Welcome to the November blog. This is my favourite time of year – beautiful colours and even better when it is cold and crisp.

This blog is about further changes to the Scottish Living Wage [SLW]. As you know, Fair Deal have implemented the SLW for the past two years. However, it was recently reported in the press that the SLW rate has risen from £8.45 an hour to £8.75 an hour, which poses problems for our organisation. Namely, in order for Fair Deal to implement this new rate, we would have to find an additional £50k per year. As of yet, the Scottish Government have not said whether or not there will be a settlement figure to Glasgow City Council in order for GCC to increase our rates to enable us to continue to match the SLW.

The Board have considered the situation and recognise that the increase will only be of benefit to those staff currently on the living wage rate and not to anyone above that.

Due to financial constraints at this time the Board have therefore decided to award a one-off payment in the November salary. The one-off payment is being made to staff who have been in their post before the 1st of August 2017 and is pro-rata’d for bank staff, part time staff and full time staff members.

The payments will be as follows:
Bank staff – £50
Part time staff – £100 and
Full time staff – £150

The Board have decided to cover your National Insurance and TAX which means that you will receive the actual amount outlined above.

In times such as these, we hope that you appreciate the gesture and we thank you for your continued support. Together, we can work to keep Fair Deal at the front of the game when it comes to the delivery of person centre support that we can be proud to be part of.