Around half of English councils don’t know if social care providers in their area pay the national minimum wage, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
A third of these local authorities will also not hold this information until January 2016 or later, the LGA’s final stocktake of councils’ readiness to deliver the Care Act 2014 found.
The Care Act says councils should assure themselves and have evidence that providers meet national minimum wage standards. This includes appropriate remuneration for any time staff spend travelling between appointments.
The LGA asked all 152 English local authorities if they knew whether or not providers in their area were paying care staff the minimum wage and, if not, when they were likely to have this information.
Seventy councils said they already held this information. Of the remaining 82 councils, 47 said they would know by October 2015, 17 by or later than April 2016, and 16 were unsure.
For more information see Care Act Implementation – Results of Local Authority Stocktake 3 (March 2015) available @ http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/5756320/Care+Act+Stocktake+3+full+report+and+analysis/ed152585-ed10-47cf-bed3-a6a06db8241c