East Ayrshire social care bosses are playing ‘Russian roulette’ with vital care services by paying less to providers than their neighbours in North and South Ayrshire.

Councillor Maureen McKay made the comparison at East Ayrshire Integration Joint Board, where concerns that this could risk care at home providers withdrawing from the authority were raised.

The growing gap between the pay offer to providers was highlighted as the board discussed the 2023/24 IJB budget.

The board has offered an increase in the rate it pays providers for adult social care, from £19.03 to £19.91 per hour.

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East Ayrshire IJB already pays lower rates for Care at Home than both North or South Ayrshire.

In 2022/23 care providers in East Ayrshire received 18p per hour less than South Ayrshire and 32p less than North Ayrshire.

This has now dropped to 20p less than South Ayrshire and 9p less than North Ayrshire.

Arlene Bunton, of Scottish Care, said: “The uplift offered for adult social care has not been received well by independent providers.”

She said that there had been an agreement between the IJB and care partners based on increased remuneration for the providers.

“This still falls below the North and South Ayrshire partnerships,” she said.

“There is quite a big difference in pay.”

Ms Bunton argued that the gap risked providers ‘withdrawing’ from East Ayrshire.

Erik Sutherland, the HSCP's head of locality health and care, pointed out the IJB, like local authorities, has to agree a balanced budget.

This, he said, meant that any increases to the offer would require cuts and savings elsewhere.

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Councillor Maureen McKay then asked how much it would cost to bring East Ayrshire in line with the other authorities.

The HSCP's chief finance officer, Alex McPhee, responded: “It would cost £105k to bring us into line with North Ayrshire and £250k to be in line with South Ayrshire.”

Cllr McKay suggested that they were playing ‘Russian roulette’ should providers withdraw and asked whether the IJB would be in position to utilise reserves.

Mr McPhee said that the increase would be a recurring expense that would see reserves "disappear" rapidly.

Carer representative Isobel Paton pointed out that there were already difficulties recruiting care staff as people could ‘ go to Morrisons to get higher wages’.

Craig McArthur, director of the HSCP, replied that the issue was how to fund an increase, while acknowledging that the recruitment challenge meant using more expensive agency workers.

He added that the scale of the problem across the country meant it was an issue that had to be tackled nationally.

While the East Ayrshire IJB offered the lowest care provider rate, the position is reversed when it comes to pay for sleepover care, for which East Ayrshire pays significantly more than the other two authorities.

Although the offer to providers is varied, this does not mean North and South care workers are better off.

The Scottish Government has allocated £100m to IJBs across Scotland to meet the living wage of £10.90 per hour.

All careworkers will be eligible for the real living wage,  which has risen from £10.50, no matter the offer being made to the providers.

The offer was agreed as part of the IJB budget.

Care at Home (£ p/hour)        2022/23        2023/24
East Ayrshire                                  £19.03             £19.91
South Ayrshire                               £19.21              £20.11
North Ayrshire                               £19.35             £20.00

Sleepover                                        2022/23        2023/24
East Ayrshire                                  £13.38             £14.00
South Ayrshire                               £12.81              £13.41
North Ayrshire                                £12.77             £13.32

Personal Assistant                      2022/23        2023/24
East Ayrshire                                   £13.99           £14.46
South Ayrshire                                £13.86           £14.48
North Ayrshire (day rate)                 £14.16            £14.65