The Fair Work Convention has published its report Fair Work in Scotland’s Social Care Sector 2019
Scottish Care participated in the work of the Commission during the research that informed this report through Strathclyde University.
Scottish Care CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill said:
“As a member of the Commission, Scottish Care welcomes the broad conclusions of the Fair Work Commission’s report and we wholeheartedly support any work that seeks to drive forward human rights and equality in relation to the social care workforce.
“The research on fair work undertaken by Strathclyde University and the Commission’s own work highlight that the major issue for fair work in social care is the way in which we as a country continue to purchase and commission care. The model we have currently is profoundly disempowering for the worker and profoundly negative for terms and conditions.
“We are not critical of the concept of supporting the worker’s voice but to do so within a system that still purchases care by the minute, that treats people in a very transactional way in relation to commissioning, that prioritises getting more for less and which continues to devalue social care work, means that this voice in reality is a voice in silence.
“We are not going to sufficiently advance fair work if we don’t change the system. To achieve fairness in the workplace, we need fairness in social care contracts.
“Scottish Care is also concerned that where providers have sought to transform the way in which care is delivered by creating self-led and self-managed teams, that such empowering of the frontline worker has been resisted and under-resourced.
“In its own structures Scottish Care seeks to ensure that there is a mandatory front line worker voice contributing to debate and policy formation. This has led us to focus on areas of particular importance to the workforce such as worker mental health support, support for bereavement, and more focus on equipping the workforce in particular skills relating to dementia and palliative and end of life care.
“It is a matter of real sadness to us that resources for equipping the workforce through learning and development are continually depleted and reduced in contracts. Again, we believe we will not reform the social care workforce until we change the broken system which continues to seek to purchase care on the cheap.”
