A government pay rise to put care workers in Scotland on £10 an hour will not stop the loss of staff to other sectors like retail and hospitality, a trade union has warned.

UNISON is calling for a ‘golden hello’ to be paid to new starters alongside a loyalty payment for staff in post as an urgent measure to address workforce shortages.

Speaking to the Scottish parliament’s Health, Social Care & Sport Committee, the union’s social care lead John Mooney said: “I am really concerned at the end of this winter we are going to be looking at investigating deaths as a result of staff shortages.”

Annie Gunner Logan, Chief Executive of third sector group the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS), told MSPs a nationally-funded bonus would remove competition between providers, as some individual providers are already offering sign-on bonuses.

Health and Social Care Secretary Humza Yousaf last month set out a series of winter support measures for health and social care, including a pledge to uprate adult social care workers’ pay to the same level as band 2 NHS staff.

This works out as £10.02 an hour, up from the previous rate of £9.50.

Health and care staff received a £500 bonus for their work during the pandemic at the start of this year.

However there were issues getting the thank-you payment to care providers and personal assistants, as well as problems with how the bonus affected lower paid workers’ benefits.

Mr Mooney said: “Put quite bluntly, the proposals to increase the pay by 52p doesn’t remove the potential jobseekers who are also looking in retail.

“It’s very easy to see why people are choosing to move elsewhere to other areas where the stress is less and the pay is the same.”

Ms Gunner Logan welcomed a new campaign to raise the profile of care careers that launched this week but said there was a “lack of confidence” among providers:

“[The new campaign] is about awareness-raising and there is a very competitive job market out there, and on that note, retention remains a significant issue.

“Our members indicate this is due to burnout, stress, increased workloads due to staffing shortages, better pay, and terms and conditions elsewhere, that’s particularly true in remote areas where retail and hospitality offer much better pay.”

A survey of care workers by UNISON found 35% of respondents were considering leaving the sector, with another 53% stating they ‘urgently’ needed time off.

Asked by Labour MSP Carol Mochan what could be done immediately, Mr Mooney said: “Top of our list at the moment is some kind of golden hello and loyalty payment, some kind of lump sum.

“The golden hello will hopefully attract people into the sector, the loyalty payment will help to retain people as well as make them feel valued for the work they’ve done.”

The idea was backed by Ms Gunner Logan, who added: “Fundamentally what we need in social care is much faster progress towards fair work…we’re talking about this winter. The National Care Service is not going to be here for some time, so we need to do something more immediate.”

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