PAGE 46
ead
THE CARER
SUMMER 2017
Nursing & Residential Home Specialist Agency Eddie Dribble - the best known name in the private care industry
Valuations undertaken - Nursing and Residential Homes always wanted for sale nationwide
emanuel a dribble 26 Arthur Road New Malden Surrey KT3 6LX tel/Fax 020 8942 0852
Reduced commission rates for owners replying through this advertisement Reduced commission rates for RNHA members
Sleep-Ins and The National Minimum Wage SleeP-inS HAve been a topic of controversy for some time, but the issue has become more pressing recently with escalating costs in the sector and, coupled with a new approach by Hmrc to enforce payment of the national minimum wage (nmw) for sleep-ins, the issue is causing a potential crisis for care providers. Recently an independent survey was carried out by the Voluntary Disability Organisations Disability Group (VODG), Agenda Consulting and Trowers & Hamlins LLP which provides a comprehensive overview of the likely effect on the sector of the application of the NMW to sleep-ins. A worker who is required to be on the premises and who would be disciplined if they left the workplace will be deemed to be working for the whole of their overnight shift even if they are sleeping during some, or all, of this time. This means that they are entitled to be paid the NMW (which can be the National Living Wage) for every hour that they are working. The risks of not paying the NMW for sleep-ins are that both workers and HMRC may have claims for back pay against those care providers that do not pay. Many care providers are now having to dig deep to try and finance payment of substantial arrears as a result of HMRC’s change in tack. In the survey 84% of those audited specifically in relation to sleep-ins had audits which took place in 2016 or 2017. 35% received a notice of underpayment. A quarter of the 35% were only asked to make a single year of back payments, but another quarter were asked to cover 5.3 years on average. Who will pay for the additional costs? Commissioners have only agreed to fund 14% of services at NMW rates according to the survey results. The survey asked those providers who do not pay the NMW for sleepins what the impact will be if they have to pay the NMW for these periods without extra funding. The results show that 25% of services would have to be handed back to commissioners.
A New Partnership for Carers Online inSUrAnce provider Surewise.com have recently announced launching carers insurance, in partnership with SAgic, the Salvation Army’s insurance company. Surewise.com have launched affordable, comprehensive Carers Insurance, Personal Assistant Insurance and Home Care Insurance, with a range of policies. Starting as low as £4.92 per month for Independent Carers, £5.75 per month for Employed Carers or £6.25 per month for Self Employed Carers, all of these policies provide excellent cover and are
Global Business Finance glOBAl BUSineSS Finance was established over 26 years ago by the firm’s present senior partner, mark widdows, and since then has arranged over £1.8bn in loans for healthcare clients. The firm works exclusively in the care sector providing a very personalised service, as the firm knows every client is individual with individual requirements. Mark and his team spend time getting to know each of their clients in order that they can ensure all needs are met and the loan facility tailored to their client’s individual requirements. Global offers national coverage and with the support of email, fax, regular telephone conversations and face to face meetings the firm are able to put together a professional and comprehensive bank application. The bank managers that Global work with are all specialist healthcare managers who
There is the impact on the care providers themselves too. For those not paying NMW rates 61% would need to make redundancies if they met the additional expense of paying the NMW. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) recently considered three conjoined appeals concerning how time spent asleep during a ‘sleep-in’ shift should be treated in Focus Care Agency Ltd v Roberts, Frudd and another v The Partington Group Ltd, and Royal Mencap Society v TomlinsonBlake. The central issue was whether employees who sleep-in in order to carry out duties if required, engage in “time work” for the full duration of the sleep-in shift or whether they are working for NMW payment purposes only when they are awake to carry out any relevant duties. The EAT confirmed that a “multi-factorial evaluation” should be applied to establish whether or not the individual is working. The factors will include a consideration of the work being carried out, whether there is a contractual or statutory requirement to be present, and the immediacy of the requirement to respond to an unusual event. What measures can employers implement to reduce their risk? • Pay the NMW/NLW and take the pain. • Restructure the business to ensure that existing workers aren’t doing sleep-ins; • In certain circumstances, argue that staff are on-call rather than sleeping in, so that the time is unmeasured and can be covered by a workplace agreement, though this is potentially problematic. Since the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s (EAT’s) decision in Shannon v Rampersad (t/a Clifton House Residential Home there may be times when on-call time will only be paid when an individual is awake for the purposes of working. Here a night care assistant in a residential care home was not “working” for the purpose of calculating the NMW simply by being “on-call” in his flat on the premises (where he was not required to be all the time). Only those hours when he was “awake for the purpose of working” counted towards the NMW. The Court of Appeal is due to hear the appeal in this case next March. upgradable for a more comprehensive coverage. Policies can be purchased for teams of carers by their employers too. Surewise.com director, Stuart Bensusan, said of the move: ‘We’re immensely proud to be working with SAGIC, the only underwriter to give back 100% of profits to help those in need. Our Carers Insurance policies focus on providing a fair and comprehensive cover to all our customers, and we’re confident that SAGIC’s work will only further this approach”. Both Surewise and SAGIC, provide many other types of flexible insurance policies to suit people of all needs and budgets. SAGIC’s focus on ethical insurance has allowed it to give back over £2M in Gift Aid back to the Salvation Army in the last 3 years alone. For further information, please see the advert opposite. have extensive knowledge within the sector and fully understand the requirements of the clients that Global introduce. Mark Widdows, the firm’s senior partner, trained as an accountant before establishing the brokerage in 1989, other key executives are his wife, Sally-Ann, who specialised in nutrition before becoming a registered care home manager and Rupert, his son, who is also a qualified care manager and holds a degree in dementia with the leading Bradford Dementia Studies Group through Bradford University. The family own and run two care homes so fully understand all aspects and issues of care home owners which brings a unique ability to the firm to work with clients and convey their needs to the bank that is lending. With over £1.8bn in completed care home loans you should strongly consider Global Business Finance to represent you for your next loan application. See their advert in this issue on this page. Reader Enquiries - Tel: 01242 227172 Email: enquiries@globalbusinessfinance.com