Home First is the reablement service provided by Herefordshire Council. Staff within the service are employed on either Herefordshire Council or Hoople terms and conditions. As a consequence there is a disparity in the salaries paid for identical roles depending on whether the staff member is on a council or Hoople contract with some staff on Hoople contracts receiving a lower hourly rate of pay.

The purpose of this decision is to support fair pay by increasing the funding to Hoople to enable a wage increase for Reablement Workers (RW) and Assessment and Review officers (ARO). This will bring the hourly rate of pay into line with RW’s and ARO’s who are employed by Herefordshire Council.

A portion of the additional funding will be used by Hoople Care to have a recruitment drive for the Home First service, which currently has a significant number of staff vacancies. The correction of the current wage disparity will improve staff retention rates.

That:

a)     An increase in funding to Hoople for the Home First service as part of Hoople Care is approved in order to increase the rate of pay for Hoople’s reablement workers (RW) and assessment and review officers (ARO)

1.     Do nothing and leave salaries as they are. This is not recommended as the current salary paid to Assessment and Review Officers (AROs) and Reablement Workers (RWs) on the current Hoople contract is less than to workers in similar roles employed directly by the council. To leave the pay disparity in place may affect staff morale and leave the council and Hoople open to a legal challenge about equal pay. Without the proposed funding there will continue to be issues relating to staff recruitment and retention.

2.     To increase the budget for Hoople in operating Home First only to allow pay for the affected staff to the living wage. This option is not recommended. An increase of any kind would doubtless be welcomed by those staff affected, but this modest increase is not thought sufficient to have a decisive impact on recruitment or retention. In addition, there would remain a disparity between employees employed in the same role within Hoople and the council. The course of action would highlight the wage differences, and any initial benefit to affected staff would be seen in this context.