Social care pay should rise but it must be properly funded – Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants to increase pay in the social care sector in a “properly funded way”, labelling Labour’s proposals on the issue “incoherent”.

At First Minister’s Questions, Anas Sarwar urged the Scottish Government to improve the pay for those working in social care.

The Scottish Labour leader said: “Forty pence more in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis doesn’t feel like much of an award to these workers and is not going to address the ongoing workforce crisis.

“Why can’t the First Minister see there is no solution to the NHS crisis without a solution to the social care crisis?”

Highlighting that 75% of care homes are reporting vacancies, he continued: “We heard yesterday that staff are leaving to work in Sainsbury’s, Costa and Lidl because they are getting better pay and better conditions.”

He called for pay to immediately increase to £12 an hour, and then to £15.

Ms Sturgeon said the current rate of £10.90 an hour for social care staff is the same as in Wales, where Labour are in government.

She said her Government intends to increase pay further, but Labour’s proposals would cost an additional £1.75 billion.

The First Minister said: “Labour haven’t set out what they propose to cut as a consequence.

“We want to see pay increase further, but we have to do that in a properly funded way.

“That is responsible government.”

She said Labour’s calls to pause the NCS in order to pay for a salary increase this year are “an example of the completely irresponsible and incoherent approach Labour takes to budgeting”.