'Disgusted' care home staff hit out at West Northamptonshire council for not extending £600 bonus to non-carers

Care home staff working as caterers, housekeepers, activities coordinators, admin staff and other non-carer roles will not receive the payout
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Care home staff across Northamptonshire have been left feeling 'disgusted' and 'undervalued' after finding out that those in non-carer roles will not receive the 'thank you' bonus next month.

North and West Northamptonshire Councils announced, in December 2021, that care home workers will be awarded a bonus of £600 on March 31, 2022 for 'powering through' the coronavirus pandemic.

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This move was widely welcomed by care home staff across the county but, for some, delight has now turned to disappointment after the unitary authorities sent out application forms to care homes, saying that 'support staff' would not be eligible to claim - meaning those working as housekeepers, caterers, admin staff and activities coordinators will miss out on the bonus.

North and West Northamptonshire Councils have been criticised for excluding non-carers from the £600 'thank you' payout in March.North and West Northamptonshire Councils have been criticised for excluding non-carers from the £600 'thank you' payout in March.
North and West Northamptonshire Councils have been criticised for excluding non-carers from the £600 'thank you' payout in March.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) says it cannot pay a bonus to all staff, so is instead allocating funds to frontline care workers who have been 'hardest hit.'

An activities coordinator at a Northampton care home, who wishes to remain anonymous, reached out to The Chronicle & Echo to voice his dismay at the council decision.

He said: "It's obviously just disgusting, I could not believe it.

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"Everybody plays a vital role in looking after each resident, making sure they live in a nice liveable environment and they have nutritious meals and they are mentally stimulated. It just feels like we are not seen as important as carers.

"I believe if the council can't afford to do it, they should not have done it, or they should have given each care home an amount of money going off the capacity of the care home and how many staff they employ. The care home could have then divided up the money between staff."

There are 12,075 carers employed by more than 400 independent care and support providers across the county, according to West Northamptonshire Council.

It will cost approximately £7.2 million to provide each carer with the £600 bonus.

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This will be funded by the combined West and North Northamptonshire councils' Covid-19 Contain Outbreak Management Fund of £508,907, the government Social Care Workforce Retention Fund of £5,236,093 and a contribution of £750,000 from the Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

The deputy manager of a Northampton care provider, who also wished to remain anonymous said: "Being a deputy manager, I have seen all the staff affected by the pandemic and, when carers have been off, they have all stepped in to take over.

"Hospitals were discharging people with Covid and we all stepped up and pulled together as a team and I don't think it is fair that the money will only be given to carers.

"We work as a team and we are all here to do the same job - to make sure the residents are being looked after.

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""The council are making us work against each other and we are all doing the same job and I think it is disgusting they are doing this."

A Labour councillor has also voiced his "disappointment" in the councils that a 'real demonstration of gratitude and thanks' has not been extended to non-carer roles.

People scrutiny member, Harry Barrett, said: "The justification that paying only one section of the workforce is required to alleviate recruitment and retention issues, suggests that workers in the sector are not happy.

"Making the rest of the staff, who are crucial to the running of care homes, feel they aren't as valued is not a way to remedy low morale.

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"During the pandemic we clapped for all of our essential workers, we expect that principle to be replicated financially."

West Northamptonshire Council responded to the disappointment, by saying it would like to be able to reward everyone, but as this is not possible the 'hardest hit front line care workers' were chosen for the bonus.

A spokesperson for West Northamptonshire Council said: “While the authority would ideally like to be able to financially reward employees in all sectors who have worked tirelessly during the pandemic, it is simply not possible to do so and as a result, we have aimed our scheme at the area where there are the biggest challenges in recruitment and retention of staffing, which is those staff that are delivering CQC-regulated front line care.”

March 31, 2022 will see the bonus paid to existing staff and new starters.

To qualify as a new starter, individuals must be new to CQC-regulated care and support and recruited on or before the end of January 2022.