very clear, however. Although there is much in the budget that we would like to see being improved, if the Government accepts our amendment and, therefore, rewards social care workers and gives them the respect that they deserve, the Government can rely on Labour’s support for the budget at stage 3.
I move amendment S5M-24224.2, to insert at end:
“, and, in so doing, notes the calls for an immediate rise in 2021-22 to £12 per hour for all social care workers followed by a review to establish steps to increase this to £15 an hour to fully recognise the value of their work.”
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