Humza Yousaf: Increasing pay for social care staff would be ‘detrimental’ to NHS

Finding the cash to increase wages for social care staff to £12 an hour would have a “significantly detrimental” impact on the NHS, the Health Secretary has insisted.

Humza Yousaf said it would cost “well over £1 billion” if Labour demands for care workers to receive a minimum of £15 a hour were to be met.

He told MSPs on Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee that this would be “very, very difficult, near impossible – frankly – to fund, given the financial pressures we are under.”

Even increasing pay for care staff to £12 an hour would cost the Scottish Government “hundreds of millions”, Mr Yousaf added.

And he insisted he could not “take the cost of £12 an hour off the NHS and put that into social care, because it would have a very significantly detrimental impact on the NHS at this stage”.

The Scottish Government’s budget for 2023-34 includes “about £100 million” to increase pay in the sector to £10.90 an hour – bringing this in line with the Real Living Wage, Mr Yousaf said.

And while he said he would “love to give £15 a hour yesterday to our adult social care workers”, Mr Yousaf acknowledged doing this “comes at a significant cost of well over £1 billion”.

Labour MSP Paul O’Kane pressed him on the prospect of increasing wages further to £12 a hour, telling the Health Secretary: “Pay could really make the change in terms of retaining people within the system – particularly when social care workers can earn more in Lidl for example.”

Mr Yousaf agreed that increasing pay would boost both recruitment and retention in the care sector – which has seen Brexit impact on staffing levels.

But the Health Secretary was clear: “What we can’t do is take money out of the health service, because we still need to deal with the demand pressures we have in the NHS.

“I couldn’t justify taking the cost of £15 an hour, even £12 an hour initially at the moment, away from the NHS and into social care.

And with “every single penny”  of the health budget already allocated, Mr Yousaf said if Labour wanted to see wages increased for social care staff, it should set out where the funds for this would come from.

He challenged Mr O’Kane and fellow Labour MSPs, telling them: “If you think there should be an uplift in 2023-24 to £12 an hour then you have got to be able to spell out where those hundreds of millions would come from in that fixed budget.”