Frontline social care workers 'working 80 hours plus to make ends meet'

Many frontline social care workers in Salford are working more than 80 hours a week to make "a decent living", according to a union boss. The claim came after city councillors were prompted by Unison over an election pledge by city mayor Paul Dennett that an "insourcing commission" would be established to take adult social care back into local authority control.

Currently, there are four private companies delivering adult social care in the city - Creative Support, Turning Point, United Response and Salford Cares. Salford's health and social care scrutiny panel was addressed by frontline worker Julia Mwaluke who said: "There are still people getting under £9 an hour in Salford [for working in adult social care]. How long can this situation go on?"

She said that she was working long hours to make ends meet. And her comments were echoed after the meeting by Salford Unison branch secretary Steve North, who said that "insourcing" of adult social care was a "political commitment" made by Mr Dennett when he was re-elected in 2021. He said: "The pandemic has exposed a problem we know has existed for a while - that care is being delivered for profit rather than need.

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"We wanted to see the establishment of an insourcing commission to look at bringing social care back into public ownership." He said he wanted the council to see what the benefits of local authority delivery would be, possibly in partnership with the NHS.

He conceded that "things had happened" but they [Salford City Council] have moved slowly. "As far as we are aware the council is still committed to doing this, but we need to see progress," he continued.

"We want to ensure that