29.01.16
CQC secures ‘expert by experience’ pay rise to dodge staff exodus
The CQC has promised that ‘experts by experience’ will receive an hourly rate of £15 for the first six months of their new outsourced contract with Remploy in an effort to dodge a mass walkout of staff.
Experts by experience, health and social care service users who have been trained to take part in CQC inspection teams, are threatening a mass exodus of the regulator as a result of pay cuts to their salaries.
In December, the CQC awarded the contract to run the ‘expert by experience programme’ – previously run by charities such as Age UK – to Remploy, a for-profit company majority owned by American outsourcing giant Maximus.
The contract will transfer to Remploy from February 2016, handing the firm responsibilities for recruiting, supporting and managing the 500 experts in the CQC’s north, south and London regions.
But this month, Remploy wrote to experts saying their pay would be halved from £17 to £8.25 an hour, or £9.40 in London – a lawful reduction within their zero-hours contracts.
The Independent then spoke to 10 experts by experience, many of whom have since come forward with their own statements online. The paper found out that they felt frustrated and devalued by the company, with most of their colleagues already planning to quit their jobs.
In her website, expert by experience Claire Bolderson attacked the new contract, claiming “there’s austerity, and then there’s just plain insulting”.
“Not surprisingly, we’re protesting. Or at least trying to. Bit by bit we’re connecting with each other and discovering that very few of us are prepared to work for a private contractor for such low pay,” she said.
“The CQC says it’s aware of our concerns but that the new contract is a good one because there’ll be many more experts by experience over-all. But who will they get for such low pay? And when are they going to be recruited and trained?
“I’m sad that an inspection this week was my last. Sad also that there are unlikely to be many (if any) experienced and qualified experts available for inspections come February 1st.”
In an effort to dampen the dispute, the CQC said today that, although it does not set pay rates, it wanted to ensure every expert by experience knew Remploy was willing to pay £15 per hour in the first six months.
Chris Day, CQC’s director of engagement, said the pledge was the result of concerns raised by the experts about changes to their contracts, which the inspectorate tried to address to ensure the “enormously valuable” role was protected.
“We sincerely hope that the experts who currently work with us will continue to do so,” said Day. “Our increased investment in the experts by experience programme demonstrates how much we value the involvement of experts in our work and the individual expertise and experience they bring to our inspections, policies, strategies and training of our own staff.”
Responding to the update, Bolderson wrote on her website: “Now, in addition to the offer of six months’ work at £15 per hour, there’ll be an additional six months at £12.50. After that, pay will be set at an as yet undecided rate.
“That’s despite Remploy having sent us all details of the very much decided £9.40/£8.25 pay. A sliding scale of insult and uncertainty then. They can still count me out.”