Pay and Conditions of Care & Support Workers Employed & Commissioned by the Council

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Dear Barking and Dagenham Borough Council,

Pay and Conditions of Care & Support Workers Employed & Commissioned by the Council

I would like the following information:

1. Do you directly employ Care & Support Workers? [If NO skip to (18)]

2. Do they undertake Sleep-In work? [If NO skip to (6)]

3. Is it your policy that there are circumstances in which this constitutes 'Time Work' for the purposes of calculating National Minimum Wage? [ If NO skip to (5)]

4. What are these circumstances?

5. How was this policy decided upon, by whom (i.e. in what roles)? Please provide minutes of the meetings in which this policy was decided.

6. Do your employees undertake 'Live-In' work? [If NO skip to (10)]

7. Is it your policy that there are circumstances when they are eligible for NMW? [If NO skip to (9)]

8. What are these circumstances?

9. How was this policy decided upon, by whom (i.e. in what roles)? Please provide minutes of the meetings in which this policy was decided.

10. Do any of your employees get 'Premium Rates' at particular times or on particular days (e.g. Bank Holidays, over-time, unsocial hours etc.)? [If NO skip to(12)]

11. Under what circumstances?

12. Please provide data of 'Premium Rates' historically available to these staff; what the rates were under what circumstances and when their eligibility for these rates began and ended.

13. Please provide data of the average hourly rate of front-line Care & Support staff (not inclusive of Team Leaders or above) at this time and historically, as best as you are able.

14. Is the pay of these staff (including such things as sleep-in rates) subject to a Collective Bargaining arrangement involving unions?

15. Which unions?

16. Have you sought advice from HMRC, ACAS or the Dept. of BIS regarding any of these arrangements (with special regard to sleep-in and live-in rates)?

17. Please provide the content of these communications

18. Do you Commission other organisations to provide Care & Support services? [If NO ignore the remainder of these questions]

19. Do you contractually require these organisations to pay National Minimum Wage? [If NO skip to (24)]

20. Do your contracts define the understanding of National Minimum Wage under which the company is expected to operate (such as the circumstances in which sleep-in or live-in workers are eligible for NMW)?

21. What do you do to ensure the contract is robust (e.g. punitive clauses in the case of a breach)?

22. What do you do to monitor adherence to this contractual obligation once the service is 'live'?

23. What are your policies/procedures for handling a report of breach of contract in this regard?

24. Do you commission other organisations to carry out 'Live-In' work?

25. For this ‘Live-In’ work: any information you hold as to what proportion of the fee you pay to the contracted company is actually paid to the worker.

For any section where you have been unable to provide information please provide whatever information in that area you can, or advice and assistance as to what information may be of use, or whom may hold it.

Yours faithfully,

Elias Motran

Julie Seal,

PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE SUBJECT HEADER OF THIS EMAIL WHEN RESPONDING
Dear Elias,

Thank you for your email requesting information under the Freedom of
Information ACt regarding the pay conditions of care & Support Workers.

I have passed your email onto the relevant Investigating Officer and we
will provide this information to you by 21st March 2016.

Please reply to this email should you need to contact us.

kindest regards,

Julie Seal Complaints Project Manager

Sally Jones,

2 Attachments

Please find attached response to your request for information dated
10.02.2016.

Kindest regards,

FOI Team