Increase in support worker hourly rates
December 8, 2021
Gerard Martin QC
We draw attention to the 16% increase in support worker hourly charges now being charged by the Libertatem Healthcare group from 6th December 2021. For the marketplace recruitment crisis I refer you to Libertatem’s webinar of 13th October (see here). The problem appears to be nationwide. Our concern is that other providers may have already followed suit or are about to do so.
The causes of the problem in recruitment appear to be many, they include the effects of Brexit which involved care workers returning to their home countries, the effect of the pandemic causing carers to leave high risk/low paid employment for other better paid jobs elsewhere, and a marketplace where other sectors are offering inducements and better pay to attract recruits – Amazon are an example of this. In addition the care sector will lose those staff who refuse to be Covid vaccinated following mandatory vaccination coming into play for that sector.
For Claimant practitioners it is of the utmost importance that the correct baseline hourly rates are claimed for cases coming to JSMs or trial soon, the annual sum for a care PPO has to be right for indexation to work properly thereafter. It follows that the prudent course is to adjust upwards the sums claimed for care in any negotiating or trial documents.
It is foreseeable that case managers rates will also increase.
