Nicola Sturgeon urges councils to accept funding offer to ensure care workers are paid the living wage

The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is pushing for local authorities to agree a funding deal she claims will support them to pay care workers the living wage.

Speaking ahead of the stage one debate on the budget in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon, the First Minister urged local authorities to agree the deal set out by the Finance Secretary so they can begin delivering the living wage to care workers.

Nicola Sturgeon said: “The Scottish Government and local authorities have a shared aspiration to deliver and promote fairness in the work place and to work towards a living wage.

“The funding available in this year’s budget means that can now be achieved.

“Paying the living wage for care workers - the vast majority of whom are women - will help improve the incomes of these absolutely crucial workers, retain their talents in the sector and lay strong foundations for the future as the population ages and demand for their services increases.

“We recognise that there are pressures on budgets across the whole of the public sector, however the settlement set out in the draft budget, and contained the offer made by John Swinney to councils is a good deal that will help some of those low paid workers get the boost to their incomes that they deserve.

“I hope that local authorities do the right thing and respond positively to our offer.”

The Scottish Government says the deal will improve the wages of those working in adult social care, both in care homes and providing home care, by allowing councils to commission adult social care on the basis that staff are paid the £8.25 an hour living wage.

However, COSLA president David O’Neill has called the local government funding offer “a hugely significant 3.5 per cent cut for communities in Scotland, which will hit the most vulnerable in those communities”.

The Finance Secretary, John Swinney, has written to each of Scotland’s 32 council leaders setting a deadline of 9 February to respond to the local government finance settlement for 2016-17.