2015 Benchmarking Report for Voluntary Sector HR Network and CCPS

Transcription

1 c p c scoalition OF CARE AND SUPPORT PROVIDERS I N S C O T L A N D COALITION OF CARE AND SUPPORT PROVIDERS IN SCOTLAND 2015 Benchmarking Report for Voluntary Sector HR Network and CCPS April 2016 ANNEX: HOURLY RATES TABLES

2 Background For nearly 10 years the Voluntary Sector HR Network has commissioned an HR Benchmarking Survey and analysis for its member organisations. The actual topics benchmarked have increased year on year, however over the last two years we have tried to maintain consistency covering areas such as funding climate and impact, working time, workforce security, pay and conditions, absence and wellbeing, recruitment and retention, staff involvement and participation and training and development. The number of organisations that have taken part has also grown year on year and this has increased the value and credibility of the information gathered. To ensure integrity and anonymity for the organisations that take part, an independent researcher collates the survey. Each organisation pays an equal share of the cost ( 300 for this year). However it is also recognised that the participants contribute an enormous amount of time and resource in gathering and supplying the data. For the second year now, CCPS facilitated the arrangement in direct partnership again with Strathclyde University. We intend continue this partnership over the coming years to build and enable trend analysis of workforce issues. In addition it is the intention to do a small qualitative study this year, hopefully continuing in future years, with some of the participants to carry out a deeper study on some of the main areas of focus. Dr Ian Cunningham and members of his team have undertaken the benchmarking survey for the last two years and they will also carry out the smaller qualitative study. The report they provided cited other research to enable better and more detailed comparisons and benchmarking to be made. Thirty Four voluntary sector organisations took part in 2015, covering just over 25,180 employees. This is an increase of 10,000 employees from The organisations that provided information are all different in terms of turnover, with the smallest organisational turnover noted as 2.2 million ranging to the largest of 61 million. In terms of numbers employed, again there was great diversity, with the smallest recorded as 47 employees and the largest as 4,441. The research was extended to include private sector social care organisations for the second year. The organisations that took part completed the same questionnaire, facilitated through Scottish Care, and analysed by Dr Ian Cunningham. A separate report was then prepared on their sector results. In this second year of uptake the research covered some 8,719 private sector employees. CCPS and Scottish Care have shared respective Executive Summaries to identify areas of joint interest and challenge. 2

3 Funding Climate 1. The vast majority of income (approximately 80% on average) was drawn from local authority sources. 2. Income from self-directed support remained relatively modest, with only one provider reporting that all of its income was generated from self-directed support. The majority of organisations (71%) reporting funding from this source were more likely to indicate that self-directed support accounted for less than 10% of their income. At the same time, several providers did have large numbers of the people they work with holding their own budgets. 3. Services provided were predominantly in urban or across urban and rural areas. Organisations did not exclusively serve a rural area. 4. A much larger proportion of organisations reported gaining public service contracts (71%) than losing them (39%). Only one organisation lost public service contracts without making any gains. Working Time 5. The vast majority of providers offer guaranteed working hours and operated continuous shifts (85%). A minority of organisations (41%) employed some staff on split shifts. In addition, the largest proportion of employees were employed full time. 6. The usage of zero-hours only contracts among front-line care staff suggests some fragmentation of working time. Two-thirds of respondents use zero-hours contracts, although their usage remains infrequent, accounting for an average of 9% of working time. 7. Evidence on the use of the existing workforce to cover stretched services presents a mixed picture. On the one hand, of those providing figures, 90% reported their part-time employees worked more than their contracted hours. Moreover, 88% of organisations reported that a proportion of their staff undertook weekend work regularly. As in the 2014 report, however, the majority (71%) of the benchmarking group used agency workers to free staff from covering stretched services and reduce the pressure to work additional hours at short notice. The use of agency work was slightly down on last year s figures of 78% of organisations. 8. Only a third of organisations offer family-friendly working arrangements (i.e. flexible and compressed hours) beyond part-time and sessional work. Where these policies are offered, they are only used by small numbers of staff. This raises questions about work-life balance issues amongst a predominantly female workforce. 9. Ninety per cent of the organisations use the services of volunteers, most commonly as board members (86%). There was strong evidence of volunteers being used for befriending through social activities (62%), and fundraising (55%), which suggests that they carry out important functions for service users and the organisation. 3

4 Workforce insecurity 10. Despite the insecurity in funding, permanent contracts remain the most common type both for full-time and part-time workers. In the over three-quarters of organisations that were using fixed term contracts, however, a relatively high proportion of workers (9% average) were employed under them. 11. Compared to the 2014 benchmarking report, the percentage of organisations making redundancies reduced from 64% to 48%. Half of these redundancies affected between 0-19 employees and the other half employees. 12. A majority of these redundancies were compulsory. 13. Half of the organisations making redundancies had lost public sector contracts. 14. A third of the organisations expect to make redundancies in the forthcoming year. Absence, attendance and turnover 15. The average number of days lost per employee as a result of absence is 9.9 days. When compared with findings from the 2015 CIPD absence survey, this figure is slightly higher than those for the independent voluntary sector as a whole (9.2 days) and for the economy in general (8.3 days). At the same time the number of days is marginally down on last year s figures among the benchmarking group (10 days). 16. The median cost of absence per employee among the benchmarking group ( 588) is slightly higher than that reported by the CIPD for the whole economy ( 544) but lower than that for the independent voluntary sector ( 639). Moreover, this median figure is lower than that for the benchmarking group last year ( 609). 17. As with last year s benchmarking report, mental health and stress are most commonly cited as the most important causes of absence and they are also the ones most frequently cited among the four main reasons for absence. 18. The benchmarking group continues to provide employee assistance and counselling schemes more commonly than the wider sector or economy as a whole, with all but one organisation providing one. 19. The average percentage employee turnover was 18.7%. This is higher than last year s average (17.8%). Recruitment and retention A key finding for this year s report is that although turnover rates remain lower than social care average, recruitment problems continue to emerge. 20. The average employee turnover rate is 18.7%. This remains lower than estimates for the social care sector average (NMDS) of 22%. 4

5 21. Most of the respondents experienced staff losses among those employed for two or more years, suggesting the providers are losing valuable organisational experience. The evidence highlights negative turnover relating to wages, and other terms and conditions (such as working hours), and points to a lack of opportunities to progress in the benchmarking organisations. 22. Compared to the 2014 benchmarking report, recruitment pressures were increasing among the majority of organisations. 84.5% of respondents stated that recruitment for front-line staff was very or quite difficult. This compares to a combined 71% of respondents in last year s report stating recruiting front line staff was very or quite difficult. This trend can be seen in the context of the recovering labour market in which recruitment difficulties are becoming increasingly acute for the sector. 23. Only a third of the respondents had increased their expenditures on recruitment in the last year. This compares to slightly over half reporting an increase (52%) last year. The most effective recruitment tools remained online advertising and the organisational website. All organisations relied on the traditional application form for selection, followed by competency based interviews and general interviews. 24. Front-line posts followed by supervisory roles remained the most difficult to fill posts. These results raise concerns regarding future succession or talent management planning as key skills become scarce. 25. The main reasons for recruitment difficulties for front-line posts were evenly split between insufficient skills or quality of applicants and pay, followed by not having enough applicants, and competition from other sources such as supermarkets. 26. Supervisory posts were equally difficult to fill due to skills and quality of applicants, pay and too few applicants. 27. In managerial posts, recruitment problems related to too few applicants, followed by a lack of skills and quality, and pay. 28. A third of respondents had difficulties recruiting night and weekend workers. A minority of organisations experienced problems recruiting sessional workers and nurses. 29. Three-quarters of respondents highlighted problems recruiting in particular local authority areas, with Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh being seen as areas with the most acute difficulties. 30. Service users are involved in selection in a majority of providers, albeit infrequently. A smaller proportion of respondents use frontline workers in the selection process. Pay and Conditions Impact of government s National Minimum Wage and the Living Wage Key findings from this year s benchmarking study relate to the impact of statutory and non-statutory changes to wage setting in the independent voluntary sector. As can be seen below, although changes to the government s national minimum wage (NMW) are mixed, with some providers experiencing little change, for a minority the changes to NMW 5

6 will be significant with impacts on organisational survival, services and jobs and pay differentials. For other providers the raising of the Living Wage to 8.25 an hour represents a significant challenge as large numbers of workers do not currently earn rates of pay at this level. Moreover, efforts by the sector to address this issue by paying the Living Wage have significant implications for pay differentials within participating organisations. The main points from this part of the analysis are: 31. The state, either through changes in the minimum wage, or through references to local authority, health board or NHS Agenda for Change, appeared to be the key influence on reviewing salaries. 32. At the same time, no organisations strictly followed local authority or health board pay awards. The boards and senior directors of providers still exercised a degree of discretion over pay. 33. Only one organisation used performance or competency-based pay. 34. Almost two-thirds of organisations (63%) had implemented some kind of cost of living increase over the past year. The highest was a 10% increase for lower graded posts within one provider to meet the Living Wage. The highest increases below this were around the 2% level. 35. The influence of the UK government s forthcoming 7.20 minimum wage rate for over 25s is mixed, with the largest proportion of providers (46%) indicating it would have no impact at all. 36. At the same time, the minimum hourly rate for support workers, bank, sessional and relief staff of four providers was below the 7.20 rate. One respondent reported that it would threaten the viability of the organisation. Twenty-nine percent indicated that although the organisational viability would remain secure, the rate would impact on jobs and services. 37. For four providers their mid and/or maximum point salary scales failed to reach 7.20 per hour. Only two providers revealed how many workers were being paid at these rates of pay, and it totalled 325 workers. 38. Over half of organisations that employed Domestic staff paid these workers below the 7.20 level. 39. Just under half of organisations that employed Catering staff paid these workers below the 7.20 level. 40. For a number of providers, the payment of 7.20 an hour potentially seriously squeezes the pay differentials between catering and domestic workers and front-line support staff, and in one case potentially eradicates the distinction altogether. 41. If we assume organisations are able to pay cost of living increases to support staff comparable with the previous year, this potentially falls short of restoring differentials with catering and domestic workers. 42. The impact of the Living Wage on providers as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation is mixed. Seventy-nine percent of organisations reported that the Living Wage was a factor in their decision-making when deciding salary. Under half reported that all their salary scales met the Living Wage requirements. 6

7 43. Scrutiny of minimum hourly rates for support workers finds that just under half cannot meet the 7.85 rate, and 70% cannot meet the new 8.25 rate. 44. Many providers who stipulate they use the Living Wage as a factor in their pay discussions do not meet it. 45. In the context of the new 8.25 rate, 8,058 front-line support workers are not paid the Living Wage. This figure is also likely to be a significant under-estimate of those not receiving the Living Wage as many providers could not provide figures for the numbers of workers on specific salary points. Moreover, it excludes other workers already shown to be on low rates of pay such as domestic and catering staff. 46. For some providers, there is evidence to suggest that any efforts to pay the living wage to the lowest paid front-line support staff will seriously erode differentials in pay with senior support workers and front-line managers. 47. Nursing Assistants are the only grade of nursing staff that are paid approximately around the Living Wage level, the other grades far exceed it. Pensions 48. The majority of respondents reported using defined benefits schemes, although some still provided final salary schemes to some or all their staff. 49. Auto enrolment impacted in several ways. This included reduced employer contributions. At the same time, it normally led to increases in employees receiving pensions, and the opt-out rate was usually less or the same as that anticipated, rather than greater. Employee Involvement and Participation 50. Just over three-quarters of providers undertake employee engagement surveys with most doing so on an annual or bi-annual basis. Larger proportions reported the holding of staff meetings and team meetings, although with varying degrees of frequency. 51. Around a third of respondents reported that they consulted through recognised trade unions, while slightly over a quarter said they did so through staff forums. Other consultative mechanisms mentioned encompassed staff roadshows, staff meetings and direct engagement with staff. 52. Approximately 60% of organisations had a recognised trade union. In most cases this recognition had been granted voluntarily and involved a single union. There were a small number of cases where compulsory statutory recognition had occurred. Only 9 respondents provided figures on union membership. These indicated levels of membership ranging from 4%-40%. Leadership 53. Around a fifth of providers used the SSSC s Step into Leadership resource. This is slightly lower than last year s figure of a quarter of providers. 7

8 54. Just over a quarter intended to use the resource in the future. Again, this is slightly lower than last year s figure of 35% of providers. Training and Skills 55. The length of induction for permanent staff varied widely, from as little as half an hour to twelve months, with the average being 7.39 weeks. 56. As with last year s results, respondents were evenly divided in their opinions of the value of their induction programmes between those saying it Needs to be reviewed, Adequate and High Standard. 57. The majority of organisations (88%) did not pay for SSSC registration or technical professional memberships. 58. The proportion of staff who are qualified to the level expected by the SSSC varies considerably. The average number of front-line staff qualified to the expected SSSC level was 55%, compared to 67% for supervisory and 73% for managers. 59. A large majority of organisations are either very confident (37%) or confident (57%) staff not registered would eventually gain the necessary qualifications. These figures differ from last year were providers were evenly spread at 45% feeling very confident or confident. 60. Providers are generally positive about the impact of qualifications on practice among qualified staff, with 58% stating it had led to a positive impact on practice from qualified workers. This level of assessment concerning the positive impact of training remains unchanged from last year s report. 61. Training was largely identified and assessed through traditional methods, with a small minority utilising alternative methods such as distance learning, mobile applications and video conferencing. 62. The average training budget for providers was 158,980.40, but nearly two-thirds of respondents admitted these did not cover all training costs. At the same time, this failure to cover all training costs is slightly down on last year which stood at 76% of organisations. 63. When asked if their training budget had changed over the last 12 months, 13.8% said it had increased, 31.03% said it had decreased, and 55.8% said it had stayed the same. Of added concern is the fact that the numbers reporting an increase in training expenditure has actually fallen from last year s total of a third of providers. Moreover, those reporting a decrease had risen from last year s total (19%). Grievance and discipline 64. In most organisations numbers of individual grievances, disciplinary cases, suspensions and employment tribunal cases had remained at the same level. Where this was not the case, the trend was generally for numbers to have fallen rather than increased. 65. All providers reported having taken formal actions in disciplinary cases, with the number reported varying from one to 122. These actions encompassed a combination of first and final written notices, improvement notes and dismissals. 8

9 66. Most respondents also indicated that they had experienced appeals as a result of these decisions and actions. The success of these varied, with, for example, some organisations reporting that 100% of them had not been upheld, and an equal number reporting that they were all upheld. 67. Two-thirds of organisations reported cases of employees lodging formal individual grievances. These were reported to most commonly have arisen as a result of interpersonal relations with managers, terms and conditions and interpersonal relations with colleagues. 68. Thirteen respondents had received employment tribunal applications over the previous 12 months, with the number of applications ranging from one to 24. Unfair dismissal was by far the most common reason given for applications. 69. Just under a half of providers had received complaints reportable to the Care Inspectorate during the previous 12 months. In total, references were made to 71 such complaints, 45 of which related directly to a member of staff and 20 of which had resulted in formal processes. Diversity in the workforce 70. There was evidence of a slightly higher proportion of people employed from ethnic minorities compared to wider sector trends. 71. The workforce was aging with the highest proportion of workers in the age group and the lowest in the group. 72. Providers were more likely to undertake equality analyses according to gender, ethnicity, age and disability, rather than religion, class and sexual orientation. 73. Less than a fifth of providers had undertaken an equal pay audit, but two-thirds had provided equality training. 9

10 c p c scoalition OF CARE AND SUPPORT PROVIDERS I N S C O T L A N D About CCPS CCPS is the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland. It exists to identify, represent, promote and safeguard the interests of third sector and not-for-profit social care and support providers in Scotland, so that they can maximise the impact they have on meeting social need. CCPS aims to: Champion quality care and support provided by the third sector Challenge policy and practice that inhibits or undermines the sector s ability to provide quality care and support Prepare providers for future challenges and opportunities Support providers to understand, negotiate and influence the complex policy and practice environment in which they operate. CCPS hosts the Workforce Development Network, funded by the Scottish Government to assist voluntary sector social services providers to fully contribute to the national workforce development agenda. CCPS Norton Park 57 Albion Road Edinburgh EH7 5QY T CCPS is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No , registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator as Charity No.SCO The company s registered office is at Norton Park, 57 Albion Road, Edinburgh. EH7 5QY. CCPS is a registered Scottish charity: No. SC April This document is copyright protected and may not be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the permission of CCPS