Whilst planning the business plan for 2017/2018 we had a belief that this would be another year of serious challenges and it did not disappoint.
The most significant challenges facing us this year were external and financial in relation to National living wage, sleep-ins, and local authority funding.
Sleep-ins and the change in interpretation of the law mean that staff need to be paid at the National Living Wage for every hour asleep. As an organisation we have been heavily involved in the campaigning for Government to take responsibility and pay the staff. Charities and providers cannot afford to fund six years retrospectively and this and it will put all services and the sector we work in under threat.
The positive to come out of this work is the way providers have come together and are working in partnership to try to find a solution. This has been very time consuming with the majority of the meetings taking place in London. We continue to work together on this subject on a national and local level. The National Living Wage continues to increase (this is a great thing for the staff) the downside of this is that the local authorities we work with are not increasing rates in line with the NLW increase.
In fact the funding squeeze that we have experienced for a number of years has just become tighter and we have to find even more creative ways to break even. Despite all of the challenges from the last year we also have a lot to celebrate and you will have the opportunity to read about them in the report. Each area has excelled and gone the extra mile. The amount of house moves in this year is stunning and that has increased peoples independence.
This is down to the hard work, commitment and innovation of the staff at every level. We continue to make significant differences in people’s lives ensuring people’s voices are heard. As an organisation we continue to strive for the best terms and conditions for our valued staff. I would like to thank everyone for their resilience, commitment and enthusiasm in some of our most trying times.
Ruth Gorman - Chief Executive
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