Care workers at health and social care charity Alternative Futures Group (AFG) are set for a pay boost following a multi-million-pound investment.
With the recognition in the Spring Statement that this year will continue to be a challenging one for many, AFG has announced a five per cent rise for front line workers to match Real Living Wage and a four per cent rise for other colleagues to help with the cost of living.
AFG’s Board of Trustees have committed £5.9m to improve pay for their highly valued front line colleagues to the Real Living Wage and a further £600,000 to ensure a cost of living rise for other staff. It is the largest investment yet from the charity and follows three successive years of real terms pay rises.
The pay rise will impact 1,800 people working in Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire.
Ian Pritchard, Chief Executive for AFG, (pictured above) said: “It is going to be incredibly tough this year given the economic outlook, increased costs associated with the Employment Rights Bill and continued local authority budget cuts.”
Kirsty Murphy, Chief People Officer for AFG, said: “We value our hard-working colleagues and recognise they are critical to the success of the organisation and the sector, our commitment to them is unwavering.
“Over the past three years, AFG has invested £13.5m to improve pay for our front line colleagues and £2.8m to colleagues in other roles.”
AFG works with around 900 people with learning disabilities and mental health issues across the North West and the sector continues to face a recruitment crisis. Skills for Care estimates a further 430,000 social carers will be needed by 2035 – and 540,000 by 2040* – to meet UK demand.
AFG is committed to improving working conditions for workers in social care to help assuage the crisis in recruitment in the sector.
For more about AFG see their website https://afgroup.org.uk/