Minister vows to increase pay of care staff but warns there is ‘no magic wand’

The Scottish Government has no “magic wand” to increase wages for care workers, a minister said as she warned difficult decisions would have to be taken for improvements in both pay and conditions.

Social care minister Maree Todd was speaking as it emerged the Scottish Government has already spent almost £14 million on controversial plans to set up a national care service (NCS).

Ms Todd revealed the spending in a letter to MSPs on Holyrood’s Finance Committee, with the details released after delays to the NCS legislation.

A total of £1,641,323 was spent in 2021-22, and a further £12,312,269 the following year – meaning spending on the plans amounted to £13,953,592 over two years.

This includes more than £2 million on consultancy fees – £276,650 in 2021-22 and £1,929,536.33 in 2022-23.

The spending was revealed as Ms Todd insisted she is “determined” to improve pay for those working in the sector.

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We are absolutely working on improving pay and conditions, it is a crucial component in improving the situation going forward.

“I am determined to make improvements but I don’t have a magic wand.

“I need to go through the process of working out those difficult decisions, building support for spending money on improving pay and conditions as soon as I possibly can, because I see that as a key factor in improving the situation.”

First Minister Humza Yousaf has already said his Government will set out a timetable for increasing wages for adult social care workers to £12 an hour – saying that while ministers cannot “afford to do this immediately”, he wants to “send a signal to the sector that we are absolutely serious about improving pay, terms and conditions for those who care for our most vulnerable”.

Ms Todd said wages for social care workers have increased by 14% “over the last couple of years”.

While she acknowledged the “valuable job these people are doing”, the minister added: “There are competing interests and we have limited means of raising extra funds, we are not able to go over our budget in Scotland, so that does make for difficult decisions.”

She said the Government is “in the process of teasing out exactly what budget might be available to us, how soon we can see that and how soon we can realise that ambition” to increase wages.

It comes amid controversy over the Scottish Government’s plans to establish an NCS for adult social care – and potentially other services – in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

This would see services consolidated into a single body, run by regional care boards and ultimately accountable to ministers.

The proposals have come in for fierce criticism from trade unions, opposition parties at Holyrood and local authorities, which are currently responsible for providing much of adult social care.

Finance Committee members had set the deadline of Friday for the Scottish Government to provide more details on the cost of the NCS, but Ms Todd has told them this will not be met.

In her letter to the MSPs, she said she did “not wish to confuse matters by providing multiple versions” of the financial memorandum.

With discussions over the NCS due to take place over the summer, Ms Todd added these would enable ministers to “provide more detail or to narrow some of the cost ranges”.

As a result, she said it would “more helpful” to wait for a single update to the financial memorandum – which she pledged to give to the committee at least four weeks before the first vote in Parliament on the legislation.

Speaking in Glasgow on Wednesday, Mr Yousaf echoed the minister’s statement, saying his Government is committed to “working with local government” and there may be “further tweaks” to the service made.